Unspoken Issues #144 - Amazing Spider-Man "Round Robin: The Sidekick's Revenge" - The Source Material Comics Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Fun Spoken Issues. All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to
the Unspoken Issues podcast. We have come back round for
around Robin. That's right, you.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Got my need to exercise, which on time, it's not
inaccurate word play worthy of El Milgram.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
That is one of my notes for sure, you got it,
Punny Bunny, Oh my goodness, it's There are cringe moments
in comics, and I experienced quite a few. Not that
that was horrible. I'm just saying there were moments that
I was cringing round Robin, which I think I own
four of these six issues, and I've never read the

(00:53):
whole saga. So this is my first opportunity to jump
into Amazing Spider Man number three fifty three, three fifty four,
three fifty five, three fifty six, three fifty seven, and
three fifty eight, the sixth part round Robin's Sidekicks revenge storyline.
Well over here is Evan Bevans. Evan, how you doing?

(01:13):
See me?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
I am doing alright? Jesse, all right, all.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Right, And there is Chris Armstrong right down there. Are
you ready to talk some Amazing Spider Man? Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Which one of you came up with this one? Was
it Chris or Evan.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
I can't take credit.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
It was mister Armstrong, all right then, So I mean, hey,
like I said, I've never read it, so I was
down for reaga any reason why this stuck out to you, Chris.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
As soon as we decided a couple of years ago
to start doing longer storylines, this was on the short
list for me, and this came out right as I
was getting into comics. The first amazing Spider Man issue
I ever had was the It's actually worth a little
bit now, I think because I think it was the
first speriarance of Cletus Cassidy. It's a rhino story that
I think maybe also was the first spearance of Cardiac. Okay,

(01:56):
so it Derek Larson issue, and then I got a
few other Spyman issues. By the time this rolled around,
Dark Hawk tright there on the cover. That series is going.
I'm already a huge dark Hawk fan.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
What more did you need?

Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah? And I didn't even need the Punisher, but he
was there as well. So yeah, I got this. And
this is one of the first multi part stories I
ever read. Once I got into comics, I read these
six issues over and over as a kid. I was
without these comics for over a decade, probably until I
found one of the few nineties era trade paperbacks that
Marvel put out. They put out a trade of this,

(02:31):
and I found it was a World or something in
a five dollars trade. Ben Able to reread it again,
I was like, Wow, this is some really cheesy dialogue,
but I still love it.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
So this is about the closing parts of nineteen ninety one.
I'm collecting at this point, so I'm kind of surprised
that I didn't pick these issues up. This is Mark Bagley, though,
that's doing amazing Spider Man. When was Larson doing it?
Was that before Bagley? It was, wasn't it? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yeah, I think the two previous issues before this were
the first two that Bagley did, which also guest starred
Nova where they thought of Schrice.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Oh okay, yes, yeah, I know that issue.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
I know that comics that we have, but haven't read.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Those. I had those as a kid, so I may
have already been like an avid, you know, like like
I said, I haven't or I didn't get every issue
from that first issue I got, but I got several.
By the time this storyline happened, I pretty much stayed
on Amazing until I stop reading comics for a while
in the mid nineties. Okay, but yeah, Bagley took over

(03:38):
I think on issue three fifty one, maybe because I
think three fifty was Eric Larson's last issue was a
big Doctor Doom story.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Okay, So this is early Bagley on Amazing, which is
pretty interesting. Okay.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
And he had been doing New Warriors at this time,
so he was pretty familiar with you know, Night Thrasher
and Nova doing that book.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Oh okay, gotcha. So in nineteen ninety one, what were
you picking up at that point?

Speaker 2 (04:02):
That ninety one that was pre Executioner's Song. I was
probably just grabbing about anything that caught my attention. I
should have looked up at what was going on. Back then.
I was getting Spider Man, but not too consistently. I'd
grabbed an Amazing here, a web of there. I know
I was grabbing. This might have been right before I
started collecting darkok. I collected darkok when the Rush and

(04:26):
Super Team invaded.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
His high school a little over a year after this.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, so Sleepwalker was probably a little sooner. The Kroger
where my stepdad worked was carrying one comic and one
comic only, and it was what if. I still don't
understand how that happened just one comic. What if every
month Fantastic four. Was probably reading Fantastic Four. At that point,
I just found out the comic shop that I frequented

(04:51):
in college was closing. And it wasn't until then that
I learned when New Comic Book Day was. I just
looked around and grabbed things that caught my attention, probably
Eternal Adventures. Maybe it was before I dove into X
Men and before I was a super consistent collector, but
I was always buying comics.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Now.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
This is also right before the image boom the following year, actually,
and when this story ends, it's about four or five
months later Image comics hits the ground running. I can
remember picking up Amazing Spider Man when McFarland was doing it.
I think I've got a couple of the Eric Larson issues,
but I don't remember picking these issues up off the shelf.

(05:27):
I was most likely picking up Punisher in the early nineties,
or Wolverine, possibly a next book. I was definitely gravitating
towards the Mutants at this point. So let me get
into the creative team here. This was released. It was
two issues every month starting September tenth of nineteen ninety
one to November twenty sixth of nineteen ninety one. We
got six issues to cover the Round Robin, the Sidekicks, Revenge.

(05:50):
Our writer here is al Milgrim. If you guys will
just sit back for a few moments, I took every
book that Mike's Amazing World of Comics had as listed
al Milgrim as some type of creator, InCor writer, a
combination of both, whatever, and took all that and threw
it into chat GBT and I said, Okay, give me

(06:11):
a snapshot. Tell me what you see here about al
Milgram's career, and I'm going to give you some of
the highlights here maybe, Okay, here we go. Primarily known
as an Inker, he served as an Inker on eight
hundred and sixty eight. It says issues, we'll call that
stories because there are definitely some dudelicates, especially when you
start talking about some of the archie stuff, like he'll

(06:32):
get three credits on an Archie book because there's three
stories that he did in there. But primarily known as
an Inker, he served as an Anger on eight hundred
and sixty eight issues. He also worked as a penciler.
It says one hundred and forty six issues here, but
again the spreadsheet or the data has him listed as
doing dual roles at one point, like writer, penciler, writer, artist, writer, inker.

(06:53):
Some of those mainten that have been counted, he occasionally
took on multiple duties. He worked with many publishers, Marvel
Comics being the majority of his work seven hundred and
seventy three credits there, Archie Comics he has two hundred
and thirty three credits. Other publishers include DC Comics. It's
only got seventy seven, so he's definitely a Marvel guy
when he's doing ten times the work at Marvel compared
to DC. He also had some stuff with Warren Comics,

(07:15):
Atlas Star, Peter Pan, and Image Comics. He has a
career that started, according to Mike's Amazing World of Comics
in nineteen seventy three. One of the last issues credited
on there, which is most likely not updated, was twenty
twenty three, So that's fifty years worth of work. The yeah, dude,
But the thing is it took me by surprise, and

(07:37):
again I want to reiterate eight hundred and sixty eight
stories inking. Okay, so this guy is an inchor it's
not very common that he is coming out and writing.
So this story is actually one of the few longer
runs of stories that he did writing, the first one

(07:57):
being twelve issue series. And I need to know if
either one of you read any of this US One.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
I did not, but I've heard about it. I mean
I've seen issues of it.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
You know.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
I love trucks as a kid, although part of me
feels like the apex of trucker comics was when Powerman
and Iron Fist went undercover as long haul truckers an
issue eighty five, So I'm just not sure that can
be topped.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
Well.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
I mean, this looks like a truck out. This is
a semi truck out in space, though, isn't it? Like you?
I feel like US one is a space trucker. I'd
have to look this up just to make sure, but
in US.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
One is clearly a US Route American roads in space.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
In the air, I feel like the guy's a trucker.
I don't know if that was his name, but I
feel like he showed up in some comics recently, and
I can't remember who was using him as a joke.
I feel like it's something you and I did, Evan,
Like we were looking at something and this guy showed
up and was helping transport somebody across space, and I
was like, who is this guy? And it's US One anyway,
I think so I'd have to look it up just

(09:00):
to be sure. But anyway, US One a comic about
a trucker and possibly in space. Were wont to put
possibly on there because I never read it either, but
I just remember seeing the big semi truck floating out
in space. Okay. Also, you'll find his name a lot
on X Factor, West Coast Avengers, mighty four, Thunderstrike, Yeah, Capital, Yeah,

(09:20):
Captain America, Captain Marvel. His prolific work, Like I said,
fifty year career. As far as his contributions go, the
most he did per decade was in the nineties. So
you pick up a nineties comic, I think it was
like three hundred and sixty contributions in the nineties.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
That's what the most. That's when the most work was available.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
I think that's true, right, right, that's true. You know,
he's not really known for writing comics. He's known for inking.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
But you know, Jesse, he also did some penciling. He
did do penciling one of the most famous Spider Man
stories of all, Secret Wars two number two two, where
Spider Man teaches the Beyonder how to use the bathroom.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
Oh, oh my goodness, I knew it.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
It was the profect of Secret Wars two number two. Well,
we don't confirm what the Beyonder did. You know they
were tasteful, but yeah, yeah, that was a big moment.
That was all right, we can remember when that one dropped.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Oh, lookout, look out. The rest of the creative team
here pencils Mark Bagley, inking Randy Emberlin, lettered by Joe Rosen,
colored by Bob Sharon, editor Danny finger Off, and that
creative team stays the same throughout all six issues. So
we've got a nice consistent creative team. I've got the

