Between The Gutters Podcast

Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales was a major superhero comic of the mid-2000s, one that left a pretty big impact in the landscape of DC Comics. It's a comic that sold very well at the time, and is still kept in print. Plenty of readers had a lot of love for this DC event back when it was new, and it still seems to have its fair share of fans even today. You can probably see where we're going with this. We don't disrespect Identity Crisis because it was popular, but we disrespect it because it's an insult to our intelligence as readers. In this episode, we break down its many faults and explain why, despite its significance, it was never anything we considered for our our top 25 DC comics list. If you have any thoughts, comments, questions, or corrections, we're here. Feel free to hit us up on our socials, or email us! We have a Linktree here: linktr.ee/betweenthegutters

Major events happen one after another in the penultimate volume of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko! It's not just plot developments that we see, but also some truly meaningful character work, including the culmination of several character arcs. There's always so much to discuss when we cover a volume of this book and, as usual, we provide our chapter-by-chapter commentary. Even as we near the climax of the series, we're blessed with some gorgeous Yas art. There are some beautiful color pages that are truly befitting of this volume's title, A Cosmic Glow. If you have any thoughts, comments, questions, or corrections, we're here. Feel free to hit us up on our socials, or email us! We have a Linktree here: linktr.ee/betweenthegutters

This week, we're discussing the latest MCU movie, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, directed by Ryan Coogler. This is a movie we were anticipating ever since the first trailer dropped. With Namor finally introduced in the MCU, you know Albert had to check this out! And of course, the passing of Chadwick Boseman made things feel heavy. We start the episode sharing some spoiler-free thoughts, so even if you haven't watched the movie yet, feel free to listen. We'll clearly warn you in the audio before we begin talking in detail about the movie. If you have any thoughts, comments, questions, or corrections, we're here. Feel free to hit us up on our socials, or email us! We have a Linktree here: linktr.ee/betweenthegutters

This week, we're talking about Scalped, by Jason Aaron and R. M. Guéra, the gritty and emotionally intense (but also controversial) crime series published by Vertigo. Spoilers do abound in this episode, so be aware of that. However, even if you haven't read Scalped, we hope that our discussion will give you insight into whether or not the series could be something you'd be interested in checking out. At some point in the relatively near future (the word "relatively" is doing a lot of work here, depending on when the world ends), we'll present our DC Top 25 countdown on our podcast, much like how we did our Marvel Top 25. Before then, there's a small plethora of other DC books that didn't really make our final list but we still have enough love for, and we basically just made up an excuse to talk about the comics we wanna talk about. If you have any thoughts, comments, questions, or corrections, we're here. Feel free to hit us up on our socials, or email us! We have a Linktree here: linktr.ee/betweenthegutte

This week we're discussing Fury: My War Gone By, a superb piece of work by Garth Ennis and Goran Parlov. Eschewing the traditional lore of the mainstream Marvel Universe's conception of Nick Fury, Ennis and Parlov take the basic fundamental nature of Fury - a man addicted to war - and tell a realistic, compelling Cold War-era story that doubles as a painful parable of post-WWII America and a grim character study of Fury himself. Originally published in 2012-2013 as thirteen issues under Marvel's MAX imprint, it's now somewhat tough to find, as the physical trade paperbacks and hardcover are out of print. If you don't want to dive into the back issue bins, it's available digitally on Comixology. However you obtain it, this is a story absolutely worth your time. At this point in time, it's a bit of a hidden a gem of Marvel, but we've wanted to shine a light on it for a while now because it's a comic we really dig. We do spend a few minutes at the beginning of the episode talking about the new Black Adam movie

The chess pieces are moving into position for the final act of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. We've also got some notable emotional beats as well as some political theater. Also of note, before we dive into the book discussion, we spend some time discussing the recent Yasuhiko-directed film Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan's Island. Finally, we apologize for the sound quality in this episode. Due to a technical issue, Albert's audio is much softer than usual. Time stamps: General nonsense, banter, and spoiler-free Cucuruz Doan's Island discussion begin at the start. 31:40 - Cucuruz Doan's Island spoilers begin 56:35 - Our book discussion and commentary for The Origin volume 10 begins. If you have any thoughts, comments, questions, or corrections, we're here. Feel free to hit us up on our socials, or email us! We have a Linktree here: linktr.ee/betweenthegutters

