In this issue: The Major Spoilers Crew gets down to business and discuss The Pet Avengers, Archie’s nuptials, Teri Hatcher, Lois Lane, Kevin Smith, the Green Hornet, answer listener e-mail, review some comics, and wrap up their discussion on Top Cow’s Rising Stars.
[podcast]http://media.libsyn.com/media/majorspoilers/majorspoilers_99.mp3[/podcast]Show Notes after the Jump!
NEWS
Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers
LINKAGE
Archie’s Getting Married?
LINKAGE
Kevin Smith is on the Green Hornet
LINKAGE
EMAIL
Constantine writes in asking about heroes from the past
REVIEWS
Rodrigo
We Kill Monsters #1 (Diamond order code of MAY091014)
Written: Laura Harkcom, Christopher Leone
Art:Â Brian Churilla
Colors:Â Ronda Pattison
Letters:Â Jeff Powell
Publication Date:Â 2009-07-08
Two unassuming auto repair shop owners discover that monsters are infesting the world. When they are attacked, the glowing blue juice from the monster’s brain heals his arm and saves Jake’s life. But this gift only begins a life-long link to the monster invasion.
Matthew
Top Shelf: League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1910
Alan Moore
The third volume detailing the exploits of Miss Wilhelmina Murray and her extraordinary colleagues, Century is a 216-page epic spanning almost 100 years. Chapter one is set against the backdrop of London in 1910, 12 years after the failed Martian invasion and nine years since England put a man on the moon. With Halley’s Comet passing overhead, the nation prepares for the coronation of King George V, while far away on his South Atlantic island, the science-pirate Captain Nemo is dying.
Stephen
The Voyages of She Buccaneer #5 (May 13, 2009)
Will and Heidi Hughes
The SheBuccaneer finally meets Black Ben and his fleet of Chinese pirates upon angry waves. With the help of an ancient wizard, teh Vengeance is set ablaze, and the SheBuccaneer is brought before the wicked Governor of Shanghai.
MAJOR SPOILERS POLL OF THE WEEK
Last week’s Major Spoilers Poll of the Week, stirred up a lot of discussion over the actresses who have portrayed Lois Lane. This brings us to this week’s Poll of the Week – Who is the best Lois Lane?
A) Joan Alexander
B) Noel Neill
C) Philis Coates
D) Patricia Marand
E) Lesley Ann Warren
F) Margot Kidder
G) Terry Hatcher
H) Dana Delaney
I) Erica Durance
J) Kate Bosworth
VOTE
MAJOR SPOILERS DISCUSSION
Rising Stars is a 24-issue comic book limited series by J. Michael Straczynski about 113 people (called “Specials”) born with special abilities following the appearance of a mysterious light in the sky above Pederson, Illinois. The series explores how society may react to the advent of superpowers, and how those who are Specials may react towards society and each other. Rising Stars was one of the first comics produced under Straczynski’s own Joe’s Comics imprint for Top Cow Productions.
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Music from this episode comes from Armin Brewer (intro) and James Kennison (closing) from the Nobody’s Listening Podcast. A big thanks to both of these guys for creating kick-ass music for the show!
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12 Comments
Forgot Anne Heche. She played Lois in that straight-to-DVD Doomsday movie.
The answer to the “Pet Avengers” is simple: 1. People love their pets and 2. they love the idea of them having a secret double life were they’re superheroes.
Also isn’t The Crimson Avenger a black girl with enchanted guns with no triggers, said guns housing the soul of the original Crimson Avenger? She shows up in Infinite Crisis – Day of Vengeance, supposed to have been killed by the Spectre but we see her again at the battle for Metropolis.
great show.
one thing is bugging me though. it bugs me that you have to make kind of a huge deal about the fact that you’re reviewing indy publishers (and every other website for that matter). i mean, you shouldn’t have to say: ‘this week we have 3 indy book reviews). you should only need to say that you’re reviewing this book from this publisher.
and people should be more open minded. i understand we all like what we like, but a lot of people lift their nose on manga or indy stuff because it’s not marvel or DC or there’s no super-heroes in the book.
anyway, i could rant all day long on that matter, but i’m at work and i don’t have time.
hermit: You’re absolutely right. The main reason it happens is that I (and pretty much only I, as Stephen is less bothered and Rodrigo could care less) am bugged by people saying we favor Marvel, then others saying we favor DC.