(10:43):
synopsis ready to go. Is there anything before I get
into that that you guys want to discuss that you
have burning desires to talk about here before I jump
into that.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
I am kind of curious how he got this assignment.
Like it's a bi weekly run. They're wanting to squeeze
six issues into three months for whatever reason. I don't
know if it's they're trying to get to a certain
issue number by a certain time. I think they may
have done bi weekly stints every year, you know, for
certain comics. That seemed to be something that happened periodically

(11:16):
back in the nineties. But either way, you know, he's
not super prolific as a writer, but he's doing this,
and he's not the main writer of Amazing Spider Man.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Mister LINI was the writer before and after.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
Well, And I'm wondering if you know I've read this
story countless times, and it's about moon Night's former sidekick
who he thought had been killed in a battle previously.
I always assumed that happened in the eighties, but it
only happened like a year before this story. I was
looking into the history of the moon Night story where

(11:50):
that where Midnight was nearly killed. I've seen the cover
a lot because of Rob Leefeld did one of the covers.
It was like a three point three part Moonnight story
in nineteen ninety and it was a guest starred Spider
Man and the Punisher.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
But not Wolverine. Right it says on the cover Wolverine
does not appear in this comic.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
Is that the Rob liefeld Cover.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Yes, Danny Fingerroth was the editor on that one too,
and he's got some connections to some of the other
characters that appear in here.

Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yeah, he was the writer on Darkok for the whole run.
And Tom DeFalco is the creator of Darkok, who was
the I think e I see at the time editor
in chief at Marvel at the time. Sure, I guess
who wrote that Moonnight issued, because I've got to check that.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
I was Chuck Dixon, Okay, but yeah, I was looking
up and some of the other characters. It looks like
finger Off was the connective tissue on all of them,
whether it was writing or editing. I kind of made
up in my head. It's not as good as my
completely made up story about how Bobby Brown wrote that
song for Ghostbusters. But I just feared they're like, hey,
we're going buy a weekly, we need somebody to give

(13:01):
day of a break. Hey out, why don't you do
something with these characters. Why don't you tie up these
threads for me?

Speaker 3 (13:06):
Yeah? That could very well have been what it was.
It's weird that they are picking up this Moonnight story
from a year earlier with a different creative team. And everything,
But yes, that's pretty much all had, Like am I.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
Was just taking a look here to see what he
had written prior to this. Prior to this, Milgrim writes
Fantastic four Annual, a story in Fantastic four Annual twenty
four April ninety one, and then he hadn't written anything
for three years. He did a small stint on Marvel
Comics Presents in eighty eight leading up to that Fantastic

(13:38):
four Annual. On Marvel Comics Presents one, two, three, and four,
it looks like he wrote a story for the Silver
Surfer Captain America thing and four, so he was kind of,
you know, just yeah. My guess is you're probably right.
They're just like, hey, you want to write something. I
wonder if this is something he's had in his back pocket.
But man Milgrim gets to play with some of the
hottest characters at this time, which is actually it's pretty interesting.

(14:01):
He gets to take these characters and puts together this
whole story.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
It's like Moonnight had a creative team change just like
maybe five issues after that storyline wrapped up, So maybe
that's why they didn't follow up on it. Dixon looks
like his last issue was twenty four, so it was
only three issues later. Maybe finger Off said, Hey, there's
a dangling plot thread here that you can do something with.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
Yeah, all right, well, let's get into our first three
issues here. I've got a small summary for each issue,
and then we'll jump into our notes for the issues.
An Amazing Spider Man number three fifty three, we are
introduced to Midnight, revealed to be Jeff Wilde, the former
sidekick of Moonnight, now rebuilt as a cybernetic enforcer for
the Secret Empire. After brutally dispatching opponents and a test

(14:45):
of loyalty, Midnight is assigned to break physicist Elliott Franklin,
the villain known as Thunderball, out of custody. His mission
leads to a chaos at a police precinct, where Chris
Powell aka Darkhawk, transforms to stop him. Spider Man joins
the Fray, recognizing the threat Midnight poses, and together they
narrowly prevent an even greater disaster In the melee, Midnight escapes,

(15:08):
with Franklin hinting at a larger, more sinister plan by
the Secret Empire. An Amazing Spider Man number three fifty four,
Spider Man and Darkhawk managed to avert a deadly hover
platform crash, strengthening their uneasy alliance. Meanwhile, the Secret Empire
pressures Franklin to help enhance more superhumans, with Midnight angling
for greater power and influence. Spider Man reaches out to

(15:30):
Moonnight for help, revealing that Midnight is alive and transformed.
Midnight targets Nova, hoping to recruit him to the Empire,
but Spider Man, Night Thrasher, and Moonnight intervene. This battle
turns desperate when Midnight unleashes an electric attack on Nova
and escapes with him, deepening the hero's concern and uniting
them against the growing threat. In the following issue three

(15:53):
fifty five of Amazing Spider Man, the team of Spider Man, Moonnight,
Night Thrasher, and now the Punisher pursue Midnight to a
secret Empire stronghold. The assault is interrupted by the Seekers,
high tech mercenaries, who stall the heroes long enough for
Midnight to deliver Nova to the Empire's hands. As Nova
remains captive, tensions rise among the heroes, especially with Punisher

(16:14):
gravely wounded say gravely, he got his what happened there?
He got like some kind of power siphoning device hook
to him, and he's just he's down for the count
for a little bit, enough to enough to put him
in a sleeping state in order to moan aloud his
origin story. Meanwhile, Midnight, growing increasingly unstable and bitter over

(16:40):
his treatment, learns he is still being controlled by the
Secret Empire through a pain inducer wired into his spine.
Nurse Lynn Church, secretly sympathetic, conspires to implant a hidden
device in Midnight's body, hinting at a coming betrayal or liberation.
Ends up being a liberation, so we discover. In these

(17:01):
first three issues, Midnight sees himself as abandoned by Moonnight
and now struggles between serving the Empire and seizing his
own destiny. Spider Man and Darkhawk grapple with the responsibilities
of heroism, while punishers brutal methods contrast starkly with theirs.
As the Secret Empire tightens its hold and prepares for
larger battles, the heroes realize they are up against not

(17:21):
just a physical threat, but a well organized machine tent
on reshaping the future of superpowered warfare. So there we go.
We have our first three issues in the bag. I've
heard of the Secret Empire, but I didn't know what
they were. To those listening who may not know who
the Secret Empire is, I want to read some bits

(17:42):
of info I grab from the Marvel Wiki.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
A bunch of guys who fight over who has to
be called number two.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
Pretty much, Yeah, that's pretty much it. Secret Empire secret
criminal organization, often portrayed as a subgroup or splinter faction
of larger evil organizations like Hydra. They operate with a
strict number aerarchy, where members use code names instead of
real identities. Their goal is to destabilize governments, spread corruption,
and ultimately take over America from within. They were originally
introduced in the nineteen sixties in Captain America comics and

(18:11):
have been enemies to many Marvel heroes, especially Captain America.
The group often uses advanced technology, mind control, political subversion,
and cybernetics to achieve their ends. Now, leading up to
Round Robin, they are shifting their focus to biological and
cybernetic enhancements. They're no longer just working behind the scenes.
They're trying to create an army of cybernetics super soldiers.

(18:33):
Starting with Jeff Wilde, they rebuild Jeff after he was
critically injured, turning him into a cybernetic enforcer. They recruit
Thunderball to help mass produce these enhancements, and even start
targeting young heroes like Nova for conversion. Their aerarchy is frazled, though,
because they've lost Number one and there's power struggles within
the Secret Empire with Number seven currently at this point

(18:55):
trying to seize control, and of course Midnight thinking is
that he might make a play as well well. So
I think that's where I want to stop.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
And regards to loss of his lips, yes.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
At first he takes the hood off and I'm like, hey,
Hank Kinshaw, wait a second, Oh no, this is a
Marvel comic. What am I thinking? What do you guys
think about Midnight? Here? I'll start with you, Chris, what'd
you think of Midnight when you were first reading this?

Speaker 3 (19:19):
I thought he was you know. Of course, at the time,
I didn't know who he was. I don't think many
people were probably reading Moonlight.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
I didn't even know this guy existed until I read
this comic.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
Yeah, he's just sort of I don't want to say generic,
because the industry didn't become lousy with cyborgs until probably
a year or two after this, he was still a
little bit novel. You know, former superhero who's you know,
been cybernetically enhanced and stuff he's got. It's cool as
the story goes on, his power set of alls, as
they keep adding stuff to him. He's fairly one note

(19:52):
in that, like, you know, he's sort of been driven crazy,
it seems I mean, he may have been crazy in Moonnight.
I don't because I haven't read those, but it seems
like he's been driven crazy by the accidents had happened,
and now he's power hungry and a little unstable. It
seems like Milgrim made this comparison to another book we
covered at some point in the past where it seems
like Milgrim is just getting all the action figures out

(20:15):
and been playing with all these different characters, and it
just given him an excuse, you know, the Secret Empire.
I didn't know much about him. This sort of my
only real point of reverence for him. I know they
popped up in other stories here and there, but it's
pretty rare. Midnight is sort of the central focus as
far as the villains and stuff. He gets the job done.
There's a moment in this first issue where Spider Man

(20:37):
takes off the mask and he's revealed and they're shocked,
and that would have been way more effective if the
reader had not seen what he looks like from mass
And I mean, you see that on the first or
the second page, right, it's the third page when you
first see him with this cyborg face and stuff.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have recognized him. One of
the things I never read before now, but I remember
seeing and hearing about it, and the thing that always
jumped out to me was the title and the subtitle,
you know, round Robin the Sidekicks Revenge. And I noticed
that there's no villain on any of the covers.

