May 13
House to Astonish Presents: The Lightning Round Episode 20
Posted on Monday, May 13, 2024 by Al in Podcast
And now for something… slightly different. This time round, we’re stepping beyond the bounds of the regular Thunderbolts title to look at the 2001 miniseries Citizen V and the V-Battalion, with chat about two-fisted journalist Jim Daring, HR disasters and the horniest comics in Marvel history.
The podcast is here, or available via the embedded player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments below, via email, on Bluesky or on our Facebook fan page, and if you haven’t got a House to Astonish t-shirt, why not treat yourself? You deserve it.
I liked Diamondback and Steve too!
Al, I might be able to help with some of that US Marvel UK stuff. I have an awful lot of it, and I’m faced with severely thinning out my massive collection, as my mom passed away, I was (stereotypically) storing everything in her basement, and I don’t have room for it all in my house.
Since the Marvel UK stuff is likely to end up in a recycle bin somewhere, if you’re interested in any of it, let me know!
Thank you, Paul and Al, for the past decade and a half of entertainment! So I *think* at least part of the reason that Citizen V and the V Battalion #1 was released on newsstands as Marvel Universe #3 is that issues #1 and 2 were – weirdly – Garth Ennis and John McCrea’s Hulk Smash two-issue limited series. It’s the opposite of Marvel’s typical 21st century first-issues-sell-more strategy – they renumbered a first issue as issue three, maybe hoping that anyone who picked up the first two issues would keep going with the book? Issue #2 of V Battalion was #4 of Marvel Universe, and #3 was #5. If there was an #6 I *think* it was meant to be Brian Azzarello and Richard Corben’s Banner #1, which did come out the next month under the Marvel Universe title, but even Marvel was so confused at this point that they put #1 of 4 on it and possibly hid their mistake for the next three issues by embarrassedly not numbering them *at* *all* and hoping no one would notice.
”If I hear the word nano-probe one more time…” And a character realizes they are in a Fabian Nicieza comic.
I think (one of) the issue(s) with the “Voice Modulation Device” is that it sounds like a toy that will make your voice sound like a robot.
If it had been called a “Nanite Decryption and Signal Booster Device” it would still be gibberish but would at least sound like something that could be useful within the plot.
Question for Al, I am doing the same with my current hobby/quest. I am looking for complete runs of things that will never be collected or put on unlimited. Right now I’ve been hunting down the lesser 2099 books, Hulk, FF, Ravage. I’m curious what is on your list? Anyone doing the same, I’d love to here what your current hunt is?
Thomas, for weird reasons I don’t entirely understand myself, I’m attempting to collect every issue of Amazing Spider-Man that was on sale on my birthday each year.
I’m about half of the way there, but I’ve been unlucky in that there are a handful of “important” issues in there.