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! __ SHOW INFORMATION Twitter: @ScrewItComics Instagram: @ScrewItComics Email: ScrewItComics@gmail.com Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Subscribe: Spotify
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. __ SHOW INFORMATION Twitter: @ScrewItComics Instagram: @ScrewItComics Email: ScrewItComics@gmail.com Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Subscribe: Spotify
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 screwitcomics@gmail.com ok? __ SHOW INFORMATION Twitter: @ScrewItComics Instagram: @ScrewItComics Email: ScrewItComics@gmail.com Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Subscribe: Spotify
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. __ SHOW INFORMATION Twitter: @ScrewItComics Instagram: @ScrewItComics Email: ScrewItComics@gmail.com Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Subscribe: Spotify
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: ScrewItComics@gmail.com 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. __ SHOW INFORMATION Twitter: @ScrewItComics Instagram: @ScrewItComics Email: ScrewItComics@gmail.com ...
To prepare for the new Disney+ show starring Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan incarnation), the Milksops do a crash course on her comic books! Despite just having debuted in Feburary 2014 (besides a fast cameo in 2013), Ms. Marvel has gotten a lot of development and appearances in that time. We go over her impressively strong debut, which includes the personality of Jersey City, her interesting conservative Muslim family, and cabal of surprising, supportive high school friends. We see a lot of Peter Parker in Kamala, with her joy and decency and missteps. We're intrigued by her Muslim background. We love the physical weirdness of her poly-morphism -- very Kirby, we think. We don't love the Inhmans origin (too complicated) and don't love her as much on teams (too competent, you heard us), and have yet to be grabbed by the recent "space stories" run. But we think this character is a hit and are excited for the show. __ SHOW INFORMATION Twitter: @ScrewItComics Instagram: @ScrewItComics Email: ScrewItComics@gmail.com Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Subscribe: Spotify
The Milksops break from their tendency to talk about 80s and 90s comics to focus on the latest MCU release: Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Their take: it's good? We get into what Kevin didn't like about the first one, and why he likes this one better. We also get into: guest character appearances, our assessment of the films visuals and actions, rating its villain, the impact on the story of the MCU as a whole and along the way Kevin spoils Citizen Kane! __ SHOW INFORMATION Twitter: @ScrewItComics Instagram: @ScrewItComics Email: ScrewItComics@gmail.com Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Subscribe: Spotify
Two issues of bliss, two issues of blah -- that's how the Milksops see these issues. We get a fun look at Rogue and Storm's friendly in 185, followed by the double-sized Barry Windsor-Smith pencilled epic of Storm and Forge falling in love with each other! They're each fun, intriguing, exciting issues of the X-Men. And then we get two completely confusing issues where they face off against an alien race called the Dire Wraiths who come from the Marvel title ROM, which was one of those toy-first-comics-later comics that often doesn't work (Transformers, you get a pass). We also talk a lot about superstar artists George Perez and Neal Adams who sadly recently passed away. They each were impactful for their work as artists and work behind the scenes as human beings! In the mailbags portion, we pick an all-bald super-powered basketball team and talk about digital vs print comics! You can't miss this ep! -- SHOW INFORMATION Twitter: @ScrewItComics Instagram: @ScrewItComics Email: ScrewItComics@gmail.com Subscribe: Apple Podcasts Subscribe: Spotify
A terrific run of Claremont issues. We have the charming "Young Dragons in Love" where we see Japan bring out its standing anti-Monster forces to stop a lovesick dragon from destroying Tokyo. Rogue loses track of which of her memories are really hers when she rescues an ex-boyfriend (we think) of Carol Danvers. Wolverine takes Colossus out to maybe beat him up for dumping Kitty Pryde and instead just lets casual clothes wearing Juggernaut beat him up. And finally Rachel Summers, the daughter of Scott and Jean from another timeline arrives in our present to , we presume, save the world. Hey, pretty fun. We still get some Kevin hot takes, don't you worry. In the mailbag, we get suggestions of what we should cover in future Crash Courses, a defense of the "a hero is someone who always gets up" trope from a fellow Danburian, and Kevin and Will talk about how they always seem to get along? is it a hoax????? __ SHOW INFORMATION Twitter: @ScrewItComics Instagram: @ScrewItComics Email: Scre...