Between The Gutters Podcast

This year, we're going to be reading through the entirety of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. It's twelve hardcover volumes, so we'll be reading and discussing one volume a month, just as we did for Invincible last year. In this episode, we shed some basic information and historical context about First Gundam (the original 1979 anime TV series) and the Gundam franchise as a whole, and then discuss Activation, volume one of The Origin. We encourage you to buy yourself a copy, or borrow it from the library, and join us as we embark on this journey to Jaburo. Or if you're on the fence about it, hopefully our enjoyment and enthusiasm for the series will motivate you to at least think about giving this first volume a shot! MSG: The Origin is an ideal entry point into the world of Gundam, even if you know absolutely nothing about the franchise.

Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Hush are two of the most prominent, acclaimed, and beloved Batman comics of the past 25 years or so. We acknowledge that, and we reread them recently as we continue our preparations for our DC Top 25 Comics of All Time list. The Long Halloween and Hush don't crack our list of honorable mentions, but they both make our dishonorable mentions. As we revisited both of these Batman books, we couldn't help but dissect the myriad flaws in the stories. Neither story holds up to any kind of critical scrutiny. The common denominator? Joseph Loeb.

Last month, we did a little dive into various Hawkeye comics. Now that it's been a couple of weeks since the Hawkeye series on Disney+ has concluded, it's time to dissect the show itself. Join us for our Hawkeye autopsy, where we attempt to think critically about something that probably was created primarily to entertain the masses. Thinking and talking about entertainment is our entertainment, so let's do this thing.

With the end of 2021, we decided to look at some of our favorite endings in comics, and what makes them work, or at least memorable. While there will obviously be some spoilers, for the most part we've done our best to discuss these endings without ruining the experience of discovery if you haven't read them yourself. The first chunk of this discussion is a general exploration of what makes a "good" ending, and then the comics we dive into are listed below. In vague, general terms, we briefly discuss Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina's endings. House of M #8 Wanted #6 Three Joe Casey comics: Cable #70, Wildcats Version 3.0 #24, and Butcher Baker #8 Batman: The Killing Joke Two Peter Milligan comics: Enigma #8 and X-Statix #26 Northlanders #28 (the end of "The Plague Widow" story) Two Jonathan Hickman comics: Fantastic Four #604 (the end of the "Forever" story arc) and Secret Wars #9 Fury: My War Gone By #13 Two Alan Moore comics: From Hell #10 and Watchmen #12

After a full year of reading, we have finally arrived at The End of All Things, the conclusion to Invincible. In this episode, we dissect the massive final story arc, look back at the series as a whole, and reflect on some of the ideas and concepts that stood out. Whether you've been reading along with us in 2021, or you've come across us in the future and wanted to find out what two relatively normal people had to say about Invincible, we hope you enjoy the conversation. (Heck, if you're crazy enough to have listened to our Invincible readthrough episodes without ever having read Invincible yourself, we salute you!) Feel free to hit us up and let us know what you thought of Invincible!

Three is the magic number! In this episode, we dissect the third MCU Spider-Man flick. We cut past the hype and examine the internal organs of this bad boy. The first portion of this episode is spoiler-free, and we warn you before we go into spoiler territory. Also, at the end of the podcast (around the 2:56:30 mark), Albert talks a bit about his experience at the recent Emerald City Comic Con. If you've had a chance to watch No Way Home, what did you think?

Hawkeye is the latest MCU show on Disney+, so we decided to talk about Hawkguy comics! In this episode, we shoot the breeze regarding our thoughts on Hawkeye as a character (Clint Barton and Kate Bishop) and as a concept. We discuss some of the most remarkable Hawkeye comics and what we enjoy about 'em. It's likely that in a few weeks we'll do an autopsy of the show, so stay tuned, true believers.

This week, we're looking at two seemingly disparate comics: Ryuko, by Eldo Yoshimizu, and I Am Not Starfire, by Mariko Tamaki and Yoshi Yoshitani. It's sort of a bookclub double feature, but we tried to find some points of comparison to keep the conversation as coherent as possible. (As coherent as we ever get, at least!) Ryuko, in particular, was a challenging manga for us to penetrate, but we tried. Tune in to find out why we decided to discuss two completely unrelated books that are polar opposites in tone and style, and to hear what we think of each of them! If you've read either Ryuko or I Am Not Starfire, what were your thoughts?

We've reached the penultimate year of Invincible. Here's our discussion and commentary on issues 121-132. This was probably one of the more pulse-pounding years, especially the last few issues when... well, if you read the issues (or if you just listen to us), you know what we're talking about. When you've got someone you love and that person is in grave danger, you'll do whatever it takes to protect that loved one. We're one step closer to the edge, and we're about to break.

