On this episode of X-Ray Vision, Jason Concepcion, Rosie Knight and Cody Ziglar fend off Battra, have a jam sesh with Spider-Punk, and more! That’s right: it’s volume three of X-Ray Vision’s Comics Corner (patent pending). First in Previously On (1:50), Jason and Rosie discuss the greenlit Batman sequel from Matt Reeves, Kevin Feige’s announcement at CinemaCon of ten more years of the MCU, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness being banned in Saudi Arabia, and the recently dropped Doctor Strange ‘Time’ trailer before the movie’s release on May 6. Then, they recap and discuss Moon Knight episode 5, “Asylum.” In the Airlock (39:47), Jason and Rosie are joined by co-host Cody Ziglar to dive deep (deeeeep) into the comics they are reading (and writing) right now, including Zig’s fantastic Spider-Punk, Rosie’s epic-looking Godzilla one-shot, a host of hero and non-hero comics recommendations, PLUS a comics reading list to prepare you for Doctor Strange. Finally, in Nerd Out (1:16:04) a listener pitches us on Team Starkid.

 

Tune in every Friday and don’t forget to Hulk Smash the Follow button!

 

Nerd Out Submission Instructions!

Send a short pitch and 2-3 minute voice memo recording to xray@crooked.com that answers the following questions: 1) How did you get into/discover your ‘Nerd Out?’ (2) Why should we get into it too? (3) What’s coming soon in this world that we can look forward to or where can we find it?

 

Follow Jason: twitter.com/netw3rk

Follow Crooked: twitter.com/crookedmedia

 

PLUGS:

Rosie’s IG, website, author archive, & Letterboxd.

 

The Listener’s Guide for all things X-Ray Vision!

Spider-Punk – written by Cody Ziglar, pencils by Justin Mason, letters by Jim Charalampidis and cover by Olivier Coipel.

 

Godzilla Rivals vs. Battra – By Rosie Knight, illustrated & cover by Oliver Ono.

 

Hulk (2021-) – By Donny Cates & Ryan Ottley.

 

Bonus: Enemy Mine (1985) – starring Dennis Quaid and Lou Gossett Jr. Available to rent on Amazon or AppleTV.

 

Marauders (2022- ) – By Steve Orlando & Eleanora Carlini with covers by Kael Ngu.

 

Marauders (2019- ) – By Gerry Dugan and Matteo Lolli and Phil Noto with covers by Russell Dauterman. 

 

The X Deaths of Wolverine (2022- ) – by Benjamin Percy & Federico Vicentini 

 

Arrive in My Hands by Trinidad Escobar from Black Josei Press.

 

Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion (2019) – by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba.

 

Immortal X-Men (2022- ) – By Kieron Gillen and Lucas Werneck with covers by Mark Brooks.

 

Maison Ikkoku (1980-87) – By Rumiko Takahashi; available from Viz Media.

 

Gleem (2019) – By Freddy Carrasco 

 

Mawrth Vallis (2021) – By EPHK. 

 

A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance (2021- ) – By Rick Remender and Andre Lima Araujo. 

 

DOCTOR STRANGE READING LIST

Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment (1989) – Written by Roger Stern with pencils and covers by Mike Mignola and Mark Badger.

 

Captain Carter (Began March, 2022) – Written by Jamie Mckelvie, pencils by Marika Cresta, cover by Mckelvie.

 

The Death of Doctor Strange (2021-2022, 5 issues) – Written by Jed MacKay, pencils by Lee Garbett, covers by Kaare Andrews.

 

House of M (2005, 8 core issues w other crossovers & tie-ins) – Written by Brian Michael Bendis, pencils by Olivier Coipel, covers by Esad Ribic.

 

Marvel Zombies (2005-06, 5 issues) – Written by Robert Kirkman, art by Sean Phillips, covers by Arthur Suydam.

 

Time Runs Out (2014-15) – Running from Avengers #35 – Avengers #44. Written by Jonathan Hickman and art by various, including Jim Cheung, Kev Walker, and Mike Deodato, among others.

 

TRANSCRIPT

 

 

Jason Concepcion: Warning. This podcast contains spoilers for Moon Knight Episode five as well as Series for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, as well as some plot points from various comic book runs. Check the show notes to see which ones we potentially spoil for you. If you don’t want to be spoiled by any of that stuff, read that stuff,  watch the stuff first, then come back.

 

Jason Concepcion: Hello. My name is Jason Concepcion . Welcome to X-ray Vision, the Crooked Podcast, where we dive deep into your favorite shows, movies, comics and pop culture. In today’s action packed episode in the Previously On, we will talk about lots of news that is hitting the Internet waves this week, including some interesting news from the MCU out of Cinemacon in the airlock. Our good friend Cody Ziglar joins us once again to talk about comics, talk about comics in general, what we’re reading, and also get together and kind of help us brainstorm a reading list of comics for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In Our Nerd Out, our listener tells us about Star Kid Productions. And of course, if you want to jump around, check out the timestamps in the show notes. Joining me right now is The Walking Comics Genius, the writer of a Godzilla comic coming out soon, one of the best ever to do it. It’s Rosie Knight, Rosie, how are you? Thank you.

 

Rosie Knight Hello. I’m good. I’m good. How are you?

 

Jason Concepcion: Doing good. Um…Let’s get into it. First up, in Previously On a shocking news: Batman sequel Greenlit!

 

Rosie Knight I Can’t Believe It.

 

Jason Concepcion: With director Matt Reeves and star Robert Pattinson returning. Of course, this announcement has been made at Cinemacon, the the ongoing convention of upcoming movie properties that is going on in Las Vegas right now. The movie, of course, has been a critical and commercial success, having made over $700 million on the trot right now. No surprises here, right, Rosie? No surprises here.

 

Rosie Knight No, especially I think it was very well received from all different kinds of people, people who love these movies, people who don’t love them, people who love certain iterations of the DCU, people who loved different ones. It was widely enjoyed, widely beloved. Robert was great. Matt did a great job and they obviously spoiler alert introduced a very big famous Batman antagonist. So I think this was always meant to happen. And then the critical and commercial love for it makes it easy to happen. I’m excited to see what happens next. I thought movie was so great.

 

Jason Concepcion: Does Robert Pattinson’s Batman become like “the Batman” in a shared DC universe or what do they do?

 

Rosie Knight I think Reeves’ universe acts as a year one, year two, zero year ish soft reboot.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah I like that. I like that.

 

Rosie Knight I think that in the major DCEU stuff that we still have going on, like for example, the Flash, which we know will probably introduce a new Justice League and kind of mainline characters. I think they’re going to be looking for something a little bit different, a little bit younger. Also with a Keaton returning, you could have someone like that as your main Batman, who’s more of a Batman Beyond.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight Like era of Bruce rather than being the actual Batman Beyond. But so, I don’t know. I think Matt’s vision is so specific and unique, and I think now let them have a couple more movies before it becomes too entangled with the wider DCEU.

 

Jason Concepcion: Next up, Kevin Feige is representing Marvel, of course, at Cinemacon. And there is some some interesting news out of there. First of all, Feige told the audience that directly after the convention, he’s going to a Marvel Studios creative retreat where they will work on the next decade of MCU work. This mirrors the famed Marvel retreats that have been going on at least since the 2000s in in Marvel Comics universe. No surprise here, right? This is just kind of what you live.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah. I think it’s really interesting. I think we can guess the big hit is that they’re going to be talking about how do you bring in the Fantastic Four? How do you bring in the X-Men? Who’s going to be the next Avengers team? What I’m very interested in is in the original iteration of the MCU, there was a story group that included comic book creators.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight And that has since been, to our knowledge, kind of disbanded.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight And I wonder if they’re doing a retreat, we’re going to see some kind of story group re-enlisted, whether it’s comic book creators or people from the Marvel TV shows or a wide group of people. Because usually if you’re having a retreat, that’s a brainstorming session to break this stuff out. I think that means we could probably be getting a Marvel likes to do those big days.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight They used to do them at the El Capitan where they announced them. Now they do them as these kind of Disney preview days where they tease stuff. I think we could be getting one of those in the next few months if this retreat is happening.

 

Jason Concepcion: Some footage was apparently showed to the gathered throngs of sizzle reel footage that has been described as. It’s unclear if it’s like a still or a few seconds of video, but it’s been described as Nakia, Shuri and Okoye involved in some kind of big battle. So that is very exciting. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige also promised that Ryan Coogler is working very hard on the sequel. No, no, no surprise there. And of course, around this movie, there have been rumors swirling for a while that we will we will be introduced to some Marvel Comics mainstays, probably headliner among them is Namor, the leader of Atlantis. King of Atlantis. And then, of course, Riri Williams, the genius of the Marvel Universe, also known as Ironheart, who will also be appearing in her own Disney Plus series. These are that’s unconfirmed, but that’s stuff people have been talking about for a while.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah.

