We continue our examination of Watchmen with issue 2! A funeral for a friend! Not a friend so much as a violent amoral psychopath - The Comedian! Writer Alan Moore's narrative mastery is on display as we learn about the Comedian from a series of flashbacks that show us the way he changed over the years from a 16 year old would-be-sexual assaulter, …

Today we are republishing a discussion on the first issue of Alan Moore/Dave Gibbon's landmark 1986 comic book Watchmen. We first released this on Nov 27, 2019. At that time, HBO was airing its television series adapation of/sequel to the comic, so Kevin and Will went through the first issue of the comic. Now five years later we want to go through …

EPISODE 291 - We take a break from our regular seasons to pay tribute to two great comics artists who passed away recently: John Casasdy and Karl Moline. Cassady is probably best known for his stunning work on Planetary (with writer Warren Ellis) and Astonishing X-Men. But also -- everything he drew was magic. Moline was a bit less known, but made …

For our last episode on The Human Target, we go over the recent excellent run by writer Tom King and artist Greg Smallwood. Christopher Chance is back and this time he has to meet with members of the beloved 1980s version of the Justice League. You want The Human Target chatting on a couch with G'nort? You've got it. He also falls in love with Ice,…

EPISODE 289 : End of the Peter Milligan run. We finish our coverage of the Peter Milligan run of the Vertigo series "The Human Target." The final story, "The Stealer" is in many ways the most Human Target-y stories of them all. Someone from Christopher Chance's life wants to steal his identity. What happens when a master of disguise is impersonated…

We continue our look at the excellent crime noir Vertigo series HUMAN TARGET. In these issues, our hero Christopher Chance gets involved in the seedy underbelly of human trafficking. This series is not big on lighthearted topics! Chance and his romatic partner (wife? girlfriend? it depends which identity Christopher is in) discover the lengths each…

EPISODE 287: Peter Milligan's run on Human Target continues to tackle tough, dark material, this time with a story about a group of domestic terrorists. We follow another protagonist who seems to have less than steady morals as he commits murder, abandons his friends, lies to his family, plans marital affairs, and immediately presumes he is being h…

This is a 10ish minute preview of our "sop-scriber" episode in which Kevin and Will create a superhero team. If you want to become a sop-scriber, go to screwitpodcasts.com! ---------------------- Martin Goodman, former publisher of Marvel Comics has come back from the dead and asked the Milksops to make a new superhero team. Requirements: 4-8 membe…

EPISODE 286 - After Vertigo published the four issue Human Target mini series, and after the original graphic novel, they started a short-lived but excellent regular series. We cover the first three issues in this episode. The first issue takes where things left off in the graphic novel (no spoilers, but Christopher Chance has forgotten he is Chris…

EPISODE 285 - We welcome two time Eisner nominee comics writer Jordan Morris to this ep! Jordan is here to promote his new young adult comics novel Youth Group. Jordan is also co-host of the great podcast Jordan, Jesse, Go! as well as having written for several cool television shows. Check out Jordan's work! Jordan also joins us in this episode's t…

Acclaimed comics writer J.M. DeMatteis (Justice League International, Kraven's Last Hunt, Moonshadow) is back to promote his new Kickstarter for the second issues of his DeMultiverse. The DeMultiverse is JM's independently produced comics, which include four titles: Layla in the Lands of After, art by Shawn McManus Anyman, art by David Baldeón Gods…

EPISODE 283: The Milksops begin their dive into Peter Milligan's early 2000s run on The Human Target. Created by Len Wein and Carmine Infantino in 1972 for DC Comics, the Human Target has had several runs over the years. The basic gist is this: if you're in danger of being killed, you can hire Christopher Chance who will dress up as you until he ca…

EPISODE 282 - We finish our coverage of John Byrne's FF with the issue where Sue Richards changes her name from The Invisible Girl to The Invisible Woman. It's a fine issue that mostly features She-Hulk breaking out of Psycho-Man's fear spell. We also learn the story of Pearla, Queen of the Microverse! We give some closing thoughts on John Byrne. F…

EPISODE 281 - We're approached the end of the John Byrne FF era. Franklin is having another prophetic dream, which is a six page plug for Power Pack, which the Milksops applaud. Sue Richards is standing up to Reed like never before, and she demands revenge against Psycho-Man. And that means we're going to the Micro-Verse! And also, whoa, what is th…

We're nearing the end of our coverage of John Byrne's FF run. In one of the final stories, the (new) Hate Monger teams up with the (old?) Psycho-Man to create a third brand-new villain... Malice! And you'll never guess Malice's true identity. Ok, I'll tell you: it's the Invisible Girl! And this is the final adventure of the Invisible Girl! Not beca…

This is an all mailbag episode, including an email from Chris Gethard about our Ultimate Spider-Man coverage. Next week: FF#280!