With the completion of the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, it is now time for one of our patented autopsies! Consider this our Shulktopsy. We discuss some of the online discourse/chatter regarding the show and share our own thoughts on it. Listen closely and you'll even hear a couple of vocal cameos from Albert's dog Pepper in this episode! What did you think of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law? Feel free to hit us up on our socials, or email us! We also have a Linktree here: linktr.ee/betweenthegutters

Love and Rockets by the Hernandez brothers is one of the most influential and significant comics of the past forty years or so. In this episode, we discuss the first two collections from Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, Maggie the Mechanic and Heartbreak Soup respectively. What are your thoughts on Love and Rockets? Feel free to hit us up on our socials, or email us! We also have a Linktree here: linktr.ee/betweenthegutters

DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke is one of the most deservedly acclaimed DC books of the past twenty years or so. It's a superhero comic that takes place in the transition period between the Golden Age and the Silver Age, and takes into account the sociopolitical zeitgeist of those decades. The New Frontier is also a work that we suspect contains a lot of Darwyn Cooke's heart and personality. This is a corporate-owned cape comic that manages to convey a singular and distinctive artistic vision. What are your thoughts on DC: The New Frontier? Feel free to hit us up on our socials, or email us! We also have a Linktree here: linktr.ee/betweenthegutters Before we get started with our proper DC Top 25 countdown, we're gonna discuss some honorable mentions that didn't make the final cut (as well as a few notable dishonorable mentions). If you've been following our feed for a while, you may have noticed several episodes in the past year falling under these categories.

Volume nine of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko features a couple of major first encounters between key characters, and at least one major revelation. Join us as we continue our monthly deep dive into this timeless mecha classic! If you have any thoughts, questions, or corrections, we're here. Feel free to hit us up on our socials, or email us! We also have a Linktree here: linktr.ee/betweenthegutters

WE3 by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Jamie Grant, and the incomparable Todd Klein is a highlight of the past 20 years. This compact tale about three cybernetically modified pets who escape their government handlers as they search for home is one that resonates on multiple levels. It's a pulse-pounding action comic, an endearing animal story, a prescient commentary on modern warfare, and a treatise on the innovative ways to depict time, movement, and space on the comic book page. Join us as we bask in the glory of WE3! What are your thoughts on WE3? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to hit us up on our socials, or email us! We also have a Linktree here: linktr.ee/betweenthegutters Before we get started with our proper DC Top 25 countdown, we're gonna discuss some honorable mentions that didn't make the final cut (as well as a few dishonorable mentions). If you've been following our feed for a while, you may have noticed several episodes in the past year falling under these categories.

Image Comics was founded in 1992, thirty years ago. It seems like a good time to do a retrospective look back at the publisher's history. Both of us grew up in the Image era and we have quite a few memories of the comics of that time period, but while there are some nostalgic feelings, it's fair to that the very early years of Image Comics' output don't stand the test of time, and neither of us are high on the books of our respective youths. That said, Image's evolution over the decades has proven to be exceptionally fruitful, and they've published so many excellent, worthwhile books that are absolutely worth your time and money. In this episode, we talk a bit about our thoughts on the founding fathers of Image, and their works, and we also discuss our broader thoughts on Image as a publisher. We also each share individual lists of our favorite Image comics that we've read! What are your favorite Image titles? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to hit us up on our socials, or email us! We also have

We are now on volume 8 as we continue reading through Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko this year, one volume per month. This month's installment is contains two particularly special storyarcs. One of them is an intensely personal, tragic story about the effect that war has on regular people. The other is the kind of war comic that deals with big picture, chessboard of life stuff that will affect human society moving forward. There's a lot of rich, beautiful storytelling that is rife for thought-provoking discussion, and we invite you to join us. We provide summaries and personal commentaries of each chapter in the volume. If you've got any Gundam or mecha thoughts, feel free to hit us up! And don't forget to check out our previous episodes on The Origin to get all caught up! We also have a Linktree with just about all our relevant (and some irrelevant) links: https://linktr.ee/betweenthegutters

