Unspoken Issues #173 - Backlash/Spider-Man

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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Unspoken Issues podcast. Yes,
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96 number ones rolls on. We're going to be talking
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about our August poll winner here. So Chris Armstrong's over there.
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I'm Jesse Starcher.
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We're going to be telling you about what you guys
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chose for us to discuss. Here's our poll choices. There's
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a choice of a... Dark Horse book, an Image book,
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a DC, and a Marvel book. And they are all
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going to be number one issues. Our fourth place on
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the list was Gamera, which they got 3% of the vote,
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which is one. One vote for Gamera. This was the
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Dark Horse book, obviously. Talking about the Kaiju....
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Gamera from the Godzilla universe, I guess. Chris Armstrong, I
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don't know. Are you a Godzilla guy?
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Not really. I know a few people that are kind
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of like big-time Godzilla freaks.
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Yeah, same here.
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They listen to the soundtracks and stuff, but I kind
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of like some of the movies, but I'm not like
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a diehard. I'll watch the big... Hollywood Godzilla movies. I
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like Godzilla minus one when I watch them. But for
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the most part, no. I've only seen maybe one or
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two of the old school Godzilla flicks. Like, I saw
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the Raven-Burr version, I guess the American version of the
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original Godzilla, and I've seen the original Godzilla vs. Kong,
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and that's probably it for the old ones. Uh-huh. And...
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I think the new ones are kind of cool, but yeah,
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I'm not a huge fan. Is Gamera the turtle-looking kaijin?
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I remember watching the older Godzilla movies on USA or
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TBS back in the early 90s, late 80s or.
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Something like that.
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I'm pretty much in the camp with you, like where
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I'll watch the big blockbuster film or did like Minus One.
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I'd like to watch that again, actually. Really did enjoy that.
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Third place on the poll.
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Is.
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Carnage It's a Wonderful Life got 18% of the vote,
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which was about six votes here. I don't think I've
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read this. It looked cool, I'll tell you that much.
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The creative team on that book... Colored by Gregory Wright,
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friend of the show. Written by David Quinn, Kyle Hotz
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on art. I think Kyle Hotz, wasn't he Ghostwriter 2099?
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I could be wrong.
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I thought that was Chris Pachalo, but I don't know
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because I haven't read Ghostwriter 2099.
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I can't remember either.
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I know Kyle Hotz did Nightman, some of those books,
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so I'm familiar with him.
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Okay. Do you remember reading Carnage, It's a Wonderful Life?
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I don't believe I ever read that one, no. I wonder,
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is that a Christmas book? Issue, it's middle of summer
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coming out.
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Cover certainly doesn't look like it.
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Okay.
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The cover is freaking crazy.
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I'll just tell you that much. Maybe it's just taking
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that it's a wonderful life model of what if.
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Alternate, like.
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Venus was never best by Carnage or whatever. Right.
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Second place. Number one issue, August of 1996. Total Justice
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number one.
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So... Is that the action figure line?
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Yes, it is.
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Okay.
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And I think it was in the lead for a
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very short time. And this is written by Christopher Priest.
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Oh. Yeah.
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Or James C. Owsley as he goes by as well.
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But yeah, Christopher Priest wrote number one of Total Justice. Yeah,
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this was based off the action figure line. Got about,
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what did we say, 28% of the vote. But bringing
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it in at number one. ladies and gentlemen backlash spider-man
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number one this takes it with 51 of the vote
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and just about everybody me and you know voted for
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backlash spider-man number one and the good thing is folks
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i don't know if you paid attention but a while
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back when i started talking about doing this 96 number
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ones one of the things that i said is like
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hey you never know we may just cover a the
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whole series if we really want to well the good
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thing is is that this was only two issues so
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today tonight whenever you're listening to this you get to
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listen to myself and chris armstrong discuss the full two-issue crossover.
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That's right double your pleasure double your fun guys.
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Backlash spider-man number one and number two coming at you
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but first before we get into that chris armstrong backlash
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spider-man all right you're back into comic collecting at this
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point right oh yeah Is this speaking to you back
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in the day, 30 years ago?
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Oh, yeah. I reread the two issues I purchased in 1996.
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I love it.
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Oh, wow.
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And I've read these, like, because it's self-contained, it's almost
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like it could have been a one-shot.
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Yeah.
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It's two, I think, probably standard 22-page issues. They could
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have done, like, a cardstock bound, kind of like the Youngblood.
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Or like the Bad Rock Wolverine we did recently. Right.
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For whatever reason, they did the two issues. But yeah,
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it's pretty self-made. I reread this several times in the 90s.
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And I've read it a couple times since then before
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even going back to it for this. So yeah, big
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fan of this two-parter.
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I've got... So this is in my notes.
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I'm sure I'm going to reiterate this later. But I've
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got to ask you a question. There's three characters, people that...
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probably brought you to the book and i want to
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know which one brought you the most that's either backlash.
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Spider-man or bike brett booth.
