Episode 99: Thing Ring, Do Your Ring Job

Secret Wars #9 was released this week, marking the official end of the Marvel Universe as created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (or by Kirby and Lee, depending on whose version you prefer) in the November, 1961 issue of Fantastic Four #1.

Purely by coincidence, this was also the week that our local comic store put used copies of the first two volumes of Marvel’s Essential Fantastic Four reprints on sale. And also purely by coincidence, this was the week we obtained a copy of last year’s Josh Trank-directed movie version of Fantastic Four, with the original plan being to watch it so we could, in good conscience, list it as our worst genre movie of 2015.

However, with both the beginning and the end of Stan and Jack’s Fantastic Four and Marvel Universe in our hands, as well as this wretched little celluloid deviation, we decided it was a perfect time to revisit the team, how much of the Marvel Universe just those first few issues laid down for decades to come, how the comic really was a product of its time (and how the movie was proof of that), and how Jonathan Hickman laid those characters, as they have been since 1961, to rest. And, ultimately, we discuss whether this team, that was born during the Space Race, when Kennedy was President and World War II was closer in history than the Y2K Bug is to us today, could have a future in 2016.

And now, the disclaimers:

• We record this show live to tape, with minimal editing. While this might mean a looser comics podcast than you are used to, it also means that anything can happen. Like a discussion why Sue Storm makes Helen of Troy look like Willie Lumpkin.
• This show contains spoilers. While we try to shout out warnings ahead of time, be aware that we will spoil the fact that the Fantastic Four movie just sucks.
• This show contains adult, profane language, and therefore is not safe for work. See that “Ring Job” in the title? Don’t let your boss hear about that. Get some earphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:54:41 — 106.1MB)

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Thanks for listening, suckers!

But Doctor, I Am Pagliacci: Jim Lee on Alan Moore and Before Watchmen

This past weekend, DC Entertainment Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee attended the Los Angeles Festival of Books. Why attend a straight book festival when the perfectly good Boston Comic Con was occurring on the same weekend? I’m guessing because if you’re gonna be forced to answer difficult and uncomfortable questions about the upcoming Before Watchmen, it’s probably easier to do it when they’re not being asked by, say, Fat Hispanic Superman.

And, at the DC Entertainment Presents: Watchmen – It’s Not The End, It’s The Beginning panel, difficult questions were asked, specifically related to the commonly held perception that the stack of prequel miniseries were personally and intimately screwing Alan Moore in a way that makes American prison showers so inviting. Specifically, one panelist asked Lee how he reconciled Moore’s issues with the prequels: