Character Corner - A Podcast On Your Favorite Comic Book Characters

Apologies for the delayed release. Baby Dpalm came a bit early and so we've been on a little hiatus Thankfully we recorded the final episode in our Flash series earlier in the month. So without further ado, the finale of the Joshua Williamson run. We end this run as any good Flash run should with a finale showdown between Barry and Eobard. Throughout the 15 volumes, we got a really good reintroduction of Barry Allen that paid homage to the entire Flash legacy. We get the return and reunion of the Flash Family from the Wally years (Jay, Bart, Max and more) which has been teased all run and then finally comes back together. This run really solidifies why Rebirth really was something different for DC. Instead of running from their past they embraced it and used to to create a new legacy. This is what makes this run so much fun to read. Issues: Volume 13 Rogues Reign Volume 14 The Flash Age Volume 15 Finish Line Like what you hear? Subscribe so you don't miss an episode!   Follow us on Twitter: @D

We know last episodes we covered Year One but we decided to revisit that volume as well as volume 12 of the Williamson run of The Flash. Year One was worth a revisit because it not only reestablishes some of the lost history of Barry Allen but also starts off a new one as well (Barry meeting not only Wally but Wallace at the same time). It also takes a villain that we didn't think twice about and make him terrifying. Who would think the Turtle would be so scary? Then we get a return of Hunter Zolomon and we get an update to the great Blitz storyline. Turns out the clown DID have a gun. And through that all, Snart and the original rogues start putting their final plan in place.  Issues: The Flash Year One Volume 12: Death and the Speed Force Like what you hear? Subscribe so you don't miss an episode!   Follow us on Twitter: @Dpalm66 @InsanityReport @TheMTRNetwork   Our shirts are now on TeePublic:  https://teepublic.com/stores/mtr-network Want more podcast greatness? Sign up for a MTR Premi

We delayed the release of this episode until Kriss was out of town. We also timed it right around the time the Flash review dropped. Enjoy. Post Flash War, Barry turns back into a student and has to go through a bit of a re-education phase. This fits right in with the Joshua Williamson theme of taking Barry Allen on a journey we really haven't seen him in before. A lot of this feels familiar to those of us who grew up with Wally West as our Flash because we watched him go through the same journey. With Barry, its not only about him really studying the speed force but also learning that a Flash doesn't run alone. It's also really interesting to read the journey that Barry is on while also reading the journey that Batman is on in the King books. You'd like Bruce would be the depressed sounding pessimist but it's actually Barry. Issues: Volume 10: Force Quest Volume 11: The Greatest Trick of All Year One Like what you hear? Subscribe so you don't miss an episode!   Follow us on Twitter: @Dpalm6

We're back with more of Joshua Williamson's Flash run. This time we're talking volumes 7 to 9 (issues 39 to 57). Williamson's run really feels like a great jumping on point for the Flash. Since it's during Rebirth, it gives us a great reintroduction of not only Barry Allen and Eobard Thawne but also Wally West. This part of the run felt like Williamson telling all of us that grew up with Wally as our Flash that his years as the Flash mattered. And while this series is centered on Barry, it felt good to get acknowledgement of Wally's years (decades) as the Flash. Issues: The Flash Volume 7: Perfect Storm The Flash Volume 8: Flash War The Flash Volume 9: Reckoning of the Forces Like what you hear? Subscribe so you don't miss an episode!   Follow us on Twitter: @Dpalm66 @InsanityReport @TheMTRNetwork   Our shirts are now on TeePublic:  https://teepublic.com/stores/mtr-network Want more podcast greatness? Sign up for a MTR Premium Account!  

We promised 2 episodes in March and we're squeezing it right in there at the 11th hour. But we're back for the next set of issues from the Joshua Williamson Flash run. We first stop over at Batman and pick up with The Button which takes us closer to understanding the forces behind all the lost time and history in the DC Universe. But it also reminds us that Eobard Thawne is the epitome of evil. The way he beats Bruce's ass in the Batcave is a good reminder that speed beats prep time. It's not just the Button though. After being largely absent in the first three volumes, Thawne features heavily in the next set of volumes for The Flash. And ends up dying...twice. If the first three volumes were a reintroduction of Barry Allen, these next set of volumes are a reminder of why Eobard Thawne is one of the scariest and evil villains in DC. Death doesn't stop him. And when we get the reveal of why he's become a mortal enemy of Barry Allen and it's the most petty, insignificant thing; It's just a good reminder of why

