Podcast of Doomino Effect (transcript) for Apr 1, 2009

[SFX: Intro music]

JIM DOOM: Hello and welcome to this week’s Podcast of Doom. I only bought two books last week, and my cohost, Doom DeLuise, picked up the same two books, so I thought I’d make this week’s podcast an audio version of the Doomino Effect.

[Audience boos]

JIM DOOM: Well, it was either that or just not do a Doomino Effect.

[Audience silence]

JIM DOOM: With me as usual is Doom DeLuise.

[Audience applauds; Music fades out]

JIM DOOM: Ok, so starting out with Flash: Rebirth #1. I don’t know if it was unfair for me to expect this to be as good as Green Lantern: Rebirth, and maybe it still will be, but I was remarkably underwhelmed by this first issue.

In fairness to the book, I am very uneducated when it comes to all things Flash. I am not a Flash fan, nor have I ever been, and I’m aware that Geoff Johns is a fan who likes to pack his books with continuity. So I’m at least considering that my ignorance is part of the problem. But with that said, I don’t go into Green Lantern: Rebirth knowing much of anything about Green Lanterns either.

What was your initial reaction to Flash: Rebirth #1?

DOOM DeLUISE: I didn’t much care for it, mostly because it was a lot of talking, and it seemed kind of out-of-character for Barry to return and be so insensitive toward the fact that he’s finally back on earth and able to see his loved ones. Even if it’s not entirely selfish for him to want to go run and fight crime, it is selfish to a degree, considering that his friends and family are throwing him parties and wanting to see him, and he just ghosts off and says he won’t make any of them.

I always thought of Barry as a really optimistic, fun, personable character, and in this, he’s kind of a [bleep].

[Audience laughter]

DOOM DeLUISE: Especially considering the nature of the Flash books and their history. I am a pretty big Flash fan, and one thing that’s always been stressed throughout the years is the importance of family. So why the hell wouldn’t Barry want to see his family? Seems inconsistent with his character, and I didn’t care for it.

JIM DOOM: Yeah, and it’s like he’s not the least bit excited to be reunited with his wife. One thing I really liked about Final Crisis, and there weren’t many things, was how Morrison wrote Barry to be this romantic at heart, swooping in to save his love with a kiss. This is clearly a quite different take on Barry Allen.

Obviously, the premise of “rebirth” is that something from the past is being reintroduced in the present. So by nature, this is a modernization process. But I thought some of those attempts to bring a wholesome, Silver Age character into the gritty 21st century were over the top and superficial, like the gore in the opening scene and the reference to rape and indecent exposure, which maybe was a flash pun, I don’t know.

[Audience laughter]

JIM DOOM: But the star of this book was definitely not a guy I want to root for. He was a mopey, miserable jerk, basically. He’s lost his smile.

And he’s wandering through the museum or wherever he is, whining about how it feels to be back from the dead to Hal Jordan of all people.

DOOM DeLUISE: Yeah, no kidding. It definitely doesn’t feel like the same guy who came back during Final Crisis. One thing I did like about the issue, though, was how it showed the Black Flash’s corpse, or what was left of it. That was pretty cool.

JIM DOOM: So had Barry’s dad always killed his mom? Or is that a new take on his history, and more of the gritty modernization of a sunshiney guy?

DOOM DeLUISE: I don’t even know. I thought his brother was killed. Hell, I thought Professor Zoom killed Iris. Clearly, my Flash Facts aren’t all in line with what’s going on in this issue, so I hope Johns brings us up to speed.

[Audience laughter]

DOOM DeLUISE: Sorry for that pun.

JIM DOOM: I didn’t much care for that flashback… get it? FLASH back?

[Audience silence]

JIM DOOM: Anyway, because it just seemed like a contrived way to make Barry seem all obsessed about something cheesy with that monologue about how he’s still chasing the cop car or whatever.

I don’t know if I even care enough about this book to keep talking about it, unless you have anything else to add.

DOOM DeLUISE: Yeah, I’ll add one last QUICK thing.

