Screw It, We're Just Gonna Talk About Spider-man

EPISODE 281 - We're approached the end of the John Byrne FF era. Franklin is having another prophetic dream, which is a six page plug for Power Pack, which the Milksops applaud. Sue Richards is standing up to Reed like never before, and she demands revenge against Psycho-Man. And that means we're going to the Micro-Verse! And also, whoa, what is the Micro-Verse? We also have an appearance of our sub podcast "Screw It, We're Just Gonna Talk About War Games" which is hilariuosly more well produced than the main podcast. And the Milksops cast themselves in a movie! One more ep of Comics Rays and Correspondence to go! ------ Subscribe at https://www.screwitpodcasts.com/ to get our monhtly sop-scriber episodes, or join our free Discord chat! Email us at screwitcomics@gmail.com  

We're nearing the end of our coverage of John Byrne's FF run. In one of the final stories, the (new) Hate Monger teams up with the (old?) Psycho-Man to create a third brand-new villain... Malice! And you'll never guess Malice's true identity. Ok, I'll tell you: it's the Invisible Girl! And this is the final adventure of the Invisible Girl! Not because she dies but because she changes her alias next story.  We read some email, which I bet was great! Email us at screwitcomics@gmail.com In a few episodes we will begin our next season, coverage of Peter Milligan's run on Human Target. ------ Join our sop-scriber level for $5 a month, $50 a year over at https://www.screwitpodcasts.com/  

This is an all mailbag episode, including an email from Chris Gethard about our Ultimate Spider-Man coverage. Next week: FF#280!

EPISODE 278 - Doom is back, sort of? At least his life story is back, in the form of memories being artificially implanted into a helpless child! This is the kind of good times Dr. Victor Von Doom brings to the party. The Milksops are glad to see Doom. So much that they never even get to mail! But they do spend a while talking about the hit show X-Men '97, which Will loves and Shogun, which Kevin loves!

Episode 277 - As an epilogue to our season on Ultimate Spider-Man, we go over some other reboots of Spidey continuity. Well, some of them are reboots, some are kinda just parallel Spider-Man dimensions. We discuss: Untold Tales of Spider-Man #1 Chapter One (a little bit) Mary Jane #1 Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #1  Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #53 (kind of a restart of this line) Spidey #1 Ultimate Spider-Man (2024)   Subscribe to get access to our monthly bonus episodes at screwitpodcasts.com Or join our free Discord chat, also at screwitpodcasts.com    

Episode 276 - We finish out our look at the first arc of Ultimate Spider-Man. In this issue, we get the rest of Spidey's first battle with this universe's monstorous Green Goblin. We also see Spidey's first use of his web shooters, the idolization of Spidey by Peter's friends and Peter's first alibi of why he wasn't around as Spidey kicked butt. Next episode we are going to go over some other attempts to reboot Spider-Man's continuity! If you want access to our monthly bonus episodes, become a sop-scriber at https://www.screwitpodcasts.com/  You can join our free Discord there too!

This is subscriber-only episode! Subscribe at screwitpodcasts.com to listen! Regular episodes back in this feed next week! --------------------------------- Kevin and Will review the first five episodes of X-Men '97, the hit new animated Marvel show. Does it hurt never having seen the original series? How about never having read any Chris Claremony Uncanny X-Men until two years ago? How about not telling each other what they think of the series before they started recording????

In issue 6 of the Bendis/Bagley run, we get to see Actual Ultimate Spider-Man -- properly costumed, fighting bad guys and everything! Does this change Kevin's mind about the pace of the comic? You'll have to listen to find out! (hint: not really!) Joining us for this episode is guest Elliott Kalan (former Daily Show head writer, co-host of The Flop House podcast). Elliott is a passionate Spider-Man fan and a fan of this podcast! Hey, this guy is pretty smart! Elliott also writes comics. He tells us how he made the leap (side-step? pivot?) from writing for the Daily Show to also writing some Marvel comics. AND he tells us about his new comics series Hercules! It's continuing the adventures of the Disney movie version of Hercules. This is going to be just as great as the comics he wrote previously: Disney Villains: Hades! It's out this week and we would all love it if you bought it. Hercules comics: https://www.dynamite.com/disney/ The Flop House podcast: https://www.flophousepodcast.com/ ----------------------

The Milksops welcome TV writer / podcaster / comics creator James III to the show! You may know James as a co-creator / co-star of the Netflix sketch show The Astronomy Club, or from his podcast Black Men Can't Jump In Hollywood.  Friends from the UCB Theatre in NYC, the Milksops and James dive into another issue of the Bendis/Bagley run of Ultimate Spider-Man. This is issue #5, which takes place immediately after the death of Uncle Ben. It's a terrific issue which puts all of the strengths of this run (emotional nuance, going slow, emotional art) to great effect. We also talk to James about how he became a comics fan. Even though he started reading after he was in his 20s, he made up for lost time, going through a ton of issues. We also talk about his comic Junior! He's doing a Kickstarter to fund another batch of issues and if you'd like you can support it below. All things James III: https://www.ruleof3inc.com/ James III's Kickstarter for Junior: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ruleof3comics/junior-2

Episode 273 - Continuing the Bendis/Bagley run -- we reach the big moment. Peter lets a criminal, who he easily could have stopped, run past. And his family pays a huge price. But before that, we get the Bendis/Bagley nuanced look at Peter's extended world. We see Kong extend the hand of friendship. We see Liz Allen make a move on Peter, an MJ storm off. We see a revamped version of the famous "with great power must come great responsibility speech." And we see police cars and ambulence gathered outside the Parker home. Loose Screws: we talk the A24 horror movie "Talk To Me" and the HBO series "Peacemaker." Email us at screwitcomics@gmail.com with your thoughts.  Consider joining our subscriber level at screwitpodcasts.com. Join our free Discord, invite link is at screwitpodcasts.com

The Milksops continue their examination of Bendis/Bagley's Ultimate Spider-Man! Kevin likes it more on this reading, but is still frustrated by the slow pace. Will remains is moved by the nuanced characters. In this issue, Peter begins his short career as a masked wrestler, and also becomes a star of the high school basketball team. In our world famous loose screws segment, Kevin talks about the Aquaman movie sequel. Does Kevin like it, or not? (Spoiler: no!)

