Brooklyn head butts! Scip and Devon talk about crying! Poor little rich boys! In this, our eleventh podcast, the panelists talk about what is being done right in comics. That’s right, we do not only complain. So listen to hear us talk Iron Fist, Blue Beetle and the Retcon. Sugar is sweet – except when it’s not
This is my first comment after listening to all of your podcasts to date. First I express my laughter in listening to you guys talk about comics and expressing many of opinions about the medium. The dramatic readings are hilarious!
On the subject of retcons, I like them as long as they don’t take away from the basic elements of character’s history or personality. Jim Keller expresses many of my opinions about retcons on seqart.org in his article Too Many Retcons (http://www.sequart.com/articles/?article=1328). In addition to the retcons he mentions (Spider-Man’s Origin, Hank Pym, Scarlet Witch), I add my dislike of all retcons by John Byrne (except his re-imagination of Superman), Ed Brubaker (esp. X-Men: Deadly Genesis), and Brian Bendis (esp. Illuminati). Geoff Johns is a shining example of a writer who makes retcons good; unlike the previously mentioned writers who seem to go for shock value or shakeup with retcons, Johns goes for making sense out of confusion. He’s done this successfully in Hawkman and Infinite Crisis. I hope creators will make good stories without having to turn characters into what they think they should be via retcons. Then again, perhaps the same writers believe a retcon is necessary to free oneself of any continuity the writer finds restrictive or confusing.
First off, Blue Beetle is one of the best titles on the shelves.
Secondly, is there any way you guys could fiddle with the volume? Ben’s coming in (very) loud and clear, but Devon and Jon sound like they’re sitting at a different table. I even missed Scipio’s “quote of the week” on this one.
Sorry if I’m complaining about something you can’t do anything about. I just thought I should say something.