[Audience laughter]

DOOM DeLUISE: The reason Barry Allen is still talked about and thought of as the greatest Flash of all time is because he was always just a decent guy. Regardless of personal tragedy or insurmountable odds, he was always extremely positive, and that’s what made him so well-liked by the fans. And his death back in CoIE was perfect, because this big bad guy was ready to destroy the Earth, and Flash outraced the badness and saved everybody, even though it cost him his life. Bringing him back as this sad-sack, ungrateful, mopey jerk is not a good start to this story. I hope it changes, and I hope the Barry Allen we all know and love comes back in a flash.

[Audience laughter]

DOOM DeLUISE: I really don’t know why writers have to make everybody sourpussies. Imagine if you were given the ability to be the fastest man alive. How would you react? The natural way? With excitement and enthusiasm? Yeah, that’s how Barry used to be, too.

JIM DOOM: Another thing — I thought Ethan Van Sciver’s art was pretty stiff. His work reminds me so much of the guys that followed Jim Lee and tried really hard to be Jim Lee back in the early ’90s, like Brandon Petersen. Big muscles, lots of lines, one identical male face, one identical female face, all interchangeable. Like even adults and kids have the same face, like Wally West and Bart Allen. See?

[SFX: Sound of papers shuffling]

DOOM DeLUISE: Yeah. If you look at the panel where Wally’s standing next to Red Arrow at the party, they look IDENTICAL aside from Arrow’s domino mask.

[SFX: Sound of papers shuffling again]

JIM DOOM: Aw man, you’re right. Well speaking of miniseries that cost $3.99, that leads me to War of Kings #2.

I tell you, I love this series, and it’s amazing to think that these are the same writers that are tanking Guardians of the Galaxy at the moment. I think they’ve got a great handle on balancing massive intergalactic warfare with the little people it’s affecting. And unlike their dip into Secret Invasion’s political implications, I think they’re doing a good job of drawing from real-life wars without making this preachy or unnecessarily tied to current events. Everybody’s got some bloodlust.

DOOM DeLUISE: Totally. I’m not quite as enthusiastic about this series as you, it seems, even though I am enjoying it. I suppose that’s because I’m used to the Annihilation events, which were very similar to this, only with different characters and plots, but you still had the massive intergalactic warfare being balanced with the little people it’s affecting. So I guess I’d be as enthusiastic if I wasn’t expecting this.

JIM DOOM: Sure, that makes sense.

DOOM DeLUISE: But, yeah, it’s totally awesome.

JIM DOOM: What do you want to bet this is leading up to the huge awesome moment when Gladiator decides to drop his unquestioning loyalty to the Shi’ar emperor?

DOOM DeLUISE: Are you expecting a Gladiator face turn? I re-read this a couple times trying to figure out where I’m getting that vibe from, but I can’t figure it out.

[Audience laughter]

JIM DOOM: Sometimes I feel like you’re not listening to me when I’m talking.

DOOM DeLUISE: It’s almost like we could finish each other’s…

JIM DOOM: pizza.

DOOM DeLUISE: I was gonna say sandwiches.

[Audience laughter]

JIM DOOM: I grew up with the Shi’ar, in a figurative comic book sense. Not like Vulcan. My only way to read X-Men comics as a kid was to pick up X-Men Classics, the only X-book we got at the local drugstore. And the first arc I read was when Corsair and the Starjammers came to Earth. So I’ve always thought Gladiator was pretty cool, even though he looks fairly ridiculous, and so I’m excited about the idea of him getting to go wild.

DOOM DeLUISE: Oh yeah, where the hell is Corsair? Is he still alive?

JIM DOOM: I think he got killed during the year-long Brubaker X-Men story, when Vulcan rose to power in the Shi’ar empire.

DOOM DeLUISE: Ah. I’m kind of curious to see how they’re going to fit the Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova into this, but they’re both crossing over, and I think I saw them on the cover of a future issue in one of the solicitations. This is gonna end up having a massive cast of characters.

JIM DOOM: I’ll pair my closing thoughts with an artist critique on this one too — Paul Pelletier continues to be awesome.

DOOM DeLUISE: I’ll close my thoughts with an inane comment. I really hope that by the end of this series, we get to see Ronan and Gladiator fight side-by-side. I love those guys. They’re super tough.

