Awesomed By Comics

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by the pop art commercialization of an ancient fable. In a week with WAY, WAY, WAY more comics than anyone should have to read in a week, Siege finishes up without incident, the Heroic Age kicks off with the most worthy of champions, Booster Gold is funny again, the Unwritten is predictably stellar, pets have accidents, and the Sentry's farewell is somethin else alright. We extend a thank you and welcome to new listeners and then proceed half-cocked, and the thesaurus plays an integral role.

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Cover(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Booster Gold #32, cover by Kevin Maguire:


Aaron's picks, from Deadpool Team-Up #893, cover by Humberto Ramos:


And Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #10, cover by David Lafuente:

Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's picks, from Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis #1 by Warren Ellis and Kaare Andrews:


and from Black Widow #2 by Marjorie Liu and Daniel Acuna:


Evie's pick, from Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers: Unleashed #3 by Chris Eliopoulos and Ig Guara:

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by half of the War Rocket Ajax, which was kind enough to lend us one gently used Chris Sims for the episode. Chris sits in for Evie and takes issue with our dislike of Batman and Robin #10, and my love of most things Joe Kelly. Hercules: Death of an Avenger wins multiple awards, Archie comics are discussed on the show for the first time ever, and despite decades of comics reading between the two hosts, nobody can remember whether Thanos has ever had eye beams or not.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, or visit our show forum.

Cover(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Guardians of the Galaxy #24, cover by Alex Garner:


Chris's pick, from Hercules: Death of an Avenger #1 of 2, cover by Ariel Olivetti:

Cover(s) of the Week

Again, no Photoshop, so no scanner for my pick (which is the hilarious Northstar panel from Hercules) but you can see Chris's pick here.

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by a significant size clarification (it matters!) and a poor excuse for one of our hosts' bad behavior. Evie and Aaron give respect to all the amazing ladies this week (Power Girl, Anna Mercury, Black Widow, Amanda Conner, perhaps some horses?) and could Ronan/Crystal be the best relationship in comics? J'accuse! Hercules keeps going strong, and Mark Waid keeps writing great sequels. Also, we don't talk about this in the show, but the Saints just won, so now Aaron won't have to choose which of two of the most annoying people on the planet to root for in the Super Bowl.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, or visit our show forum.

Co-Cover of the Week

Evie and Aaron's pick, from Batman, Streets of Gotham #8, cover by Dustin Nguyen: (click to biggify!)



Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Realm of Kings Inhumans #3, written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, art by Wellington Alves



Evie's pick, from Power Girl #8, written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, art by Amanda Conner

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by music, some of which is made by us or friends of ours and is good; some of which stole Evie away, and is bad. Very, very bad.

While Evie is AWOL, Aaron is aroused and impressed by Chrissie Zullo's hot babe cover of Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love #1, while being repulsed and insulted by David Finch's hot babe cover of Psylocke #1. Aaron also is incredibly enthralled with the intricate worlds quickly created by Mark Waid and Christos Gage in The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh #2 and Absolution #3 respectively. Aaron was also shocked by the motivation reveal in The Mighty #10 and enjoyed the start of the Assault on New Olympus storyline, despite a last-page appearance by a certain 'snikt'-er who just has to get his greasy little sporks into every event, doesn't he.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! (And while you're leaving an iTunes review, why not buy Aaron's band's album, And by The Ampersands?) Tell us what you think in the comments, or visit our show forum except don't do that yet because I haven't posted anything there.

Cover of the week

Aaron's pick, from Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love #1, cover by Chrissie Zullo


Panel of the Week:

Aaron's Pick, from Batman Confidential #36 by Royal McGraw and Macros Marz



And as always, feel free to leave your picks (or your answer to this week's Oscar question!!) in the comments.

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by tea, zen and scalding all over your lap. Incredible Hercules shines in ball-kickin', nipple-twistin' onomatopoeic glory, and Mike Carey's awesome The Unwritten makes no sense in the best possible way. Deadpool and Spider-Man mini-story anthologies get points, and Batgirl starts to begrudgingly meet our requests, while also demonstrating DC's sore need for good teen-themed pencilers.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, or visit our show forum.

Cover of the Week

Aaron and Evie's pick, from Unwritten #6, cover by Yuko Shimizu:


Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Deadpool #900, story by Charlie Huston and Kyle Baker:


Evie's pick, from Blue Beetle back-up in Booster Gold #25, story by Matt Sturges and Mike Norton:

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by the block-rockin' beats of a certain indestructible mutant MC who stepped up to throw down in our rap battle with the poseur zeroes at the War Rocket Ajax podcast. Breathe his hype man's rarefied air and suck it. Winners this week include Echo, Incredible Hercules, and Power Girl's kitty. Hey now. Also, come see us this Thursday night at MOCCA on a panel about Comics and the Press.

Download/subscribe to the show here or in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, or visit our show forum.

Cover(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Spider-Woman #1, cover by Alex Maleev:


Evie's pick, from Power Girl #5, cover by Amanda Conner:


Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Detective Comics #857 by Greg Rucka and JH Williams III (click to enlarge):


Aaron's picks, from Power Girl #5 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray and Amanda Conner (click to enlarge):


and from Guardians of the Galaxy #18, by Abnett and Lanning and Wesley Craig:

Gee whiz, us comics fans, you know? We jump to conclusions at the slightest provocation. We see a solicitation from one of the Big Two that suggests a fan-favorite comic has been downgraded from an ongoing to a back-up, or canceled all together, and we assume this to be the case. This is because it is usually the case.

