Some Of My Friends Read Comics

To celebrate his big screen arrival, we took a look at the weirdest Apocalypse miniseries we could find, and that was X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula! Sounds cool, doesn’t it? We thought so too, but instead we just got a bunch of British dudes showing off their tattoos. Listen as we try to figure out why this comic exists and what would have made a much more interesting story. Next Episode: Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison, issues 19-22

Darwyn Cooke, one of our favorite comic book creators, passed away last week at the age of 53. To honor him, we decided to cover his magnum opus, DC: The New Frontier, which takes a look at the Dawn of DC’s new superheroes and the birth of the Justice League in the 1950’s. It’s an oversized 6-issue miniseries completely written and drawn by Cooke himself and it’s an absolute must-read for fans of the genre, young and old.

How was there not a Power Pack cartoon in the ‘80s? How is there not one NOW?!? We took a look at issues 1-4 of this 1984 Marvel superteam created by debut writer Louise Simonson and artist June Brigman. We really let it transport us to a land of sugary cereals on Saturday morning and fake unicorn grandparents that you love more than your actual family (yes, really). We also try to figure out why someone named Alex Power would choose the much lamer “Gee” as a codename.  Get it together, Alex. You’re an embarrassment to the Power Pack.

Next week, the Marvel Cinematic Universe tears itself apart in Captain America: Civil War, based on the best-selling Marvel comic CIVIL WAR! We go back 10 years ago to read the original CIVIL WAR, where Captain America and Iron Man broke up, Spider-Man told the world he was Peter Parker, and everybody's best friend (who hadn't been in a comic in over decade) died! This one's for Cody!

It’s our one year anniversary special! And what better way to celebrate a full year of comics than with the definitive Batman origin story, Year One! And even better, it’s by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, the same creators from our very first episode. Full circle, whoaaaaa! Join us as we talk about our some of our favorite moments from Batman’s first year in action as well our own first year in action! And did you know Bryan Cranston once played Jim Gordon? Well he did and it was great! And why isn’t Vince as good as LeBron James? Join us for all the answers!

It's April Fools Day and Chris played one hell of an unintentional prank on us by choosing Not Brand Echh for this week's episode. We read the first three issues of Stan Lee’s 1967 attempt to make a Marvel comedy magazine and, to be honest, we had a pretty great time ripping this thing to shreds while searching for any jokes. It also gave us a great chance to talk about a bunch of other funny comics that are actually worth reading! All that and more on today's Bum Of My Bends Bead Bomics! Who says a podcast has to be good??

Ladies and gentlemen and aliens, tonight's heavyweight qualifier match is coming to you LIVE from the planet Bodace and will determine the fate of our galaxy. In the red corner, from the planet Krypton, weighing in at 235 lbs, it’s Superman! And in the blue corner, from the planet Earth, weighing in at 236 lbs, Muhammad Ali! (Really Google? Superman weighs less than Ali?) Michael joins us at ringside to fill in our gaps of sports knowledge as we read Superman vs Muhammad Ali from 1978! Let’s get ready to ruuuuuummmmble!

Before we recorded our Thanos episode a couple months back, we knew we were gonna eventually head back to outer space to cover the Infinity Guantlet. But we had so much fun reading Thanos Quest and were so impressed with the writing and art of Jim Starlin that we decided to head back even sooner! This time we took a look at Adam Warlock, a character that Vince and Kia knew absolutely NOTHING about, other than that he appeared in the background of Guardians of the Galaxy and was eventually gonna be pretty important. Luckily, Chris is here as usual to clarify exactly what the heck is going on. Join us as we read Strange Tales 178-181 and Warlock 9-11!

Everybody’s got Deadpool-mania! His new film just broke box office records for an R-rated release… unprecedented for a comic book character less than 30 years old! To find out how the wise-crackin’, fourth-wall-breakin’, merc-with-a-mouth got to be so popular, we went back to the first time he broke the mold. In Deadpool #10 & #11 from 1997, good old Wade Wilson goes back in time to 1967 and invades Amazing Spider-Man #47, taking the place of that goody two shoes Peter Parker. There’s also this picture of Deadpool as Forrest Gump, and we can’t figure out why! It’s pop-culture references galore in this week’s episode of SOMFRC!