JIM DOOM: That would be cool. I hope they don’t involve Cyclops in any capacity. Let Havok and Lil’ Phoenix be the only Summers representation on the good guys’ side.

DOOM DeLUISE: Yeah, I think they’ll probably make Havok a fairly central character, though. If the last two events they did are any indication, DnA like to have a relatively “normal” human-like character in the center of things at the end. But who knows.

JIM DOOM: Well, speaking again of books that are $3.99, I considered picking Wolverine: Weapon X #1 as the book of doom this week. But can you believe that Marvel is flooding the market to the point where there will now be THREE ongoing Wolverine solo books? I don’t care that one of them is about his kid, because that’s surely going to be temporary.

DOOM DeLUISE: That’s pretty much overkill. What’s the difference between regular Wolverine and Wolverine: Weapon X?

JIM DOOM: Regular Wolverine will be called Dark Wolverine, and that’s about his kid, so Wolverine: Weapon X will be about Wolverine. I think that’s how it’s going to be anyway.

DOOM DeLUISE: That’s stupid. The non-cosmic Marvel Universe is really pissing me off these days.

[Audience laughter]

JIM DOOM: And then I assume Wolverine: Origins is still just whatever it is.

DOOM DeLUISE: Did you see there’s rampant speculation that they’re gonna bring Steve Rogers back this summer?

JIM DOOM: Because of that teaser ad?

DOOM DeLUISE: Yeah.

JIM DOOM: Man, in case it’s not obvious enough based on what I say every month when a new issue of Captain America comes out, I really hope that’s not the case.

DOOM DeLUISE: Would they really have a full-page teaser in every Marvel comic if it were just for a mini-series?

Maybe it’s for DARK CAPTAIN AMERICA

JIM DOOM: Maybe it’s for Dark Captain America!

DOOM DeLUISE: Is there an echo in here?

[Audience laughter]

JIM DOOM: Sorry, I was finishing your pizza.

Is the speculation that Steve will return with issue #500?

DOOM DeLUISE: I swear I have issue #500.

JIM DOOM: Maybe it’s #600.

DOOM DeLUISE: He fights Crossbones and the Red Skull, but they’re all just holograms made by the Supreme Intelligence. Huge issue. Yeah, it’s probably #600.

JIM DOOM: Well, surely #600 will be better than that.

DOOM DeLUISE: I don’t know, I thought #500 was pretty cool when I was nine.

JIM DOOM: I’m looking at Wikipedia and it says that Captain America volume 1 was canceled at issue #454. So maybe you’re thinking of #400. There never was a #500, but this one coming up will be #600.

DOOM DeLUISE: Man, I couldn’t care less of a [bleep] about any of this Dark Reign crap. They’ve got a Dark Wolverine, a Dark Spider-Man, a Dark Cap/Iron Man. What are the Light ones gonna do?

[audience laughter]

JIM DOOM: It’s a lot easier to not care about this stuff when it costs $3.99. I stopped buying New Avengers when it went up and I haven’t bought any Dark Avengers.

DOOM DeLUISE: I just looked it up, and I definitely am thinking of Captain America #400.

JIM DOOM: Well anyway, all this stupid stuff is making me not want to think about comics. Let’s wrap this episode, shall we?

[Audience applauds]

DOOM DeLUISE: #400 was $2.25, and at that point, that was unheard of. I remember thinking that was highway robbery.

Speaking of wrapping the episode.

JIM DOOM: Well, next time, let’s talk about this “Green Lantern: First Flight” teaser trailer that was just released. I’ll tell you the address so you can write it down. It’s http://comicbookresources.com/?page=video&show_id=76871

I guess maybe it’s the origin of Green Lantern, even though that was one of the central plots in New Frontier.

I haven’t watched it. I’ll let you watch it.

DOOM DeLUISE: I already watched it.

[Audience laughter]

DOOM DeLUISE: It’s about his origin.

[Audience boos]

JIM DOOM: Did they forget they just told that in a cartoon movie last year?

DOOM DeLUISE: But this one has all the stuff with Sinestro in it, too.

Did they forget they just told that in a comic book last year?

JIM DOOM: I don’t really think that’s the same thing.

DOOM DeLUISE: No, it’s not. I was just trying to make a dumb joke.

[SFX: Closing music]