Speaker 1 (21:11):
M yeah, it's true.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
It's all Team Up covers pretty much, which I mean, yeah, honestly,
what's going to get you to buy the issue? But
that was one thing I always thought was interesting about
it was the obvious tweak to DC. And then but
what sidekicks Spider Man? He has a sidekick? Now that
book's more entertaining than it should be. I like, Spider Boy,
oh yeah, yeah, that's a lot of fun. But yeah,

(21:33):
I was like, none of those guys even have sidekicks?
Do they I mean, I didn't know about Midnight, and
there's always all the jokes about Batman and dangering children,
and moon Nights presented a lot more level headed here.
But you know, with moon Night's resume over the years,
is he the guy you want training a kid, an adult,
a dog, anyone.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
He seems more stable in this storyline than in anything
else he does.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
Why is this story called round Robin?

Speaker 3 (22:03):
It's just a play on Robin as a sidekick Batman's sidekick.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
Okay, all right, when that makes sense, makes sense when
I look at it that way.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
Yeah, they do kind of shuffle opponents all throughout. But
I always just thought it was a reference to Robin.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
I'm sitting here thinking of sports and what a round
robin is, and I'm like, oh, how does this play
into this. I'm doing mental gymnastics to try and make
it work.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
That subtitle is very important.

Speaker 3 (22:32):
They were also doing mental gymnastics to try and find
a way to work Robin and did the title of
the story Robin. That's a phrase, let's use that.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
We'll use it sidekick. Oh, they'll get it, and we're.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
Sure we're gonna make a lot of hay of the
dialogue in some of these. Oh yeah, I will say
I still stand by this is a really fun story
that Pilgrim did a good job of making, like the
Saturday morning cart tune equivalent of a blockbuster movie of
just like a lot of action and you know, fun
superheroics and characters interacting with each other and stuff. I

(23:08):
don't think Milgrim does a bad job here outside of
some of the pretty cringey dialogue moments here and there.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
Yeah, what I think is interesting about it is, aside
from the fact that at this point it was rare
to have a numbered storyline, When I saw a cover
with part something out of something, I was like, Oh,
this is big.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
That's big.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Where now it's like, you know, Bruce Banner washes the dishes,
part one of three. Read the trade soon. One thing
that I think is neat is a lot of times
we get these stories with wheels within wheels, and the
villain has thought seventeen steps ahead, and you know, by
observing the way you know, Moonnight drinks a mountain dew,

(23:50):
he knows exactly how he'll punch and how he'll throw,
and they know all this stuff in advance. And I
don't think anybody's plan works, hero, villain, anybody in this
which is actually super relatable. I don't say that critically,
like I don't think they were just like, I don't
know what we're doing. Let's just get to the punching.
I think he had to know. It was just this

(24:11):
comedy of errors and mistakes, and I mean you know that,
like I think it's Franklin. Thunderball was like, oh, you guys,
know what you really need to do is recruit heroes
because those guys always win. So like, yeah, sure, let's
get one of those new warrior kids. And and you know,
the guy's like, hey, Nova, why aren't you come back
and hang out with a secret empire. There were a
bunch of cool dudes, and Nova's like, yeah, okay, I'll go,

(24:33):
And he's thinking to himself, I'm just gonna bust these guys.
And yet he still gets captured and Spider Man and
Night Thrash, everybodys tripping all over each other trying to
save him, and it's this rolling blooper reel across the city.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
That was one of my notes here. I thought it
was funny that they were going after Nova. How that
was all handled. I'll throw out the rest of my
notes real quick, just quick hits here, and I apologize
if I'm taking any of your talking points, So feel
free to jump in if I'm taking one and start
talking all right. Out of all three issues. Spidey and
dark Hawk version of a Fastball Special? Yeah, good one.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
Yeah, I don't think we can call it a fastball specially.
It took a long time. Hey, I don't have time
to web that. Well, won't you lift me up and
kind of angle me that way? I don't you have
to have a lengthy dialogue in the split second. But
I was just looking at it. I'm like, I bet
he could have just webbed it. But the Dark Hawk

(25:28):
spider Man Curveball Special or whatever, it was much cooler.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
Curveball. Uh? And how is Moonnight's staying a helicopter?

Speaker 3 (25:38):
See if anybody had any theories?

Speaker 4 (25:42):
I think it has in the wings, That's where I
was like, maybe if I don't know if you understand
much about aerodynamics and engineering, but have you ever tried
to design a helicopter shaped like a moon?

Speaker 2 (25:55):
It's really hard?

Speaker 1 (25:57):
All right? I threw this one in here, Evan because
it made me think of you, Because Moonnight was really
close to a water tower for a few minutes.

Speaker 2 (26:05):
Yes, yes, I saw that, and I'm like, man, Moonnight
has such bad luck with water towers. I really would
have appreciated if there had been a moment where he
just froze up and they're like, dude, what's going on?

Speaker 1 (26:15):
It's got trauma.

Speaker 2 (26:16):
Yeah, that might have been one of his other personalities.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
You know, that's true.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
Who knows.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Everyone gets to tell their origin stories, so that's nice.
We got new people, we want to learn who they are.
And then my last question I'll throw out to you guys,
what were you guys thinking about Lynn Church? And then
there We're only three issues in, so I know we're
going to get the reveal on the next three. But
I know when I was reading this, I was like,
what is her deal? She walks around. Everybody can see
her face already, but it seems like every time she

(26:42):
would corner somebody, they'd be like that face. I don't
think she was taking anything off as far as I
could tell, we see her.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Sorry, Jesse, you've seen a homemans face change I have?

Speaker 1 (26:53):
She means business I see now?

Speaker 2 (26:56):
Yes, yes, mate, I was like, okay, yeah, the secret Empire,
you know they spent all their budget hiring mercenaries and
having voice modulators for their numbered costumes. They couldn't hire
a nurse, so they had to kidnap one. Right, there
were no vets who flunked out of veterinary school, you
know and now work as mafia doctors available? Fair or

(27:16):
is there more to it than that could be?

Speaker 1 (27:20):
Uh so?

Speaker 3 (27:21):
Yeah, just to be kind of a sympathetic like she
she felt bad for Jeff. She's supposed to be a
victim herself in some ways. But we don't see her
going behind the scenes until the end of this third issue,
right with half the story for seeing her as somebody
just clearly got a crush on and who feels bad
for him. And then as the story progresses after the

(27:43):
third you know, in the second half, we see more
of like.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
Her actual markings.

Speaker 3 (27:47):
Yeah, behind the scenes and stuff.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Come on, who amongst us hasn't mistaken, you know, an
attractive woman being polite for something more, right, right, Never,
I'm not throwing stones, and that's even without massive cybernetic modifications, you.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
Know, Chris, I'll give you the floor here. You got
any other notes for these first three?

Speaker 3 (28:08):
Obviously we get some dark Hawk action here. In these
first couple issues and the first issue kind of, like
you said, pretty much every guest star gets a page
to just kind of show their origin and their backstory,
including Chris pal and Darkock here. And there's even like
he goes to this police station and he talks to
authors of Oar, who is a character from the Darkkowk comic,

(28:32):
So it's like really connecting you to the stories in
his book. I guess part of the reason they're doing
all these guest stars is to like, can this kids, hey,
check out dark Hawk's book, check out the New Warriors,
check out what Moon Night's got going on, or whatever
that makes sense, Yeah, to try and spread semi Spider
Man's popularity around a little. I like Bagley's version of

(28:56):
Punisher's skull. He's got more of like the angular skull.
This was probably the first story I ever read with
the Punisher, so I've always kind of liked that version
of that design.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
Nice.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
It's always cool to see Bagley's Captain America. He shows
up for a brief cameo. I wonder why he didn't
get more involved in the action. I guess he was
popular enough that they didn't have to worry about that
with him.

Speaker 1 (29:20):
Melgrim's probably like, I have to get another one. Okay,
I guy dialogue for this guy too.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
Yeah, I didn't notice when I was going through and reading.
I read these on the Marvel Unlimited and I noticed
the cover to Part two, which would have been what
issue before. I'm looking at it and I'm like, man,
that Spider Man has a real like Larsen vibe to it.
That's cool. And then I looked and see that I
saw Eric Larson was the anchor on this cover. And

(29:50):
then I think Class Jansen did one of the other covers.
I'm not I didn't check on it.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
Yeah. Yeah, these covers are something to behold. I mean
they are. It is like, hey, guys, here's everything. Oh
and this too. It's like they can't fit everything on
the cover sometimes because so much going on.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
And I'm the third on Part three, Spider Man's kind
of push at the background and hey, whose magazine is this? Anyway,
there's I mean, every issue has at least you know,
three guest starts. Is the third part? Yeah, that's when
the seekers show up. I feel like I've seen these
guys in comics since then, but only from the nineties.
I don't think I've seen him in modern day really,

(30:27):
but they were a nice They had appeared, I guess
in Fanestic four.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
They referenced that did shut up an Iron Man as well.
They referenced an issue of Fantastic four.