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Honestly it was probably just the fact that spider-man was
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crossing over with an image character that was probably enough
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to do it for me okay all right cool This
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may have been the first time I'd really read anything
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Brett Booth had done, because I wasn't reading Backlash back then,
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and he was the artist on that for most of
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at least the first couple years. I know he had
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done some stuff at Wildstorm before he sort of... Like,
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he did the Wildcats number zero issue, but he basically
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was just doing a Jim Lee style. He hadn't really
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come into his own as far as developing his own
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style at that point. So this might have been the
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first real exposure... to Brett Booth. I may have just
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picked it up off the shelf and thought, Hey, this
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looks really cool. I'll get it. I don't really remember.
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Yeah.
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So I'll give you a real quick snapshot of Brett Booth,
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which by the way, I really, really do love his
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art style.
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It's one of the most recognizable for me too.
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Like there are Jim Lee, I could probably pick that
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out of a lineup and Brett Booth is the same
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for me. Like I can look at his art and
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go like, as Brett Booth, just because I've.
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Seen it so much and I love it. So the
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thing is, is that it's not.
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Like he has a huge career under his belt when
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he does this.
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He does do, just like you said, he's on Backlash
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when Backlash Spider-Man hits.
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And he's got about, at that point, Backlash is in
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the early 20s as far as issue count. But the
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thing is, is that Brett Booth, here's his first three issues, okay?
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wildcats number zero okay storm watch storm watch number zero
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which i think he's backlash is a member of storm
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watch at that point or at least on that zero
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team and then third issue out the gate deathmate black
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he does a couple issues of storm watch and then
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kindred one through four hits and then backlash goes into
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an ongoing series backlash number one hits in 94. Now, Backlash,
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like I said, goes for, we're up to issue 22
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when Backlash Spider-Man happens. So, at no point has Brett
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Booth touched a Marvel character or.
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A Marvel book up to this point.
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So, I think as I went on reading this, I
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started to realize that probably what prompted me to pick
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this book up is, number one, love Brett Booth's art.
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Number two, Brett Booth doing a Marvel character.
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Not just any Marvel character, Spider-Man, but not just any Spider-Man.
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Ben Reilly's Spider-Man.
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Uh-huh.
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So we are clone saga-ing it up here a little bit.
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Right in the middle. Smack dab in the middle of
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the clone saga.
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Yeah, yeah. So anyway, yeah, that's kind of where we're at.
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And when you look at the creative team of Backlash Spider-Man,
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so written by Sean Rufter, also written by Brett Booth
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and penciled by Brett Booth. So I'm assuming they're either
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co-writing here, helping each other out, whatever. Inked by Tom McQueenie.
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Ann Alvey, which I've heard.
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Of Alvey's name before.
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Lettered by Chris Eliopoulos, one of the premier letterers that
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is out there, usually top tier. But then colorist is
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Jessica Ruffner Booth. This is like a family affair for
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these guys. Sean Ruffner, just real quick on Mike's Amazing World.
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I believe he was the writer on the Backlash series.
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You're right. He was writing the Backlash series.
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And I was going to say, this is almost like
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The creative team was all the Backlash people. This was
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clearly published by Wildstorm, because I don't know if you're
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reading a physical copy, but all the ads are for
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Wildstorm books, except for the Heroes Reborn books that Jim
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Lynch made.
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Which is image-related anyway.
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Yeah, so it's almost like this is a Backlash miniseries
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of Spider-Man guest stars.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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All right.
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So there's our creative team on sale date, August 7th
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of 1996.
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As far as Backlash, I had never read any of
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the Backlash books. I've always, because I love this two-parter
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so much, I always wanted to read some Backlash. And
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then in the last few years, kind of like when
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I talk on our last episode about reading some Superboy
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that I missed out on, I've gone back and got
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a decent-sized run of Backlash comics and have started reading
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through those over the last couple years. And they're pretty solid.
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And Brett Booth, of course, is really... Fun to look at.
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It's an artist's work.
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Well, it's interesting because my exposure to backlash prior to
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this was through Stormwatch. When Image hit and I started like, okay,
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I'm going to pay attention to this universe now, I
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had quite a few Image comics on the pool list.
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Savage Dragon was one of them. Wildcats was another. Supreme,
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and Stormwatch. I was a huge Stormwatch fan. I was
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reading that pretty faithfully. That was probably my first real
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teen book that I remember buying and actually enjoying and reading.
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That's where I was introduced to Backlash, I believe. And
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then I picked up a few of the issues. of
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the ongoing at one point.
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And I read those.
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I liked them. I love Brett Booth's art, like I said.
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But I dropped off the series just because I couldn't
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find them. And I think that it was probably a
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money issue or something.
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You saw, like, what was it, about a month ago?
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I was at Half Price Books and found all four
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issues of The Kindred sitting there.
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Nice.
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And I think I snagged them for like 75 cents
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a piece or something because they don't respect image books
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or something.
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I don't know.
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Hey, maybe a future Unspoken Epics.
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So, yeah, I've really.
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Now I want to go back and read more Backlash.
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When we get into this story, there's stuff that I
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was learning.
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About Backlash that I completely forgot about. Some of his
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power set, I had no idea. I knew he had
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the things that come out of his hands. That's what
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you see on the cover. But the rest of it,
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some of the stuff, his whole relationship with things, I was...
