Screw It, We're Just Gonna Talk About Comics – Details, episodes & analysis

For our last episode on The Human Target, we go over the recent excellent run by writer Tom King and artist Greg Smallwood. Christopher Chance is back and this time he has to meet with members of the beloved 1980s version of the Justice League. You want The Human Target chatting on a couch with G'nort? You've got it. He also falls in love with Ice, works for Lex Luthor, has to look over his shoulder to check for Batman -- and lots of fun stuff.

Although a very different approach than Peter Milligan's, this is a delightful run! As fans of the 1980s JLI, we really enjoyed this!

Next episode we dive into a little-known indie comic called Watchmen (yep, that one).

EPISODE 289 : End of the Peter Milligan run. 

We finish our coverage of the Peter Milligan run of the Vertigo series "The Human Target." The final story, "The Stealer" is in many ways the most Human Target-y stories of them all. Someone from Christopher Chance's life wants to steal his identity. What happens when a master of disguise is impersonated by another master of disguise? Will it hard to know who is the real Human Target? Will Christopher Chance himself know? Will Bruno be able to get good water for his espressos? All these questions and more are answered or at least carefully dodged in this final really fun story!

Next episode - we give a quick look at the excellent Tom King / Greg Smallwood run. 

EPISODE 281 - We're approached the end of the John Byrne FF era. Franklin is having another prophetic dream, which is a six page plug for Power Pack, which the Milksops applaud. Sue Richards is standing up to Reed like never before, and she demands revenge against Psycho-Man. And that means we're going to the Micro-Verse! And also, whoa, what is the Micro-Verse?

We also have an appearance of our sub podcast "Screw It, We're Just Gonna Talk About War Games" which is hilariuosly more well produced than the main podcast.

And the Milksops cast themselves in a movie!

One more ep of Comics Rays and Correspondence to go!

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NO MAILBAG THIS EPISODE. For the "mutants" portion of our ep, the Milksops review the graphic novel "God Loves, Man Kills" in which the X-Men ally with arch-enemy Magneto to battle an anti-mutant televangelist/murderer! This was also known as "Marvel Graphic Novel #5," which was part of a series where Marvel creators could make more adult content. This story contains brutal murders, commentary on how people use religion and media to manipulate the masses, a man killing his family and Kitty Pryde dropping the N-word in an argument about racism. It's intense! It's also really good and one of the most compeling and nuanced portrayal of Magneto so far!

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We saved (one of) the best for last: Astro City. This is Kurt's masterpiece. Along with artist Brent Anderson and cover artist/collaborator Alex Ross, Kurt created an entire superhero universe for Astro City. The characters are a combination of analogues of very popular superhero "types" (we see a Superman-ish person, a Spider-Man ish hero, a Justice League, a Fantastic Four), but also characters who don't fit cleanly into any box. What is true of every character in Astro City is they are: human, emotional, moving, surprising and impressively thought-through. Astro City is to superhero comics what Speilberg movies are to adventure serials: better, deeper more moving versions of the old tropes --- done with joy and love and excitement. We dig a bit into two issues: #1 ("Flying") and #1/2 ("The Nearness of You") which is one of the Milksops' favorite issues of comic book of ANY genre and series. Hope you like it!

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We continue our look into Kurt Busiek with a deepish dive on one of his most beloved works: 2004's "Secret Identity." What if someone woke up in OUR world had Superman's powers? Meaning there are no superheroes but there are Superman comic books. He knows what he's become, but not why or how. An off-kilter premise, explored with heart and sweetness and surprise. It's a moving story that covers far more emotional ground than you're ready for. The decency and goodness in this story gets at the core of why we all love Superman so much. A must read.

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The Milksops continue our Talking 'Bout Busiek season with a look at his stellar run on The Avengers. Specifically we dig into issues 19-22, Ultron Unleashed! Thor has words with Ultron, Justice doesn't drink tea, and lots of robots wish they had families. It's action-packed and is a highlight of Kurt and George Perez's Avengers run. We also talk about the hard-to-find Avengers/JLA book and it's insanely dense character-filled fan service. If you ever wanted to see two universes kiss, then this is the comic for you. But also Superman holds Thor's hammer! It's fun when people hold Thor's hammer, right? Email us at [email protected] ok?

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Continuing our dive into Kurt Busiek, we look at his critically acclaimed series Untold Tales of Spider-Man. It's a masterpiece of going back to basics with the webhead, finding new stories from the old strategies. In particular, we dive into two incredible issues: UTOSM #16, which shows what Mary Jane Watson thought of Peter (and Spidey) before they met, and also UTOSM Annyal '96, which has the web-head go on a date with The Invisible Girl. These two issues have everything a great Spidey tale could have: action, humor, pathos, nerdiness, joy, severe punching and truthful emotional centers. We also go through some mail in which we find out we've made mistakes. But Will is still not convinced Matt Murdock has a personality.

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A team of villains who sometimes maybe kinda want to be heroes? One of the great series in recent decades. The Milksops get into Thunderbolts #1 with it tremendous twist ending that caught everyone unaware. We also talk about the series overall. It was born in a strange time in Marvel "history" when many of the big properties were removed from publication. Busiek turned this possible restriction into a feature. Also on display is Kurt's standard high level of story navigation: clear characters established quickly, smart plot twists and fun dialogue. It's one of those issues you read a second time the second you've finished it. Plus we get into some mail where as usual we are corrected on getting some facts wrong and we pick what a modern "Marvels" comic might focus on! __ SHOW INFORMATION Twitter: @ScrewItComics Instagram: @ScrewItComics Email: [email protected] Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Subscribe: Spotify

The Milksops begin their celebration / examination of legendary comics writer Kurt Busiek by doing a medium-depth dive on his breakout 1993 mini-series Marvels. With the stunningly realistic paintings of Alex Ross, Marvels was a critical and commercial hit that also proved that the classic Marvel characters and stories still worked in the collectors-edition froth of the early 1990s. The series established Kurt's knack for creating everyman characters who view the world of superheros from "street level." The Milksops argue that Marvels and Kurt's success also marked the beginning of a "back to basics" appraoch for Marvel comics stories after the constant showing revisions of the 1980s. Hey, fun. We also answer email, which is why this episode is a bit longer. Mail includes a question on the movie War Games, because this show doubles as Screw It, We're Just Gonna Talk About War Games.

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