Speaker 3 (30:37):
I really like, you know, they're called Sonic, Grasp, and Chain.
They all have their own distinct look, different colors and everything.
But I really like Grasp, who basically just has these
big gauntlets that he can do different things with, Like
one of them he uses to trap and squeeze Night Thrasher.
There's another shot of him shooting a giant armored hand

(30:57):
Spider Man and almost knocking him out. I kind of
like those guys, and I wish they would show up
more often.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
It looks like their last appearance was in Fantastic four
three forty two, which I should have bought but was
one of the issues I missed. However, that issue was
written by Danny Fingerrocky. Yeah, he kind of ties all
this stuff together.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
Yeah, those guys just show up for like a couple
of coffee in that issue. It's like, hey guys, and
they legit like fight them for a couple of seconds.
They're like, we're just here to stall you see later.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
And then the water Tower, the Secret Empire. I mean,
these guys they've got bases all over the city. Yeah,
a huge complexes. They've got giant freaking aircraft carrier size
spaceships basically. I mean you can't really tell how big
that chip is, but it looks huge. Yeah, what's going

(31:49):
on with these guys that they didn't have a lot
more power than they're letting on.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yeah, they're trying to keep it a secret clearly.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
Yeah. I really like the night thresher pulling a wolverine
with the snow we wade coming down that he uses
to free Frank.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
Oh yeah, that took a turn, like for a second.
He's like, oh, iBOT, I just end you right now,
And you're like, oh wow.

Speaker 3 (32:14):
A lot of the lettering is cool, Like as far
as the sound effects, they all look kind of hand drawn,
and a lot of them is that thing where the
lettering or the sound effects are part of the action.
They do that a lot. I don't know if that's
something Badley was doing or the Letterer did all that stuff,
but a lot of that sound effects stuff looks really cool.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
Yeah. It's great that you point that out because one
of my panels is strictly because of that, and you're right,
it's done to tremendous effect throughout these comics, So yeah,
I appreciate that as well.

Speaker 3 (32:49):
And the first part it looks like there may be
a badly self fortrait in there when they go to
the news station to the bugle, I guess that's get hard.
I'm kind of scanning through here and you see MJ
and Peter walking through the newsroom. There's a guy with
glasses and a mustache leaner and over one of the

(33:09):
cubicles that just looks like what Badley looked like then.
I don't really I don't know if that's that maybe
been Urick for all I know, although I don't think
that's what Eric looked like.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
Only Ben can pull off that mustache.

Speaker 3 (33:21):
That's all I got for the first three issues.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
I think, all right, Jesse, there was a moment that
I thought of you when we learned that aunt May
is a big wrestling fan.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
Dude. That's my first panel because she goes through and
she mentions the wrestlers. The panel is her excited because
wrestling is on, and according to her, she's watching the
incredible hunk wrestle Pierre the Memoth and Andre the Giant. Okay,
so both of them are French. Well we'll put it

(33:52):
that way because Andrea was definitely a Frenchman. He was
from France. This came out in ninety one and WrestleMania
eighty WrestleMania three happened in eighty seven, so four years later. Look,
he passed away in ninety three, so he is actually
really on a downturn. His back was getting really bad
and I don't think he was wrestling very much. But yeah,

(34:14):
he passed away January of nineteen ninety three, so it
was about a year and a half after this was published,
so you wouldn't have seen Andre the Giant too much
on TV. He was still kind of around. But glad
you thought of me, Evan, because that was my first
panel and you were right on the money.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
I kind of wondered why nobody else picked up on this,
And whenever Mat was like, oh, Peter, you have to
leave again, He's like, yeah, but raw is on. That
was the easiest I've ever seen Peter ditch amp May
he was out, yes, And the second issue we had
our first rather suggestive panels, which if I was reading this.

(34:48):
When I was eleven, I probably wouldn't have thought much
of it. It's when Midnight goes flying by their apartment
and Peter Spider Since picks up the tracer and so
like Mary Jane's fixing dinner. First of all, can we
acknowledge how amazing it is that this even got written,
because it is utterly impossible to tell any kind of
interesting or compelling story when Spider Man is married to

(35:10):
Mary Jane. How it's amazing that this even got written,
because how can you write around such a horrendous creative roadblock?

Speaker 1 (35:21):
Sound like you're a little sarcastic hereage just a little bit.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
I think somebody just said with Marvel, like, oh, yeah, no,
they can't get married. They could date again, but they
can't get married. It's like, yeah, because you know, only
twenty some years of comics and they were all garbage, clearly,
because you just can't tell a story about people being
married anyway. The point is Peter according to this. I
didn't realize this, but I guess he goes Commando in

(35:46):
the Spidery costume because everything's in the hallway and Mary
Jane goes this trail of clothing on the floor can
only mean one of two things. Either you're really happy
to see me or you're swinging out of the skylighters.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
Oh yes, yes see I remember that pan now oh goodness.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
So yeah, I was like, huh, and so what was
the comics code there for to keep people from saying
don't do drugs or using the word for art. Oh yeah,
the relatable superhero moments. So Spider Man goes to Avengers
mansion and goes, hey, Cap, I'm a reserve Avenger. Now
Moonnight was a West Coast Avenger. Can you help me

(36:23):
get in touch with them? And Caps like you could
just use your ID card convenient. I first got into
fantasy football and fantasy basketball when I was in junior high,
before you could play it for free online and stuff
like that, and so I kept the stats myself and
I used the spreadsheet program. And it wasn't until I
got to college that I realized the spreadsheet would have
done the math for me. Type the numbers in and

(36:43):
did the math myself. So that I kind of felt
like that, you know, call moon Night on your ID card,
and I was like, oh okay, even that Spider Man's like, hey,
I've got to get a hold of Moonnight. It's actually
kind of easy. So yeah. In three fifty five we
get Spider Man referring to the Punisher as Punny Bunny,

(37:04):
which doesn't have the same ring to it as the
pun Fisher from Spider Han's universe.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
True.

Speaker 2 (37:09):
And then Night Thrasher and Frank are kind of kindred
spirits and they're complaining about Spider Man. Spider Man remarks
insults from one guy whose name sounds like he wants
to spank people, which Peter David actually did a whole
thing of in Marvel manga verse. That was a private
school principal who paddled villains. Oh my gosh, look anybody

(37:30):
with Peter David I would have had the same reaction,
but somehow it worked. And then he says and from
another whose Moniker makes it sound like he's having naughty
nighttime dreams. Night Thrasher, I'm like, man, I.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
Don't know he was pushing, he was reaching a lot,
and many of these conversations.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
I'll just say, there's a real art to making Spider
Man a funny character. It's not as easy as people think.
Can't be on all the time. I know you guys
think I'm pretty hilarious. But every once in a while
I have a joke that falls flat. So I know,

(38:10):
but it happens. So maybe Spider Man doesn't land the
joke every time. He has the proportion of speed and
strength of a spider, but maybe he also sometimes has
the proportional sense of humor of a spider.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
I almost sent one last night. I got tired of
bugging you guys, But there was one that he said,
and I was like, this is Evan's book, Like, this
is definitive Evan Bevans dialogue here. For some reason, I
want to know what that one was. I have to
remember what it was. I guarantee you I think it
was in the latter half of it.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
And I was was cracking some puns in that first issue.
Did he do this in his book or is this
like one of the properties of the body he's switching with,
like you know, it's a Catskills comic from space or something.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
This is all Milgrim baby.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
That's a great question that actually crossed my mind. I
was like, is this what it all sounding like? Over there?
I me and Chris have read some Dark Hawk books together,
and I don't remember him. I mean, he's definitely a kid,
so every once in a while he might have said
something that might have been funny, but I don't remember
being this bad, and he's.

Speaker 3 (39:13):
Really doing like bad Spider Man punts.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
But I will say for all the villains screwing up,
the heroes screwing up, and some of the jokes not landing,
like that moment where even though I was kind of like,
oh yeah, Punisher's so sick, he's recounting his origin. But
I mean, come on, if there's one thing we're used
to in comics, it's awkward expositional dialogue just being passed
off as the most natural thing in the world. But
there is that moment where Spider Man's like, oh man,

(39:39):
this guy really has had it rough.

Speaker 1 (39:41):
You know.

Speaker 3 (39:41):
I know he's a murderer, but that was kind of cool.
The Punisher is here pretty much throughout the six issues.
This was an era when it was acceptable to have
what is essentially a mass murderer seam it up with
the superheroes. Like now Punisher shows up, expect.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
That you're going to try and bring him in.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
I'm gonna let you help with this because I need
the help, and then I'm gonna make sure you your
crimes or whatever.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Yeah, there were definitely some moments for the Punisher's hurt
and they're like, okay, Frank, you rest up, and I'm like,
this is a great time to drop him off to
the coups.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
Yeah. He It's like in the first couple of issues, really,
the only time you see him is when he's killing
a drug dealer. That's it. Their paths end up crossing
towards the end of it.

