The Comics Canon

In this episode, Curt and Kevin take a break from titanic teens, movie misanthropes and murderous mutants to tackle a truly uncanny topic: Grant Morrison's twisted take on the "World's Strangest Heroes" with a discussion of Crawling From the Wreckage, collecting issues 19-25 of The Doom Patrol, published by DC Comics! Cliff "Robotman" Steele checks into a psychiatric hospital following the near-de...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin get ready for the third comics adaptation in as many episodes with a discussion of the landmark Teen Titans storyline The Judas Contract, as featured in The New Teen Titans issues #42-44 and New Teen Titans Annual #3, published by DC Comics! These Teen Titans aren't just kid sidekicks anymore -- they've dealt with supervillains, marauding aliens, a deadly cult leade...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin prepare for yet another comic-based film adaptation with a Daniel Clowes double feature: a discussion of the teen turmoil of Ghost World and the middle-aged turmoil of Wilson! First, best friends Enid Coleslaw and Rebecca Doppelmeyer find themselves at a crossroads – one populated by creeps, geeks and obnoxious, extroverted, pseudo-Bohemian art-school losers. When E...

In this episode, Kevin and "Old Man Holman" mark the release of the new Logan movie by gassing up the Spider-Mobile for a road trip across a post-apocalyptic wasteland to discuss Wolverine: Old Man Logan, collecting Wolverine #66-72 and Wolverine: Old Man Logan Giant-Size #1, published by Marvel Comics. Fifty years after the villains of the Marvel Universe teamed up to defeat the world's heroes, a...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin are joined by special guest Glen Weldon – NPR contributor, panelist on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast and author of The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture – as they discuss Batman: The Court of Owls, collecting Batman (Vol. 2) #1-7, published by DC Comics! The Dark Knight Detective has always believed the Court of Owls to be nothing more than a...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin go nuts as they enroll at Empire State University, joined by their first-ever guest – Curt's teenage daughter, Evelyn – to discuss Squirrel Power, collecting issues #1-4 of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, published by Marvel Comics! She's fought crime with the Great Lakes Avengers and even defeated the powerful space baddie Thanos. But now Doreen Green, alias the afor...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin don their finest trench coats, open up a fresh pack of Silk Cut and throw back a couple of pints of holy stout as they discuss the Dangerous Habits storyline from John Constantine: Hellblazer issues #41-46, published by DC Comics! John Constantine has faced down more than his share of demons and other supernatural threats. But everyone's favorite chain-smoking magic...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin travel to a galaxy far, far away to mark the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with a discussion of Darth Vader #1-6, published by Marvel Comics! Following the events of Episode IV: A New Hope, Darth Vader finds himself on the outs with Emperor Palpatine. Enlisting the aid of a "rogue archeologist" and a pair of murderous droids, the Dark Lord of the Sith begi...

In this last episode of 2016, Curt and Kevin look back on TV and movie adaptations of comic book stories from the second half of the year, pick their favorite small- or big-screen comics properties of the last 12 months, and ask "Just what makes a good comics adaptation, anyway?" In this non-canonical extravaganza, we also tackle the disjointed mess that is Suicide Squad, check in on DC's improvin...

In this episode, a morally challenged, mentally unstable captain of industry rises to a position of awesome power! That's right—join Curt and Kevin as they shine a light on the Marvel Comics event Dark Reign with a discussion of the Secret Invasion: Dark Reign one-shot and Dark Avengers Vol. 1: Assemble! After repelling a horde of alien invaders and their shapeshifting matriarch, Norman Osborn is...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin travel to the top of the George Washington Bridge (played by the Brooklyn Bridge) while discussing what may be the most iconic storyline in Spider-Man history (and one of the most influential moments in all of comics) as they take a swing at The Night Gwen Stacy Died, from Amazing Spider-Man #121-122! But first, they pay a quick visit to the (web-)swingin' 60s for a...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin lace up their running shoes for a mad dash through a mad, mad world as they careen headlong into Flashpoint, the five-issue miniseries by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert — the storyline that paved the way for DC Comics' New 52! Barry Allen, a.k.a. the Flash, wakes up one day to a drastically different reality: His late mother is alive, he's lost his super-speed, and the...

