The Comics Canon

In this episode, our-decade-by-decade series on Marvel's Thunderbolts (NOT the Thunderbirds, as Kevin erroneously calls them in the intro) continues as we discuss The Avengers: Under Siege – specifically, The Avengers #273-277 by Roger Stern and John Buscema! Helmut Zemo, the son of one of Captain America's greatest enemies, and a waaay -overstuffed Masters of Evil take over Avengers Mansion and b...

Content warning: suicide In this episode, our-decade-by-decade series on the Thunderbolts intersects with one of the biggest political scandals of all time as we discuss Secret Empire and the short-lived career of Nomad, as brought to us by Steve Englehart, Sal Buscema and Frank Robbins, published by Marvel Comics! First, the shadow of Watergate looms large over Captain America and the Falcon #174...

In this episode, we kick off a decades-spanning series focusing on the hot new superhero team of 1997: the Thunderbolts! And we begin with some early Avengers issues introducing Captain America's arch-nemesis Baron Zemo and his Masters of Evil! But first, we begin with Avengers #4, in which the Sentinel of Liberty himself is fished out of the North Sea and joins the Marvel Universe! Then it's on t...

 In this episode, we relax our usual format a bit as Bryan Stratton, Robb Milne and Jamie Wenger from the Marvel by the Month podcast join us to discuss (and assign ratings to) some iconic -- and less-than-iconic -- Jack Kirby monsters from before Marvel's superhero era! Monsters discussed in this episode: ·        Diablo, the Demon From the Fifth Dimension! (Tales of Suspense #9, 1959) ·        T...

In this episode, we kick off a month of horror-themed comics with a look at Tatsuki Fujimoto's incredibly popular manga Chainsaw Man, a fresh and creative mixture of body horror, supernatural devil creatures, superhero-adjacent action and 80s boob comedy! In these chapters from Chainsaw Man volumes 1 and 2, we meet Denji, a down-on-his-luck teen whose body fuses with Pochita, a devil in the form o...

With Joker: Folie à Deux rolling into theaters next, the time seems right to dive into Batman's most famous nemesis, the Joker, with a trio of stories highlighting different, pre-Dark Knight Returns iterations of the Clown Prince of Crime! First up is "The Man Who Wrote the Joker's Jokes" from 1951's Batman #67, in which everyone's favorite mass murderer seeks a gag writer! Then, in 1976's The Jok...

In this episode, we take a long-overdue look at one of the most acclaimed crimefighters in comics history, Will Eisner's The Spirit! Published in its own special insert in Sunday newspapers in the 1940s and early 50s, The Spirit featured seven- and eight-page stories about a masked hero in a suit and tie who helped the police of Central City fight criminal masterminds, underworld figures and slink...

In this episode, we conclude our three-part look at V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, as collected by Vertigo/DC Comics! V disables Norsefire's surveillance apparatus, nudging the citizens of London toward revolution. Rose Almond takes action. Schemes are hatched as Helen Heyer and Peter Creedy vie to take control of the government. Detective Finch takes a bad trip. And Evey prepares t...

In this episode, we continue our three-part look at V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, as collected by Vertigo/DC Comics! Abandoned by V on the streets of London, Evey Hammond knows a brief moment of happiness before she's captured, tortured and interrogated about her role in V's crimes. Rose, widow of the late Derek Almond, suffers a series of humiliations. Meanwhile, V's body count gr...

In this episode, for … oh, no particular reason … we kick off a three-part look at the classic graphic novel V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, collected by DC Comics!  Originally published in serial form in the British anthology magazine Warrior, this dystopian fantasy follows the anarchist vigilante known only as V, clad in a creepy Guy Fawkes mask, who's hell-bent on taking revenge o...

This episode contains explicit language and talk of sexual assault. On this episode, we take a butcher's at the book that begat the critically acclaimed streaming series The Boys—specifically, The Name of the Game, collecting the first six issues of The Boys by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson, originally published by WildStorm Productions and later collected by Dynamite Entertainment! When Hughie...

We're back with a look at everyone's favorite gruff, eyepatch-wearing super-spy (non-Samuel L. Jackson division) as seen in 1968's Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1, 2, 3 and 5, published by Marvel Comics! Writer and artist Jim Steranko injects a dose of modern psychedelic and pop-art imagery and a strong sense of design into these four issues, creating a surreal visual experience the influence...

