Podcast 194 Sept 2012: What did you think?

[BD]

The latest show is up. The opening song is below. Please leave a review below.

[iron_patriot]

Love the "Death in the Family" storyline. The art was pretty bad, though. There's one particular half page splash in the second to last issue where Spidey is on his way to the warehouse that I think just sucked. He's all square and contorted and ugh. Also, I never noticed the Killing Joke similarities...

Spider-Man: Blue I'm pretty cold on. I wish that they filled in stuff between the issues and panels, though. I don't think there was much quiet time between the main characters. The art is my favorite from Tim Sale. Some of the panels, specifically the one where Spider-Man is crawling through the subway looks like Romita himself drew it.

[DarkKnightJared]

I remember that Doc Ock story! I loved the hell out of it.

To explain the joke in TKJ to JR: in the first scene with Batman and Joker, like you said, it's Batman trying to get through to Joker, saying that they're going to kill each other one day, and he wants to stop that from happening.

The over-arching idea that Joker tries to prove in the story is that "all it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man to lunacy." Joker had his when his wife died, was forced into a criminal act, and was permanently disfigured, and he knows that something similar happened to Batman. However, Bruce, much like Gordon in the story, didn't break from it the way Joker did--he became a far more cold, calculating, repressed man than he would have with his parents, but he took what happened to him and used it and his resources to help people--he didn't lose hope, and is ultimately sane for it.

So here's the joke again:



The two guys are Batman and Joker. The asylum is insanity, the nearby roof is sanity. They try to escape, but while the first guy was able to make it--Batman--the Joker is unable to. The first guy tries to help the second to sanity, and the second guy refuses and, since he's still in the Asylum, answers it in an absurd way.

Batman wanting to help Joker to be rid of his insanity is an absurd idea, like walking on a flashlight beam, and the joke is Joker's absurd response.

So yeah, the way you describe this story, it sounds a LOT alike.

I LOVE Spider-Man: Blue. The thing is, for me, this was my first exposure to the early Spider-Man stories, so I guess the "revisionist history" thing doesn't bother me.

Yeah, there's no way you can say Captain America: White without it being a little awkward.

I actually enjoyed Spider-Man/Black Cat--it definitely feels like Smith had a different story in mind with the second half and kind-of mashed it in where it doesn't quite fit, and what he adds to Felicia's origin wasn't super-necessary, but I thought he had the voices of Peter and Felicia down pat, and despite it being unnecessary, I think the handling of the rape story was very maturely handled.

Good episode.

[FSUSpiderFan]

I never thought of the similarities in those two stories. Even if you like Ramos, you have to admit he was the wrong artist for Death in the Family. His cartoonish style took some thing away from the serious dark nature of the story. If you had an artist like Mike Zeck I bet the story would be as highly regarded as Kraven's Last hunt.

I actually enjoyed Spider-Man:Blue for what it was, even though it paints too rosey a picture of Peter and Gwen's relationship and the obvious continuity problems.

JR was on fire with all these reviews. I like Bertone's new segment. It sounds like they had one of the least effective deaths in comics with Flash's B.I.L.

[Spider-Dad]

2002...has it really been 10 years already??? That was the year I got back into reading ASM due to the Sam Raimi movie. It is interesting how JR paints the stories as they are, since these are the same stories that had me wondering how far "back in" I would go with reading/collecting after a 7 year hiatus.

JMS' run clearly is what hooked me again. Issues #37, 38 (478, 479) I believe are the ones I intially picked up, with the LCS owner encouraging me to get 36, (the 9/11 issue) before prices went through the roof. I was hooked enough to pick up to the beginning of the JMS run, (thanks to the LCS owner again...). After reading those 8 or so stories, I knew I was hooked, especially with Aunt May learning Peter's secret identity. FINALLY!

Interestingly, "Death in the Family" came out soon after and I was skeptical on picking it up because I was so turned off by Ramo's art. JR is correct that his artwork is over stylized, at times has horrible proportions and leans towards anime, which I do not like. Despite this, other LCS fans encouraged me to get it, so I did pick it up and found the story enjoyable. However I was totally confused since I was not around when Norman was resurrected during the Clone Saga, which made me want to learn more about what happened during my absence. Ironically this led me to JR's website to learn what I had missed over the years...which eventually drew me into the Crawlspace a couple years later.

Now Spider-Man Blue I enjoyed, since I knew this material much better and I liked Tim Sales' artwork. Although I agree with JR it has some "revisionist spins", I still liked it just for the nostalgia factor. How does it compare to the original stories? The original is much better and in my book is still one of the greatest Spider-Man runs ever, and holds up to this day.

As for the Black Cat mini, I agree with DarkKnightJared that Smith got the characters down pat. It was too bad the story fell apart, since Smith and Dodson typically do very good work. High expectations on this one, but it just did not deliver the goods.

As for the obscure Bertone Bio's, not only was it funny, but I wonder if you can beat this first one for obscurity...good luck Bertone!

[BD]

Spider-Dad,

You're reviews are my favorite. Thank you so much for taking time to discuss it. The shows are downloaded tens of thousands of times but you're one of the rare ones that takes time to review it.

Thanks so much.

[FSUSpiderFan]

Spider-Dad,

You're reviews are my favorite. Thank you so much for taking time to discuss it. The shows are downloaded tens of thousands of times but you're one of the rare ones that takes time to review it.

Thanks so much.

DarkknightJared also gives really good lengthy reviews of the podcasts. A lot of times it's hard for me to review them because I'll listen to 2 or 3 in a row. Then those individual episode run together into one long fun as hell ride with my Crawlspace friends and it's hard to distinguish which part things I enjoyed were in. Overall though, I listen to alot of different types of podcasts and CS is consistently the funnest one that I look forward to the most. I can't thank Brad and the crew enough for the quality entertainment they gives us for free between the podcast, the message board, and the main page. I come and have more good times on this website than any other place on the web. This is my one stop shop for all things Spidey, comics, and beyond.

[BD]

Thanks man, that is very, very kind. Glad you enjoy it as much as we do.

[Spider-Dad]

Spider-Dad,

You're reviews are my favorite. Thank you so much for taking time to discuss it. The shows are downloaded tens of thousands of times but you're one of the rare ones that takes time to review it.

Thanks so much.

Glad to oblige. I use a simple process when listening to the podcast. Typically I am organizing, cleaning up my desk and I have the podcast playing in the background. When I hear something funny or have a comment to make, I pause the podcast, write my thoughts in Word, then continue the podcast. When done, I copy and paste here...pretty easy stuff.

The hard part is finding the time to listen to all the podcasts!

[iron_patriot]

I'm the same with FSU. While I don't review the shows often, I love the podcast and I'm proud to be in the community. (2 years this month, actually!)

[FSUSpiderFan]

Spider-Dad,

You're reviews are my favorite. Thank you so much for taking time to discuss it. The shows are downloaded tens of thousands of times but you're one of the rare ones that takes time to review it.

Thanks so much.

Glad to oblige. I use a simple process when listening to the podcast. Typically I am organizing, cleaning up my desk and I have the podcast playing in the background. When I hear something funny or have a comment to make, I pause the podcast, write my thoughts in Word, then continue the podcast. When done, I copy and paste here...pretty easy stuff.

The hard part is finding the time to listen to all the podcasts!

I am usually running or driving when listening to the podcast. Taking notes would be hazardous to my health. Sometimes I laugh out loud running so people probably think I am a lunatic.