Speaker 3 (40:28):
In his defense, he was gonna let that guy go.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
He drew down on him and he knew it and
he shot him. So yeah, that's a good point, like.

Speaker 2 (40:36):
A Raylan Gibbons move there. You know, I'm not gonna
shoot you.

Speaker 3 (40:42):
Drawn, But I did see the era when Punisher can
team up with other superheroes and it's not a constant
and stuff.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
I agree, all right, panel time, So I've already told
you we're gonna do all three, and so we'll go
around for three fifty three, three fifty four, and then
three fifty five. So I've already told my first one
for three fifty three. Evan, you got the next one, okay.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
Mine is on page eleven where Midnight breaks Thunderball out
of jail and dark Hawk crashes into them, and they're
all falling and fighting and challenging each other. A Thunderball realizes, Hey,
without my powers, this might not I might not walk
away from this one.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
All right, that's a good one.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
Well now, I'm sorry, but I have to play a
good panel. But in this panel we have one of
dark Hawk's worst.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
Lines when we're talking about the visuals, Chris not the.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
Telling him his name, yeah, and you know, call me midnight,
and dark Hawk says midnight. Eh, well, don't have a stroke.
But also, as the die had that line.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
I couldn't remember why I had it in there, and I,
of all people, missed the pun the second time around
when I was looking at my notes, like what.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
Does that even mean?

Speaker 2 (42:00):
I got it when I read it, but then I
was looking at my notes and I'm like, why did
I even write that down? That makes no sense?

Speaker 3 (42:06):
Yees, Thunderbolt is falling his inner monologue or his pot bubble.
I'm falling and I may not be able to get up.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
Man, I didn't even catch that.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
From the era as well.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
Say what you will, that's a better line than midnight.
We'll don't have to.

Speaker 3 (42:24):
I'm not gonna challenge.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
That that panel got deep. Dang, that was great. All right, Chris,
you got one.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
I think it's page seven. It's gonna be during the
retailing of Dark Hawks. This should come as no surprise.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
I could tell.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
I knew.

Speaker 3 (42:41):
We have the reveal of dark Hawk with the dark
lighting behind him and the smoke coming up from his feet,
looking super powerful. I would like a poster of that.
This is early, badly, but he's already pretty refined. To me,
he's the ultimate Spider Man artist and well, yeah he
was amendos well all right, right, uh, he's the definitive

(43:06):
Spider Man artist for me, and kind of just like
definitive Marble superhero. He kind of can do everybody. They all.
He always looks like all of his interpretations of the
characters are always really solid. So yeah, he's awesome.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
Not so much for the vision. Not really solid stuff
kind of passes through.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
Oh come on, dude, Al Milgrim is now writing Evan
Evans Kiddy Prey continue. So anyway, okay, so we got
around to that was the first issue.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
Let's do more panels for three fifty three.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
All right, three fifty four is next, Evan. I'll let
you go first.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
I'm going to take the one that probably both of
you guys picked. It's page two with the Spider and
dark Hawk Fastball special cover.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
I almost chose it, but I found something that speaks
to me a little bit more.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
I know what you got.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
That's a good one though, Yeah, because you know that's all.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
They haven't practice this very much straight.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
What do you wanna do? But I just pick you
up to throw you.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
Okay, Wolverine and Colosses to this one.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (44:10):
It was uncanny.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
Oh yeah, I'm taking the second one, and that's Punisher
going through a skylight. There was a moment, if I
remember correctly, Chris, where we were making during the Midnight
Sun's event where we were picking nothing but panels where
people were going through windows halfen a lot.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
In the dark Hawk Sleepwalker crossover to.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
Yes we did, Yes we did. So I'm doing it
here again. Frank Castle dropping with two submachine guns in
his hand, just unloading on and I believe he actually
starts his al milgram. Don't you punks realize that illegal
drugs are hazardous to your health? It's a good message,
all right, Chris, You've got the third panel here.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
I think I might be throwing a curveball. I'm on
the last page, middle on the top second panel of
the last page where Midnight is using his electric surge
on Nova to knock him out. He's got his palm
over Nova's face and blasting him with electricity electoral bolt
to disrupt the nervous system.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
This is the guy who will one day save the
entire galaxy from the hordes of Ultron and a nihilist.

Speaker 3 (45:21):
Hey, we get references to he doesn't know how powerful
he is yet.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
That's true. I thought you were going to take page
six where Spidey is reflected on Dark Hawk's mask.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
That one is very cool.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
All right, then, Chris three point fifty five? What's your
panel there?

Speaker 3 (45:36):
I think this is page eleven and it's the panel six.
If the panel work, Spider Man is getting hit upside
the head by the gauntlet. Yeah, yep, from the grasp.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
That's a good one. Grasp. That's a cool looking suit
of armor.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
You got a handle to him.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
Oh my god, there we go, I.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
Think, Chris, are you still there?

Speaker 1 (46:02):
Okay? Evan, you got the second one there and I'll
go last. What's what's ther mine?

Speaker 2 (46:07):
Is page six? Punishers like, well, hey, they didn't know
I was here, and then they realize they're surrounded. All
the Secret Empire goons are coming out of the woodwork.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
Page six, top half, gotcha, Well, mine's right before that,
and that's where it's Spider Man, Moonnight and Night Thrasher
landing on the top of that building. It's all three
of them in this dynamic pose as they're getting ready
to land, and of course Punisher is like, oh great,
there goes my cover. All right, well, very good, we
got through it. I'm ready to rock and roll. We'll

(46:38):
get into the synopsis of the next three and then
we'll blast through our notes and panels and let's take
a look you guys. Ready, all right, here we go
amazing Spider Man three fifty six continues to fast paced
action of Spider Man, Moonnight, Night, Thrasher, and the Punisher
tracked the Secret Empire to their Manhattan base. Meanwhile, Nova

(46:58):
is being brutally experimented on Night. Thrasher manages to pick
up a signal from Nova's communicator, leading the heroes to
storm the Secret Empire's headquarters, hidden beneath a tailor shop.
As they carve through the Defender's eternal chaos, among the
villains give them an edge. Meanwhile, Nurse Lynn Church secretly
frees Midnight from the Empire's control, allowing him to betray
his handlers and demand leadership. A brutal showdown with Midnight erupts,

(47:22):
forcing the heroes into a desperate fight to stop their
former ally, but ultimately Midnight and the surviving Empire surviving
Empire members escape on a hidden rocket, with Punisher secretly
stilling away an amazing Spider Man three fifty seven. Spider Man, Moonnight,
and Night Thrasher regroup, frustrated by their inability to stop
the Empire's escape. Meanwhile, aboard the empire ship, Punisher works

(47:45):
undercover to sabotage them from within, while Midnight dreams of
building a nation of cybernetic warriors. The heroes temporarily separate,
gathering and strength and preparing for the next move, gathering strength.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Kids these days.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
Meanwhile, Nova, still a captive, fights back with Punisher's secret assistance,
causing chaos inside the Empire's new base. As Nova regains
his freedom and the alarm blairs, Moonnight, Spider Man, and
Night Thrasher race toward the signal, joined by Darkhawk, The
reunited heroes crash the Empire stronghold, launching into an all
out brawl against Midnight, Thunderball and the Secret Empire's forces.

(48:27):
The action reaches a fever pitch an amazing Spider Man
number three fifty eight as Spider Man, Darkhawk, Moonnight, Nova, Night, Thrasher,
and the Punisher face overwhelming odds in a massive, chaotic battle. Thunderball,
now armored and wielding an energized wrecking Ball, joins the
fray just as the Seekers welcome back Mercenary Villain Storm
in to make things even worse. Amid the brutal combat,

(48:50):
Lynn Church is revealed to be a cybernetic agent with
her own ambitions to rule the Secret Empire. Betrayed and furious,
Midnight lashes out and the battle turns increasingly personal. The
heroes fight fiercely, but Lynn and Midnight's destructive rage threatens
to bring down the entire base around them. In the
final clash, Betrayal enraged, heear the Secret Empire apart from within,

(49:11):
and Midnight, realizing the depth of his manipulation and transformation,
goes berserk, bringing the base crashing down as the dust clears.
The heroes survive but find little comfort in their victory.
Midnight and Lynn Church are presumed dead, buried beneath the rubble,
while Thunderball narrowly escaped but is now in the hero's custody.
The Secret Empire is crippled, but the cost is heavy,

(49:32):
especially for Moonnight, who mourns Jeff Wilde's fall from grace
through Though victory was achieved, it came at a steep
emotional price, ending the saga on a bitter sweet note.
There we go. That is finishing out the round robin.
Let's try that again. What's it called again?

Speaker 2 (49:50):
It is the round Robin.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
Sidekicks Revenge, sidekicks revenge. All right, I'm gonna blast through them.
Here's my notes. Note number one. Did you just send
me a midnight song by the Monkeys? Yeah? That's It's great.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
You do all the production stuff. I'm just I'm just
saying out.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
There, thanks, Thanks.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
Who doesn't love the monkeys?