HOWEVER. Please disregard my kvetching post below. Straight from the golden typing fingers of Jeff Parker himself, I received confirmation that the Agents of Atlas ongoing is NOT CANCELED, that the team is "going to be doing a bunch of specials and a Volume 3, to try to lure in new readers. Help me get that message across pleeeeez."

So, my faith in humanity is restored, please spread the word, get people to buy both Incredible Hercules AND Agents of Atlas, and all will be well.

As Sandy just urgently DM'd me, Marvel's solicitation for the Assault on New Olympus one-shot, out November 4, includes the announcement that "the iHerc team proudly welcomes our new INCREDIBLE HERCULES on-going back-up feature... THE AGENTS OF ATLAS, written by fan favorite scribe Jeff Parker!"

Wow yay, my two favorite Marvel series in the same book! WAIT A MINUTE--Agents of Atlas BACK-UP feature? FANTASTIC. So Agents of Atlas is canceled. As another friend exclaimed when I gave him the unconfirmed news, WHY DO YOU PEOPLE HATE FUN?

Anyway, trying to find out whether this is true, but I can't see how it isn't. Dammit, comics-purchasing hordes. Why do you people hate fun.

This special double-sized* episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by "inch time foot gem," which proves there is sadly no such thing as a LOLBuddah, or something. In yet another week where good books get fricking canceled, we tip our hats to She-Hulk and Blue Beetle, but say a warm, desperate hello to the healing pencils of Takeshi Miyazawa on two favorite titles. Be sure to stay tuned (or fast forward if you get bored) until after the closing music, when Saddest Guardian™ Scar brings you a not-to-be-missed bonus Origins & Omens backstory about Evie and Aaron.

*"Double-sized" in the way that She-Hulk and Incredible Hercules were "double-sized" this week, in that we went over our normal show length by like 20% or so.

Download/subscribe to the show in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, or visit our show forum.

Cover(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Nova #22, cover by Juan Doe:

Aaron's pick, from Gigantic #3, cover by Eric Ngyuen:

Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Ultimate Spider-Man #131 by Brian Bendis and Stuart Immonen:


Evie's pick, from Incredible Hercules #126 by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente, backstory art by Takeshi Miyazawa:

This episode of Awesomed By Comics is sponsored by Frogfucius, who say "Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do. Ribbit." Aaron and Evie ring in the New Year with piles of praise for Hercules, Incognito and Gigantic, but find the Holocaust disappointing. New Year's resolutions include less eating and more shitty music. Also, could we see some more Wolverine in '09? We'd really like to learn more about what makes that guy tick.

Download/subscribe in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, or visit our show forum.

Cover(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick from Gigantic #2, cover by Eric Nguyen:


Evie's pick from Incredible Hercules #124, cover by Henry Clayton and Guru:


Panel(s) of the Week

Evie's pick from Incredible Hercules #124 by Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, Clayton Henry and Salva Espin:


Aaron's pick from Marvels: Eye of the Camera #2 by Kurt Busiek and Jay Anacleto:

Ok, so I didn't get to say all that stuff to Greg Pak, because they moved us out of the theater space pretty fast. It was more along the lines of "dude, you write awesome comic books." However, when Aaron mentioned we were upset about Amadeus Cho's puppy in Incredible Hercules being a Skrull, he said "Well... you're going to have to keep reading." So yay! Not a Skrull! Maybe!

Also, his last name is apparently pronounced "Pock," so since the Pak Rats thing wouldn't fly, I told him to start a letters column called "To: Pak". Ha, just kidding, no. Believe it or not, there is only so much unfunny I will allow myself to be in mixed company.

That's what Greg Pak should call his fan club, and I think I'll tell him that tonight when we see him at Comic Book Club. This is a weekly roundtable that we ridiculously haven't gone to yet--our primary form of organized entertainment besides movies is small-club comedy shows in Manhattan, and this one is about comic books, with actual creators as guests. So really, what the hell has taken us so long is anyone's guess.

If I actually do get close enough to chat, I'll also attempt to give him the in-person version of this, without quite the same degree of breathless metaphor mixing, and maybe a little of this (letter #3). I'll report back on the success or failure of these missions.

As a little sneaky preview/enticement for the podcast, we decided we'd post our Panel of the Week and Word Balloon of the Week here on the blog after we record each show. There are a slew of other award categories and various other nonsense in the broadcast, but the aforementioned categories can do with some visual aiding. If you listened last week to me trying lamely to explain why my Word Balloon of the Week from Captain Britain was so clever, you know what I'm talking about.

You should be aware that these scans could get a bit unruly, as a)Aaron and I each choose a winner for each category, and b)in addition to talking about the victors, we tend to patter on about the ones we almost picked, so much so that they'll need to be equally spotlighted here.

Anyway, here we go--for context and screaming, listen to Episode 2!

Word Balloon(s) of the Week

Evie's pick(s), from Ubu Bubu #2 (by Jamie Smart, Slave Labor Graphics):



Aaron's pick, from Guardians of the Galaxy #2 (by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Paul Pelletier, Marvel; winning balloon is Warlock's, click to enlarge):


Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Incredible Hercules #118 (by Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente and Rafa Sandoval, Marvel; click to enlarge):


Evie's pick, from Incredible Hercules #118:


Evie's runner-up pick, from Guardians of the Galaxy #2 (this was in the top five for word balloon, until I noticed the silly random alien petting Cosmo on the head):