Episode 16: John Johns, John Johns, I'm Begging You Please Don't Take My Man

The Escapies minus Perl are back to discuss Absolute Martian Manhunter Issue 10, Superman Spider-Man, and our new favorite lesbian comic: Harley Issue 60! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:51

We ready, we rockin', we're rolling. Yeah, welcome to another episode of the Absolute Ultimate Escape of the Comics Podcast. Today is Wednesday, March 25th, 2026. It's just me and Persephone today, so no song, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

Pearl has been captured in the PlayStation mines where she is forced to do hard labor for the next week. Unfortunately, there will be no song, though I did consider doing one. But it wouldn't be the same. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

Pearl is a Pearl's a pog, prisoner of gaming. Um. So today it's just gonna be comics talk. Um I don't have a lot of time because I have to go to my real job um in an hour or two.

SPEAKER_03 1:34

But we're gonna we're gonna jump right in. Can we can we just like lightning round, not even getting into it, but just lightning round then some news with like Sam Keith dying. Oh yeah, Sam Keith is dead. And the Silver Sprock uh storefront closed yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Yeah, Silver Sprocket is dead. Um that's not true. Just the storefront in in uh the mission is closed. Um the fate of their uh publishing empire is unknown as of yet. It seems like they're still planning on putting out books. Um they've said they're still putting out planning on putting out books. Uh but I'm skeptical about how long that's gonna last.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

We'll sure see. That said they didn't tell Avi didn't tell any of their workers that this was happening, so there's a GoFundMe up now. Yeah. Super fun, exciting stuff. Um I'd just like to read one brief uh note from a from a Sprocket, somebody who has inside knowledge on Sprocket, but I will I will not name names. Their quote here is for why Sprocket failed. Quote, I ran my radical indie zine shop like a McDonald's and racked up thousands in debt, and when my staff tried to unionize, call me out on my various levels of bullshit slash mismanagement of funds. I union busted and got exposed, even more so, gonna save face and sell my house and close the shop and fuck everyone else over, because at least when everyone else under this gets broken houseless, I can go back home to Israel. Um, which was a nasty drag. Wow. But is Avi going back to Israel? There's some like Israeli connection that is uh weird.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Were they were they born in Israel? Because they don't I mean I I would have assumed they're like anti-Zionists.

SPEAKER_03 3:17

They my understanding, and this this is hearsay. I want to be very clear that this is hearsay, um, and this is not like don't don't quote me on this as legally actionable, um, in case Avi decides to get any ideas. Uh, but my understanding is is um that they were like very dodgy on it until other employees kind of pushed them. Yeah. Uh which is classic.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

Um many such cases. Well, uh yeah, that's kind of the main news. Um I mean, I'm not really super sad to see uh Sprockett's publishing go. I don't I think uh the posts are really kind of uh all of the responses to the posts I think greatly exaggerate the importance of Sprockett to the indie comics world. I've seen a lot of posts that are like, oh, this is like a great blow to comics everywhere, and like there was no one like you guys, and stuff like that. And I I just think like anyone who thinks that is not really part of the scene. I mean, Sprockett was great for a long time, but they're not an essential part of the indie comics or kind of zine world in general. Um, and I I I actually don't think that what they provided, especially now, is of particular novelty or uniqueness. Although when they first kind of hit the scene, I think a lot of what they provided was a platform for independent creators to put work out in a way that left them with more time to make more art, um, in a way that allowed them to not have to learn how to public uh publicize themselves and market themselves, because Sprocket could do that for them. Um I've heard several artists talk about this where uh cartoonists just felt like publishing through Sprocket uh allowed for more time to create their art rather than kind of posting about their book, uh paying for printing costs, that kind of thing. Uh but then again there were plenty of uh recent allegations of uh financial malpractice surrounding artists and their employees. So uh it seems like even that kind of aspect of it's saving me time and money, uh, has gone out the door in the last few years. Um and honestly the catalogue from Sprocket for like the last ten months has been uh supremely underwhelming, and it just feels like you're kind of putting out uh sad parody reflections of the stuff that they used to put out that was so good. Um and honestly, if you're looking for really cutting-edge comics, Sprocket has not been the place to find them for a really long time. Uh there's so many other little small presses and stuff putting out better work more consistently and also paying their artists. So yeah, that's uh that's kind of all I have to say about Sprockett, honestly. Yeah. Um I mean it's always sad to see one go down, but also I I really don't think it's that huge of a blow to the community at large.