 

Jason Concepcion: Much in the same way that they were talking about the Illuminati for months and months and months before. It was very hard confirmed by the recent Doctor Strange trailer. And speaking of Doctor Strange, Doctor Strange banned in Saudi Arabia over Disney’s decision to not cut about 12 seconds. Apparently, this is reported by The Guardian. 12 seconds from the film that deal with  America Chavez played by the actor Xochitl Gomez in which America is discussing her two moms. So, I get shouts to Disney for deciding not to cut that. Not a big deal.

 

Rosie Knight So that’s probably the only gay thing in the movie. So prepare yourself. If that was what they asked to be cut, that’s probably the extent.

 

Jason Concepcion: I think we will all probably be surprised at how mild it is and that is. Yeah, go ahead.

 

Rosie Knight It makes sense with our comic book canon.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yes.

 

Rosie Knight She has queer moms. Utopian parallels. Very gay. Yeah. So it’s nice to know that they’re sticking to that. Yeah, I’m intrigued. Good to see little things like refusing to cut like this. I hope there’s something more, but we shall see.

 

Jason Concepcion: And then finally, new Doctor Strange trailer. Probably the last new Doctor strange stuff we’re going to see considering the movie comes out May 6th. And, you know, it’s a mishmash of cuts that we’ve already seen. But the important thing is we hear the word Illuminati spoken in this by Baron Mordo, leading us to question a lot of things, including like, man, how did Mordo get get his like ticket punch to club Illuminati before Stephen Strange. This is very interesting.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah. I mean, is it our universe’s Mordo? Is this a Mordo who was the source for Supreme in a Different Universe? Is this a Mordo who has been enlisted by the Illuminati? Because for some reason they couldn’t trust Strange and they needed someone to kind of be a counterpart. Is it about Mordo who they need him to have more of that complex gray moral compass?

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight To do things that maybe Stephen wouldn’t do. It’s very interesting, and I think it is. I can’t work out if it’s a massive reveal or a massive misdirect that they mentioned it. And I’m like, What does this mean for the Illuminati? Are they going to be a keeper? Is this… Do they know people are excited? It was it got me excited.

 

Jason Concepcion: I am extremely excited. And my… My gut feeling tells me that they’re going to be like one scene and thats it.

 

Rosie Knight Right.

 

Jason Concepcion: You know it’s going to be like a glimpse.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah, as soon as they said the name, I was like, That feels like we’re going to see them for maybe one scene, but I’ll be happy with the one scene.

 

Jason Concepcion: I will be very, very happy. Listen, if we see Patrick Stewart and that little that little shiny head of his as Charles Xavier up on that little Illuminati stage, I will be very, very excited. Okay.

 

Rosie Knight The way that people responded in the theater when like, you know, we saw Charlie Cox as daredevil or we saw, you know, the Spider-Man come back. There’s no… Like if it’s going to be Charles, that’s going to be 10,000 times louder in that theater. And I cannot wait.

 

Jason Concepcion: It’s going to go absolutely crazy. Okay. And by the way, stay tuned in X-Ray Vision for more Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness coverage. Okay, let’s recap. Moon Night Episode five, Asylum, directed by Mohamed Diab, written by Rebecca Kirsh and Matthew Orton. This was…ugh… Just in terms of like performances, this is a tour de force for Oscar Isaac. We pick up right at the end of episode four where Marc and Stephen found themselves face to face with the Egyptian God Taweret,  hippo deity. The hippo deity having said oh hi to the two men, Steven and Marc, who are of course the same men leading them to scream, leading the hippo to scream. And we pick up right after that. Only Marc is back in Arthur Harrow’s office. And and right before that, we have these little flashes of what we take to be like memories, right? We have a child screaming in a dark place somewhere. We hear a woman saying, it’s all your fault. And then Marc finds himself back in Arthur’s office. Arthur mentions Marc, you’re in a mental hospital in Chicago. And your mind… The reason you’re here is because your mind keeps whipsawing between these, like, disconnected fantasies that you have created in order to deal with some kind of trauma. Let’s get to the center of what that trauma is. Marc, you ready? And Marc’s like, I don’t know because I don’t believe that you’re a real doctor. I think you’re Arthur Harrow, the genocidal maniac who’s trying to wake Ahmed. Arthur asks Marc to like, okay, so how did you get here? Do you remember that? And Marc admits, which I think is a big step for him, that you know listen… Things are happening that are completely nonsensical and I don’t necessarily know how to put all the pieces together. Arthur wants Marc to talk more about the little boy that he was apparently mentioning before we pick up the scene and before the Hippo character diverted him, Marc grows violent. He like tries to fight with some orderlies. The orderlies managed to stick a needle in his neck, and next thing you know, he’s back in front of Tawaret it with Stephen. And Tawaret would ask Stephen and Marc, you know, is like Marc always this intense? Tawaret then tells the to guess what? Surprise, you’re dead. Both of you are dead. This is now a second real, like interaction with people in a post life plane, the ancestral plane from Black Panther being the first time. But this is like our first extended time since then, added in a world that is post life leading to a question of like, when do we see someone? When do we see someone resurrected? Because it’s going to I mean, it arguably is going to happen right here. But I wonder if it happens with a major character at some point. Rosie, of course, like our character, our friends in these stories have died and come back many, many times in the comics. I wonder when it happens in the main movies.

 

Rosie Knight I think we’re close to it, and I think that this episode specifically leans into that because as we’ll get to in a bit, we meet Marc’s brother, and the version that we see of him here is very different in the comics. That is a character who has died and been resurrected, and the idea of resurrection and the kind of shadow of it over this episode is is really bad. So I think that could be something we see in Doctor Strange. We’ve seen versions of it in What If with the Zombies. Yes. So yeah, it feels like that they’re bringing in these multiple levels of existence and past life in a way that’s going to play into the future of the MCU.

 

Jason Concepcion: Tawaret then welcomes them to Duat, this place where souls begin their journey to the afterlife. It is one of many places, such places Tawaret mentions, much like the ancestral plane. And the reason they perceive this place as a mental hospital is because their minds, their human minds can’t possibly make sense of where they are. But, you know, shades of shades of Harry Potter, book seven. But like can’t you can’t possibly understand where they are. Therefore, they’re making it into a place that makes sense to them, thus the hospital. Marc then is like, I can’t deal with this. I’m going to I’m out of here. He throws open a pair of doors and he finds himself on the deck of this huge ship that is sailing across the sands of the underworld. And they’re on their way to A’Aru, which is like the eternal paradise of field of reeds. Terawatt says she reaches into their chests and pulls out these little ivory hearts, stone hearts, which she will then weigh in order to see if they’re balanced, if they’re if the things that they’ve done throughout their lives have led to their their deeds being balanced, and thus they are able to be admitted into the field of reeds. And if they’re not sound worthy, no big deal, they’re just thrown over the side into the sands where they’re like torn apart by the other unworthy souls who lurk there in the underworld. So not a big deal. But here’s a problem. The hearts that Tawaret removed because they’re from one person who has been split, somehow broken, somehow they’re not whole. And thus Stephen and Marc can’t get into the underworld. Stephen and Marc need to reunite their fractured pieces of soul, pieces of heart, and bounce the scales before they arrive at the field of reeds. Quick note this little line from Tawaret was a great okay, here’s the mission for the rest of the episode. Like, it’s like it was a great here’s what they’re doing line. If they fail again, no big deal their souls will just simply be destroyed. The good news, everything that they have ever experienced is on the ship. All their memories are on their ship. So it’s time to go back inside this faux mental hospital and just, like, learn about each other. Marc is very resistant. He doesn’t want to do this. He and Stephen are discussing it, and Stephen’s like, No, I think we should do this. It’s a good idea. Like, we need to find out, like what the secrets that you’re hiding are with the secrecy buried are. And Marc is like, I don’t know what if we like, like attack Tawaret, the Egyptian god of women and children and maybe like tie her up and take it take the ship. Marc.

 

Rosie Knight Classic Marc.

 

Jason Concepcion: Classic Marc. No, don’t do that. Stephen says, no, we’re not going to do that. We’re going to do what she says. And then he then sees like a strange scene through a window and door. He sees moonlight in action kicking ass and through another window they see Stephen and Khonshu turning back the stars as Layla watches. Then they hear the boy again in some kind of terror. They enter a cafeteria that is filled with dead bodies. And these apparently are all the people that Marc his killed over the course of his of his service. Well, the course of his life, including his service to Khonshu, and guess what is a lot of people, folks.

 

Rosie Knight He killed a lot of people. And let’s let’s keep that in mind because I have some thoughts about the end of this episode. So let’s keep in mind how many people Marc Spector killed. Marc, not Stephen. Marc.