Speaker 1 (50:13):
I can tell you right now if I don't get
copyright struck, I want to call them and say, could
you please copyright strike me on this. I'm not slamming
the monkeys. I mean the monkeys are all right, they're
the monkeys.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
People hear about that? You're going to start getting the
funniest looks from everyone you meet. Oh boy, you're walking
down the street, you know Where're you going to share
some notes or something?

Speaker 1 (50:33):
Going from that to Spider Man's shadow joke, which is
I think this is I don't know what audience are
you writing for. Al I understand you started in nineteen
seventy three. You started in nineteen seventy three. In nineteen
ninety one, Chris, you might know this one off the

(50:54):
top of your head. When is Alec Baldwin portraying the Shadow?

Speaker 3 (50:57):
It was later, it was probably like ninety three, So
this is no one knows this reference.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
How does it go? The shadow knows, So the joke
goes as such. We'll get to Midnight soon enough, But
right now I'm more worried about Lamont Cranston. Okay, the
shadow and he's pointing at their shadows on the wall.
I assume coming their way, all right, night Thrasher who
knows better? He knows better, and he kind of points

(51:27):
it out a little bit. You know those old time
radio dramas. Why has Pete even listened to these things?

Speaker 2 (51:33):
Raised?

Speaker 1 (51:35):
Raised? I will step back and say, you have a
very good point you have a very good point. Those
old time radio dramas may have been popular once, but
if they were on the air today, As he tosses
grenades in the air, he says, they just bomb Night
Thrasher All right, so so.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
Mad that we got six issues and not a single Psych, not.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
A sing or not right exactly, Chris, Chris knows we
didn't get a not reference, ninety's not references and no psych.

Speaker 3 (52:07):
World ahead and taken off yet.

Speaker 1 (52:09):
I guess al Milgram does not own a TV. He's
listened to his radio as AM radio. He doesn't own FM,
is not on their TV.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
So that scene would have been fine to you if
Knight Thresherd said, oh, what an up to date reference Spidey.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
Not okay, you're forgiven, al Milgram, welcome back into the
good graces. All right. It's cool to see Midnight's free
from control. He definitely takes his revenge on the Empire members.
I think it's number seven who has that little remote
in his hand. He grabs that remote and crushes it.
That's pretty cool. And his hand and his hand, yeah,

(52:52):
he messes his head. Was going to say there is
blood on the wall. Something bad happened to this guy.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
It is never a good sign when someone's head says
block right.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
Al Milgrim could stand to show and not tell. Sometimes
this is pretty dense. If you're just looking at the
amount of words, there are a lot here. I'm done
criticizing Almilgrim because he's a phenomenal creator. But that's it.
That's my final one. You guys could go ahead and
knock him the rest of it. I'm not even going
to jump in. I'm not even going to laugh opening
the next issue with a bagel with Nova. A bagel

(53:25):
with Nova. Okay, all right, well tell me what it is.

Speaker 3 (53:31):
I don't know what this means.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
Okay, well, it's a type of bagel. Let's see the
Einstein Brothers bagels. Their website has a Nova Locks Brunch specials.
It's the perfect catch. Cold smoked salmon, red onions, capers, tomatoes,
and playing cream cheese on a fresh baked playing bagel.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
Thank goodness, you looked this up. I looked up a
bagel with Nova, and what ended up coming up was
this issue.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
Five years ago on Redd Nova Locks on Everything bagel
with scallion, shiloat and caper cream cheese. So apparently it's
like a bagel with locks and some seafood. I love it.
I just I googled it yesterday. I had no idea.

Speaker 3 (54:14):
What the unless it's a bagel bite, I'm not interested.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
Okay, all right, Moonnight, Spidey, and night Thrasher all take
a break. Spidey and Moonnight meet up with your significant others.
Oh my gosh, this was some suggestive dialogue for sure.
All right, our heroes finally all I thought.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
I was kind of like, man, I don't know if
a night Thrasher and Silhouette were that closed, but when
Silhouette comes in Night Thrasher's box and as as a
sure off, I was like, oh, is this where they
took their relationship to the next level?

Speaker 1 (54:47):
Getting all our heroes together was pretty cool? Was it
our final issue where we get the try gatefold cover? Oh?

Speaker 2 (54:52):
Yeah, that was awesome. Well, you're not going to do
a try gatefold cover on part five?

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Didn't that this amateur hour? My Actually? Did I pick
this as one of my No? I didn't. I thought
I would have picked this as one of my panels.
But anyway, Punisher with the butt of a knife to
take out the brittle armor. Oh okay, I like that.
He just hits it was a sonic's armor that got frozen,
and he just takes the butt of his knife and
just taps it and it all shatters. That was pretty cool.

(55:18):
Lindn the cyborg. I wasn't expecting that for some reason,
she had been voluntarily having her own body modified after
they would experiment on Jeff's. I wasn't expecting it. Interesting twist.
I guess Thunderball after the collapse of things, Like he
comes out of that thing with it looks what looks
to be both of their arms, and like he used

(55:39):
it to like get, you know, make his way out
of the wreckage.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
Interesting And Jesse, what was the title of that issue?
Tell me out on a limb?

Speaker 3 (55:47):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (55:49):
Wow? And I can't even because I said I wasn't
going to do it earlier. How am I not?

Speaker 2 (55:57):
What's the mock?

Speaker 1 (56:00):
I'm sure that you were. Just like, I've got to
get this issue back to board it immediately.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
Hey man, I mean you know we all like collecting.
There's no arm in trying. Okay?

Speaker 1 (56:11):
Oh did you say no arm in trying?

Speaker 2 (56:15):
Gosh what Chris Christy there.

Speaker 1 (56:20):
I'm done. I'm done. That is all my notes because
my last note was why was this called round robin?
We already talked about that, So I'm wanna let I
think I threw it to Chris first last time, So Evan.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
You can let Chris go. If you're tired of hearing from.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
Me, I'll let you go, Evan, get it out of
your system.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
I like the moment in three fifty six where they're like,
how are we gonna find Nova in night? Directors like
maybe we can try our helmet communicators, and like, what now, Yeah,
let's do that one. I did like, even though this
is a six part story and we're reading them all
one after the other, there was plenty of exposition in
there so that if somebody did just start with three

(56:59):
fifty they could pretty much grasp what was going on.
Maybe they wouldn't know it was gross incompetence on the
part of the heroes and the villains, but they'd know
where they were and they could pick up the story
from there.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
Yeah, you can definitely tell. Back in the nineties, the
formula was, let's catch everybody up at least on a
page or two.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
They should. Every issue could be somebody's first issue. So
I'm not a punisher scholar, as you know, but We
did get the Punisher sneaking in, dressing up as one
of the member of the Secret Empire and then passing
out in a supply closet.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
Him trying to make excuses for what he was doing
was pretty funny, like he just you know, he would, Oh, yeah,
I'm heading that way. Don't worry, I got a meeting.
I was just checking on this.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
To see what was in the battle with those super
care Yeah, but yeah, I got to even Frank was
cracking wise a few times in this Oh yeah, when
Midnight's like, yeah, okay, I'm in charge of now, and
the Punisher goes, don't let this metal mockery of a
man you surp our power, which is fantastic comic book dialogue.

(58:01):
I love it. I don't see Frank Castle saying that.

Speaker 3 (58:04):
But you know he's in character.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
He's got a well that's you know what, that's true.
He you're right, I take that back. Frank was selling it,
but he was talking like a melodramatic villain.

Speaker 3 (58:15):
Good note, the Secret Empire fighting amongst themselves for leadership
and all that stuff. That was a good angle to
bring in the help Frank out and to set up
Midnight and Lynn yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
Again. Like I said, I never read anything with the
Secret Empire in it. So this dysfunctional organization was. You know,
you're sitting there. When you look at these guys, they
all have numbers on themselves. They all look the same.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
They've got Vader type yeah, mask, helmet voice.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
I was thinking mask, m ask, you know I got
And then we have the moment after the romantic anderludes
where Peter's got his has figured out how to work
his Avengers communicator card, and Moonnight gets to hear some
of their personal conversations.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
That's pretty funny because he's like, I'm gonna have to
teach you need to learn how to turn your stuff
off before you start talking. After we finish our conversation,
that sounds like a zoom call gone bad.

Speaker 2 (59:08):
Yeah. And then in three fifty eight we have the
historic meeting of future teammates Darkhawka, Night Thrasher.

Speaker 1 (59:16):
New Warriors Yeah or.

Speaker 2 (59:18):
Oh yeah, Darkhawk right about the time.

Speaker 3 (59:21):
I don't though if he was ever an official member,
but he showed up in a lot of New Warriors comic.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Okay, look, I'm pretty sure at least one of his
hero clicks figures has the New Warriors keyword. So I
don't know how much more official you can get than that.
It's true an otherwise crack that didn't quite land. When
Sonic comes back, Spider Man jumps on him. The Sonics
going after the Punisher again. Spider Man says, turn him loose,
you big noise. But I mean they've been fighting these

(59:47):
guys across the Like I said, Spider Man can't have
the perfect quip every time.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
Spider Man can't call anybody by their name. He calls
Moonnight Mooney.