SPEAKER_03 6:44

Yeah, there's better small presses right now, like Piao and um and Strangers Publishing are both infinite and Iron Circus are infinitely better. If you're looking for queer cartoonists, like Erica Price is doing excellent work. Can I take one of these? Yeah, you can take one of those, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

Um, yeah, that was another thing that I was seeing a lot of people kind of talk about with Sprocket was like, oh, this is the only press that's publishing uh queer cartoonists and queer writers, um, or cartoonists of color or queer writers of color. Um, and that's just not uh the case. Um, and for a really long time that's never really been the case. And I also think uh uh a quick perusal of the roster of cartoonists and writers on Silver Sprockett's website will reveal far less uh diversity than I think that they really market themselves with one trans woman and one black person have ever been published by Sprocket. Yeah, it's it's not actually the best uh track record, but they really, really lean into it and all of their uh sort of publicity and things, and like there's probably honestly more like racial and gender diversity in like the DC roster right now. Yeah. Not even just because like there's more people working for them, but like I think if you looked at kind of like a pie chart breakdown of uh of diversity from like DC versus Silver Sprocket, you'd find that DC is actually like more diverse. Um and you'd also feel find that in some degrees they're putting out more formalistically challenging stuff. Yeah. Definitely better stuff. I mean I I I used to be a member of like the Silver Sprocket membership drive that they were pushing when they were going out of business, and I dropped it after like two or three months because none of the books that they were sending out to me were good. Yeah. They were really uninteresting. Um it felt like the before Watchmen of Silver Sprocket, where like they just started creating stuff that was kind of a misty echo of when they were good.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

And anyway, uh that's that's Sprocket. Um Yeah. If you're losing to DC in the if DC comics and the diversity and interesting work department, like you're losing chest to a dog. Um as the saying goes. Like, you should be able to beat out the big two as a queer publisher. Being a white trans mask chaser is not a is not radical, actually. Um, sorry, obviously. Um and yeah, if you're looking for like queer publishers and publishers of color, like Iron Circus has similar and yeah, all the publishers I said, like C Spike Trotman, Ben Passmore still doing work, HA from formerly of Sprocket is still doing work and publishing uh more chromatic fantasy. Erica Price does really good like underground queer horror comics, same with Freya JN. Um I'm definitely forgetting uh a ton of people here, but like the list goes on. Like, there are there are queer people and people of color. Olivia Stevenson or Olivia Stevens, Olivia Stev Olivia Stevens, um, who did Black Cassandra uh recently and some other stuff. Like, there's really, really good queer cartoonists and cartoonists of color out there that like never would have gotten play at Sprock because yeah, Ovi was more interested in like chasing white trans masks than they were publishing good books after a certain point. Um and it sucks that the rest of Sprockett got fucked over um because of that, but um but there's good artists everywhere for those of the eyes to see, you know. Actually, I guess two black people, because they did publish The Bloody Mary, but that was honestly only after a friend heckled them a bunch and was like, hey, why are you only publishing white people? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

I guess Cry Wolf 2, but that was a reprint. Um I did recently read Sports as Hell. Really good. Um, not really, I mean, that's not really Silver Sprockett's fault. I mean it's a Silver Sprocket book, but it's all been Passmore. Yeah. Um just bangin' book. Super fucking surreal and funny and horrifying, all wrapped up into one. It's so good.

SPEAKER_03 11:19

He did a book with Ezra Clayton Daniels some years back called Bottom Feeders. That was also really.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

Oh, I really want to read Bottom Feeders, yeah. That's been on my list for a while. It's real good. Um let's talk, let's talk new comics.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

Um where do we want to start first?

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Um Why don't we start with uh I can I can jump off with uh the new Harley Quinn run. Yeah, let's talk about that. So uh this is the newest issue of Harley Quinn, it's issue 60. Um came out today. Uh it's written by Elliot Kalen uh Hallan, who's a comedian by trade, um, and like doesn't have a ton of comics experience uh to his name. Uh and it's drawn by Carlos Olivares, who's got kind of like a DWJ-inspired thing going on in this Harley run so far, but like a little less kind of like strikingly colored um and with a little more clarity to it going on. Um and then colored by Marissa Louise, uh, who seems like she's maybe the most experienced of the team. But honestly, it's put out by like a pretty low-key group of people, uh, with not a super long list of credits. Um, but it's the start of a new uh, if not new run, new storyline. Um I think new artists and new storyline. I think the writers uh hold over. Let's see. Let's see what Liu Comics Keys has to say. Yeah, so I think Callan's been writing the run, uh, it sounds like for a while now. Um artist and colorists have remained the same, at least from the issue before.

