One Comic Podcast

It's a relatively short show this time as we visit the closest planet to the sun for some crime action in issue one of Mercury Heat, from the creative team of Kieron Gillen and Omar Francia. A closed environment, a fish-out-of-water female lead, the strictures of a future society in which roles are determined for its citizens and some types are less welcome than others and a suspicious death; these are the ingredients Gillen mixes into this set-up issue. What did we make of it? No 'Top Three/Worst One Ever' this time, but it'll be back in our next show.

Famed comics writer Gail Simone has been writing Red Sonja's exploits for Dynamite for a while now, so we wanted to see how a well-regarded writer took on a character whose portrayal over the years has frequently been... let's just say "not exactly feminist". This issue, a chapter of an ongoing 'quest' storyline, served as an intro to the current run for two of the team, so how did it stand up as an entry point, as a piece of fantasy storytelling, as a comic book, and as a woman-led title?  And for this show's Top Three and Worst One Ever, Bex takes a look at madness in comics, trying to work out what it takes to make mental illness (or what comics tend to deliver when they try for it) work in comics, and why it's so hard to get right.

Around a year into Dan Slott, Mike Allred and Laura Allred’s run on Silver Surfer, they produced an issue in an completely original format, telling a time looping story in a uniquely looping manner. This is the One Comic of that issue, last month’s Silver Surfer 11. What did the team make of the story, the structure, the relationship between the Surfer and his new(ish) companion Dawn Greenwood, and the inexplicably French space pirates? Listen and find out. Also, apropos of nothing, Jon takes a look at ‘Replacement Heroes’ in the regular Top Three and Worst One Ever feature. Who made the cut, and who failed to make the best of the mantle they took up?

The first issue of a new Alan Moore/Jacen Burrows collaboration, Providence #1 is the story of a young journalist in the big city. As we dig into an early-twentieth century world of creepy doctors, clandestine relationships, madness-inducing books and ... exit gardens, we consider the importance of a creator's reputation in committing to a series, and the fit between story and pictures. And in keeping with the theme, Jared takes a look at the best and worst of Lovecraft-inspired comics. It's a weird world out there.

Crossovers don’t get much bigger than this. The Marvel multiverse faces destruction and the only two Earths left are too busy fighting each other to do anything about it.  It’s kill or be killed for both the main and Ultimate universes and frankly, it’s not looking good for anyone. We delve into the first issue of Marvel’s biggest ever crossover, Secret Wars, by Jonathan Hickman, Esad Ribic and Ive Svorcina to see how it holds up and the start of the crossover and the end of the enormous grand plan that Hickman has been weaving through the Marvel Universe for years now. And to round the show up, Jared takes a turn at sharing a Top Three and Worst One Ever - his chosen topic: Spider Costumes. And there are a lot for him to choose from.

Who’s up for an outing? No, not a trip to the coast, an enforced confrontation with one’s own denied sexual orientation. No? Doesn’t sound like your idea of a good time? Well imagine how you’d feel if you were Iceman; just back from a tour of the universe, happily perving over one of your teachers, then POW, in comes Jean “I’m psychic” Grey to burst your bubble of macho posturing and over-compensation by telling you “I know”. There’s a lot to unpack here, not least the complications added to the situation by telepathy, time travel and the adult Iceman’s diabolical dating record. Fun. Also, the first outing (see what we did there?) for a new feature: Top Three and Worst One Ever - in which Jon selects the best and worst X-Men spin-offs. And not to paint him as too tragic a case, he’s pretty much read all the candidates.

So one of the "every Spider ever"s of Spider-Verse is the version where Gwen Stacy was bitten by the spider rather than Peter Parker, and things have pretty much gone downhill for her from there. Issue one of Spider-Gwen unexpectedly turns out to be the comic which divided our opinions most sharply so far. In this one we take a tour of the way people view female heroes compared to male ones, consider the way people come to comics in the "it's all on the internet anyway" age and discuss the pros and cons of the alternate universe in comics.  Also: Bex reveals her true colours, Jared reveals his part-time identity as Cliché Man and Jon reveals he's the kind of person who uses the word 'shebang'. This one's got it all, kids. Though actually: don't listen kids - there are bad words and a drug reference (hence the 'explicit' tag on this one).

