House to Astonish Episode 116
It’s our Christmas gift to you – a slightly belated podcast featuring discussion of the casting of Ant-Man, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Sandman movie, Shia LaBoeuf’s plagiarism, Matt Fraction leaving Inhuman and Zeb Wells leaving Elektra, the return of Stray Bullets, Mike Carey and Salvador Larocca’s X-Men OGN and Stephen Wacker’s job move. We’re also reviewing The Illegitimates, The Midas Flesh and Harley Quinn, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is just your dad really.
Hear! Al briefly sing a They Might Be Giants tune. Boggle! At both Paul and Al admitting that they really don’t get one of the most celebrated newspaper strips of all time. Wonder! If there is no awards ceremony because Al was too disorganised to ask for nominations (yes). All this plus a clown car, a pint of drawing pins and the Coen brothers movie that’s happening behind the DC offices.
The podcast is here, or here on Mixcloud, or available via the player below. Let us know what you think, in the comments, on Twitter, via email, or on our Facebook fan page. Don’t forget that we’ve got our t-shirt store open 24/7 if you want to spend some of that Christmas money Granny gave you, and we’ll see you again in the new year.
I cannot believe I only just got the joke in “Elsie Dee”… Shame on myself.
happy holidays to al, carrie, paul, susi and the x-baby.
One of Harley Quinn’s supporting characters appears to be Glenn Danzig for no reason, I just wanted to mention that.
Paul, Al,
Re: Bryan Hitch’s “Real Heroes”
Actually, this sort of idea has been done in comics before. DC’s Blue Devil springs to mind.
Merry Christmas fellas
Merry Christmas and have a happy new year. Thank you for sticking with this pod even though you guys get so busy. It’s very much appreciated.
So the Harley we get in the series has become a DC version of Deadpool. I kind of see this book as an apology if sorts, we know we muck up series you like with our agenda so here are your two favorite of our exclusive people allowed to have a series left alone.
Al the Dark Knight being cancelled gives us relief for a couple weeks then DC starts Batman Eternal.
I must have zoned out on the Stray Bullets talk though. I’m so excited it’s back. I had picked up large portions of 9-39 in a $1 bin. I gave up hoe on reading them all or seeing new.
You know what? I think we managed to neglect to talk about it. It was on our list of topics but we jumped around that so much that we accidentally skipped it. What numpties.
Aronofsky’s Noah movie is still happening; they released a trailer a few weeks ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qmj5mhDwJQ
Not sure on the film, but I’ll probably get the comic for the art at least.
Paul’s not wrong that someone could do a decent comic about a deceased iconic hero’s illegitimate children being brought together as a super-team. It was called Dyanamo 5, and Jay Faerber got a few years’ worth of comics out of it.
Wasn’t children of spies sort of s the premise of Ben McCool’s PIGS book?
Surely the mothers of those children would be a million times more interesting than their sire? It’s not like being a spy is genetic. So all those weans are the product of nurture, not nature. And their mothers, assuming JayBo is the Da, weren’t all spies. Cellist, computer programmer, adventure scientists, actresses, heiresses, divers, suggestively-named secret agents and…assassins.
Okay. *Some* of them, maybe. But that’s just the ones we see on-screen. What about all the medics, stewardesses, adventure pharmacists, Greggs’ staff, etc.. Where’s THEIR graphic novel series?
The upcoming Spider-Man GN won’t be quite so set into current continuity, and as such will have a better chance of being good. I mean, it’s about Peter Parker’s secret sister, which…I don’t want to believe will be an actual thing (and there are a couple of stylistic choices that I’m mildly worried about), but it seems like a solid way to exploit the format.
(oh hey: that Ann Nocienti Spider-Man: Mad Dog ward double-trilogy is out in tpb. Comes from an era where the idea of “grown-up” Spider-Man comics didn’t involve ripping eyes out of him, radioactive Spider-Snogs or moral repugnance. And so, yay!)
Merry Christmas, Astonishettes. Your card’s at the FP Blog, your present at the link in my name.
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Peter Parker’s secret sister?
Can she team up with Tony Stark’s mystery brother?
(Sorry, kieron)
Merry Christmas, guys.
A Sandman movie by Jon Peters? Never heard of this one. A horrible, horrible prospect. Regardless, I am not very interested in a Sandman movie. The character itself was never very interesting, it’s the things which happens around him which were fun. Hard to translate this into a movie.
Frankly, the new Harley Quinn is such a absolutley ill-conceived, tonedeaf and terrible revamp, I wouldn’t read this for free. Buy the old Dini/Timm or even the Kesel issues instead.
I have fond memories of Elsie Dee and Albert. In retrorespect Hama’s run on Wolverine was a lot of fun, even if it at the end indeed went of the rails. His story just stopped and nobody seemed to bother to put up the pieces. Another weird Marvel editorial decision at the time.
Can she team up with Tony Stark’s mystery brother?
SHIPS.
SHIPS AND HEADCANONS.
WE SHALL CALL THEM “ARNESA” OR “TERENO.”
I should add at this point that I finally caught up with the November poddes and that open-source superhero idea is a belter. One for Lawsuit and Funrun, eh Al?
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Didnt Jon Peters also want Supes to fight the giant mechanical spider that ended up in Wild Wild West?
My only exposure to Elsie Dee was the awful Wolverine game for Super Nintendo. She wasn’t so much an enemy as a time clock; take too long and she’ll hug you and go boom. The thing is, I can’t remember if she’s actually an on-screen presence chasing you, or if she only shows up in a static scene when you run out of time and die. (I remember the static scene when you die, just not whether you get to see her pursue you.)
The supervillain plot for Elsie Dee and Albert sounds like a Warner Bros plot, with Wolverine swapped in for the Road Runner.
Albert and Elsie Dee was a great part of a fun comics run. I’ve never read the end of the Hama issues. I jumped ship from comics at zero tolerance and by the time I came back was the tail end of Morrison. I’ve never read a single comic from that gap.
Elsie Dee never had any on screen appearance in that Wolverine game. She appeared in the time over screen, but that was it. You did fight Albert, though.
The Larry Hama/Marc Silvestri wolverine comics were some of the first I read. I chuffing love Elsie Dee, Albert & The Hunter in Darkness.
@alex according to kevin smith, yes, john peters wanted a huge set of doors to open (a la King Kong) and reveal a giant spider in the third act. Source is an evening with Kevin smith. YouTube kevin smith superman for the 20 min clip. Great watching.
I’ve read those Wolverine issues but, until you guys spoke her name out loud, I never realised Elsie’s name is “LCD”.
Just seen a picture of Charles Soule at the Beat. He looks like Rodney Bewes.