SPEAKER_03 13:11

Uh but he guess he's been doing it for a few. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

This is a sort of a new uh new story arc. You could totally jump in here, um, because I did. Mm-hmm. Uh, and it's kind of um it tie I guess it ties into like the Batman run and other uh Gotham storylines, but really I think you could read this pretty standalone. All you have to really know is that Poison Ivy is going to be or has become the mayor of Gotham. Uh and other than that, that's like kind of it, really. I guess you have to like know who Harley Quinn is. Um and it's it's really funny. Um it's really funny, it's really well drawn, uh Olivaris' art is beautiful on it. Makes a lot of sense to me that Callen is a comedian by trade, because this is really tightly scripted. Um the way I described this to Persephone earlier was if Becky Clunen's disappointing run on Batgirls actually was really funny. Mm-hmm. And I think I think that kind of nails it. And they really lean into Harley's uh Judaism and Jewish identity, which is fun, without obviously like having her go to synagogue or something, because she's not exactly a devout individual. Um yeah, there's like kind of it's it's sort of a very action-packed first issue, overlaid with like really hilarious kind of meta voiceover in the form of like what Harley calls an interior journal, uh, which is just her thoughts. It's just her brain working.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

Brooding loner in her monologue journal. Yeah. This is good like it does the um it does the like it it's it's riffing on like the brooding anti-hero thing very well. Usually when people are riffing on that, including Lobo, it's not good. Um, but this feels this feels like very good, you know. Very early bits being like, some might say it always smelled pretty bad. To them I'd say, shut up. That some might claim I ran out in this neighborhood when it needed me most. Some, if that even is their real name, can't see that my dark heart has been torn by life's misery and stitched together with fate's barbed wire.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

Yeah, I d I do really think if you if you like if you like the kind of self-aware comic writing style of say like maybe Peak, I hate Fairyland, or like if you're a Deadpool fan but wish he was a woman and better. Or if you read Lobo and you were like, wow, I really just wish this wasn't bad. Um, or like felt that it really left something to be desired, this is definitely for you. I also think if you're like out there in the world reading uh the new Sirens series or the new Harley and Ivy series, both of which we've raved about uh on this podcast, I think you will be very pleasantly surprised by how good and funny this is. But it's not a carbon copy of either of those series. Like you really are feeling like you're reading a totally unique comic in and of itself. And it's also honestly a run of the Harley character that I haven't really ever seen before.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

Um, and you're I think if you read this along with Sirens and Harley and Ivy, you get like three really interesting angles on this very multifaceted character. Um, like I think Harley and Ivy. I mean, Harley and Ivy is kind of a backstory comic, and it's got like a real romance tinge to it, while also having like a real kind of melancholic undertone about uh the kind of trauma and past that she had with the Joker and how that affects her ability to love and be intimate and close with people. And then Sirens is like this very glossy, glamorous, sexy, uh, like kind of femme fatale crime book, uh, which is also really funny. All three of these series are hilarious in very different ways. The artists are killing it, and the writers are doing a great job. And then this is just like this is action packed, it's Harley like throwing shit at people, it's her punching people, breaking arms, Daniel Johnson, absolute Batman annual style.

SPEAKER_03 17:38

A pipe with batarang written on it, and she just beat like the guy's head.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

Um Yeah, it's uh it's it's really good. I think it's a really fun addition to the DC female hero cast, too, uh, which feels really dominated by Absolute Wonder Woman right now. And I feel like it's it's been fun to see Harley really get a lot of ink spilled on her behalf.

SPEAKER_03 18:06

And three yeah, as you said, really good series in very different ways. Like, it's rare to have I often complain about characters having too many books, but this feels like the case where like there are three and admittedly this helps because two of them are like miniseries, but like three really rock solid books about a character that have very different angles. Like, this feels like if you're going to have multiple books on a character, this is kind of what you should be doing. Like, they all should be coming at these very different angles, rather than like, I don't know, Fantastic Four versus Planet of the Apes and Fantastic Four were doing a movie tie-in this week for some reason. Um, which they are, that's on the shelf this week.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Yeah, I saw that cover. Really confused me. It seems um late. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