In this magical episode, Curt and Kevin trek to the furthest reaches of India en route to the dreaded Dark Dimension as they prepare for the upcoming Doctor Strange movie with not one, not two, but THREE sizzling tales of '60s sorcery featuring Marvel Comics' Master of Mystic Arts! First, we revisit the origin of comicdom's Sorcerer Supreme, as arrogant surgeon Stephen Strange meets his mentor-to-...

In this HUGE mini-episode, Curt and Kevin take a break from passing judgment on comic book stories and turn their attention to the upcoming presidential election with a QUALITY discussion of YUGE! 30 Years of Doonesbury on Trump, a collection of Doonesbury comic strips by Garry Trudeau. It's a first-class episode, people, mark my words, okay? First class! Things Discussed in This Episode: The diff...

In this monsterrific episode, Curt and Kevin embark on their most spine-tingling, bone-chilling installment yet, as they investigate not one but two monster tales from comicdom's king of creepy-crawly creatures, Jack Kirby! First, it's a trip to Anytown, USA, where a mild-mannered biologist must match wits with an interplanetary tyrant of the trees (and future Guardian of the Galaxy) in "I Challen...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin travel from war-torn Latveria to Civil War-torn Manhattan as they tackle not one but two stories starring Marvel Comics' invulnerable sentinel of the streets, Luke Cage, in anticipation of the Netflix series of the same name. First, it's a fantastic voyage to the swingin' 70s, as the hot-headed hero of Harlem jets halfway across the globe to join a robot rebellion a...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin must brave a foreign world of influence, intrigue and insurrection as they discuss Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, collecting the first four issues of the new Marvel Comics title by MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brian Stelfreeze. The once-invincible African nation of Wakanda has fallen on hard times, and so has its superhero king, T'C...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin set off in search of the Rocketship Forest, tiptoe past the gunpowder fields and try to evade the withering gaze of Lying Cat as they discuss Saga, Vol. 1, collecting the first six issues of the hit Image Comics title by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. Newlyweds Alana and Marko are on the run, desperate to escape an ongoing interstellar war and raise their newbo...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin drift off to that eternal, amorphous realm of the subconscious known as The Dreaming (with a brief stopover in Hell) as they try to interpret the fantastical goings-on in The Sandman: Season of Mists, collecting issues 21-28 of the DC/Vertigo title The Sandman by Neil Gaiman and various artists. Morpheus, the lord of Dreams, pays a long-overdue visit to Hell to righ...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin visit a seemingly idyllic Washington, D.C. suburb to pull back the curtain and expose the insecurities and instability corrupting the source code of one modern American family as they run some diagnostic tests on The Vision: Little Worse Than a Man, collecting issues 1-6 of Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta's acclaimed Marvel comic, The Vision. In his ongoing que...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin return to Gotham City and put on their Dark Knight Detective caps to sift through labored puns, fun-house felonies and other offenses as they consider the strange case of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's highly acclaimed 1998 DC Comics graphic novel, Batman: The Killing Joke! But first, they take a quick detour to the black-and-white days of 1951 for a very different...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin put aside their capes and cowls to discuss a different kind of comic book story: Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. In sketching a portrait of her life growing up in a small Pennsylvania town, Bechdel examines her complicated relationship with her father, Bruce, a funeral home director and high school teacher whose passion for restoring t...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin take a break from talking about comic book stories, and instead talk about … TV and movie adaptations of comic book stories from the first half of 2016! How did these series and films reflect their source material? And more importantly—were they any good? Things discussed in this non-canonical, somewhat spoiler-y installment include Deadpool's skewering of superhero...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin pay tribute to the late Darwyn Cooke, whose death from cancer on May 14, 2016, shocked and saddened the comics community, with an in-depth discussion of his award-winning 2004 masterwork, DC: The New Frontier. Cooke's six-volume saga, spanning the 15-year period from the end of World War II to the dawn of the 1960s, finds DC heroes old and new coming to terms with a...

In this episode, Curt and Kevin embark on a dazzling journey from the stuffy confines of an exclusive NewYork club to the famed "blue area" of the moon (the No. 1 lunar tourist attraction!) as they struggle to decide the fate of Uncanny X-Men issues 132-137: The Dark Phoenix Saga! The Hellfire Club, a cabal of wealthy, power-hungry Hamilton cosplayers, mentally manipulate Jean Grey, aka the godlik...