Speaker 2 (59:59):
Just it's hard to do it when he's got a
spider sense going off all the time.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
He's horrible with names.

Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
One thing I'll say about this is, while I did
kind of find it interesting that they're like, Okay, yeah,
we're going to experiment on this Midnight guy and we
can get all these cyborgs and everything. Even at this
point in the Marvel universe, is a cyborg really that
cutting edge technology? I guess it depends on the story
you're trying to tell. Last year, Marvel did this big
Blood Hunt crossover, and it's like vampires are taking over

(01:00:27):
the world. Really in the Marvel universe, I'm supposed to
believe that Thor is gonna sweat a vampire or even
a bunch of vampires. I mean, the story work, they
made the vampires the threat. But you know, now they're
doing this big crossover with Godzilla versus the Marvel universe,
and I'm like, it's not like, what was that.

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
They've already taken.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
On boom Well and the original canonical Marvel Godzilla got
like killed by Archangel in an issue of Uncanny X Men.
Oh wow, So I love Godzilla and that Fantastic Four
versus Godzilla one that run Northward. Oh my gosh, that
is good comics, good stuff. Oh yeah, Oh my gosh. Yeah,

(01:01:06):
the whole weird. But the Fantastic Four one is Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
Man, now this was Did it take place back in
the sixties. Yes, yeah, I remember hearing a bit about it.
I haven't read it about it the first stuff is
so good.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
But anyway, my point is, even though I like Gudzil,
I like Marvel, but I'm like, I don't know, so
again with this one, I'm like, ooh, cyborgs. You've got
a lot of cyborgs, and you know, Midnight not the
best test subject. I mean, I feel like rough Life.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
Yeah, I think they're cashing in on the craze, like
Chris was talking about earlier, because we are just outside
of like man metal skulls are just running rampant through
comics at this point, like half skulls that are metal
and stuff all because I like and all this stuff
back to Terminator because Terminator looks so freaking Oh yeah, you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:55):
Know what, You're probably right. I'm not sure that the
Secret Empire is gonna tip the balance of villainous power
in the mar of a universe with some sort of force,
if you will.

Speaker 3 (01:02:06):
I like the scene where Thunderball I forget the doctor
the real name.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
Or whatever, but Elliott Franklin Elliott.

Speaker 3 (01:02:13):
Yeah. They bring in Doctor Franklin and they're like, hey,
we want to get some superpowered people and turned them
of cyborg. And he's like, well, I mean we can
maybe do that, but they may be less powerful if
we're taking you know, we're we may be downgrading them.

Speaker 2 (01:02:28):
Again, these are not a well oiled machine, and like
I said, that's what I like about it. They're very
human heroes and villains in this.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
And Franklin is also kind of angling for an opportunity
to take over the.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
Yeah, he's always the member of the Wrecking Crew. That
stands out to me because I met the Wrecking Crew
in an issue of Damage Control during Acts of Vengeance,
and Thunderball was secretly helping them because he was friends
with somebody in the Damage Control group. He was always
the breakout of the Wrecking Crew for me. He's actually
a genius mad scientist.

Speaker 3 (01:03:05):
I think the first time I saw the entire Wrecking
Crew was in Thunderbolt number one or one of the
early issues. I'm not one hundred pent sure if it
was number one, but.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
Yeah, okay, but they're all my notes.

Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
So all right, Chris, you got the floor, man, I'll.

Speaker 3 (01:03:18):
Just focus for on part four. I do like the
page where they're basically like, hey, there's a lot of
action going on, so we're just gonna shut up and
let you guys enjoy it for and there's a page
of just them beating up random Secret Empire goons. And
I mean, they've got to have a half a million soldiers, right, dude.
I mean every issue it's Night Thrasher and Moonnight and

(01:03:42):
Spider Man clabboring, you know, random Secret Empire soldiers, and
then there's always more around the next corner.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
And I didn't see but I mean, does every single
one of them have Roman numerals on her chest?

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
That's only the leaders, all right, they got like a
council of I.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
Was thinking that you got Soldier number one, five hundred
and fifty three. It's all written in Roman numerals on it.

Speaker 3 (01:04:11):
You guys have made some pay about the innuendo. The
main one is you weren't complaining about the spoty action,
you were just getting. Yes, I think that it's a
little tamer then you guys make it out to be.
There were a lot of other comics in this era
where they would make sexual references and stuff, but this
is such a tone down, like there's very little little

(01:04:32):
interaction with characters that aren't in masks. Badly, it still
got kind of a cartoony style almost, so I think
it just stands out more well.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
Anyway, I don't think I would have noticed it if
I was reading it when I was eleven.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Yeah, I don't think he even finishes the sentence. I
think he says you weren't complaining about that spider action
you and then it was he was cut off and
Mary Jane's like, you better watch it, which, yeah, I
would have never caught it. Back it all as adults.
When you're going back and looking at this thing, it's
easy to pick stuff out like that. I see what
you're doing.

Speaker 3 (01:05:05):
Yeah. The final battle, you know, it's pretty much just
a big royal rumble the Cyborgs, one of the Seekers,
and Thunderball against all the combined heroes. And I really
like Thunderball's new costume, which I think only ever appeared
in these two comics, these two issues. It pretty much
gets wrecked in this and then eventually the wrecking Crew

(01:05:28):
get their magic powers. I guess they're ass guardian powers
of some kind. Right, Yeah, there's a lot of cool
action in this finale. Bagley kind of going ham. Yeah,
you've already mentioned the Frank's you know, breaking open the
ice and kicking the I mean he's got his socks
and boxers on. That's that's all. That's all. Who gets it. Yeah,
that's under the under the armor. But there's a lot

(01:05:50):
of really cool sequences of just cool art. When we
finally see Lynn unmasked, shep flesh face off and she's
almost entirely robotic at this point. Jeff kind of doesn't
see it. Not only does he like see her as
like almost like a monster because you know, he was
forced into this position and she designed it for herself.

(01:06:12):
But also she betrays him by like, hey, you know,
the Secret Empire can't control you anymore, but I made
sure that I still. Yeah, and there's a cool moment
where Thunderball tries to take over and Lin is just like, yeah,
you ain't got no chance, man. It rips that arm off,
Which that's the kind of I said. I like the
Thunderball design. It is weird that he purposely doesn't have

(01:06:35):
one hand free, like it's just the ball. It's like
if you guys know our Jimerson, the boxer in the
very first UFC event that went out with one boxing
glove what yeah, the initial very first UFC. You know,
it was all these different It was all sorts from
all over.

Speaker 1 (01:06:54):
If I remember.

Speaker 3 (01:06:55):
Wrestler, a jiu jitsu guy, and the boxer came out
with one boxing glove on and one hand free because
he knew he'd have to do some grappling and stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
And oh wow, that's funny it did.

Speaker 3 (01:07:08):
He was quickly defeated.

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
I was gonna say, like, this is like street fighter stuff.
This is what reminds me that's messed up.

Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
But yeah, that's pretty much all I got. I really
like this story still, even though there's some works you
can point out, mostly dialogue stuff, but still it's really fun.
Common there's almost like a spiritual sequel sort of when
Eric Clarson does Revenge of the Sinator six maybe a
year after this, which has got Sleepwalker ghost Rider a

(01:07:41):
four whole. Yeah, a lot of Marble characters are in
those six issues as well. Now you know, at this
point the Marvel universe is two interconnected. I think you
don't get enough of the individual characters getting their own
stories and stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
I'm not reading enough recent comics to make a comment
on really how that is, but what I have read,
I feel like it's all events. You know, it's Infinity
Gauntlet again and again and again. Everybody's coming together for
this event.

Speaker 2 (01:08:11):
Well, even in Spider Man recently, when zeb Wells had
a big crossover called Gang War, even with the requisite
tie ins and limited series in the main one, it
was like Spider Man, Electra, Luke, Cage, she Hulk, and
a couple others taking on all these gangs that were

(01:08:32):
fighting for power in New York. So, now that you
mention it, that's kind of reminiscent of this because it's
just this kind of loose conglomeration of heroes rolling from
one fight to the next.

Speaker 3 (01:08:43):
But yeah, it did seem special at the time. Like
I said, this was one of the first multi part
stories I've ever read, because I would just first get
into comics.

Speaker 1 (01:08:50):
Then imagine this being one of your first comics you
picked up me, Like, who were all these characters? Oh
my gosh, this guy looks awesome, Night Thrasher. Aside from Punisher,
there's some really cool looks. Night's got a great look
in this Night Thrasher. I love his look. Spider Man's,
you know, it's Badley on spider Man. It's cool to
see the Punisher in here. Some of these characters looks
freaking awesome. All right, let's get into the panels. It's

(01:09:11):
panel time. We have issue three fifty six, is what
we'll do first. I'll go last, so Evan, you go
first on three fifty six.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
Okay, three fifty six. I am looking at page sixteen
near the bottom. It's when the number seven is trying
to press the button to control Midnight and they're on
the last panel on the page. He's like, it doesn't work.
And just even though that mask covers up their features,
the eyes like he knows that he is in deep,

(01:09:40):
deep trouble here, Yes he is.