Marvel Asleep at the wheel, but so it goes. But yeah, it's nice to see like a good Harley book. And like I have been kind of gl glossing over the mainline Harley title for some time, but that seems to have been a mistake on my part. Um I am very pleasantly surprised by by this book. Um and I probably will keep reading this one too. Um and then kind of speaking on, unless there's more to say on Harley. I don't think so. Speaking of pleasant surprises, um Ryan North's run on the flash. Um I have long said that I The Flash is a character that I like a lot more in theory than like in actual practice, but cracking this open, God willing, I might be I might actually subscribe. I'm no Let me phrase that, I am now subscribed to a Flash book. Um Ryan North just kind of fucking nails it. Like right out of the park. He just is He's just kind of like a perfect flash writer, both on like a like he's just like has the science. He's like a science guy, he's very knowledgeable, so that's very unlocked, but he also makes it very approachable and fun and warm and funny, which is just kind of perfect for him. Um He writes a he like writes a really fun Linda who gets to kind of like not just be like Flash's wife, even though it's she's like very briefly in here, like she feels like a lot of personality and like just comes out in a very small space. Um I like his lock on on Wally's voice specifically, like there's that kind of bit where he's talking about like Barry's the science guy, like he believes in like the cold hard facts of the universe, and like I'm very he's a s he's a science knower, not a scientist. Like he's ultimately he's the hope guy, he's the dad guy. And like I we've we've talked about it before, and this is the last thing I'll say for a second, but like um there's there's a joke in video games about the datification of games where like dads started writing games about how like sad they were about about like like they were like sad and happy about being dads or whatever. There's a datification of comics that goes in the opposite direction where it's like so sweet and tender, and like you see this with Fractions Batman, and you see this with Ryan North's Flash of like dads who love being silly dads, like they just seem like very nice dudes to be fathers, you know.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Yeah, it's present in uh Wade's uh World's Finest right now, too. You get like a lot of uh really fun, not necessarily sitcommy, but like comedic and in a very like digestible, sweet way, moments of like Superman and Batman both trying to be like father figures to these various young heroes and kind of succeeding and failing all at once and having like different philosophies about it and stuff, and you get a lot of kind of like uh side eye eye contact between the two of them and stuff. It it's it's nice to see and I think DC is doing this way more than Marvel, because everything at Marvel just feels so cynical and bleak right now. Yeah. Uh other than like Ultimate X-Men and I mean even Ultimate Spider-Man I think is tinged by it a little bit. Um these just feel really sweet, and it feels like the people creating them really, really care about what they're creating and who they're writing. Um and this is the art is great. I mean it's really simple. I think it feels uh it doesn't feel revolutionary. I think I would describe this as just really, really competent um and really good. It feels like someone uh who really understands the work that they're being given. Um the artist on it is I'm blanking on their first name. Uh Gavin Gidry. Uh and the coloring is also really solid. Uh the coloring is from Adriana Lucas, um both of whom are definitely pros. And it's also I love Ryan North. Um we've talked about Fantastic Four a lot on the pod, and I'm I'm behind on Fantastic Four, unfortunately. Um, but North is like another kind of old hand at comics for sure, along the lines of like an Al Ewing or a Mark Wade, just like a a pro. Um and he's another writer who doesn't feel super steeped in irony or cynicism with the series that he's creating, and this really shines through here. Um there's like so much saving of innocent people in jeopardy in this book, which I've said before and I will continue to say it is the hallmark of a well-made superhero title. Uh it's just that they save people above all else. Like, I don't need to see Superman punching Doomsday. Yeah, I don't really need to. I need to see him like saving someone who's gonna get crushed by a building or something. Yeah. Uh or even just like there's a great like throwaway gag in here that you don't really even like notice unless you know it's there, but he's speeding through a park. Uh and in the background, I don't know if you notice this, in the background of the park, this kid's ice cream is falling off his cone. And then as he speeds by, he puts the ice cream back, and you don't see him put the ice cream back, but you just see. I mean, it's literally probably like a millimeter and a half diameter circle of ice cream falling off this kid's cone in the background. You see the flash of flash running by this kid, and then the little ice cream cone the little ice cream scoop is back on his cone. Um That's incredible, I did miss that. It's just like it's that kind of thing that just feels like there's a lot of care being put into what is between the pages of this issue of The Flash, uh, which just doesn't feel like it's being put into a lot of stuff at Marvel right now. No. Again, like I I will also be a Flash subscriber, and I I do love The Flash. I think probably like I have more positive feelings about The Flash than you do. Um and I I feel like The Flash is consistently not given the fun, joy that he deserves in contemporary Flash releases, and here I think he really is. So bravo to Ryan North and Gavin Gidry. Bravo to DC Editorial, you're doing a pretty good job. Um try not to fire any more trans women. Yeah, you know?