We finally get back into recording Character Corners and it still takes me 2 weeks to release the episode. Smh. Sorry for the delay folks but we're finally hitting the Joshua Williamson run of The Flash. We consider this the reintroduction of Barry Allen. Sure in 2009 Geoff Johns did a "rebirth" of Barry Allen, having him finally return to the mantle after being dead for so long. But this run during DC's rebirth really gets Barry back to the basics. Anyone that's read this run knows it comes back down to Barry vs Thawne but the way this run starts off, it removes some of the staples like Thawne and the Rogues and focuses first on undoing some of the mistakes from New 52. We start with Wally coming back then there are hints of Jay as well. And of course the most important thing: how naive Barry is and how he runs into situations without seeing the big picture. We start with the first three volumes and when we come back we'll hit The Button (the crossover with Batman and setup for Doomsday Clock). Issues: The

Now that the first season of the She-Hulk series on Disney+ is over, now is a great time to talk about She-Hulks comic book history. The timing has nothing to do with the fact that Kriss is late on releasing this episode because work has completely swamped him. Nope, this timing is completely planned.  Anyway, after seeing some of the confused reactions to the Disney+ show, it actually is a pretty good time to remind folks just who Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk is and how writers have tackled that character over the years. First off, the show pulled their tone from John Byrne's classic time writing the character in the 1989 Sensational She-Hulk series. Yes, She-Hulk is a Hulk with incredible strength but she's also be written as a smart, funny character that has no problems crawling outside of the comic panels to challenge her writers/artists (sound familiar?). But aside from that, this character has always been about a woman challenging the male driven world around her. In the comics, Jen prefers to be in h

Kriss and Dpalm are back and this time we're revisiting a character we've spent some time talking about before: Dick Grayson aka Nightwing. We've covered Dick before in our previous Robin Part 1 Character Corner that covered Dick Grayson's years as the first Robin along with Jason Todd. This episode we're spending some time talking about his years after he put up the Robin suit and became Nightwing.  Much like his best friend Wally West, Dick Grayson is one of those characters that started off as a sidekick but then became their own hero and eventually even took over the mantle. What's so great about this character is how both similar and different he is from Bruce Wayne/Batman. Dick Grayson is what Bruce would be if Bruce Wayne didn't hate being Bruce Wayne. Issues: The Judas Contract The New Teen Titans #39 The New Teen Titans #40 Tales of the Teen Titans #42 Tales of the Teen Titans #43 Tales of the Teen Titans #44 - First appearance of Dick Grayson as Nightwing Tales of the Teen Titans #3 Robi

Life has gotten really busy for Kriss and Dpalm so the regular Character Corner schedule has been a bit hectic these last few months. But thankfully Marvel has swooped in for a rescue by announcing a bunch of things for their next few phases of movies so that gives us a lot to talk about.  In this episode we'll talk about some of the trailers and announcements made for movies and TV shows coming out of SDCC. Not all of them involve Marvel and DC. We got the first teaser for the new John Wick and Amazon dropped a new trailer for their really really really expensive Lord of the Rings show. But of course, this is a comic podcast so we're gonna want to focus on the comic book movies and TV shows that we got a look at. Unfortunately for DC fans, WB didn't really bring a lot. We all knew we weren't gonna hear anything about The Flash because...reasons. But WB only showed Shazam Fury of the Gods and Black Adam in a puzzlingly light presentation. They didn't even lean on their successes like Peacemaker or even The Ba

We wrap up our Avengers part of our Hickman series with the 9-issue Secret Wars event that sees Hickman rebuild the Marvel Universe first in Doom's vision then from Reed's. Secret Wars is one of those events where you don't have to read all the related non-Hickman written issues to understand the story but you want to. It's a good cap to the end of the story Hickman has been telling not only from Avengers but all the way back to SHIELD. Also, just like in Time Runs Out you start to see where he lays the seeds for what he later does in X-Men.  There is one more episode we're doing in this Hickman series and it will be to cover Hickman's run on X-Men and the new dynamic he created for mutants in the Marvel Universe. But before that we're going to head over to the DC world to talk about Dick Grayson, aka Nightwing.  Like what you hear? Subscribe so you don't miss an episode!   Follow us on Twitter: @Dpalm66 @InsanityReport @TheMTRNetwork   Our shirts are now on TeePublic:  https://teepublic.com/store