Because the She-Hulk Disney+ series is set to release soon, we thought it would be fun to do a little pregame reading and talking about the character and her comics. Between the two of us, we've read a variety of She-Hulk comics in our lifetimes, and several specifically for this podcast. The comics discussed in this episode include her very first appearance by Stan Lee and John Buscema, early issues of the John Byrne run, part of the Dan Slott run, the first part of the Charles Soule and Javier Pulido run, the entire Mariko Tamaki run, and Jason Aaron's World War She-Hulk storyarc from his Avengers run. As you can see, it's a veritable smorgasbord of She-Hulk comics. Most of these comics didn't feel like they warranted the depth of discussion and analysis that we often like to engage in on our podcast, but we also talk about the concept of the character, and what works and doesn't work. If you have any favorite She-Hulk comics, feel free to let us know in the comments, or shoot us a message! We also have a

We recently got around to watching Ms. Marvel on Disney+, so now it's time for the autopsy! In this episode, we discuss the things about the show that didn't work for us, as well as the elements that did. Spoilers begin around the 21 minute mark, but we'll warn you in the audio. Towards the end of the episode, we also chat a little bit about some of the recent MCU news that was announced at San Diego Comic-Con. Whether you enjoyed the Ms. Marvel show or not, we hope you join us for this episode and let us know what you thought of the series!

Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang, Matt Wilson, and Jared K. Fletcher was recently adapted into a live action Amazon Prime series. However, we're here to talk about the comics! In this episode, we discuss the entire series. If you haven't read the comics yet, don't sweat it. We start with a spoiler-free general discussion about the book and its creators. Full spoilers begin around the 42-minute mark. (We'll clearly warn you in the audio.) Suffice it to say, this is a comic book series totally worth reading and owning - it's BKV and Cliff Chiang, after all! Neither of us, at the time of recording, have watched a single episode of the adaptation, so this is purely about the comics. Have you read the comic, or watched the show? Let us know what you think! https://linktr.ee/betweenthegutters

In this month's installment of our readthrough of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, we're covering more flashback material. This volume encompasses Operation British, the Battle of Loum, and the early portion of the One Year War. It's packed with action, spectacle, and emotionally resonant human drama. Most of all, it's also a masterpiece of political theater. Join us as we provide our usual chapter-by-chapter commentary, packed with varied and sundry references and historical tidbits! Also, please note that we'll be taking a bye week next week. Albert will be at San Diego Comic-Con. Find him at the Beefypoo booth!

Whattup, fam! It's time for another one of our patented movie autopsies as we dissect Thor: Love and Thunder, the latest MCU flick to be released! It seems like a lot of people online and elsewhere have been expressing feelings of superhero fatigue. As longtime comic book readers who have read way more than our fair share of cape comics (including tons of bad event comics), we've got way more stamina (and stronger stomachs) than the average bear, so we think our thoughts on the movie are generally untainted by any sense of Marvel weariness. (And we forced ourselves to watch Moon Knight for the podcast!) What are your thoughts on the movie? Slide into our DMs and let us know! We'll clearly warn you in the recording before we go into spoilers, but we do provide spoiler-free impressions as we begin the podcast. Spoilers begin at about the 34:00 mark.

It's a Bird... by Steven T. Seagle, Teddy Kristiansen, and Todd Klein is a DC book we've wanted to discuss on the podcast for quite some time now. Originally published by Vertigo during that imprint's 2000s heyday, It's a Bird... is a personal and powerful semi-autobiographical original graphic novel about the struggle of the act of writing, the pain of living with a family secret, and the difficulties of understanding the intricacies of a fictional character and whether that even matters. There's a lot of depth to this hidden gem of a book, and we hope our episode is enjoyable to those familiar with it, and motivates those who haven't read it to seek it out for themselves. A couple of notes: This isn't really the type of story that hinges on plot twists, so even though we may spoil a few things here and there, we don't spoil anything that would hinder your enjoyment or appreciation of this elegant work. Secondly, we will get to presenting our official DC Top 25 list eventually... We've just got some more ho

This week, we're taking a look at a couple of Ms. Marvel comics. First up is her origin story in Ms. Marvel volume 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona. The other story we look at is The Magnificent Ms. Marvel Volume 1: Destined by Saladin Ahmed and Minkyu Jung. By the time this episode goes live, the Ms. Marvel Disney+ series will be about halfway through its run, but we're still doing a pre-topsy! Before getting into our book reviews, we take some time to discuss the concept and character of Kamala Khan, and what she's all about. Whether you're new to the character or a fan from day one, join us for our conversation of Ms. Marvel! What are your favorite Kamala Khan stories?