SPEAKER_03 25:41

You know, that's yeah, I don't got much more to say other than that. Um yeah, good fucking book. I similarly loved it, had a great time. Um I kinda can't wait to read the next one. Um Talk to us about Superman Spider-Man. Okay, so I have some thoughts about this. First of all, bless you. The um the title story, spectacular. First one of these is actually good. Um Mark Wade, please write Spider-Man. I'm begging you. His Spider-Man and his Superman voices are so good here, but especially his Spider-Man is like actually funny and like instantly like investable as a person in a way that I like if if he got on AMS, I would be an AMS subscriber immediately. ASM, sorry, not AMS. ASM. I'd be a subscriber fucking immediately. It's so much fun. The interplay with Octavius and and Brainiac is great. Like the these two are like a really good pairing, because even though they're like very different in certain ways, like Superman's life is broadly speaking usually like pretty rock solid and usually not terribly tumultuous. Um, and he has like kind of like a solid career and relationship, whereas like Parker tends to be a lot more on shaky ground. Like they both have this like devotion to the truth and this devotion to care for other people that like like Batman Deadpool doesn't have this fucking like there's no reason for those characters to fucking be together, whereas like Superman Spider-Man is actually thoughtful and engaged. Um yeah, I kind of thought this the title story was spectacular. Like, Mark Wade's an incredible writer for this. Jorge Jimenez also has a really rock solid Spider-Man, like if he wasn't, um if he wasn't slaying it up at uh under Batman right now, I'd want him on Spider-Man stat. I think he's so good. Um The issue is worth reading just for the title story alone. Um Honestly, I would have been happy if they had given them even more pages um instead of a few of these. Um but just to kind of talk about some of the other stories. Um This anthology, interestingly, does a thing where it's like good, bad, good, bad, good, bad almost perfectly. Um The Lois MJ thing. I was um I was gonna joke that Tom King can only write women who are drunk teenagers doing Robert E. Howard bits, but then I remembered he's written a perfectly decent Lois before, so you know, never never let it be said though, that he's that he's not a feminist, because everyone's dialogue here, including the men's, is fucking excruciating. It's like actually for real, maybe the worst thing Tom King's ever written. It was actively painful to read. I do think Tom King, like somebody needs to be like, Tom, you're better than this. Or at least, in theory, you are. What the fuck is this? Like you should like this is shameful. None of the characters' voices are right, they're all bad. This somehow feels misogynistic without actually doing a direct misogyny, just with how terribly written these women are. They're just kind of yambering about their husbands the whole time and how much they love each other for the like the magazines that they're in. It's kind of unconscionable. It's I it's the worst thing in this issue by far. Um, Tom King get right with God. Um and then Jim Lee is kind of. It's fine. It's a novelty to see him do Spider-Man, but other than that, it's not interesting. Um Superboy Prime and Symbiote suit Spider-Man, Christopher Priest also has a pretty solid voice on Peter. Um his voice on Superboy Prime is a little odd, a little bruh-y, you know, a little bit like a little bit like 2020s man voice, but but it's like fun, and it does like a meta thing in a way that feels like fun and weird and not too heavy, but like there's there's a good voice here, there's an arc, actually, because you've we've talked about that, but like any single issue should have like an arc to it. Yeah. And this anthology piece that uh Christopher Priest does has an arc. Like it in a very small amount of pages, he has more of an arc than like most people writing Cape stuff for like more arc in that single bit than most cape books have in like a whole arc. Um bless you. It's not like a gr you know, it's not gonna change your life, bless you. But it's fun. Um the art's fine. It's Daniel Samper, the guy who's doing um Wonder Woman, Assis Wonder Woman right now. Um Sis Wonder Woman. That's what Pearl calls the Tom King Wonder Woman Assis Wonder Woman. Um Superboy Pro uh Superboy in 2099, it's fine. It's not even a story, it's the introduction to a story um that happens completely after that we'll never get um barely worth talking about. Jimmy Olson Carnage. Only my baby boys, Matt Fraction and Steve Liber, could make me read a comic with Carnage in it, but it's it's it's good. It's it's cute, it's insubstantial. Um, it's only you know four pages, but like it's funny, it's cute. They should have cut all of Tom King and Jim Lee's fucking pages and given it to my baby boys. Uh go read Superman's pal Jimmy Olson if you haven't read it. It's so good, it's so funny. Really good Silver Age Riff. Um the Jeff Lemur, Rafa Sandoval, Pa Kent's Uncle Part uh Uncle Ben's story is fine. Um it's crazy that like the story that's happening visually like the the narration gets in the way of a much more interesting. Or I mean not even much more interesting. It just gets in the way of the what's like very simple and very easy. Like a very simple, very easy story. The narration just kind of gets in the way. It's but it's not offensively bad, it's just kind of middling. Um The Daily Planet vs. the Bugle that Greg Rucca and uh Nicholas Scott are doing. Look, we all we all love J. Jonah Jameson just being a hater for the love of the game, but it's cool to see a book that has him argue a case with real reasoning and thought behind it. Even if you don't agree with it, I for the first time really was like, oh, I see like J. Jonah Jameson is like a person with sound reasoning, other than just like a guy who's a hater.

SPEAKER_02 32:05

Yeah, I like when they give him enough characterization to have intelligence.