 

Jason Concepcion: Marc. It’s a cafeteria worth of people. Like it’s legitimately a full cafeteria and people. Marc insists, listen, these were bad folks, as far as I know. Bad people, Marced by the vengeance of Khonshu, were notably leaving out any of the people he killed as a mercenary. Okay, but interesting fact, once this once this detail about Marc has been revealed, the scales, which had been kind of like going back and forth, unbalanced, are now beginning to slow. This process of revealing, of working through these past memories is working. The child that they’ve been hearing now appears in the room. Steven goes after Marc. He’s like, Don’t do that. And Stephen looks in a room of Marc’s memories and discovers, Marc. This boy is Marc as a boy. And we see Marc as a boy with his parents and his little brother. Marc’s mom is telling Marc, listen, you’ve young Marc, you’ve got to watch over your little brother. That’s your job. That is your responsibility. The boys then go off through the woods down into a cave, which they are looking to explore. And a rainstorm, a flash thunderstorm happens and the cave quickly fills with water flooding. And Marc’s brother dies. Our Marc then enters a memory of his family sitting shivering for his brother. Marc’s mom, Wendy, blames the death explicitly on Marc. Like, straight up is like, that’s your fault, which is fucked up. Marc’s father remains over the course of time, we would surmise, close to Marc. But his mother is increasingly hateful, clearly depressed and and vengeful, lashing out all the time. We see young Marc fleeing into his bedroom. Stephen tries to go and see what’s going to go on in there, but Marc won’t let him go see it. We get another memory of younger Marc, teenage Marc now leaving home with his father, insisting, listen, your mother is going to get help. I know that she’s in a bad way right now, very toxic. But like she’s going to get help. He shouldn’t leave. Marc then takes Stephen away from this memory. They end up in an even more troubling memory. Dead bodies in the desert at night in front of the tomb of Khonshu. And this, of course, of the fateful night from Marc’s mercenary days, where he first makes the acquaintance of Khonshu. One of the dead there laying under the moon is Layla’s dad. Woops. Marc, grievously wounded, is preparing to take his own life and then hears the voice of Khonshu. And Khonshu’s like, “Hey, wow, you’re a really fucked up person with a lot of problems. And I’m sensing, you know, a fractured psyche. You’re perfect. You’re perfect for what I have in mind, which is you are my hands, my eyes, my vengeance, my final word against evil doers on earth. So that’s the deal. You serve me on Earth, I heal you. You go out and kill people for me, or you die right here”.  And so Marc takes the deal. Khonshu, you know, clearly a very exploitive person. Stephen points this out to Marc like Khonshu was an asshole. Khonshu saw a mentally ill person who was bad and decided, I can exploit this person. And yes, Marc says he did that, but he also kept us alive. And then suddenly the scales are balanced. Outside in the Duat, a storm is brewing. They go back up to the to the deck of the ship and Tararet is like you see all these purple things raining out from the sky. Guess what that is? That’s people that Harrow is killing up in the real world, just as he promised to do. Marc and Stephen then ask Tarawet okay, send us back like we can stop him. Like send us back to life. And before you do that, get a message to Layla to free Khonshu so that, you know, like when we go back into a body filled with bullets Khonshu can put the suit on us and heal us and we’ll come back and we can and we can fight Arthur Harrow. Tarawet is like that’s a bad idea because you were both just coming to the place where you realized that Khonshu was, like, bad for you. Like, God, Khonshu is like a bad a person to be involved with. But okay, like, I guess, what choice do we have? She turns the boat around. Steven wants to go back into that bedroom memory. Marc resists. Steven says, Listen, if all these people die because you won’t let me see this memory, that’s going to be your fault. If Layla dies, it’s going to be your fault. All that stuff is going to be your fault. Now, of course, this is exactly the same thing that his mother, Marc’s mother, said to him. And that was kind of the beginning of this of this traumatic break. And it causes Marc to just crumble. He shatters. He finds himself back in Arthur Harrow’s office. Arthur raises the possibility that Steven was created by Marc to hide trauma, which turns out to be very, very right. Harrow wants Marc to open up to Stephen so that Stephen can understand the things that Marc is hiding from Steven, that Marc created Steven to hide from himself. We go to the room. Marc’s childhood room. And in there we see an appalling scene. Marc’s mom abusing him physically. Steven is appalled. Discover that not only this terribly troubling violent scene, but also that he kind of doesn’t exist. Like he’s not a quote unquote real person. He is a creation of Marc created specifically to hide this trauma. And then now Steven finds himself in Harrow’s office. Harrow wants to call Steven’s mother on the phone to discuss this situation. Stephen’s like, Oh, don’t do that. Harrow then gets her on the phone and he’s talking to her. Stephen realizes, Wait, that can’t be, because Marc’s mother is my mother, and Marc’s mother is dead, therefore she is dead. Therefore, all of my memories of having a great relationship with my mom and all these phone calls I was having with her from the museum and from my apartment, those are all fake. That’s not real. We see then the memory of Marc at his outside, his mother’s shiva. They see the moment that Stephen took over from Marc outside, outside the Shiva. And this is apparently only two months prior, which is wild. Stephen then lets Marc know that their brother’s death was not his fault. And back on the ship, the unbalanced souls of the Duat begin to climb onto the deck. Marc and Stephen fight them that you fight together. But in the end, Stephen falls overboard and Marc’s creation dies, thus balancing the scales and Marc enters the the the field of reeds. Cue the credits. Rosie, your thoughts.

 

Rosie Knight Okay. So that these making shows about this stuff is very complex and sometimes going to be for some people and sometimes it’s not. The representation and way they chose to go for it in this episode didn’t particularly work for me, and a major part of it hangs on the final thing. So if you’re deemed worthy to go through to the field of reeds due to judging your heart, how come Marc goes through and he’s a mass murderer just because suddenly he doesn’t have an alternative personality? That seems like not well thought out to me. It kind of like digs into some of the book. I feel like this is a really ambitious episode, but I also feel like it could have been the third episode and then we’d have three more episodes to explore it. That’s kind of where my my head is.

 

Jason Concepcion: I felt the same way. Although I will say this. One: my guess is that the final episode will clear up whatever hanging threads we have and that maybe the loophole here is that because Marc Spector became a mass murderer in the service of an Egyptian God, Khonshu.

 

Rosie Knight I can see your narrative.

 

Jason Concepcion: You know,So like yeah, you’re not getting into the ancestral plane or Valhalla, right? You know, but much like if Thor, as we all know, young Thor, you know, back in the Viking days, took part in human battles, killed, we would surmise, many, many, many, many people in the in the prosecution of various Viking wars. Right. That Odin blessed as being sign therefore he could enter you know, like the Asgardian afterlife but maybe like the the the Egyptian afterlife would be close to him, maybe in a similar way. That is why. It’s not necessarily.

 

Rosie Knight Thoughtful. You know, that’s very thoughtful, generous take. And I like it.

 

Jason Concepcion: It’s not necessarily that it’s not is like Marc is a great guy. It’s just like, well, Khonshu, who’s one of us said, go ahead and do this. This is fine and therefore it’s life.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah and don’t pay for his sins. So I think that narratively if we get like the feelings, all the feelings and it’s all subjective and I’m sure there’s loads of people, that’s really what for. So narratively I think the big thing when we talk about things to tie up, aside from potentially a little bit more about the alters, is Jake Lockley. So yeah, is Jake Lockley in this episode? There is a moment in Arthur Harrow’s office where Marc or Stephen wakes up and he’s got a slightly heavier Chicago accent. He’s got a bandage across his nose, and he immediately goes for violence. So he’s like, Yeah, I feel great. Well done.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yes, great point.

 

Rosie Knight You’re doing a great job. Is that Jake Lockley? Are we going to find out that Jake Lockley is that violent alter third alter that’s in there? Like, I think that for people who love Moon Knight Comics or love Moon Knight as a character, I think that that final episode is going to need to lean in a little bit more to those different iterations because we’ve had that emotional Marc and Stephen story here, even though it does diverge quite a lot from the comic’s origin. We’ve had that kind of big emotional moment. So what will happen next? Because Marc is now alone. So does he go off to Khonshu? Does he unlock another alter? What do you think it’s going to be?

 

Jason Concepcion: I suspect that we have not because of the hints like the one you just mentioned from Arthur Harrow’s office, plus the one that we had discussed from a couple of episodes back where Marc is fighting these, the Arthur Harrow’s like heavies in Egypt. And then all of a sudden. He goes to the switch where usually you would expect Steven to take control here. But we just get black and we don’t know who. And and the pinches have been taken out. And it wasn’t Marc and it wasn’t Steven. So who was it? We’ve got these hints that there is another alter waiting to reveal to be revealed. And I feel like we’re going to that feels like the other shoe to drop. All of which is to say, I, I can’t imagine that we’ve seen the last of Steven like no, I don’t know what it means that he, quote unquote, died in the sands of Duat and it was pulled under. But I feel like that alter is still going to be around. I don’t know how they’re going to get through that or how they’re going to work that out. But it feels like other alters are still waiting to come out.

