Jan 11
House to Astonish Episode 216
Posted on Sunday, January 11, 2026 by Al in Podcast
It’s only 348 sleeps ’til Christmas, so we’re taking the opportunity to look back at the best 2025 had to offer, as we run down our pick of our three favourite comics of last year in the 14th annual Homies awards. Will your favourite make the cut? What did your fellow listeners choose? Find out here, true believer! Or in the comments for the Homies post from the start of December, I guess, for that second question at least. Here is definitely more convenient.
The podcast is here, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, via email, or on Bluesky, and here’s hoping you choose to stick around with us for 2026!
Heh, of all the rubbish I’ve written on this blog, that’s probably the last comment I’d expect read out. I kind of feel honour bound to read Alpha Flight now.
We have mincemeat pie in the US too. It’s kind of third place to pecan pie and pumpkin pie as Thanksgiving and Christmas time dessert.
And apparently the name is because they used to have minced meat as well as fruit in the filling.
You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone make an Elephant Man joke with Metamorpho. That needs to be worked into his next series!
You’re right, it’s implausible that a supervillain would take over the world and people would mostly try to carry on as normal. Never happen.
This is really pedantic geekery, sorry, but the Beano used to have adventure strips as well as humour ones – Billy the Cat and General Jumbo are probably the best known ones.
And from what I’ve seen of the modern Beano, I’m not entirely convinced they wouldn’t do a strip where it looks like King Charles craps his pants if the Phoenix hadn’t got there first — I recently learned that back in 2020 they did a Lockdown Special for grown-ups in which Dennis’s parents have to take on Boris Johnson, which sounds fun.
Moreseo than its viability as a linewide event story, I’d have said – as someone who largely enjoyed it – that the issue with One World Under Doom was simply that it was too long, and featured too many repetitions of the same basic “there is a big fight, and it looks like Doom is going to lose, but then he wins” beat. NINE issues, plus a skip month? That’s nearly the whole year! Especially when you consider it was originally announced as a five-issue-er.
@Skippy: I don’t think they said it was implausible, so much as it broke the story. And it’s not “most people”, it’s the actual superheroes. Fighting supervillains is literally their job.
Fair comment, I was being glib.
I concur with observation that OWUD was too long. I think you could potentially do it as a longer status quo in the background, a la Dark Reign, but there was no Dark Reign “event book” per se.
Al’s comments about the Donut Squad and the Bagel Battalion remind me of the old “Battle Action Force” comic in the 1980s. There were a couple of weeks when it got rebranded as “Battle Cobra”, and they had a story where Cobra beat Action Force. Then the comic went back to its original branding, and they repeated the same story but showed what really happened (i.e. Action Force winning).
Regarding the top picks, would it be possible to put them in the blog post? (I’m not sure about spoiler text.) I often listen to the podcast while I’m driving, but then I have to try to remember the titles when I get home.
@John C. Cirk: I assume Paul and Al won’t mind my listing them here for you, but they can delete them if I’m mistaken.
Paul’s 2025 picks:
1. Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum
2. Fantastic Four
3. The Power Fantasy
Al’s 2025 Picks:
1. Assorted Crisis Events
2. Hello Sunshine
3. The Phoenix (UK)
Thanks Adam – “Hello Sunshine” was the one I couldn’t remember. (I hope you didn’t spend too long digging out that list on my account.)