SPEAKER_03 32:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:12

Um I think he's like he's a character who should be treated with enough respect to not be like a pathetic caricature of himself. Yeah. And I do think to a certain degree, uh the kind of reductionism of him is a product of Sam Raimi. Yeah. Uh, because he's as uh as he's played by J.K. Simmons, I mean he's great as played by J.K. Simmons, but he's also uh very caricature-ish. Yeah. Which I think has had like a lot of effect on his character since. But I'm excited to see that he's well written here.

SPEAKER_03 32:50

He's well written here. I like him. Um I would love to see Rucca do a Planet Daily Bugle book. I would like to do do a newspaper book.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

Like he just has a good Yeah, I would love for them to bring back like Marvel front lines or something. Because Marvel just needs anything that's interesting so badly right now.

SPEAKER_03 33:10

It really does. Um and then Power Girl Punisher, um Is it a good comic? Not necessarily. Um Gail Simone and uh Bell and Ortega do it. Is it a comic that it heavily implies that Power Girl and the Punisher fucked? Yes. Do I think that's funny, like insane enough to justify its existence? Sure. You know what? I it's so funny that they f like why would they do that? I don't know. It doesn't make any sense, but like, Gail Simone, your mind. I love that I love that you decided this needed to happen. And I I respect that. You know what? Fuck it. I'm not invested in Power Girl or Punisher. Whatever. Let him fuck. Who cares? That's tight. Otherwise it's fun.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Let's uh let's let's finish this off with uh the latest issue of our beloved Absolute Martian Manhunter.

SPEAKER_03 34:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:04

Um after that I'll do some lightning stuff after that.

SPEAKER_03 34:07

Issue ten? Issue ten, yeah. We're we're we got two issues left, which is killing me. Um that's that I'm I love that I like. I mean like there's there's a degree of like, oh okay, I know how certain things are gonna end, but I but I I feel like I don't actually have a solid grasp of like how this is gonna end, and I like that. Yeah. I like feeling like, oh god, anything anything could fucking happen.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

This uh this is definitely the best issue of the last few, I think. Um The last two issues were obviously really good because all of the issues are excellent, but they I think that they were markedly less interesting than the few issues that came before it, and then this issue. Although I have to stress this enough, they were still really, really, really good. Um This issue I think just like kind of uh the last two issues I think set up a lot more than they really kind of uh kind of actively uh portray, if that makes sense. There's there was a lot less action in the last two issues than there was uh in this issue or the couple issues that came before it, and a lot more setup, and then this payoff all the way, and it's so worth it.

SPEAKER_03 35:25

Um Javier Rodriguez's colors on this are fucking incredible.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

Oh yeah, he's at the top of his game on this issue.

SPEAKER_03 35:31

It's pretty incredible. This should this this is like award-winning work. Like oh thank you so much. Thank you so much, King. Um yeah, this this blew me away. Um I yeah, I I I yeah, I I I don't even know really where to start other than saying it just looks fucking incredible. Yeah, Javier Rodriguez has like been a uh a seminal talent this entire time. Um, but he's really just like continually finding ways to up himself or experiment and do new things.

SPEAKER_02 36:06

Yeah, his style feels a lot looser in this issue than the last couple issues, which I think is definitely a purposeful stylistic choice. There's a lot more kind of experimentation with uh figure drawing and line work here. Uh stuff gets a lot less smooth and a lot more monstrous in certain panels and a lot sketchier in certain panels in a way that feels really intentional, just because so much of these issues and so much of his kind of oove as a whole is so polished and so perfect, despite the fact that it's so dynamic and so psychedelically colored, whether that's in Satana or Defenders or Absolute Martian. And then here when he decides to do something scratchier or something a little more monstrous, like in this panel here. Yeah, it's a very Sinkovich. It's very uh yeah, it's very Sinkavichian, Sinkovichian, uh, if you will. Uh when when he chooses to kind of explore that realm a little more, it's so much more striking than it would be uh if you were reading something that looked a little more like it throughout the whole series. Then the writing here i it Camp is really delving into a lot of the concepts that I think really sell this series for me. Yeah. And I think it it's interesting to see him kind of tying a lot of these metaphysical and more kind of like emotionally aligned thematic interests to more concrete uh political ideology here. Um you see a lot of the kind of abolitionist political thought that he writes about in his Ultimates line uh popping up a little bit here and there, uh in this issue for the first time, honestly, because this has been a much less sort of uh explicitly uh politically ideological work than something like the Ultimates or Twentieth Century Men or uh sort of crisis events. But here you get some abolitionism, you get a lot of anti-war criticism, um a lot of just explicit American criticism in general, which I think is really interesting. Um yeah, this was this was an issue that I will want to revisit too, just because it's it's just such a fun frickin' read. There's so much dopamine rushing through my brain as I read this issue. Um, and I I want to experience it again and again. I'm so excited to read this in trade, too, to just like sit down with like a pot of coffee uh one morning in my comfy chair and just read it all cover to cover and have a great frickin' time.