 

Rosie Knight I think so. And we’ve talked a lot about the the Geoff LeMay, Greg Smallwood stuff which is like Moon Knight Volume eight. And that stuff definitely deals with this concept of how do, how does Marc come to a peace.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight That accepts who he is and that could be who he is alone or it could be who he is with the alters. And seeing as they established this notion that each of the alters has a different suit. I feel like that might turn into more of a classical superpower in the future, where it’s like the old and new night comics where he slips in and out. And while that is not a realistic representation you know of D.I.D.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight I think that they they put their effort into doing this emotional episode this week and we might kind of see how Marc and Moon Knight transcend. It feels like a lot to wrap up in a final episode, so I wonder if this is going to be a low key where they just announced the second season?

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah, it feels like a tremendous amount to wrap up. Producer Saul. Super producer Saul in the chat mentions how would they manage any Egyptology without Stephen? And I think that’s a good point.

 

Rosie Knight That’s such a good point.

 

Jason Concepcion: We still such a good point. Yeah, we still have Arthur Harrow and the Ahmet crisis to deal with. Arthur Harrow is up there….

 

Rosie Knight Where’s Layla?

 

Jason Concepcion: Layla.. Arthur Harrow’s up there legitimately like raining souls down into the afterlife before their time. So that has to be dealt with. And Marc, with just his knowledge is not going to be up to it now. In a post field of reeds a like reality is Marc slash Stephen slash potentially Jake are they just like more much like the comic books they they’re still there those memories are still there. Those personalities quote unquote are still there in some kind of form or fashion. But the the the the demarcations between them are more amorphous and they’re more and more I mean, we legitimately saw like a balancing of scales. Maybe they they reside together in a more more or less healthy, quote unquote way. Is that what we see going forward?

 

Rosie Knight I think we could definitely see that. And I think that it will be really interesting to see the way they approach it, because this is something that comics and superhero shows have done before, like Legion and, you know, Doom Patrol really focused on it with Jane. So I’m really interested to see because I feel like they’ve established little things here that make you think you’re going to need to see these characters again. One being that Stephen is like a lot of people’s favorite character. Yeah. And somebody that they connected with is that in character? And who they feel represented by is kind of like a guy just trying to do the best in his life. So I think for him to never be there again and for it to just be kind of cold hearted, I’m going to shoot some people. Marc, that doesn’t seem likely to me.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah. And quick couple other questions. How does he get back to Earth? I mean, it seemed like Tarawet could just send him like she was not. Her objection was like I would send you back to a body that is grievously wounded with a bunch of bullets in his chest. Not, I can’t do it. So I guess theoretically wouldn’t be that hard. You just have to find the right God to agree to do it, right?

 

Rosie Knight Yeah. How how experimental is it going to be? Are we going to get an episode that leans into that Smallwood- Lemay stuff where he’s suddenly in all the bodies and he’s kind of using them to go through. He’s going to be Jake, he’s going to be this to survive. Is it just as simple as Tarawet sending him back? She’s the goddess of children, of protection, of fertility. Maybe she can help because the scales are balanced now. Maybe Arthur Harrow will bring him back, like in some kind of Joker- Batman situation where he needs Marc to see that he’s one to see the truth of Khonshu. You know, we we saw Layla’s dad wearing the scarlet scarab robe. There’s a chance that Layla, with the scarab or a different kind of artifact, has the power to bring Marc back. I think from the pacing of this episode, we’ll probably be boom right back in the real world next week.

 

Jason Concepcion: I think that that is probably the case. And I guess my my overarching question is like, does Moon Knight enter? Like, do we get a season two and does he enter like larger stories? And then as a kind of adjunct to that, I think we both like, I’m pretty convinced that this is the main MCU, right? This is this is where this is happening. The mention of the ancestral plane. Plus, like some of the other, the other, the GCQ cues and like other things lead us to believe that, okay, this is the the the regular MCU. Another question, which I think was like an interesting implication of Taro at mentioning the ancestral plane. MM How much do other deities know about other deities? Like we’re going to see in Love and Thunder, Thor going to different places and meeting other gods and meeting the to the Greek gods. But I wonder how much they all know about each other.

 

Rosie Knight I wonder if that is the secret seed that New Knight is sowing. We’ve always been wondering like, is Stephen going to be in their main MCU? Is Marc is Moon Night? And maybe? Probably? Maybe not. I don’t know. Maybe what they’re really sewing here is more of that God and deity back story. Those connections between the in that between Sekmet, who became the panther in lion gods in Wakanda, between Tarawet that between Ahmet, but then, Anubis and then it seems like it can’t be a a kind of coincidence that that is leading quite closely into love and thunder where we’re going to meet the Greek deities.

 

Jason Concepcion: I feel the same way deities.

 

Rosie Knight So maybe that is the bigger picture here because you know, it’s we love this stuff, which is why we pick it apart. So obviously the obvious questions are like all Arthur Harrow has a power much bigger than the Infinity Gauntlet and nobody’s doing anything.

 

Jason Concepcion: Nobody’s doing anything. Where is everybody?

 

Rosie Knight That’s always funny to us, but also in the comics that we know that there are times when someone’s doing some multiversal destruction shenanigans and the only person you send is Hawkeye. So it happens. You know.

 

Jason Concepcion: One of my favorite one of my favorite things about any comic book story is like the line in like a Wolverine or a Hawkeye or a Captain America or a Thor comic where it’s like, where are the Avengers? Oh they’re  busy? Yeah. They’re busy right now. I mean, it’s like, you know. They’re dealing with their own stuff and then it’ll be like, you know, a little asterisk see Avengers, blah, blah, blah for 256.

 

Jason Concepcion: Okay. Up next, our friend Cody Ziglar joins us and we talk comics.

 

[AD]

 

Jason Concepcion: Okay, folks, we’re stepping out of the airlock and into the comics corner with our good friend, Cody Zig Ziglar.

 

Cody Ziglar: Yeah, baby.

 

Jason Concepcion: Please pick up Cody Ziglar, Justin Mason, Jim Charlampidis’ Spider Punk #1, wherever you can find it, because it’s sold out many many places. It Is super, super fun. Cody, thank you for joining us. Its time to talk comics, man.

 

Cody Ziglar: Of course.

 

Jason Concepcion: And it’s time to talk comics. Let’s talk about it.

 

Cody Ziglar: Yes.

 

Jason Concepcion: First of all, how have you been what are you going off to do?

 

Cody Ziglar: Dude,I’ve been great. I’ve been so incredibly busy, as I’m sure you can tell from my social media posts. I’m good. I’m currently about to finish this season of Futurama and I’m almost, almost, almost about to finish issue five of Spider Punk as soon as I.

 

Rosie Knight Amazing.

 

Cody Ziglar: That’s right. So as soon as I get through this little bit of Elden ring, I’m going to go to my computer and finish this last issue. Baby, that’s in my pocket.

 

Jason Concepcion: We got to know where are you in the ring right now? What’s going on with it? Where are you in the in the mission? Are you Elden Lord yet?

 

Cody Ziglar: I am not. But I have dethroned Margot, the fell king.

 

Jason Concepcion: Get him outta here.

 

Cody Ziglar: So he’s out of there. So.

 

Rosie Knight He’s gone?

 

Cody Ziglar: Yeah. Next I got. Next I got. I guess I got to find a giant in the snow. I don’t know. Everyone’s foot in my ass right now, so I have to do some grinding to.

 

Jason Concepcion: Let me tell you that, the giant. No spoilers. That is a fight, my friend.

 

Cody Ziglar: Oh, boy.

 

Jason Concepcion: And it’s one of the fights where you’re fighting the guy and you’re like, Man, I feel bad about having to kill this guy, but then you feel less bad because he just, like, whips your ass off anyway. Great. That’s a fun fight. Enjoy that. Oh, thank you. Let’s get into the comics then. The reason that we wanted to do this episode one is because we love talking about comics and the two we wanted to so we want to talk about the things that we’re reading right now, the things we really like. And then and then as a way to prepare people for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, talk about some of the Doctor Strange related comics that we think we might come up. But first, let’s talk about what we’re reading right now. Zig,what are you what are you reading right now, man?

 

Cody Ziglar: I have you can’t see, but I have such a huge stack of stuff, so I’m just going to do like my top three.

 

Rosie Knight I love this.

 

Cody Ziglar: I yelled about this yesterday or the other day in our pre pro meeting, but Gleem by Freddy Carrasco is a book that I picked up a couple a couple of months ago and it’s right up my alley. Actually. I’ve been reading a bunch of cape stuff because I’ve just been in the Cape World for.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah.