Due to a family emergency, we weren't able to get together and record a new episode for this week. So here's an encore presentation of our Deadpool episode, With Great Power Comes Great Coincidence from May 2018. Please enjoy, and we hope to be back with you again in two weeks!

Richard McGuire's 2014 graphic novel Here takes place in one location—the corner of a living room in a house in what is probably Perth Amboy, New Jersey—over the course of billions of years, from 300,000,500,000 B.C. to the far-off year 22,175. In between, we see slivers of events both dramatic and mundane, catching glimpses of ordinary lives and extraordinary creatures, and watch as small moments...

On this episode, we use the popularity of the first season of X-Men 97 as an excuse to tackle a story we've long had our eyes on: The Brood Saga from Uncanny X-Men #162-167 by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum and Paul Smith, published by Marvel Comics! The X-Men have been captured by the Brood (a race of nasty winged aliens) and implanted with eggs—when they hatch, the X-Men will transform into super...

 Mild parental advisory warning: The b-word is used once or twice. On this episode, the recent launch of the series "Ripley" on Netflix gives us a reason to discuss Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith, by Grace Ellis and Hannah Templer, published by Surely/Abrams ComicArts! When we meet the future author of "The Talented Mr. Ripley," she's struggling to ov...

One of our co-hosts is quarantined at home, so we've decided to postpone our next proper episode until we can be together in person! Meanwhile, Curt surprises Kevin with a pop quiz on quotes from books we've covered on the podcast. How good is Kevin's recall? (Spoiler: It's bad! Very, very bad!)

 Content warning (death by suicide) Our reexamination of Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns continues! How good IS this story, really? Will things go differently than they did in our fourth episode way back in 2016, allowing this universally acclaimed 1986 miniseries to avoid nuclear winter and score a ticket to that David Endocrine Show studio audience known as ... The Comics Canon? I...

Explicit (a few swears scattered throughout) and content warning (brief mentions of death by suicide and attempted sexual assault) This isn't a podcast—it's an operating table, and we're the surgeons! This time, we revisit one of our most controversial episodes (okay, pretty much our only "controversial" episode) with the first installment of a two-part, in-depth reexamination of Frank Miller's 19...

On this episode, it's the return of "Miller March," featuring a month of Frank Miller comics! First up is the 1982 miniseries Wolverine by Chris Claremont and the aforementioned Mr. Miller, published by Marvel Comics! The very first comic series to feature Wolverine's name in the title takes Logan to Japan, where his lady love Mariko has entered into an abusive marriage arranged by her father, the...

On this episode, we take a long-overdue look at one of the most influential manga of the last 50 years: Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima! Specifically, selected stories from Vol. 1: The Assassin's Road, as published by Dark Horse Manga! Who is this taciturn assassin known as Lone Wolf and Cub? Why does he push his young son across feudal Japan in a wooden baby carriage with a ban...

Our two-part look at Hulk/Thing fights wraps up with a look at one of the twosome's more recent titanic tussles in Fantastic Four Vol. 6, issues 12 and 13, by Dan Slott and Sean Izaakse, published by Marvel Comics! But first, because this episode drops on Valentine's Day, we discuss the wedding of Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters in Fantastic Four Vol. 6 issue 5, most notably the story "4-Minute Warni...

In this episode, IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME as we kick off a two-part look at one of Marvel Comics' most storied traditions: epic slugfests between the Hulk and the Thing! Specifically, the first two face-offs between these fearsome foes in Fantastic Four #12 and #25-26, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby! First, everyone's on their worst behavior as General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross enlists the FF's aid in s...

Content warning: Mentions of suicide; general gaslighting, psychological domestic abuse. In this episode, we look back at one of the best-reviewed books of 2023: A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll, published by First Second! Shy, awkward Abby is newly married to widowed dentist David and adjusting to domestic life with him and his pre-teen daughter Crystal. But David's stories about his past wi...

In this not-so-mini mini-episode, we look back on the last episodes, each ranking our 10 favorites. How many titles did we agree on? We also discuss Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the Transformers movies, the current state of the Big Two publishers, comic strips, some things we'd like to cover in the coming year, and a possible reconsideration of one of our most controversial decisions! Plus: Curt...