SPEAKER_00 38:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:48

Um this is something that I'm gonna come back to, I think, over the next couple decades of my life, time and time again.

SPEAKER_03 38:55

Same, yeah. I'm gonna be I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm definitely getting an absolute Martian tattoo at some point. I'm still figuring out what that looks like, but this book has like meant a lot to me.

SPEAKER_02 39:04

Yeah, I there's there's so much there's there's so much stuff going on in here. There's so much that would make a cool tattoo. It's something that's crossed my mind as well. Um There's a lot here too that I think feels really new to the series. There's a lot of really explicit historical references to uh American history um and American imperialism here that I would definitely more expect to find between the covers of the ultimates than this, and it doesn't feel uh out of place in this series. It actually feels like uh kind of the culmination of what Camp has been a building to throughout the series, especially because there's like this real tension between like what the central project of the Green Martian is versus the fact that he's inhabiting the body of an FBI agent, even one who seems genuinely invested in uh kind of the generally good uh concept of kind of attempting to counter stuff like mass shootings and white supremacist violence. Um and this is here he he is really kind of forcing uh the work itself to confront that tension between what it means to be uh not necessarily anti-colonial because until this issue it hasn't been explicitly anti-colonial, but what it means to be uh pro-humanity and pro-kindness and empathy, and really genuinely pro-community, in a way that you could maybe call anarchistic uh with a main character who is an FBI agent, and what that really looks like in a narrative. And it makes me happy to see that because I would have been disappointed in Camp as a writer, I think, if he hadn't confronted that in the work. Yeah. Um, because it it would have felt like a real uh point of shallowness and an otherwise really, really deep bibliography of work for this writer over the last like five to ten years.

SPEAKER_03 41:16

Absolutely. Yeah, this book is one that finally Yeah, confronts the Martian. Or not the Martian, but uh uh John Johns is like an agent of the state, and like what that means to like all of all of the illusions about his ability to operate within the state are completely being shattered. The state itself is after him. Like these guys, whatever more specifically they are or how they work, we're still kind of getting that. Um there's a a level of starenko and department of truth influence here that I find very compelling, both as a Starenko and Department of Truth curly. Um but yeah, I mean, like he even explicitly is like, don't do this, I have a family, I I work for the FBI, and that means nothing. Because of course it means nothing.

SPEAKER_02 41:57

Yeah, because the minute you go against the machine of the state, the state will grind you up into little bits of flesh. Yeah. And there's there's some really interesting allusions too to like, uh like I'm looking at this panel here in which he's uh I think he's drawn really clearly as an homage to a lot of kind of horrifying war photography from Vietnam.

SPEAKER_01 42:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:17

Um and then I I also love this uh really hilarious, dark criticism of the kind of upper middle class, upwardly mobile, white hippie generation.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:31

Uh which appears throughout the the issue in a way that is really, really frickin' funny and also really disturbing. Um I love that the only thing that can contain the Green Martian is the entire concept of the American carceral system. Which is just a great little piece thrown in there. Uh yeah, this is this might be my favorite issue uh of the whole run so far, of the last ten issues. This might be hands down my favorite.

SPEAKER_03 43:04

Yeah. Is this one or three for me? Because the the burning down the concept of home was also. But it's like, this might even be better than that. This is some of the most striking work.

SPEAKER_02 43:14

This is the most excited I've been reading a new issue of uh monthly in a while. Uh which is awesome.

SPEAKER_03 43:21

Makes me happy. It's just leaps and bounds above everything else. And yeah, kind of to your point earlier, I like the first the first arc I think works so so well both as an arc and as single issues. Um I think each issue like functions so so well as like an individual moment, whereas like I think the second arc is going to read like I do think it reads really well in single issues, but I think it's gonna read even better as like a whole trade where you can read it at once. And that is definitely a shift from the first where like it it felt more self contained, even if it was building, whereas this is absolutely not self contained, it is building issue by issue. And it is a lot less like concrete necessarily. But that said, like Camp is putting all of his gas here. Javier Rodriguez is putting all of his gas here. The commentary is incredibly sharp. Artistically, it's incredibly sharp. There's a real I don't know if you've ever played it, but there's a real Death Stranding vibe to bits of this that are like hard to articulate if you haven't played those games. But um as a as a death stranding truther, um. Uh yeah, and just the color. Like, Javier's work on this is like his his colour work in general has been astonishing, but it's this is the best it's ever been. Like he's the complexity of color work he's doing here is insane.

SPEAKER_02 44:44

I I also want to shout out the lettering. Yeah. Uh just because it deserves the shout out. This is like the best lettering on the show.

