Sometime back in July 2018 I had decided I needed to find a podcast about DC history to aid in some research for an RPG I was going to run. I had only read one issue of DC Who's Who index comics in my youth, and when I heard the premise of the show: cover each entry one by one, I was skeptical. Now, months later, I am listening to them cover the DC Annuals and looking eagerly forward to all of the episodes. My only complaint is that as I consume episode after episode, the list of available episodes I have not listened to shrinks!
Rob is a more quiet, thoughtful fellow with a sharp wit and excellent insight into the comic industry. Shag is much more talkative and sometimes brash, but the two work well together due to this contrast like a set of buddy-cop show characters. They both have a passion for well known DC characters who have, sadly, taken steps back as DC has honed in on their "blessed trinity" of characters (Aquaman and Firestorm, respectively). I hear they have another podcast to catch once I've gobbled up the backlog of Who's Who.
Catching up, I have a few comments to make.
a) I went out and bought Alan Moore's "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" based on Rob's reccomendation. Krypto's sacrifice was, indeed, touching. But I'm not quite satisfied with Superman's resolution to the plot, or his castigation of his days as Superman. I did love the wink in the end.
b) Todd McFarlane. Unconnected to DC, I had been working on some Hulk related material, and felt the need to go back and actually read through the excellent grey Hulk run, especially the long story arc under Peter David. And wow... was Todd's art just poor. He would occasionally capture a really cute look for Betty Ross, or an iconic Hulk, but the proportions were consistently bad. I think all the fuss about Todd is that he updated hairstyles and clothes to more modern takes, and his art style looked and felt "different". In retrospect, I can't see what ever made him actually considered solid talent in the industry.
c) A drinking game every time Shag calls someone hot would result in a very short game, because one or two drinks and I'm out. You have to drink the bottle each time Rob actually calls a character hot.
d) Jericho. I first encountered this character in the 2000s when I picked up the Man of Steel trade paperbacks. I had never seen him before, and immediatley thought how much he looked like Kirk's son from Wrath of Khan. It's about my only experience with the character overall, and I thought (in that issue) he was interesting - a mute superhero. I've started to read the Titans from "New Teen Titans #1", in trade of course, so I'll pass judgement on Jericho when I get to him.
e) Hearing about Shag getting his son and daughter into comics makes me smile. I actually have done the same for my own children, even passing on the majority of my actual comics and trades to them. It was my own dad who got me into comics (he was a fan of the Flash in the 60s).
f) The Outsiders! You know, I had this vague memory of an add for Batman & The Outsiders in the pages of the final issues of the Flash (right before Crisis on Infinite Earths). All I can remember of the image was Batman, a girl with a rainbow glow around her floating, and some woman in red with katanas. I couldn't remember who any of the characters were aside from Batman and Black Lightning, and always thought "Wow, aside from Batman they all look like colossal dorks". I only put together that these characters were the ones from that memory when you were reviewing Halo! I was out walking the dog while listening to the podcast and began laughing aloud in public as I recalled the much younger "me" and his judgement of these characters.
g) Crisis on Infinite Earths is *the* comic that got me back into DC, but it wasn't until the 2000s that I returned at all. I had read some DC comics when I was a kid, and watched Superfriends, but my friends were all into Marvel and the Marvel cartoons were, in the 1980s, a lot more fun. I always maintained a soft spot for Superman, and felt that the DC Animated Universe treated many of these characters better than the comics did. But when a friend elected to run a superhero game set in the DCU, and wanted to use some golden age characters, I began to do research. This lead me to picking up the Crisis trade, and discovering.. yes... discovering the work of Perez. From then on I was much more a DC fan. My personal sweet spot for DC is right before and right after the Crisis, that nice era of the mid 80s before all the women's breasts expanded into watermelons and all male heroes developed the physique of the Hulk.
h) Since you guys have promised to read all iTune reviews, I'm going to put this point here just in case Shag ends up having to read this. "Rob was right." I sincrely hope he groans while reading this point.
i) Just to throw some love at Shag, Firestorm's major role in Crisis actually got me curious about the character. I'd sadly never heard of him before reading Crisis, but I keep thinking he would work really well for a TV treatment of the character - he has a built in supporting cast that TV shows feel compelled to add to all heroes.
Keep up the good work guys! Like I said, I'm about a full two years behind in listening right now, so this comment is based on a solid three months of binge listening the episodes.