All around me are the Batman’s cases: Joker chases, makeup faces. Harley Quinn just wants the Joker’s embraces. Plays her Aces, schemes take places. And this comic’s kinda funny, this comic’s kinda sad. The panels where she’s dreaming are the best I’ve ever had. We liked Paul Dini’s writing. And Bruce Timm’s art was great. Like the animated series, it’s a very very… Mad Love.

When it comes to classic superteams, one of the first names that comes up is the Teen Titans. It started out as kid versions of DC’s big guns, but when Marv Wolfman and George Perez reinvented the series with The New Teen Titans, they became one of the most popular teams of the 80’s. Join us as we check out issues 1-6 from 1980!

Thanos! He’s a big purple dude that keeps showing up in the Marvel movies… but why is everyone always freaking out about him? Since he’s gonna be the big bad in the next Avengers movie, we figured we’d get some backstory by reading the 1990 comics where he became a major player. And it all started with his resurrection in Silver Surver 34-38, followed by his hunt for the Infinity Gems in Thanos Quest 1-2. Writer Jim Starlin takes us into the world of Marvel’s cosmic galaxy that he helped form, and artist Ron Lim gives us some breath-taking psychedelic images. What a team!

Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!   Few things go together better than The Punisher and Christmas (maybe peanut butter & jelly, spaghetti & meatballs, or lamb & tuna fish).   Get into the holiday spirit with Marvel's foremost vigilante - The Punisher - as he murders a bunch of bad guys on Christmas! In this episode, we look at the Punisher Christmas Specials from 2004, 2005, and 2006, and the gang is more divided than ever! Listen as we fail to agree on the Punisher AT ALL. 

A long time ago in a continuity far, far away… Dark Horse Comics made a TON of Star Wars comics, more than 500 of 'em. And they kicked the whole thing off with Dark Empire, a story where Luke turns to the Dark Side. Apparently, this thing was so important that all the Star Wars novels from the 90's kept referencing it, so we decided to read it and see what all the fuss was about. Join us as we ask the questions: Is Leia a trucker? Is the Emperor a vampire? Is Boba Fett good at anything? Marvel owns the rights to all these comics now, what with Disney owning everything in the world these days, so if you’d like to read them just head on over to Marvel Unlimited.

The majority of Spider-Man's most memorable villains have been around since the early days when he was still under the care of Stan Lee, but one of the few mainstays he didn't create was the Hobgoblin. In this episode, we take a look at Roger Stern's run with Spidey to see what makes Ol' Hobby so much more special than just the Green Goblin with a new paint job. We also get to witness Peter "THE ANIMAL" Parker in his most ridiculous wardrobe ever. And you can too if you head on over to allmyfriendsarerighthere.com!

Jessica Jones is almost on Netflix! We’re pumped but we didn’t want to accidentally spoil anything, so we read a story from her debut series, Alias, that definitely won’t have anything to do with the show. In issues 16-21, Jessica runs around looking for Spider-Woman (Women?), she sleeps with Ant-Man (Paul Rudd?), and she’s gotta deal with that idiot, Speedball, and his dumb balls bouncing all over the place (????). Not only that, but we throw in b-b-b-bonus issue #10 where she scams J. Jonah Jameson and the Daily Bugle. Classic Jessica.  

Batman embarks on a search for the mysterious “Holiday” Killer who, starting on Halloween, kills mobsters on major holidays until Batman finally catches Holiday a year later… Wait, a year?!?! Better improve those detective skills, Bruce. To be fair, he gets distracted by every single member of his rogues gallery and on top of all that he has to watch Harvey Dent go crazy and turn into Two-Face. Join us as we read The Long Halloween and disagree completely on just about every aspect of this story!

Kids run away for lots of reasons, but most of the time it’s because they find out their parents are supervillains, right?  Right?! Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina) brings us one of Marvel’s most original superhero teams since the 60’s and one of the greatest entry points for any reader into the wonderful world of comic books.

In the Criminal Justice System, the super-people gotta deal with two separate, yet equally important groups. The Top Ten precinct and their dog-boss who investigate the super-crimes and the shark-people who do a terrible job of trying to defend them. This is Alan Moore's story. DUN DUN.

Boy, America sure did luck out when Superman landed here, right? This friggin’ alien could have landed ANYWHERE ELSE on Earth! How much would that have sucked? Especially if he had landed in the hands of one of our enemies... like stupid Communist Russia. Imagine how terrible that would have been! Actually, don’t imagine it, just read Superman: Red Son to see how it would’ve gone down (with 100% historical accuracy.)