Stephanie Williams is a comic book historian and pop culture critic who has written for SYFYFANGRRLS, The A.V. Club, Nerdist, Den of Geek, and Rotten Tomatoes. Stephanie is also a comic creator with three ongoing webcomics, Parenthood Activate!, But What If Though?, and Living Heroes. She made her Marvel debut with a short story featuring Monica Rambeau in Marvel’s Voices: Legacy. She recently made her DC Comics debut in Wonder Woman Black and Gold #2 and is co-writing the Nubia and the Amazons miniseries.   what you hear? Subscribe so you don't miss an episode!   Follow us on Twitter:   @TheMTRNetwork Our shirts are now on TeePublic:  https://teepublic.com/stores/mtr-network Want more podcast greatness? Sign up for a MTR Premium Account!  

With the mention of the word "Incursions" in Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness its timely for us to reach the "Time Runs Out" portion of our Into the Hickmanverse series. This is the lead up to Secret Wars and its basically Hickman destroying the Marvel Universe. All of it. Time Runs Out is actually jarring at first because there is an 8 month story gap. The Avengers have split. The Illuminati is on the run with new members. The Captain Britain Corp has been wiped out. The Cabal is given free rein to destroy other worlds. So much has happened and Hickman takes his time explaining it all. We also get the reveal of who "Rabum Alal" is and it's...Doctor Doom. Hickman does what he always does and calls his shot and takes us back to the beginning. And not just this series but all of his series. At one point the Illuminati takes refuge in the Immortal City that we saw Nathaniel Richards and Howard Stark as members of S.H.I.E.L.D. There's also some connections to Secret Warriors. And you really start to w

We're back with another Character Corner episode and this time we're talking about the character Moon Knight. Or should we say the characters Marc Spector/Steven Grant/Jake Lockley. Moon Knight is an interesting character to cover. First appearing in 1975 in Werewolf By Night, its pretty clear that early Moon Knight was Marvel's answer to DC's Batman. There's so many obvious comparisons. Early on in Moon Knight stories, Marc Spector wasn't suffering from mental illness. Rather his three personalities were actually cover aliases for him. Interestingly enough, all his aliases also seem to line up with aspects of Bruce Wayne. You have the Billionaire playboy Steven Grant. The highly skilled mercenary Marc Spector. Then there's the seedy Jake Lockley that is clearly based off of Matches Malone (who first appeared in 1972 in Batman comics). Then there's the Moon Knight concept itself. Dressed in all white (versus the all black of Batman), a hero of the night that looks at himself as the "spirit of vengeance" and t

We're getting closer to the end of out Hickman Marvel series and things are starting to fall apart for everyone. In the two series we watch as Steve not only remembers what the Illuminati did to him but also becomes hardened in his decision that they are wrong and must be stopped. On the New Avengers side, we watch as the Illuminati becomes even more broken. T'Challa, Namor and Black Bolt are all Kings without Kingdoms. Dr. Strange has sacrificed everything. Reed has pretty much given up his family (and we saw in Hickman's Fantastic Four run what happens when Reed does that). Beast and Banner are facing a crisis of humanity. And Tony...well Tony is definitely broken but he also seems to be the only one that truly understands how all this is going to end.  We will tackle Time Runs Out in the next part and we see that like before, All Hope Lies in Doom.  Issues: Avengers:  25 - 28 Original Sin 1 - 8 Avengers 28 - 34 New Avengers 16 - 23 Like what you hear? Subscribe so you don't miss an episode!  

Reboots are a thing that happens all the time in comic books. But there are reboots and retcons and then there's what DC Comics did with the Legion of Super-Heroes. I take back what I said during part 1. The Legion of Super-Heroes might have the most complex and complicated history in DC. Yes that's over Wonder Woman and the Hawks. See, with the Legion, you take the confusion and complicated histories of Wonder Woman and Hawkman. Add in the time traveling of ALL the Flash characters. Sprinkle in some good ole "unnecessary DC Editorial decisions". Then...MAKE ALL THE HISTORY MATTER. That's the Legion of Super-Heroes. There's at least 6 different origins, 5 of them unique. What's really interesting is that outside of the 5 Years Later/Glorithverse reboot (seriously, its terrible don't read it), all the reboots are pretty decent reads. This means you can find a team you like and have a decent run reading them. Sure they'll be rebooted for no reason sometimes but...come on...it's comics. That happens. We cover ea

