The Comic Literate Podcast

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read the 1982 graphic novel, X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills. Written by Chris Claremont and art by Brent Eric Anderson.  They also discuss how this story, and the X-Men in general, are used as a racism allegory, how Magneto's helmet was changed by the movies, and how this comic is so relevant to today's politics.  Timecodes 00:00 - Intro 01:49 - Comic Talk Sta...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie watch and review the 2026 DCU film, Supergirl.  They also discuss how it compares to the comic it's based on, Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow, how it fits in to the larger DC Cinematic Universe, and whether going up against Toy Story 5 was a good idea or not.  Timecodes 00:00 - Intro 02:41 - Movie Talk Starts 03:37 - General Thoughts (non spoiler) 06:56 - Poss...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read issues 121-122 of the 1963 comic series, The Amazing Spider-Man. Also known as The Night Gwen Stacy Died. Written by Gerry Conway, Art by Gil Kane, and Inking by John Romita (Sr) and Tony Mortellaro.  They also discuss how exactly Gwen Stacy died, how her death signified the beginning of the Bronze Age of Comics, and a lively debate on comparing the wr...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read the 2002 limited series, Spider-Man: Blue. Written by Jeff Loeb and art by Tim Sale.  They also discuss the stagnation of Spider-Man as a character, the quality of his comics compared to other popular superheroes, and the new Avengers comic line up following Marvel's Armageddon.  Timecodes 00:00 - Intro and Comic Credits 06:01 - General Thoughts 12:24...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read the 2026 one-shot, New History Of The DC Universe: The Dakota Incident. Featuring the heroes of the Dakotaverse, including Static, Icon, Rocket, and Hardware.  They also discuss the how DC's lack of use and promotion of black characters led to the DC Blackout campaign (which was happening at time of recording), how the Dakotaverse characters could be u...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read the 2026 limited series, Wolverine: Weapons Of Armageddon. Written by Chip Zdarsky, art by Luca Maresca, and colours by Bryan Valenza.  They also discuss the upcoming Armageddon event and Zdarsky's possible creative plans, how the super soldier program reflects the military industrial complex, and how movie actor's physiques have changed over the years...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read most of the nominees for the Eisner Awards 2026: Best One-Shot/Single Issue category. Including Absolute Batman Annual, Absolute Martian Manhunter, Ice Cream Man, and Something's Killing The Children.  They also discuss some of the other categories including Best Continuing Series, Best Limited Series, and Best New Series.  Full Eisner Awards 2026 Nomi...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read the collected edition of the 1982 Captain Britain stories from Marvel UK. Co-created by Alan Moore and Alan Davis, with lettering by Steve Craddock.  They also discuss the state of Britain (the country) in the 70's and 80's, how this comic was originally released, and the early days of Alan Moore's work as a comic book writer.  Timecodes 00:00 - Intro...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read issues 25–30 of the 2004 Punisher MAX series, also known as The Slavers story arc. Written by Garth Ennis, pencils by Leandro Fernandez, Inks by Scott Koblish, and colours by Dan Brown.  They also discuss Ennis's use of shocking content as a writer, and debate whether The Punisher as a character is just a revenge, power fantasy, or something deeper and...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read the 2013 limited series, The Star Wars. Written by J.W. Rinzler, art by Mike Mayhew, and colours by Rain Beredo.  They also discuss the inspirations of the original draft, the changes and influences that led to A New Hope, and the strengths and weaknesses of Lucas as a story teller.  Timecodes 00:00 - Intro & Credits 01:45 - What is THE Star Wars?...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read what he believes are some of the best issues so far, of the horror anthology series, Ice Cream Man.  They also discuss the overall series, the most likely influences of the comic series, and how creatives sometimes use their platform to speak about their beliefs.  Timecodes 00:00 - Intro and Credits 03:40 - Ryan's Thoughts On The Overall Series 14:06 -...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read issues 1-7 of the 2025 ongoing series, Invincible Universe: Battle Beast. Written by Robert Kirkman, art by Ryan Ottley, colour by Annalisa Leoni, and letters by Rus Wooton.  They also discuss Battle Beast's part in the main Invincible story, Kirkman's success with the animated TV series, the upcoming showdown between Battle Beast and Conquest, and Dar...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read issues 1-4 of the 2026 Image Comics limited series, Wrestle Heist. Written by Kyle Starks, colours by Vlad Popov, and design by Dylan Todd.  They also discuss the Vince McMahon scandal, the incredible lies of Hulk Hogan, and the history of Women's Wrestling in North America.  Timecodes 00:00 - Intro 01:35 - Comic Talk Starts with Credits 05:09 - Genera...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read the 2026 DC / Marvel crossover comic, Superman/Spider-Man.  They also discuss the other crossover stories in the comic, the rivalry between Marvel and DC, and the alleged dark side of Toby Maguire.  Timecodes 00:00 - Intro 02:29 - General Thoughts 05:52 - Starting with the Arting 08:06 - Marvel vs DC 16:20 - Superman/Spider-Man 17:18 - Jamie's Meta Pla...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read the 2005 story arc, Extremis, from The Invincible Iron Man comic series. Written by Warren Ellis and art by Adi Granov.  They also review it as a potential entry point for Iron Man fans looking to get into comics, as well as discussing how it influenced the MCU Iron Man, and a separate bit about DC Compact Comics.  Timecodes 00:00 - Intro 01:53 - Comic...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read the 2025 limited series, Marvel: 1776. Written by J. Michael Straczynski, with pencils by Sean Hill & Ron Lim, inks by Jay Leisten & Roberto Poggi, and colours by Alex Sinclair.  They also discuss what might have happened if England won the revolutionary war, the rules of time travel, Jamie's love of the musical Hamilton, Ryan's working class r...