We keep going through this legendary run by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley. Will continues to like it, Kevin continues to think it's too slow. We both agree the "homage" to Ferris Bueller at the top (the boring professor who goes "voodoo economics") is... weird. We discuss the effects of getting to know Uncle Ben more. We observe how obvious it must be to Peter's classmates that he has supernatural powers. We see Peter's anger boiling up. Email us at screwitcomics@gmail.com with your thoughts. Consider joining our subscriber level at screwitpodcasts.com Join our free Discord chat service -- invite link at screwitpodcasts.com

We get into one of the most popular runs on a superhero comic ever: Ultimate Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley. An attempt to win over new audiences, this was a rebooted Spider-Man without any history or previous continuity. It was a commercial and critical smash! Kevin never took to the slow pace of the plot, and doesn't think the Bendis-style dialogue is worth it, though he admits that it's well crafted and was certainly a hit. Will is taken with the emotional nuance of the characters, and the lack of other superheroes.  Email us at screwitcomics@gmail.com with your thoughts.  Consider joining our subscriber level at screwitpodcasts.com. Join our free Discord, invite link is at screwitpodcasts.com

Two stories in one! The top half of each page details the return of Ben Grimm, and an almost-but-not-quite battle against the Dire Wraiths (who?) And the bottom half has Reed, Sue and Franklin in hell! Which is pretty fun! Then we read a bunch of mail, which Kevin has organized by THEME! Join our subscriber level for bonus eps (soon) - https://www.screwitpodcasts.com/

We cover three more issues of John Byrne's run on FF: A check-on on The Thing while he's on the Secret Wars planet, a story of a tabloid getting a hold of naked photos of She-Hulk, and the start of a Mephisto story where Reed and Sue go to an unnamed Hell! We also talk about the recently announced FF movie casting.

We pick right up where we left off with the FF going.. back in time! Wait, not, they are going SIDEWAYS in dimensions, but to the SAME TIME! A time where... the dark ages never happened, so society got very advanced! But then blew themsleves up so they are not! Wait, no they PARTLY are advanced because Reed's science genius dad has been here. Whatever. We get into it! We now have subscriber-only eps! See screwitpodcasts.com for more details! And we talk about this in the episode. Discounts for our subscriber eps: legacymonth - 20% off monthly plan legacyyear - 20% off yearly plan  

We close out our season on writer/artist Keith Giffen with a look at another of his creator-owned series: Trencher. Trencher is another crack of the "Lobo" type -- a hyperviolent cynical tough guy who takes missions in which he has to kill lots of people. Trencher is less of a satire than Lobo -- and the world is more specific. He is a reincarnated soul who must hunt down other reincarnated souls. A Blade Runner of reincarnated people. And his targets tend to be ludicrous: a guy whose super power is controlling his nose hairs, someone who can vomit with pinpoint accuracy, and Elvis Presley split into four bodies (a la Superman, after his early 90s "death.") HIs art is different yet AGAIN -- looking like a combination of late 80s Giffen and Geoff Darrow. A fun, specific biting series that deserved more time -- a fitting end to our study of a great storyteller.

We go back towards the beginning of Keith Giffen's career, when he was "just" an artist. Specifically we examine his work with writer Paul Levitz on the 1983 Legion of Super-Heroes story "The Great Darkness Saga." This 5-issue story showed The Legion facing super powerful "shadow villains" who seemed to be clones of people from the distrant past. When it's revealed to be Darkseid --- it was one of the first times a character from Jack Kirby's New Gods came into the DC proper in a major way. The story was also epic in scope, had huge surprises and full of great character moments. Though it's more traditional than much of Giffen's later work, it's masterfully done.  We assume Giffen was helping with the plotting here (he would soon be credited as a co-plotter on upcoming issues). We can see Keith learning lessons he would apply in the Annihilation mini-seres that we covered two episodes ago. His art is very traditional in this story, though we see a few glimpses of the abstract experimental style that he would

We continue our Keith Giffen coverage with a look at the creator-owner property he did in the 2000s, Hero Squared. Keith did this with his Justice League collaborator J.M. DeMatteis.  J.M. was kind enough to be on this episode!  We ask J.M. about Keith in general, his collaboration with Keith and then we get into the series Hero Squared. Hero Squared is the story of Milo Stone, an unproductive aspiring filmmaker who learns that his alternate universe self is a superhero. As the series progresses, the characters -- the two Milos -- talk argue and cooperate with each other as they become friends. There's lots of humor, action and commentary on the superhero genre as we go. And this was long before multiverse fever ran through the comics industry! 

Keith Giffen does mainstream crossover event, and does it well. Here we cover the 2006 epic war story that is Annihilation. The brainchild of editor Andy Schmidt along with Giffen, this story features the "cosmic characters" in the Marvel lineup. Galactus and Silver Surfer? You know it. Thanos. Of course. Rohan? Yep. And a star turn for the main villain, who is not much of a surprise when you think about the title of this series. This series also leads very directly to the creation of the modern Guardians of the Galaxy. But back to cosmic folks: Giffen's writing is fun and crisp and tells an epic tale. But for the real gem, we suggest the Drax mini-series that preceded the main event.