SPEAKER_03 44:54

Um Hassan's going fucking crazy. Like Hassan is easily the best letterer in the game, and like there are a lot of people I really like doing letters. I don't want to discredit their work, but like Hassan is just above and beyond everybody. He's just so above the fray. The pe the way people talk about Todd Klein, and Todd Klein is very important, very, very good, but the way that people talk about Todd Klein is how I feel about Hassan, is that like there's so many different styles of like font and like so many, so many choices, very intentional choices, and it could feel like overloaded or overwhelming very easily, but Hassan is just so talented at wrapping so so many intensely experimental elements and lettering styles together into something that feels genuinely cohesive. I'm never confused about where I'm supposed to be reading on the page. Like Hassan is honestly just a f like a fucking genius at lettering. Like he's just so good. He's one of the best we've we've ever had. Um and I'm just so we're so lucky to exist in a time where he's like lettering books. Like even the most like milk toast book that he's doing looks so good. Similarly, we're not gonna talk about it, but um the brutal dark, he's doing letters to the brutal dark, and like I'm not gonna talk about the brutal dark. It's good, it's fun, it continues to be like a really rock solid, you know, uh dark horse style thing. It's a good fun historical thing. I like it. The only thing I'm gonna bring up about it is that Hassan does the lettering on it, and it brings so much. Even if he's doing a lot less than Martian. Um he and these are yeah, two very different ends for him, but like both of them are astonishing. But yeah, Absolute Martian is God, it's so fucking good. I can't say. That said, wonderful. Um loved it. Um Department of Truth, I've been a little bit behind on it. Um that said, I'm a big Department of Truther. I think it's a really good book. I think it's really slept-on Tinian book. Um we're doing Christian Jurassic Park shit now, so I'm excited to see what uh Televangelist Jurassic Park arc is gonna look like. Um Ben Temple Smith is the guest artist. They've been pretty good at getting guest artists on the um Allison Samson JFK stuff, and Marilyn Monroe JFK stuff is really, really good. Um Ultimate Endgame, I kinda I kind of can't talk about it without spoilers, so maybe I shouldn't. Yeah, just um yeah. Um yeah, no spoilers. I'll say that it's some of the least interesting stuff from camp to me, um, overall. Um restraining you. Yeah. Good pros, that's it. Um I didn't get to I was gonna check out Florida Hippopotamus Cocaine Massacre. I didn't get to it. I'm not gonna get to it.

SPEAKER_02 48:11

One day we'll talk about Deathfight Forever.

SPEAKER_03 48:13

One day we'll talk about Deathfight Forever. Um it continues to be pretty, that's it. Um great cover. Great cover, yeah. And the interiors look great. Alex or Alexa Zarit continues to look really great. The colors also are really spectacular. I was gonna read Council of Frogs by Matt Eamons. I just want to shout it out because it looks really pretty. It looks really cute. The like a knight dies, a night mage dies in the water, and his blood fertilizes the eggs of a bunch of frogs, and then they become frog people, and he decides to become their weird god, and that's the setup. It looks cute, it's fun, it's a good time. I need to actually sit down and read it, but I've been doing that. Sitting down and reading?

SPEAKER_02 48:54

No, ruling a council of frogs.

SPEAKER_03 48:56

Oh. Where's your frog council? Bring them in.

SPEAKER_02 48:59

They're shy.

SPEAKER_01 49:00

They're shy?

SPEAKER_02 49:01

Yeah. But we could be like best friends. I don't know, they're pretty picky. I mean they're friends with Walter. I think he's cool.

SPEAKER_03 49:11

You know what? Fair enough. I'm not a mus I'm not like a a cool musician. And I don't I don't uh I don't live a I don't I don't I don't live a cool life on Snooky's couch or whatever, but uh it's fine, you know, it's it's fine. I you know, I I know I'm I'm boring and shit. Frogs don't like me. I'm I'm gayer and frogs are are fucking they're they're fucking all the frogs are fucking gay now and they don't want to hang out with me. I'm the gay one, the gayest one. Are you? Betwe between me and Walter. I'm going to say that I'm the gayer one. Not not the only gay one, the gayest one.

SPEAKER_02 49:49

Look, I gave them your manuscript, they said they'd get to it when they get to it. If they like it, we'll hang out. You know what? That's okay. Anyway, y'all, thanks for listening. Yeah. We love you. Hope to see you in the store. If you're coming in for Harley Quinn, we only got like three more issues of number 60. The covers are great. Hopefully, we'll get more in just because it's so good. But come in and buy one.

SPEAKER_03 50:10

Yeah. Start subscribing to Harley so we can order more issues, because that's part of the why we don't have any money.

SPEAKER_02 50:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:15

See y'all later. See ya. Bye. Bye.