Blasting very much from the past, yet at the same time future-looking, if not terribly future shocking, this time we're going all the way back to 1984 to examine Prog 376 of 2000AD. Notable for the first appearance of Halo Jones by the mighty Alan Moore and Ian Gibson, there's actually a lot more to explore between its cheap four-colour newsprint covers. Of course, not being British and therefore versed in the strange little 2000AD subculture, one of our number is at something of a disadvantage even before you throw in the heavily phonetic speech bubbles on the Planet of the Scots.  Poor Jared.

In which we encounter pronunciation issues, find ourselves taking the ever-so-serious Kraven The Hunter somewhat less-than-seriously, and wash the unpleasant taste of last time's Aquaman out with something completely different. That being issue one of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl from Marvel, written by Ryan North with art by Erica Henderson. And with all due apologies to those of a delicate sensibility, one or two strong words creep in again.

This time we set out to see what was going on with a character that's currently getting some press, courtesy of the upcoming film and last week's release of the film poster image. Aquaman issue 39 from DC is smack bang in the middle of an ongoing story, so this also feels like a great chance to test how well an ongoing handles that "every issue is someone's first" principle. Warning: some use of strong language.

It's time for Jon, Rebecca and Jared (the latter in a distant echo chamber) to take a look at something by one of *those* names in comic creation; issue 1 of Nameless, written by Grant Morrison, working with Chris Burnham and Nathan Fairbairn on art duty. While we're on the subject of Morrison, as well as digging into this first issue, which we each have quite different views on, we also discuss our experience with his other work, from Batman to The Filth; Zenith to Supergods.

Except that it was too long, the subtitle for this show was going to be "The bastard love child of Felix The Cat and HP Lovecraft". Which may tell you what you need to know going into Frank's High Horse, from the collected edition The Portable Frank by Jim Woodring (Fantagraphics). Join the usual crew of Bex, Jared and Jon, plus special guests the ID, the Ego and the Super-Ego as we get lost in some very strange territory. Probably more ours than Jim Woodring's, to be fair. We're marking this one 'explicit' for some use of sexual terms, but all done in the best possible taste. Honest.

After a short hiatus, we're back, taking on the first issue of Marvel's new Star Wars series published this week. Written by Jason Aaron, with art by John Cassaday and Laura Martin, it's a return to the Star Wars universe for Marvel, who had the original licence back in the day. It's the Star Wars of our youthful passion brought back in a faithful recreation. But is its fidelity to 'proper' Star Wars a strength or a weakness? (Note: we discuss the many variant covers this issue has - the one we've chosen for this show's icon is the rather brilliant Amanda Conner variant.)

This time, in exploring the new Vertigo Quarterly: Yellow, we find ourselves exploring a mixed (magic) bag of post-apocalyptic high fantasy psychological drama with occasional ambiguous old men and two different takes on predestination. With occasional asides to consider the art of anthology assembly and how many directions it's possible to take the theme of 'yellow' anyway - this one's got it all.

It's an all-new, all-different (sorry, wrong publisher) chapter in Barbara Gordon's life, as she moves across the river, fights crime with a hangover, gets Black Canary's pad burned down and takes on a particularly topical bad guy. Who we inexplicably forgot to mock for talking in hashtags. #Literally. So does this new start for Batgirl work? 

Changing gears in a couple of ways this week, we look at the first collection of the webcomic Breaks by Emma Vieceli and Malin Ryden, which scores points by hitting a genre most of the team like and being cleverly universal in its setting. (Check it out at http://www.breakscomic.com/) And then we've got our hands on some new research about comicbook film adaptations. Will we agree with the statistically relevant sample? What do you think?

This time, for our third debut issue in a row we're talking about issue one of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina from Archie Comics and along the way we identify "the Brady Bunch of comics", are surprised by the grimdarkness of it all, and unexpectedly return to previous themes including characterful animals, people in trees and witches. (Okay, given this is a book about a teenage witch the last one's not *that* unexpected.)

This time, Bex and Jon take a look at the first issue of a new series from Image: Wytches, by Scott Snyder, Jock, and Matthew Hollingsworth, and consider whether comics can be frightening, what exactly was happening with that deer, and the creepiness of teeth, among other pressing issues.

For our first outing, Bex, Jared and Jon talk about the debut of the new Thor from Marvel, and find ourselves oddly drawn to a well drawn goat. And somewhere along the way we make Thor an X-Man. This could be a sign of things to come.