We're back for Part 7 of our Into the Hickmanverse series as we got through the world in Marvel that Hickman has built. After looking at what we have remaining, there will be 11 total parts. We'll get the way through Secret Wars with Part 10 and for Part 11 we'll talk about the new age of X-Men that Hickman has ushered in. Before that though, things are starting to heat up in Hickman's Avengers story with the Infinity Crossover.  There are three main stories here and they’re all connected. Thanos searching for his Inhuman son...so that he can kill him The Avengers go to space to stop the Builders who are conquering and destroying worlds on their bee-line to Earth The Illuminati stuck between #1 & #2: Helping stop the Thanos invasion (also helping Black Bolt) and Dealing with an incursion that leads to them having a chat with a Builder from another universe This is where we start seeing more and more things come together for Hickman's vision. The theme of Life/Death is very heavy here in all the books. Fr

So for the 100th episode of the Character Corner, Kriss & Dpalm are finally back on the DC side and we decided we didn't want to make it easy on ourselves and so we’re tackling the Legion of Super-Heroes. The the history of the Legion of Super-Heroes is one that rivals Wonder Woman, Donna Troy and Hawkman as having some oof the most convoluted and rebooted/retconned history on the DC side. There are several reasons for why the history of the Legion is so hard to pin down. Part of that is like with a lot of these characters, it was never the plan for them to be around as long as they were. That coupled with a few other things make the Legion really hard to follow a history on: They’re from the future. The 30th century (and 31st century) and time travel almost always makes things messy Their history is centered around Superboy So the first isn’t too big of a deal. there’s a lot of characters in DC history that play around with time. But when it comes to tying the characters to  to Superboy…the follow up qu

First Character Corner episode of 2022 and it's a Pull List. There are a lot of comics for Kriss and Dpalm to talk about. The biggest problem? There are so many great and good comics out right now. It's really hard to keep up. Of course this is a good problem to have (unless you're on a budget). At this point with so many good books out there, the best thing to do right now is to not only follow titles but writers.  On the DC Side, if you see that James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson and Tom Taylor are writing a book, you should be reading it. Tynion's Justice League vs Vampires isn't canon but is pretty good. Taylor's Nightwing also continues to be really good. Williamson is on Batman and of course that is good. If you have a DC Universe Infinite subscription, now is a great time to pick up on Bendis' run on Superman and Action Comics as well as the story he's telling in Justice League. When it comes to Marvel, the Star Wars books are still great. War of the Bounty Hunters has ended and leads right into Crimso

We're ending 2021 with the beginning of the end. We've started Hickman's epic Avengers/New Avengers run. This is one of our favorite runs. We've covered it several times from Comic Book Book Clubs on premium to when we cover individual characters like Black Panther, Iron Man, Captain America, etc. This time we're covering it from the perspective of looking at how Hickman sets up and builds out this really long story. If you read these books in their individual release date order and not by the volumes, the story tends to hit a bit different. You start to realize things like, Avengers is really just Tony babysitting Steve and building out a more powerful Avengers team after the Illuminati mind-wiped Steve. Avengers also introduces us to The Builders & Builder Code as well as the fact that the Universe is sick. It's like reading Avengers shows you the symptoms of the problem while New Avengers shows just how bad the illness is.  We end this first part right before the Infinity event starts up. Part 2 will cover

Kriss and Dpalm are finally back with a new Character Corner episode. This time we're talking about the Marvel Master of Kung Fu himself, Shang-Chi. We decided to wait until after we talked about the movie before diving into this character and for good reason. See, there's really no nice way to say this but the history of Shang-Chi is pretty racist. From the inception of the character and tying him to the racist Fu Manchu character all the way to even more modern books with the character that rely on how "foreign" he is. Shang-Chi is a character that has really suffered from good intentions that still fall short. Outside of the varying degrees of racism, the character has also suffered from being stagnant and not growing. A lot of that has changed though with the most recent solo series for the character. In the last year or so, Shang-Chi has grown in depth and his solo books have been really great.   For this episode we do a little less going into the step-by-step history of the character and focus more on