EPISODE 278 - Doom is back, sort of? At least his life story is back, in the form of memories being artificially implanted into a helpless child! This is the kind of good times Dr. Victor Von Doom brings to the party. The Milksops are glad to see Doom. So much that they never even get to mail! But they do spend a while talking about the hit show X-…

Episode 277 - As an epilogue to our season on Ultimate Spider-Man, we go over some other reboots of Spidey continuity. Well, some of them are reboots, some are kinda just parallel Spider-Man dimensions. We discuss: Untold Tales of Spider-Man #1 Chapter One (a little bit) Mary Jane #1 Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #1 Marvel Adventures Spider-Man #53 …

Episode 276 - We finish out our look at the first arc of Ultimate Spider-Man. In this issue, we get the rest of Spidey's first battle with this universe's monstorous Green Goblin. We also see Spidey's first use of his web shooters, the idolization of Spidey by Peter's friends and Peter's first alibi of why he wasn't around as Spidey kicked butt. Ne…

This is subscriber-only episode! Subscribe at screwitpodcasts.com to listen! Regular episodes back in this feed next week! --------------------------------- Kevin and Will review the first five episodes of X-Men '97, the hit new animated Marvel show. Does it hurt never having seen the original series? How about never having read any Chris Claremony…

In issue 6 of the Bendis/Bagley run, we get to see Actual Ultimate Spider-Man -- properly costumed, fighting bad guys and everything! Does this change Kevin's mind about the pace of the comic? You'll have to listen to find out! (hint: not really!) Joining us for this episode is guest Elliott Kalan (former Daily Show head writer, co-host of The Flop…

The Milksops welcome TV writer / podcaster / comics creator James III to the show! You may know James as a co-creator / co-star of the Netflix sketch show The Astronomy Club, or from his podcast Black Men Can't Jump In Hollywood. Friends from the UCB Theatre in NYC, the Milksops and James dive into another issue of the Bendis/Bagley run of Ultimate…

Episode 273 - Continuing the Bendis/Bagley run -- we reach the big moment. Peter lets a criminal, who he easily could have stopped, run past. And his family pays a huge price. But before that, we get the Bendis/Bagley nuanced look at Peter's extended world. We see Kong extend the hand of friendship. We see Liz Allen make a move on Peter, an MJ stor…

The Milksops continue their examination of Bendis/Bagley's Ultimate Spider-Man! Kevin likes it more on this reading, but is still frustrated by the slow pace. Will remains is moved by the nuanced characters. In this issue, Peter begins his short career as a masked wrestler, and also becomes a star of the high school basketball team. In our world fa…

We keep going through this legendary run by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley. Will continues to like it, Kevin continues to think it's too slow. We both agree the "homage" to Ferris Bueller at the top (the boring professor who goes "voodoo economics") is... weird. We discuss the effects of getting to know Uncle Ben more. We observe how obvious …

We get into one of the most popular runs on a superhero comic ever: Ultimate Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley. An attempt to win over new audiences, this was a rebooted Spider-Man without any history or previous continuity. It was a commercial and critical smash! Kevin never took to the slow pace of the plot, and doesn't think the…

Two stories in one! The top half of each page details the return of Ben Grimm, and an almost-but-not-quite battle against the Dire Wraiths (who?) And the bottom half has Reed, Sue and Franklin in hell! Which is pretty fun! Then we read a bunch of mail, which Kevin has organized by THEME! Join our subscriber level for bonus eps (soon) - https://www.…

We cover three more issues of John Byrne's run on FF: A check-on on The Thing while he's on the Secret Wars planet, a story of a tabloid getting a hold of naked photos of She-Hulk, and the start of a Mephisto story where Reed and Sue go to an unnamed Hell! We also talk about the recently announced FF movie casting.…

We pick right up where we left off with the FF going.. back in time! Wait, not, they are going SIDEWAYS in dimensions, but to the SAME TIME! A time where... the dark ages never happened, so society got very advanced! But then blew themsleves up so they are not! Wait, no they PARTLY are advanced because Reed's science genius dad has been here. Whate…

We close out our season on writer/artist Keith Giffen with a look at another of his creator-owned series: Trencher. Trencher is another crack of the "Lobo" type -- a hyperviolent cynical tough guy who takes missions in which he has to kill lots of people. Trencher is less of a satire than Lobo -- and the world is more specific. He is a reincarnated…

We go back towards the beginning of Keith Giffen's career, when he was "just" an artist. Specifically we examine his work with writer Paul Levitz on the 1983 Legion of Super-Heroes story "The Great Darkness Saga." This 5-issue story showed The Legion facing super powerful "shadow villains" who seemed to be clones of people from the distrant past. W…

We continue our Keith Giffen coverage with a look at the creator-owner property he did in the 2000s, Hero Squared. Keith did this with his Justice League collaborator J.M. DeMatteis. J.M. was kind enough to be on this episode! We ask J.M. about Keith in general, his collaboration with Keith and then we get into the series Hero Squared. Hero Squared…

Keith Giffen does mainstream crossover event, and does it well. Here we cover the 2006 epic war story that is Annihilation. The brainchild of editor Andy Schmidt along with Giffen, this story features the "cosmic characters" in the Marvel lineup. Galactus and Silver Surfer? You know it. Thanos. Of course. Rohan? Yep. And a star turn for the main vi…