It's time to dissect the new Eternals movie. We are once again joined by our "special friend and person," Justin, the leader of WAHW (We Are Half the World). We won't spoil anything in this description, other than to acknowledge that our conversation was longer than the actual film because, you know, we're, like, such insightful comic book elitists and Justin is a true cinephile, and when you combine these flavors you get something too weird to exist in anything other than a really long Between the Gutters episode. If you've had a chance to see the movie, what did you think? Make sure to check out WAHW at wahw.org, and give them a follow on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/w.a.h.w/

With Eternals, the next installment of the MCU, on the horizon, we thought it would be an appropriate time to do a dive into one of their most well-known (relatively speaking) comic book stories. Eternals by Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr. is the main event of this episode, but we also take some time to discuss the history of the Eternals as a concept, and we share some thoughts about the movie trailer. After we get a chance to watch the film, we'll likely do one of our autopsies, so maybe this episode could be considered the pre-topsy? Whatever! Do you have any thoughts or feelings about any Eternals comics? Drop us a line and let us know!

"It was the spark that started the fire -a legend that grew in the telling... It started with two men. It started with an idea. One was life. And one was death." Can you believe we've recorded a hundred episodes? Whether you've been listening to us from the beginning or jumped onboard recently, we're gratified and thankful that you're down with us. In this episode, we discuss the state of Between the Gutters by looking back at what we've done with the podcast so far, and where we might take it in the future.

We are nearing the end of what is possibly the greatest superhero comic in the universe. Year ten of Invincible, comprising issues 109-120 (or volumes 20 and 21 of the trade paperbacks, or volume 10 of the deluxe hardcovers) has some of the most unusual pacing and unexpected storytelling decisions of the series thus far. Join us as we openly contemplate and work out some of the storytelling choices made in these issues. We also muse about corporate cape comics and how Invincible differs.

Last week, we dived into Hellblazer as one of the honorable mentions for our forthcoming DC top 25 countdown. This time around, we're dissecting The Death of Superman as a dishonorable mention. The Death of Superman is one of DC's most famous stories, as well as one of DC's most best-selling stories, and it's therefore pretty notable. We've even seen other outlets tout it as a "classic." We definitely disagree. In this episode, we take a look back at The Death of Superman and explain why it doesn't deserve to be held in high regard, and why it does deserve our scorn and contempt. Where were you when Superman died?

At long last, we take a tangible step towards our DC Top 25 countdown. We began this podcast with a Marvel Top 25, and ever since we've finished that countdown, some of you beautiful listeners have asked us when we were gonna do a top 25 list for DC Comics. The wait is not fully over yet, but with this episode, we'll talk about one of our most significant honorable mentions which did not make the final list: Hellblazer, which ran for 300 issues. As we explain in the audio, one of our rules for the list was to limit ourselves to specific runs by a set creative team (or, as is more often the case, a run by a writer and multiple artists), but Hellblazer is so unique and notable that we simply had to discuss the series as a whole. For 300 issues, with varying creative teams, Hellblazer was consistently good, and often truly great and excellent. Certainly, one episode is not enough to fully explore such a landmark series, but we hope this inspires you to read or reread some Hellblazer comics... and we also hope t

Year nine of Invincible is one of the most brutal and violent yet! Comprising issues 97-108, volumes 18 and 19 feature some fascinating developments, including the return of Angstrom Levy and what seems to be the conclusion to the Dinosaurus saga. There's also some interesting metatextual commentary on superhero fiction, the paradigms that these kinds of stories rely on, and what it looks like to try something new. All of these elements made these issues a lot of fun to discuss!

Troop 142 by Mike Dawson isn't a new indie graphic novel, but it was new to us. It's an excellent and thought-provoking slice of life story about a week-long summer camp with the Boy Scouts set in the mid-nineties, with great cartoony artwork. Although it's not really a plot-driven story, we found a lot of fascinating ideas and themes that were worth exploring. Even if you haven't read this one, we hope you join us for this episode!

Long have we waited for our Asian superhero entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As comic book elitists who also happen to be Asian American, we had quite a few thoughts on the latest MCU blockbuster. For this autopsy, we're joined by our friend, comrade, ally, and cinephile Justin, who is also the dai lo of WAHW (We Are Half the World). Tune in for our dissection of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings!

With Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on the horizon, it was time for us to talk about Shang-Chi comics. Join us as we discuss some of our favorite Shang-Chi moments and stories in comics, including a discussion about what we value in the character and the concept, and what works and doesn't work. We also talk a bit about the upcoming movie. What are your favorite Shang-Chi stories?

We're back with our monthly readthrough of Invincible! This time, we're covering volumes 16 and 17 of the collected editions, which are comprised of issues 85-96 (and also found in volume 8 of the deluxe hardcovers). There were a few big developments in these issues, but two of the highlights we discussed in particular depth were the idea of the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few, and the epic story between Rex Robot and Monster Girl. In addition, Albert teaches us a new life philosophy: The needs of the me outweigh the needs of the any. We need to put that on a t-shirt and sell some merch.