 

Cody Ziglar: Basically the past year. But if you’re looking for like a fantastic like Afrofuturism black cyberpunk story, I highly recommend this. He’s a Canadian black Canadian artist who I think lives works Japan now, but it’s a collection of three vignettes, three short stories with a very, very, very loose throughline. But it’s got some fantastic art very, very loose from the hip with the actual story. So like, you’re looking for like some fantastic, like sequential art just following the action in the flow of stuff like this. Really for vibes only I highly recommend Gleem G-L-E-E-M pick it up.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah, that, that book is unbelievable. And when I have my first in-person meeting with Oliver Ohno, who’s doing the art for my Godzilla comic, that was one of the guys.

 

Cody Ziglar: Yes.

 

Rosie Knight And he was like, what do you think? And I was like, you know. I think, you know.

 

Jason Concepcion: Perfect transition to to you. Rosie, Rosy Knight. First of all, you got to tell us about your Godzilla comic. What is going on with the Godzilla comic? When can we purchase this comic?

 

Rosie Knight Okay. So that is available for preorder now. Yes, it was in this month’s catalog. I have got a link on my Instagram bio where you can go and get all the information that you can give to your comic book shop if you have a Penguin Random House account. You can also order it on their website, but you can just go to your shop and say the name of the comic. Although there are no is the.

 

Jason Concepcion: What is the name of the comic? Just so we all know.

 

Rosie Knight It’s called Godzilla Rivals versus Battra. Mm hmm. And that is because it is part of the ongoing Marvel series, which features stories from the Godzilla movie Monster Universe. And they’re completely unconnected to the movies, and they’re just solo 40 page one show issues. And mine is with Oliver, who’s an astonishing artist, who is also inking, coloring the whole book. And it’s really cool. It’s like classic Godzilla. Studio Ghibli.

 

Jason Concepcion: Oh, oh, oh. Hello.

 

Cody Ziglar: Yes, yes.

 

Rosie Knight There’s an entire page that’s just cooking. This is the there’s at least one page.

 

Cody Ziglar: I just added it to my pool list.

 

Rosie Knight Thank you. You know, I get Spider Punk every month.

 

Jason Concepcion: What is your what’s your relationship to Godzilla? Why Godzilla? Why this story? Like, what is what is what spoke to you about Godzilla?

 

Rosie Knight I absolutely love Godzilla. I am seeing currently where I record my podcast, where this podcast where there is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, seven Godzilla figures and a reclining sofa. I’ve always loved Godzilla. I have a baby Godzilla tattoo of Manila. I remember watching them as a kid, and here now, like, there’s so many brilliant ways to revisit them, whether you’re watching them dubbed on like Comet or whether you’re getting the Criterion versions, which are incredible. I think the stories that they have the same thing we love about comics where Godzilla comes from a space of being this incredibly important, personal, analogous story about Japan and nuclear war and and the hazards of the nuclear bomb. And it has evolved in these moments where it’s totally wacky and outrageous, but it always has this ecological throughline, which I just think is really powerful. And that’s a big part of our story, like it’s set in England, but it was very much inspired by the area I live in on like the coast of L.A., L.A. And there were just so many sewage spills over like months, just every month, just sewage spills, sewage spill, sewage spill. And it always happens in the area, which is mostly poor people, mostly black and brown people. That’s like that environmental kind of racism element. So bring in like those elements in and trying to imagine like a better world with cool people who want to change things but also would like giant monsters fighting.

 

Cody Ziglar: Yes.

 

Rosie Knight There’s lots of giant monsters fighting.

 

Jason Concepcion: I love it. I love it.

 

Rosie Knight All of it delivers on the giant monsters.

 

Jason Concepcion: And then, Rosie, what are you reading right now? What is your first recommendation for us?

 

Rosie Knight My first recommendation is this. I’m going to go I’m going to follow this lead. I’m going to go non cape. Right now. There is this brilliant independent publisher called Black Jersey Press, which I just love. I’ll read anything from there. And they published this unbelievable collection of queer comics called Arrive in My Hands. And even if you are like, Oh, erotic, that sounds a bit no, it’s like the most beautiful, poetic, stunning work by Trinidad Escobar. And I preordered the physical copies, which I think will be available soon. But there’s a PDF version that’s available. I just keep looking at it. It’s like one of those things where every time you look at you explore something new and it feels really transgressive and relatable and beautiful and the kind of thing where I’m just I’m so excited to show it to people and just be like, Do you know people are making comics like this? I’m like, This is this is what you can be enjoying alongside the monsters fighting and the superheroes and everything. You can get these really personal, beautiful comics made by brilliant, marginalized creatives, and Black Jersey Press just does nonstop publications like that. It’s one of my favorite publishers, and this book was just like even I have high expectations of that publisher, but it totally overwhelmed them. I just that book is so good. So ten out of ten recommendations.

 

Cody Ziglar: Yes.

 

Jason Concepcion: That’s awesome. I will go cape because I’ve been caping of the last couple of weeks too to bone up for movies and stuff they’re coming out and I was full disclosure never much of a Hulk person when I first started reading comics and despite the fact that like there was some really really you know Mr. Fix it era classic kind of like classic like Hulk stories at that time.

 

Cody Ziglar: Love a pintsuit.

 

Jason Concepcion: Love the pintsuit. But I just was never much of a Hulk person. Like, I’d check in for the big events, World War Hulk, you know, Planet Hulk, etc. Those are, of course, good. But I was never like a I’m reading the Hulk now. Immortal Hulk changed, turned my head a lot in ways that I was not expecting and. The ongoing series, the Hulk series by Donny Cates, Ryan Ottley, Cliff Rathburn and Frank Martin is really good and really interesting and takes. But, you know, it’s always like, how do we redefine the relationship between Bruce Banner and the Hulk? You know, it’s constantly changing. What how do we how do we make it new and fresh? And this time it’s Bruce Banner. Is both like the main character and kind of the bad guy, which is, I guess happened for a while. But he has turned the Hulk into like a pilotable, like Battle, like  Bio Battleship that like a like a mech suit that he is sitting like deep inside the psyche of the Hulk, piloting this Hulk around and having crazy fights and crazy images. Really, really good and really interesting. The art is fantastic.

 

Rosie Knight I was going to say Ryan Ottley. Getting Ryan Ottley on under that big two stuff is just like it’s.

 

Jason Concepcion: Just like so gnarly and like biological and and and the textures that he that he brings out are fantastic. It’s it’s great. And as a person who, again, has never really been much of a Hulk person. Just like straight up throughout the course of my comics, reading life has never been much of a Hulk person until recently. I’m really enjoying this book quite a bit.

 

Cody Ziglar: But you said you say mech hulk. I’m already in like.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah, yeah, yeah.I’m in.

 

Cody Ziglar: Say less.

 

Jason Concepcion: Back to you, Zig. What else?

 

Cody Ziglar: This is another non cape comic but Mawrth Valliis by EPHK It’s a it’s the viewers can’t our listeners can’t see this but it’s a

 

Rosie Knight I do it every time.

 

Cody Ziglar: It’s a quote unquote solid comic in that there’s words but it’s all gibberish and it’s just following a a fighter pilot two fighter pilots that are fighting over Mars. And they, they shoot each other down. They they just, you know, it’s like an enemy mine situation where they help each other out.

 

Jason Concepcion: Fuck yeah.

 

Cody Ziglar: If you’re looking for some. Really, really. He is a French artist and if you looking for some truly some of the most vivid sequential art and just storytelling out right now, I highly recommend this. It’s a it’s a pocket sized graphic novel, 128 pages, and it has the use of like red and orange. It’s fantastic. Like it flows together. There’s some really, really interesting panel layouts and just the use of language and you know, using a non language to convey emotion and like some fantastic acting with the drawing like. Check out Mawrth Valliis by EP HK.

 

Jason Concepcion: Shouts to the Enemy Mine Drop, which is really like forgotten sci fi movie from the eighties. It’s a gem starring Dennis Quaid and Louis Gossett, Jr as to, you know, two fighter pilots from from opposing warring factions, humans versus, I forget the name of the alien species, but they then crash land on a desolate planet and have to like, learn to live together. And it is like a heartbreaking story.

 

Cody Ziglar: Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah, I I’d never seen it until it was on broadcast a couple of years ago here. And I was just like, Oh, my fucking God, how is  nobody told me about this.

 

Jason Concepcion: It is like, I’m not even fucking around. Lou Gossett Jr should have been Oscar nominated for that fucking role.

 

Cody Ziglar: He crushes it.

 

Jason Concepcion: I’m not joking. It is not a fucking joke. Like in full makeup that must’ve taken hours and hours to get into. He is fully emotive, like breaks your heart in a million fucking ways. He should have been Oscar nominated.It’s an incredible movie. Find it if you can. Great movie. Enemy Mine. Rosie, up next for you.