What if a superhero acted mostly like Bugs Bunny? We now take you to another Milksop favorite: The Heckler. Though it was cancelled after only six issues because of low sales, The Heckler has always been a beloved cult favorite, espeically for fans of Giffen. Kevin has loved this series since it first came out! Will didn't read it until after Kevin…

The THREE Milksop brothers (Will, Kevin and Brian) are home for the holidays and thus record an ep in person. They have a tradition of watching Batman movies together, which sprung out of their shared beloved experience of seeing the 1989 Tim Burton movie together on opening night in Danbury CT. Listen as we reminisce about lots of brother-bonding …

Part ultraviolent anti hero, part parody of ultraviolent anti hero, Lobo was a phenomenon. Originally a side character in the Omega Men, this creation of Keith Giffen went on to become one of the more recognizable characters in the DC universe. In the 90s, he led his own books and made appearances everywhere. He even showed up in the kid-friendly t…

We continue looking at the career of writer/artist Keith Giffen. This week we look at his "Legion of Super-Heroes: Five Years Later" story. Starting from their creation in the late 1950s, the Legion of Super Heroes stories were sunny and optimistic. After all, these were teen heroes in the future who had been inspired by the (relative to their time…

We begin our examination of acclaimed comics writer/artist Keith Giffen. Perhaps most famous as a co-creator of the 1980s run of Justice League (the "B players" era), Giffen also either created or massively influenced: Lobo, Legion of Super Heroes, Rocket Raccoon (and kinda sorta Guardians of the Galaxy), the modern Blue Beetle and much more. This …

THWIP! We go deep -- too deep? -- on the new Spider-Man 2 video game. The Milksops were big fans of the first one. In fact, they each bought Playstations in 2018 just so they could play it! They generally like the new one a lot. But there are shortcomings that kind of HAVE to come with the sequel --- the great stuff isn't new anymore. But there's a…

A special bonus ep, kind of, which is JUST the "loose screws" segment. This was recorded for next week's ep (in which re review the Spider-Man 2 video game), but we decided it was TOO long and hence you're getting it this week. Will talks about the "Dark Age" storyline from the comic Astro City. Kevin discusses the recent MCU film The Marvels and t…

FF 271 (which came out in the summer of 1984) is a hodge-podge of cool little stories. We've got a glimpse of the Fantastic Four in "family mode" as they celebrate Reed's unnamed (but 40th) birthday, then a flashback to a pre-FF adventure done very much in the style of pre-Marvel Kirby art, and finally a visit to Reed's childhood... estate? Yes, Re…

What do you do with a problem like Terminus? Well, you treat him like a mini Galactus, because that's kinda what he is. The FF head out to the Southwest US where Terminus, a big alien in planet-devouring armor, has landed. Luckily Reed has invented something which he spent 2 pages explaining to us towards the start of the story. We also get: Sue wo…

We close out our coverage of the terrific Grant Morrison JLA run with this adventure that was released as its own graphic novel: JLA Earth 2. Done by Morrison and Frank Quitely -- who would later do the sublime All-Star Superman series -- this story is about an alternate world where the JLA is evil (the Crime Syndicate of America) and Lex Luthor is…

By Will Hines and Kevin Hines

We're back on the Grant Morrison JLA run which means we are back to COMPLICATED RECAPS. This time we have a relatively simple 2 issue story of the JLA vs a corrupt general and his Ultramarines! There's only like 6 new characters in this, so --- not too complex! But whoops then we have the 4 part story "Crisis TIme Five." In this story, there is an …

The Milksops realize that it's episode 250 and they should do something special. So we take a break from JLA and do these things: read promotional blurbs suggested by our listeners, force Kevin to answer trivia, go over an old collection of "imaginary" Superman stories from our childhood, and remember our favorite moments of the first 250 episodes.…

Two relatively "simple" stories are up next for the Grant Morrison JLA run. First we get new supervillain Prometheus -- a sort of anti-batman, whose criminal parents were gunned down by police -- invading the JLA headquarters. He makes quick work of the JLA before suddenly becoming stupid and then losing immediately. Then we have a two part story w…

Plot complexity level: you have been MORRISSONED. The issues remain extremely fun but the story becomes very hard to summarize. Unless you keep it simple like this: Lex Luthor finds a magic crystal to destroy the JLA, but instead lets an alien enslave Earth, until the good guys use time travel to undo everything. Except add in: hard light holograms…

We're gonna rock down to... electric Superman?!!! Yes, Electric Superman has entered the chat. So has Tomorrow Girl, a few angels from Actual Heaven, Connor Hawke (son of original Green Arrow) and Starro. We cover a lot in this segment! We talk about how Superman is still Superman, even with new powers. We talk about how the "Green Arrow vs Overpow…

Sometimes when you read superhero comics you want Actual Superheros doing Actual Superhero things. That's what you get in Grant Morrisson's 1990s JLA run. Extraordinarily powered beings battling the highest stakes villains. Creative uses of physically impossible abilities. The triumph of good over evil. And Superman being a great Superman. We cover…