In This Week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read not only the first issue of Daredevil/Punisher: The Devil's Trigger, but also issue 3 of the 2000 limited series The Punisher: Welcome Back Frank. The reason why is because they both have the scene where Punisher chains up Daredevil with a gun taped to his hand. They also discuss which version of the scene is better, Punisher fans who fundamentally mis...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jame read the 2012 comic series, Hawkeye: My Life As A Weapon. Written by Matt Fraction, art by David Aja, colour by Matt Hollingsworth, and letters by Chris Eliopoulos.  They also discuss the history of lesser known superhero characters getting critically acclaimed stories, how this story changed the perception of the Hawkeye character, it's MCU TV adaptation, a...

For the first week of Marvchel, Ryan makes Jamie read the 2023 comic series (and kind of still ongoing in a sense), The Incredible Hulk. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, art by Nic Klein, and colour by Matthew Wilson.  They also discuss Hulk's role in the MCU, the recent shift of the character to horror themed stories, and the British Eldritch monster known as Mr Blobby.  Timecodes 00:00 - Intr...

In this week's episode, and the last week of DCebruary, Ryan makes Jamie read the DC K.O limited series tie in, Knightfight. Written by Joshua Williamson and art by Dan Mora.  They also discuss how Red Hood is under utilized by DC, and they check back in on how the DC K.O event is going with issue 4 (bad).  Timecodes 00:00 - Intro 02:57 - Comic Talk Starts 13:03 - Starting With The Arting 17:44 -...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read the 2026 one shot, DC K.O: Boss Battle, in which the stars of DC face off against "champions" of other intellectual properties including Annabelle, Homelander, Sub-Zero, and others less SEO friendly.  They also discuss how and why the Joker is prominently featured in the DC K.O. event.  Timecodes 00:00 - Intro 02:05 - Comic Talk Starts & General Th...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read the 2025 comic book series, Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum. Written by W. Maxwell Prince, art by Martín Morazzo, and colours by Chris O’Halloran.  They also discuss the unique art style of this comic to and whether or not it suits the superhero genre, it's references to DC Silver Age comics, And Ryan talks about why everyone should watch Marvel's Wo...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read issues 1-5 of the currently ongoing comic series, Batman. Written by Matt Fraction and art by Jorge Jiménez.  They also discuss their rankings of Robins, and Tom King's recent insights into how D.C. editorial affected his own Batman run, and how this relates to superhero comics as a whole.  Timecodes 00:00 - Intro 02:36 - Comic Talk Starts 04:40 - Gene...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read issues 1-7 of the currently ongoing, Image Comics' anthology series, Assorted Crisis Events. Written by Deniz Camp, art by Eric Zawadzki, colours by Jordie Bellaire, and letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.  They also discuss the dystopian future genre, how time goes quicker as you get older, existential crises, and the immigration debate. (there are also...

In this week's episode, Ryan makes Jamie read the second half of the critically acclaimed graphic novel, The Dark Knight Returns. Written by Frank Miller, illustrated by Miller and Klaus Janson, with color by Lynn Varley.  They also discuss Miller's continuing themes of authoritarianism, is this Superman badly written?, and does this title deserve to be considered one of the greatest graphic novel...