 

Rosie Knight Okay. Okay. You flipped me. I was going to do a different. I’ll do this one. Maybe I’ll do one now because just talking about, like, really weird deep sci fi. So I, I, I was revisiting Umbrella Academy in the lead up to the third series and I read Hotel Oblivion Again, which was the third volume which came out like eight years after the second volume written by Gerard Way, with his collaborator Gabriel Ba, who is just so unreal. And if you want to get prepared for the third season introduction of the mysterious Sparrow Academy, kind of, then it’s a great thing to read. But if you just want to read a really weird.

 

Cody Ziglar: Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight Experimental sci fi comic which takes place in these two, it’s like some people are trapped in this hotel. Is it really a hotel? Is it like a cosmic kind of void? Like and it’s just Gabriel Ba is so good and so much of Umbrella Academy is like the creative teams love for the X-Men and for these stories. This volume is is not really that this volume is balls to the wall bonkers and I mean Gabriel’s art is like he’s just a star. Like, everything that he does is just beautiful. But like, I was so blown away rereading that book, I was just like, this is like no other superhero comic, you know, it’s Cape Comics, but it’s not. And that is just, it’s such a great read anyway. And it’s just a really easy volume and there’s so much fun to be had. But also if you if you’re excited about the new season. You want a primer? It works on that level as well. But I was I read it for that reason. Then I was just like, This is so weird in the best way. It really delivered on what you want from that kind of Umbrella Academy stance. So it was great.

 

Jason Concepcion: What I think Gerard Way might have the coolest second act like of people that I can think of in terms of like going into a completely different lane and being really good at it. Of course, like is the as the lead vocalist of My Chemical Romance was extremely influential. Mm hmm. But like the flipped to to comics and Umbrella Academy, I remember at the time being like, yeah, let’s see. And then being like, Oh, fuck, this is good. Shit.

 

Cody Ziglar: He stuck the landing twice.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah, it did. It wasn’t you, motherfucker.

 

Rosie Knight His story arc. Is so unbelievable as well, because he was like a go intern as a teenager. Yeah. And it was like, is this going to work? Is and. Oh, okay, no, I’ll go and start like the most famous emo like stadium rock band of, you know, the decade. But I’m staying friends with Jim Lee, who loves this kind of music and then kind of somehow you end up in this space where you create like one of not only one of the most successful indie comics, but then it becomes one of the biggest Netflix originals. I know so many people who love Umbrella Academy, who’ve never read a comic.

 

Cody Ziglar: Yeah, yeah,.

 

Rosie Knight They just love the show is a true crossover success in that way.

 

Jason Concepcion: When we’re back, more comics corner.

 

[AD].

 

Jason Concepcion: We’re back.So I’m going to go. Listen, I’ve been on my. I’m going to go cape again. I’ve been on my X-Men slash mutant thing as they are transitioning into the immortal X-Men Slash X-Men Red Phase shouts What a come up for my mutant family. They were on the verge of extinction.It was like less than 200 of them left. Now they’re colonizing Mars.

 

Cody Ziglar: Look at this now.

 

Jason Concepcion: Look at us now baby.

 

Rosie Knight Who would have  thought we’d be here?

 

Jason Concepcion: And kind of against all odds. I don’t know if that’s true. My favorite. I love my X-Men, but kind of my favorite. Like ongoing X solo title has been Marauders like the whole time. So Steve Orlando, Eleanora Cardellini, Matt Milla are they have just released Marauders number one. It’s kind of like a reboot of the ongoing Marauders title and it’s super fun. I’m enjoying spending the time on the high seas with Don’t Call Her Kitty, Catherine Pride, Lockheed and the rest of the pirate crew sailing from nation to nation, making sure that mutants can go to Krakoa if they so wish to do so. It’s been really fun. Lots of fun shenanigans with with, you know, the black king, Shaw, lots of stuff going on. It’s if you want to get into like an X book that is not so wrapped up in a lot of the ongoing like X politics. And it’s kind of like in my my read of it is kind of like the easiest to follow one. Like if you want to drop into the X world and you’re like, oh my God, you have to do like House of X and Dawn of X and all that stuff and get here yes and no. And you just want to pick it up and see what’s going on. I would. Marauders number one is a great place to get on end. The previous Marauders ongoing before the re-number was just super straightforward, really fun. Just like mutants on the high seas.

 

Rosie Knight I think. I think like one of the best things about the X titles at the moment is like they’re additive. So you can read the next book and really enjoy it. But like if you’ve read every other X book, you’re going to find even more to dig into and enjoy so you can find the one you like, whether it’s Hellions or Marauders and more x-Men, I thought was brilliant in the first issue. Like and then if you’ve read it, you get in-jokes and bits, but otherwise like you can go back and add more on to it. And it kind of works in this lateral way that I think is really cool for a wide line of comics.

 

Jason Concepcion: Shouts to Mr. Sinister going evil once again. He’s been played for laughs in Hellions 4.

 

Rosie Knight But I like it. He’s stayed sassy in the Mortal X-Men. He’s stayed sassy.

 

Jason Concepcion: He’s been incredibly sassy over the last year and a half, two years and now in the Mortal X-Men my guy is taking that kiltering but stil…Still snapping on people which I love.

 

Rosie Knight That first issue of Immortal X-Men has one of my all time recent fave lettering uses where they I think it’s Clayton Caligula as that but I’ll double check. But he goes he does like a war and the war is like it is huge when you read it in the context of the joke where he’s trying to act surprised and at the bottom it says like, was that too much? It’s so funny. I reread it multiple times and it’s made me laugh out loud. Like we all know this and we talked about Tom Miller’s amazing production design. But the the intricacies and detail and of quality that they’re putting in every level on those books is very good.

 

Jason Concepcion: Zig, you’re up.

 

Cody Ziglar: All right, so I’m off my art shit and onto, like, a more traditional comic, a righteous thirst from vengeance out of image.

 

Jason Concepcion: Ooh yes, yes.

 

Cody Ziglar: If you’re looking for a nice slow burn thriller comic, I highly recommend if you’re a fan of, like, History of Violence or Green Room or Blue Ruin, like those who have a gritty, grounded, also bizarrely hyper-violent action thrillers, I highly recommend a thirst for for A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance. And also, I defy you to read this and not picture Benedict Wong as the lead.

 

Jason Concepcion: I mean…And the cover.

 

Cody Ziglar: Its just Benedict Wong on the cover.

 

Jason Concepcion: It’s just Benedict Wong on the cover.. Yeah. Ah…. Rosie.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah I’m a go there… I’m going the other direction if you’ve read A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance and you’re like I need something really chill..Like a slice of life. One of my favorite comics of all time and probably my favorite living cartoonist, Rumiko Takahashi, who is behind any Yasha Lum. Basically any favorite anime or manga that you read as a teen? Rumiko is probably behind it, and she has this unbelievable slice of life book called Maison Ikkoku. That’s about a young widow who takes over an eclectic boarding house. And it is like the funniest, sauciest, silliest slapstick. Every single page, there’s something that will make you want to get a tattoo because Rumiko is stunning.

 

Jason Concepcion: Dangerous.

 

Rosie Knight She is stunning, like figure work and watercolors. And this is currently doing beautiful reprints. I think they’re up to volume seven now, but she’s also really good at a gag face. So if you love like Sailor Moon and you love one in the back, you see, like they got the little silly gag face is Rumiko just has that down pat it’s it’s a romance. It’s really thoughtful about grief, but it’s also like Rumiko is a very saucy cartoonist. Like she created Lum, who is like the sexy blue head alien with the leopard print bikini. There’s just there’s so much fun to be had. And this is like the Viz reprints that they’re doing of this. A bunch of other Rumiko stuff they did Mermaid Saga. They’re also doing Fist of the North Star  ones, they’re beautiful. They’re the kind of books that make you want to reread them. Like the the versions they’re doing are so beautiful. So yeah. Maison Ikkoku. I love this comic. I want everyone to read it. I want this to rerelease the live action eighties adaptation series that they made of it, which has never been rereleased. I need to see that so everyone go and read this so Visio will publish that.

 

Cody Ziglar: Man…Every time we do one of these episodes, my bank account is just has a strangle hold.

 

Jason Concepcion: I know it’s the same thing.

 

Rosie Knight Pain.

 

Cody Ziglar: I know, pain dude.

 

Jason Concepcion: Same for me. Okay? Ugh… My … This is really hard. But so I’ve been I’ve been very active on my Marvel Unlimited digging through the stacks. I’ve been I’ve been reading a lot of West Coast Avengers just, you know, catch the vibe and remember what that was like. And they recently released all of the X-deaths Wolverine series on there. And you know what? As a as a recovering Wolverine, Logan had…

 

Rosie Knight Everyone our age was 200 comics.

 

Jason Concepcion: You know, I was like, as a kid, that was it. I was a Logan- head. I’d run around and wonder Man what it would be. How cool would it be to have, like, little metal claws come out of my knuckles and, like, have.