We try very hard not to favor anything, so much as we just cover comics… So, yeah, the “Woo HOO! Indy books!” thing is a bit strained. But here’s something else to look at… Check the comments on an independent title versus a Dark Reign or Final Crisis tie-in issue. :)
by the way stephen, i bought a t-shirt, but i had to send it back. it was too small. i’ll take a nice picture of my ugly mugg with the shirt on when i get it back.
i understand that the big 2 have more replies than the indy stuff, and that’s what i find sad. but there’s nothing we can do about it other than you promoting the heck of the indy stuff you find interesting. but then again, those reviews are always about monsters and aliens, and zombies and super-heroes. i guess we have to take baby steps on the matter.
You ARE freaking out… MANNNnnNNNNnnNNnnNnNNnnNNnnn…….
Will we see a Hero History before #100? Matthew, you have done a great job on them by the way.
I’ve been doing everything I can to keep up with Moore, and here’s all I know.
* “Century” is 3 Volumes, from 1910 to 1960 to ‘Today’, 2008-2010.
* A subplot will involve sci-film character The Man Out Of Time appearing in each issue.
* Another subplot will involve what I can only call Crisis Of Infinite Crowleys.
* The main plot is the building and development of a “Moonchild”, sort of like a sci-film Antichrist, which will also involve creating a concise and logical development of the moon’s history – how do the escapades of the naked Amazon Women affect the quiet, modest ecosystem of the Clangers and their soup-dragon? How do any of them breathe?
* The 60s issue will involve lotsa drugs as well as Doug & Dinsdale Pirahna from Monty Python. Oh, yes. There will be Spiny Norman, I hope. The League will also – partly thanks to the drugs – begin to show signs of wear and tear.
* In the final chapter, modern pop culture takes over, with Nemo’s Islamic great-grandson learning the trade and building his own Submarine. Moore will reference the various governments of TV series such as The West Wing, and will make use of Charlie Brooker’s theorem that at one point, Jack Bauer fell asleep in a launderette and has been having a nightmare throughout the entirety of the rest of “24”. The Moon-Child will be born to it’s terrible destiny, and all that is left to stop it is a League of one woman – possibly Mina but more likely Orlando as s/he has visited the Pool Of Eternal Youth more often – incarcerated in an asylum.
* After that, some “Tales of The GLC”-esque one-shots…and then, having done with the past and present Moore & O’Neill get to look into the fictional representations of the future and throttle them by the balls.
The end-result – as they see it – will have every memorable, intelligent and popular piece of fiction squeezed and cut and mixed into one long and infinitely detailed narrative.
I, for one, cannot wait.
Damn spellcheck. That should have been ‘sci-fi’
hey stephen, can you tell me the phone number. i want to put it in my phone.
oh yeah, i’m gonna be prepared.
A bit late to this podcast…I’m playing catch up…
I have to disagree with you guys a bit on JMS’ Rising Stars. From his “closed loop” work on Babylon 5 (the pilot episode matched with story ending 5 years later) I suspect that JMS had that ending in mind from the start.
Although it started a bit like a murder mystery, it is mentioned early on that the ball of energy that came to earth millions of years ago was the spark that jumped started evolution and the second fireball was supposed to be similar. All of the specials had a latent memory even if only one could recall the event completely. There was also the virtually identical art (substituting aliens for humans) that depicted the planetfall of the fireball. Throughout the story, Randy continuously mentions he believes the fireball was directed and has intelligence.
He ties all of this together by having Randy be the intelligence behind the fireball and a continuos cycle of evolution by the fireball jumping from planet to planet and, by using very similar art, showing the same thing that happened on Earth happening elsewhere.
Granted, I had the benefit of picking up Rising Stars for the first time in hardcover and was able to read it all at once (no publishing delays) but at the time, it seemed this was really a story about the fireball, its “emissary” (Randy), and everything else was almost anecdotal. When I read through the hardcover, I thought everything tied together fairly well.
I actually credit Rising Stars as a big factor in me ending my 20 year hiatus from comics. I know you guys still gave it a good review overall but I had a bit different impression when I finished it.