Speaker 1 (01:09:42):
All right, I'll go next, and I am not going
to be able to give you a page number, but
I can tell you it's some near the middle when
they all three Night Thrasher, Spider Man and Moonnight break
glass into the tailor's into the tailor's building. Yeah, they
are coming in there. We got crashed, plentacle and skash

(01:10:02):
on the ask for the automnipa. Is that what it is? Evan?
Is that the right word? I think?

Speaker 3 (01:10:06):
So?

Speaker 1 (01:10:07):
Okay, all right, they're crashing in there, and of course
they're making an entrance. So there is my panel.

Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
That's also a law firm that primarily handles defenestration cases. Crash,
plinkle and scash.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
Chris Armstrong panel.

Speaker 3 (01:10:22):
Something I wanted to mention earlier, and I kind of forgot.
What's up with Moon Night's triple nunchuck.

Speaker 1 (01:10:28):
I don't know, but I like it. I've never seen
him with it. I never paid attention to where he's
beating somebody with it, but I love the look of it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:35):
Go ahead, Chris, I'd like to hear your argument against it,
I have none.

Speaker 3 (01:10:39):
I was just curious if that's a real thing or
something they designed for Moonnight.

Speaker 1 (01:10:44):
Fellow chucker.

Speaker 3 (01:10:45):
Huh, So I'm going to go. I think we're looking
at page eighteen, the first panel, and it's going to
be Moonnight and night Thrasher, both going at mid night
hitting the one with the nunchuck and one with his
night Thrasher with his I guess it's kind of a
billy club type thing.

Speaker 1 (01:11:06):
Yeah, they're laying it into him, trying to take them down.
All right, Okay, next up. It's going to be issued
three fifty seven. And I mentioned this earlier. This is
the one panel that I picked specifically because of the
words describing the sound effects, and that is Nova breaking
loose from his restraints. Correct me if I'm wrong here,

(01:11:27):
But Kirby Crackle is a thing, and one of those
things looks exactly like what Kirby Crackle would remind you
of with the dots and stuff like that, especially when
you're playing Marvel Snap. They actually have an effect to
a card that is called crackle. These black dots that
are kind of emanating the energy and it's coming off
of Nova. Is is going wild here, I'm taking Nova

(01:11:47):
getting away from his restraints. Evan, you got the second panel.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
Well, I didn't even realize this was a tradition here,
but at mine's on page eighteen with Spider Man crashing
through a skylight. That's the one I marked and midnight,
says Spider Man. Again. Clearly he didn't check what issue
he was in.

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
No, he did not.

Speaker 2 (01:12:09):
Yeah, that's a cool entrance by Spider Man. Get very
nineties entrance apparently.

Speaker 1 (01:12:13):
Oh yeah, absolutely all right, Chris.

Speaker 3 (01:12:16):
Man, I'm really struggling not to take the Starcock panel
because his return here, and there's.

Speaker 2 (01:12:24):
Nothing wrong with appreciating dark.

Speaker 3 (01:12:25):
Hawk not actually gonna go with the page eighteen panel four,
which is Punisher and Nova together. We see a Punisher
jumping out, guns blazing, and the Nova charging forward. Nobad
flies so fast you can't even see his leg. That's
all just a shriek. He's still able to have a
conversation with Frank and fly right next to him.

Speaker 1 (01:12:49):
But hey, it's common, that's right. Physics mean nothing here.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
I mean, if Spidey and darkhowk can work out that
whole fastball special faster than Spidy can shoot a web, then.

Speaker 1 (01:13:00):
Right, all right, Chris, I'll give you the first pick
here in three fifty eight.

Speaker 3 (01:13:04):
Oh man, it's tempting to go for that two page spread. Yeah,
I'm gonna go with the first panel on page four
with dark Hawk on lace in a forest, blast at
a thunderball, and we've also got in the background night
thresher and knocking around one of the bad guys.

Speaker 1 (01:13:17):
All right, good pick. I'll go second. I am absolutely
picking Lynn Church ripping her own face off.

Speaker 3 (01:13:25):
That's a good one.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
Oh dude.

Speaker 1 (01:13:28):
I just remember she just reaches up there and peels
all the skin straight off of her face and like
everybody's like, what is going on? It is frightening. Yes,
so yeah, I like that one. It's pretty freaky. All right, Evan,
what do you got? Man?

Speaker 2 (01:13:42):
Let's see mine is on page seven. It's actually a
bigger panel than I thought. Sonic's armor freezing up and
you can see his eyes and him realizing, oh yeah.
I mean, there's a great shot of a spider Man
clocking midnight behind him. But just the look on that
guy says he's like, oh this is not good. Here
comes the guy almost killed dude.

Speaker 1 (01:14:03):
Where he's reasoning out if he goes for the islits,
I am in trouble. He knows that the Punisher may
just go and stab him straight in the eye. We
did pick this apart a lot with Al and his
dialogue here. I understand he's an anchor, not commonly known
for writing issues. That's fine. He's allowed to have his
moment in the sun, and he did. He had a

(01:14:25):
great time with these superheroes taking on a large cadre
of villains. As far as you know, there was a
large organization of villains. I still had a fun time.
I've seen these issues plenty of times, and like, oh man,
you know, Punisher showing up in a Spidery book not
all that rare, but still when he does show up,
usually it's an event. And not only that, we got

(01:14:46):
night Thrasher in this thing. Nova. What the heck is
Nova and the Punisher doing together? You know, these mixed
bag of heroes being thrown together was really what made
this story appealing. How are they all going to work together?
How are things going to shake down? What kind of
interaction is Frank going to have with Night Thrasher, which
they do have, especially at the end when the cops

(01:15:07):
are coming and Night Thrashers like, hey, man, I just
picked up scanner frequency. They're coming. You might want to
get out of here. All that stuff was pretty cool
aside from what we had and picked apart with the dialogue.
It's a story that I've been wanting to read and
I'm glad I had the chance to read it. So
that's my final thoughts, Chris, I'll throw to you.

Speaker 3 (01:15:22):
Yeah, I love this story. And you know, again, Al's Milgram.
I think he does a good job with the story overall.
Some of the dialogue is hokey and cheesy, and there's
stuff that you can pick apart, like apparently Secret Empire
has one hundred and forty seven thousand soldiers running around
New York City and hidden bases all over the place.

(01:15:43):
It's comics, and it's an era of comics that were
more forgiving to the fantastical. It's a really fun superhero
story with a lot of cool characters and fun action.
And Bagley was not at his peak yet. He had
probably only been around for a couple of years at
this point, but he would kind of become a big
star on Amazing Spider Man over the next few years

(01:16:04):
and develop into one of the best artists as far
as I'm gonna turn it, I'll love vaguely so fun comic.

Speaker 2 (01:16:11):
Oh yeah, it was a blast. I had fun with
some of the dialogue, but overall, I enjoyed it. Like
I said, the story itself. At first it seemed a
little haphazard, but honestly, like I said, one of my
favorite parts was that the heroes, the villains, these plans
aren't working out and they're just winging it. It's not
something where everybody's planned it out seventeen steps ahead, and

(01:16:32):
it's just a lot of fun, great action. Just hey,
wouldn't it be cool if we threw these characters together.
I mean, I don't know what more you can ask for.

Speaker 1 (01:16:41):
Evin Bevins, Plugs may go.

Speaker 2 (01:16:43):
Astros fifty one dot blogspot dot com. If you like
the way I think about comics but are annoyed by
the sound of my voice, it's all print on there.
I go through offbeat comics, a much deeper dive on
Spider Man and beyond her, you know, going to the
restroom on the and a lot of other stuff. Secret Defenders,
NFL super Pro Just imagine Stanley creating the DC universe.

Speaker 1 (01:17:07):
So check that out, yep, and the hashtag JS April
as well. I go to the twitters and punch that
in there. Chris will tell them all about it.

Speaker 3 (01:17:15):
Hey, you can find me on Twitter and Instagram at
We're Gonna at thirty four. Also have a podcast couple
of podcasts nobody aj one called small Screeners where we
talk about Direkty video and mat P TV movies. We
have another movie podcast called Because Movies or we can
kind of just talk about whatever we want movie wise.
So can check those out on your podcatcher of choice.

Speaker 1 (01:17:37):
Love it all right there it is, ladies and gentlemen,
we are getting out of here. That over there is
Evan Bevins. I'm Jesse. Start down. There is Chris Armstrong.
We will be talking to you soon. Chris Armstrong send
them out with something.

Speaker 3 (01:17:48):
A bagel with nova. Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
Unspoken Issues is part of the Unspokendecade dot com, the
home for nineties comics, blogs and podcasts.

Speaker 4 (01:18:02):
Unspoken Issues also has a Facebook group you can join
if you are interested.

Speaker 1 (01:18:06):
Just search the Unspoken Issues podcast and request to join.

Speaker 4 (01:18:10):
All of this would not be possible without W two
m net dot com, so make sure to seek them
out for more podcasts.

Speaker 3 (01:18:17):
If you enjoyed what you heard today, Please feel free
to share, and we look forward to entertaining you again
soon

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Unspoken Issues #144 - Amazing Spider-Man "Round Robin: The Sidekick's Revenge"

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Unspoken Issues #144 - Amazing Spider-Man "Round Robin: The Sidekick's Revenge"