 

Rosie Knight It hurts every time.

 

Jason Concepcion: Every time I’m the best there is or what I do. But what I do is very nice and it’s read comics all the time. I think that excess Wolverine is super fun. It’s super fun. It’s like it’s again, a kind of thing that gives you a lot of sprinkling of ongoing events, you know, post Krakoa events in Mutant-dom, but it’s a Wolverine story that takes you on a kind of time traveling and a swashbuckling tour of Wolverine’s life as he starts. It’s like basically Terminator. Wolverine goes back through the timelines, trying to stop Omega Red from killing Professor X sometime in the past and…

 

Cody Ziglar: It happens.

 

Jason Concepcion: It happens. It happens all the time. It happens. It happens the best of us.

 

Rosie Knight Relatable.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah, and it’s Omega Red has developed this new thing where he can, you know, touch someone and basically possess them, which is a problem. And so Wolverine’s got to go back through his old bodies. Now he’s young Wolverine. Now he’s patched. Now he’s a different version of me. Now he’s Weapon X Wolverine. Now he’s Wolverine, you know, lurking in the Central American jungles with Saber Tooth  and that other weird guy he used to hang around with Maverick. And I got to tell you I’m having a good time. I’m having a good time reading it. I don’t know what to tell you that would that has been our comics recommendations. Let’s dive into stuff that we think might be useful for people to talk about, to read as Doctor Strange approaches. The first one on this list, which Rosie and I were talking about, I wonder if you’ve read it Zig is Doctor Strange, Dr. Doom, Triumph and Torment, written by Roger Stone with pencils and covers by Mike Mignola and Marc Badger. And it’s like what Mike Mignola do Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom.

 

Cody Ziglar: Yeah.

 

Jason Concepcion: I love it. And it’s a great one shot story that really lets you into how thirsty Dr. Doom is for magic, man.This guy…

 

Rosie Knight He loves magic.

 

Cody Ziglar: He loves tempting it.

 

Jason Concepcion: He loves tempting the magic.

 

Rosie Knight Habitual line stepper.

 

Cody Ziglar: Yeah.

 

Jason Concepcion: He loves going over the line with it. Like, if you thought Doctor Strange pushed it with the spells, with the crossing the line with the like books he shouldn’t read, but he’s going to go ahead  and read them because he needs them. Doctor Doom is even more of that. And you know, Mignola is Mignola. It’s super fun. But Mephisto is there. That is that would be my first recommendation for something that is like easily easy to pick up. You don’t need to know a lot if you wanted to pick it up and read it. Any of y’all have any any any recommendations along those lines?

 

Rosie Knight I’ve got one. But another thing I think is really good about that piece is like it really specifically centers on like Dr. Doom’s mom, which is like a weird thing they were obsessed with in the eighties and nineties because in some of the Moon Knight stuff where she call her Dr/ Doom appears. It’s all to do with his mom.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight This guy has mother issues and they were being explored, so who knows? Is that going to come into it in them? I don’t know. But it seems interesting and connected. So I’m first of all as well, I always think it’s so funny when you, even as people, have been reading these comics, however long, like decades or ever, whenever we find a Mike Mignola big two comic you’re like oh my god.

 

Jason Concepcion: It is so great. It’s wonderful.

 

Rosie Knight He did that man.

 

Jason Concepcion: He did that man. Like okay, pick it up.

 

Cody Ziglar: Add to cart by. Bye.

 

Rosie Knight And it’s like. t’s happened. I’m going to go newer.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight I was I kind of read like the first issue of this series, The Death of Doctor Strange. But I recently read the whole thing. The five issue collection is out now. Jeb Mackay pencils by Lee Garber. Corey Andrews does great covers. This is like such a fun book.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah, it was really fun.

 

Rosie Knight The idea is like Doctor Strange is going to die. He gets killed. Who did it?

 

Jason Concepcion: Who did it?

 

Rosie Knight And he gets to kind of like… We have to work out what happened. And it’s timing. Why me? But the art is like…

 

Jason Concepcion: It’s beautiful.

 

Rosie Knight Cartoony and beautiful and fun. And there’s like, cute animal characters. And I feel like, you know, Zig. No comment from you here. Yes. You know, and inside business. Yeah.I feel like one of my favorite things to write is how Marvel seeds stuff itself.

 

Jason Concepcion: Very seedy.

 

Rosie Knight They want people to necessarily conceptualize or come to terms with or become familiar with. And this feels like one of those comics. One, it is a fun superhero romp. But two have a read. See how it impacts Dr. Strange too.

 

Cody Ziglar: Yeah. Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight You might be happy.

 

Cody Ziglar: Yeah, I definitely feel that same way. Whether or not that’s what the book that I’m currently writing, I think that’s also the same energy.

 

Rosie Knight Right?

 

Cody Ziglar: Yeah. And also, Jed’s a fantastic, fantastic writer.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah, yeah. This book is so fun.

 

Cody Ziglar: Yeah, he’s such a fucking fun, fun writer.

 

Jason Concepcion: I should add one of the I think one of the things it really felt like, oh, we’re ceding this is so part of this is not a spoiler. But, you know, Doctor Strange is murdered. Who did it? And of course, Doctor Strange has a, you know, protocol in place should he die by very serious  means. And that protocol is to, like, activate an earlier, much more aggressive, much more line steppy version of himself pluck that version out of whatever timeline it’s in and bring him, bring them to the present to figure it out.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah. Does he like a Sherlocky-esque?

 

Jason Concepcion: Yes.

 

Rosie Knight Like it’s weird. So let’s just say. Seems like could be influential.

 

Jason Concepcion: I feel that it could be. Zig, you give anything?

 

Cody Ziglar: Yeah. I was really torn. But I think I’m going to go with. Hickman’s new Avengers run… Time Runs Out.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah.

 

Cody Ziglar: I mean, I think anyone could tell from the trailer that the Illuminati is going to be in this. And like Illuminati is such a big part of Doctor Strange’s current origin releases modern with the last ten years origin. And if you’re really looking for like just a really fun four issue runs like or five if you want to jump in, I think it’s 16 to 21 of Hickman’s new Avengers. Andrews is one of my absolute favorite characters. Sun God, he’s just a Superman pastiche. There’s a fantastic fight between him and Hulk that when I read it, when I was like 27, was the hypest shit I ever read. All right? At 27, I was turning up, I was quoting it. I had the pictures on my Tumblr, like I was taking the scanning them on there. It’s a really great entry for that. And I’m I’m just from the trailer. I’m assuming they’re going to be doing some fun Illuminati underhanded-ness and I hope that they get some fun, big, big action fight scenes like that in there.

 

Jason Concepcion: That is, I think, a monumental run. Great run.i’m sorry, go ahead Rosie.

 

Rosie Knight No. And I think it makes a lot of sense because it leads into like one of the things that we talk about a lot, which is secret wars and how that seems like the future of the MCU. And and there’s Doctor Doom elements, you know, go for doom, all that kind of stuff. So I think I think that’s a brilliant pick and also just fun.

 

Jason Concepcion: One of my favorite parts of that Time Runs Out run is the war between Atlantis and Wakanda, which is like feels like something you need to you need to pay attention to. And that was a thing That absolutely grabbed me by the collar when I was reading all some of the twists and turns in that like ongoing struggle are like bad. You can’t believe what happens. Great, great, great. Run. I will pick a house of M for mine. The 2005 limited series Brian Michael Bendis pencils by the great Oliver Corbell cover this by the Great East Side Riddick and eight core issues. You can stick to those, but there are lots of tie ins that spread out, you know, across different titles. But the basic plot is Wanda. Is just so heartsick over the struggles that mutants have had to go through over the generations and the years of them being oppressed and and through fits and starts, like all the attempted genocides that have happened over the course of time. And she’s like, Forget it. That’s enough. I want to please my mutant family, Magneto and Quicksilver. And I want to. I want to heal mutant-dom. And so I’m going to create a world in which mutants reign. Mutants are the main force in the world. And there are, like, non powered people, but they’re they’re a vast minority. And mutants run the world. And I feel like. This is going to be you know, we’ve talked about it before on this pod, but I think.

 

Rosie Knight There’s a reason it comes up a lot.

 

Jason Concepcion: Like it comes up a lot. Right. And it feels like, listen, we’re waiting for mutants to come into the MCU. Wanda is growing more and more powerful with the ability, as we have seen over the course of Wandavision, to alter reality and really like that drastic ways. And we know that the at least some part of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness involves Strange going to a place where other powered people exist, which is how we get America Chavez and we also know that like, man, you hear the voice of Patrick Stewart in that fucking trailer somewhere.

 

Cody Ziglar: Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight Someone somewhere exists.

 

Cody Ziglar: He was basically saying, You make it with magic in it. Like he is really hard. He could not distinguish, like there’s no hiding who THat man has a memory. That was.

 

Jason Concepcion: And so it’s a really, really fun story. I highly recommend it. My guide, Wolverine, again, if you’re a Wolverine head, he does some he makes some things happen in this.

 

Rosie Knight He’s doing some stuff. Yeah. He’s got a memory. That man has a memory.

 

Jason Concepcion: When it’s just like normal life. He can’t remember anything about what he used to do, but we’re transported to another, like timeline of the legend. All of a sudden, he can’t forget what happened in the previous world anyway. And, Rosie, you have anything else?

 

Rosie Knight Yeah, I got one more. But I also just want to say, like, this leads to my favorite theory that I, like, it pops up every so often on Reddit. I’ve seen it on TicToc, which is the MCU as it exists is the No More Mutants universe almost Wanda creating the house of M I love that is never going to happen. Every time I think about it, I am just like that is so efficient and it is so effective. And you know, I think the trailer where we see Charles and everyone, he says, you know, it’s time to tell him the truth.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight And everyone  was like, oh. he truth is, you know, mutants exist outside this world. And yeah, I think has been like, there’s so much good stuff that because people get to live their dream lives, like Peter is happy. Yeah. And then you have this choice of, like, having to give it up. Yeah. I think another really good one, which is really new is Captain Carter. Jamie Mckelvie icon.

 

Jason Concepcion: Yes. Can’t go wrong.

 

Rosie Knight Pencils by Marika Cresta, new, newer, newer artist on that doing some really dynamic stuff. And if you enjoyed the first issue episode of What If, if you want to know more about Captain Carter, who we think is probably going to show up in Doctor Strange 2, then this is a great place to go. It’s got political intrigue, it’s got antifascist tendencies. It’s got really, really, really, really, really cool character work for Captain Carter. It introduces a different version of Peggy that we’ve never seen. And I think this is again ceding. Do I think they’re going to adapt Jamie’s story? I wish they would, probably not going to happen, but is there a reason as a Captain comic that you can buy right now that’s going to be out during Dr. Strange 2? I believe so? So, yeah, this is a this is a really good one.

 

Jason Concepcion: Zig.

 

Cody Ziglar: You know, last one. I’m glad that no one else covered it, but Marvel Zombies was honestly between this and World War Hulk is  what got me into Marvel Comics proper, like I was obviously was a huge Walking Dead fan. I was a huge horror fan in general. But Marvel Zombies, I mean, they’ve already done the What If episode in. I feel like it seemed such a fun universe for Marvel to tap into in the live action space. Like it would be crazy if you don’t just see like zombie Wanda for like, you know, a split second like Marvel you know Strange does his gang sign and you see her pop up in the back corner wherever.

 

Rosie Knight We see Zombie-ish like Strange and this is Sam Raimi. This is the King of Zombie.

 

Cody Ziglar: Yeah.

 

Rosie Knight Like yeah that’s a run. That’s a killer.

 

Jason Concepcion: Absolutely. Love these recs. Hope they’re helpful to people. Check out the shownotes for any of the stuff that you missed through the run of the show will have everything listed there. Up next, Nerd Out. In today’s Nerd Out where you tell us what you love and why. Alice pitches us on a musical theater company called Star Kid Productions, a.k.a. Teen Star Kid.

 

Alice (Listener): Hi, X-ray Vision Team. My name is Alice and for my Nerd Out, I would like to submit a musical theater company called Star Kid Productions or better known as Team Star Kid. So I discovered Team Star Kid over ten years ago through another fandom that I was in, which was for the TV show Glee. And when it was announced that Darren Criss would be joining the show, I decided to check out his previous work, and I stumbled onto Team Star Kid and because it was also a huge Harry Potter fan. The first thing I watched was their Harry Potter parody, which was A Very Potter Musical, and I completely fell in love with the writing and the humor and the songs. And a year later, I then went to Chicago to see their newest show, Starship, which was a sci fi musical parody. And they were just as great live as I had seen on YouTube, basically. And so why I think you should get into it is that they’ve created so many wonderful parody musicals about such a wide array of pop culture phenomena, including Star Wars, Harry Potter, Superheroes, and even most recently, A Christmas Carol. And I think the X-ray Vision listeners and the X-Ray Vision team would really love the heartfelt way in which they pay tribute to these universes. And I think you would particularly like the little Easter eggs and the little inside jokes that they throw in for the people who know that particular material well. Their shows are done by fans for fans because everyone involved in Team Star Kid themselves is is a nerd. And you can really tell that they love the source material by the effort that they put into the writing and the music and the performances. And it’s really lovely. And you can tell that they really genuinely love the shows and the movies and the comics or whatever other source material that they are drawing from. And the music and the writing and the performances are amazing, of course. But really the best part is that with every show they create, you either get to experience a new fandom if you’re not familiar with the source material, or you get to appreciate a fandom that you’re already a part of all over again and with a new point of view through their awesome songs. So I’m not sure what they have planned at the moment because of Corona, but for Nerd Out listeners, I would recommend checking out A Very  Potter Musical, Ani which is their Star Wars parody musical or Holy Musical Batman, which is their superhero show. And you can find all of those on YouTube at Teen Star Kid, or you get more info about their project on their website, TeenStarKid.com. All right. That’s it for me. And I hope you enjoy Teen Star Kid. Thanks. Bye.

 

Jason Concepcion: Thanks, Alice, for submitting. If you want to be featured singer Nerd Out pitch you xray@crooked.com. Instructions are in the show notes. A big thank you to Rosie Knight and Cody Zig Ziglar for joining us on X-ray. Zig. What are you got to plug my guy. Tell us everything.

 

Cody Ziglar: You know if you’re a fan of comic books and I think you are for listening to this podcast. Check out, you know, a Spider Punk #1. There we go, baby. Number 2, I think comes out the 18th of May. Don’t quote me on that unless it’s true. Then quote me or you want to. And I believe What If Miles Morales #5 comes out May two, but I may be wrong. But if not, check them all out because they’re all fucking fantastic. Like I just read What if Miles was Thor and it is the coolest shit I’ve ever read.

 

Jason Concepcion: It is really fun. Super fun.

 

Cody Ziglar: Shout out to that writer. It’s the dopest blackest shit I had ever seen. You got to check that out. It’s so fucking clean.

 

Jason Concepcion: Rosie plugs. What are you plug in? Godzilla again.

 

Rosie Knight I’m going to plug Godzilla again. But first I want plug Spider Punk again like I when I read that.

 

Jason Concepcion: So fun and super fun.

 

Rosie Knight I yelled. Like one:. It’s amazing is brilliant. Justin’s art. Oh, my God. Jim’s lettering, I was dying, Cody’s writing. Its fantastic. That is like, one of the best number ones I’ve read in such a long time.

 

Cody Ziglar: Thank you, ma’am.

 

Jason Concepcion: I agree.

 

Rosie Knight If you are of a certain age, you are. You’re a millennial. Whatever they call us, you grew up in the zeros. You were dancin to a misfits song in a dive bar. You have some questionable tattoos. You will be screaming. his is a true punk book on every level. I love it.I tell everyone to read. It is so good. And Jim’s lettering is like, I can’t get over it. It’s some of the big good best modern comic book lettering and add so much the final page splash.

 

Jason Concepcion: That’s what I was going to say, that’s what I’m going to say that I was going to say that final page look that tease on the final page. Final splash page is like, oh shit, I guess I’m adding on that.

 

Rosie Knight Give me the full like back piece title of that final thing with the letters. And the question.

 

Jason Concepcion: Is pretty good. It’s really good.

 

Rosie Knight So yes Spider Punk is very good. Obviously wife Miles Morales, every Miles Morales should be every character so I 100% back that.

 

Cody Ziglar: Exactly. Thank you.

 

Rosie Knight Yeah yeah Godzilla it’s it’s preorderable now it should be coming out in August. That’s the nature of comics. You preorder them now, it will be in your shop. Then we will likely be doing some cool signings and stuff like that. So keep an ear out for that stuff. You can find me on Instagram, that’s where I am. And just doing all this, doing this, writing about comics, writing about TV shows and just talking about all this cool stuff. It’s a good life.I can’t complain.

 

Jason Concepcion: Check out our videos on the uncultured YouTube channel in the show notes for the Listener’s Guide to X-ray Vision, where we provide more details and where to find the stuff that we talk about on every episode. Check the next episode on May 6th where we’re going to find out if all the series that we have been spouting over the weeks about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness R&D, correct? If they are. We’re going to talk about them more. If they’re not, that’s the nature of the business, folks. Catch us next time. Bye. X-ray Vision is a Crooked Media production. The show is produced by Chris Lord and Saul Rubin. The show is executive produced by myself and Sandy Girard. Our editing and sound design is by the Vasilis Fotopoulis and  Delon Villanueva and Matt DeGroot provide video production support and Alex Releford handles social media. Thank you Brian Vasquez for our theme music. Bye.