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That had seen its way out of my mind.
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He's got such a cool costume. It's really simple, like
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black and white, but He's got the straps, so he's
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got kind of the 90s look going. He's got the
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open cap where his white hair kind of pushes through
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the top. And he's got one eye on the mask.
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He's got the white.
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Stripe going down. Looks like a blade almost.
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Yeah.
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That's a badass costume.
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It's a really cool costume.
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I agree.
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And then the, I don't know if they're called side whips,
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but that's what I call them.
248
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Yeah.
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00:12:17.559 --> 00:12:21.159
And having those, like, that's just a really unique looking costume.
250
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power thing.
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Right.
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00:12:23.059 --> 00:12:27.320
And it also kind of goes with Spider-Man. It makes
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00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:32.190
them look like showing the webbing and the side whips together.
254
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They kind of go together.
255
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I think there's a point in my notes here where
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00:12:36.169 --> 00:12:40.840
I was trying to rationalize why these two characters kind
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of meshed together a little bit, but they still seem
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different enough to be like, why the hell is Backlash
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teaming with this guy? But just like you said, there's
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the whole whip and Spider-Man's slinging his web. That seems
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00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:53.860
kind of, they're both shooting stuff out of their hands.
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So you got that, and then you got, I think,
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as we're going to find out in the plot of
264
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this book, that Taboo, who is the other character, is
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going to share somewhat of a similarity with Venom. Surprise,
266
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ladies and gentlemen, Venom is going to be showing up.
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All right, let me get in real quick to our
268
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characters here. So, first up, we've got Backlash. We just
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kind of talked about him. His real name's Mark Slayton,
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I think. Backlash comes out of the Wildstorm universe, and
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he's a highly trained, like, government operative, I guess. Pretty
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unusual collection of abilities. He's extremely skilled with hand-to-hand combat.
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He can generate these energy whips from his hands, and
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as Spider-Man finds out the hard way in this issue,
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he can even temporarily transform his body into a mist-like form.
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At this point, he's working with the government organization. Is
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it called Department Psi, P-S-I? Paranormal Scient or something, Investigations
278
00:13:47.830 --> 00:13:48.250
or something?
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Right.
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So he's essentially our lead character on the Wildstorm side
281
00:13:51.669 --> 00:13:55.350
of this crossover. But also working alongside Backlash is Amanda,
282
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is it Amanda Reed?
283
00:13:57.879 --> 00:13:58.120
Yes.
284
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Amanda Reed.
285
00:13:59.289 --> 00:14:02.750
Better known as Taboo, Amanda has a complicated past, including
286
00:14:02.789 --> 00:14:05.330
previous ties to the criminal organization known as the Cabal.
287
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And she's now working alongside Backlash, though. She also possesses
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this dark, living-looking armor that becomes extremely important to the
289
00:14:14.029 --> 00:14:16.049
story because somebody else takes one look at it and
290
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immediately assumes he's dealing with another symbiote. And that's somebody's venom.
291
00:14:20.629 --> 00:14:23.710
This is Eddie Brock and the alien symbiote that originally
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00:14:23.789 --> 00:14:27.309
bonded with Spider-Man before eventually joining with Eddie. Venom has
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00:14:27.350 --> 00:14:29.740
spent years bouncing back and forth between being one of
294
00:14:29.769 --> 00:14:34.500
Spider-Man's most dangerous enemies and this strange kind of violent anti-hero.
295
00:14:35.100 --> 00:14:37.419
He genuinely believes he's doing the right thing a lot
296
00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:40.039
of the time, it's just that his definition of the
297
00:14:40.059 --> 00:14:43.600
right thing can involve a whole lot of attempted murder. Here,
298
00:14:43.679 --> 00:14:46.610
Venom has come looking for Taboo because he believes the
299
00:14:46.659 --> 00:14:50.049
substance covering her body may somehow be related to the symbiotes,
300
00:14:50.210 --> 00:14:53.740
specifically Carnage. Now, on the Marvel side of things, we've
301
00:14:53.820 --> 00:14:56.779
obviously got Spider-Man, but there's an important wrinkle here. We've
302
00:14:56.799 --> 00:15:00.389
already mentioned it. This is not Peter Parker. This is
303
00:15:00.429 --> 00:15:02.289
Ben Reilly. We're right in the middle of the Clone
304
00:15:02.309 --> 00:15:04.669
Saga era, and Ben is a clone of Peter Parker
305
00:15:04.710 --> 00:15:07.750
who has recently taken over the Spider-Man identity while Peter
306
00:15:07.809 --> 00:15:10.129
and Mary Jane try to step away from superhero life.
307
00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:12.879
Mary Jane's pregnant, if I remember correctly.
308
00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:13.639
I believe so.
309
00:15:14.230 --> 00:15:16.990
So Ben has Peter's powers, Peter's memories up to a
310
00:15:17.029 --> 00:15:18.889
certain point, and a lot of the same instincts, but
311
00:15:18.929 --> 00:15:22.509
he doesn't necessarily have all of Peter's personal experience. That's
312
00:15:22.549 --> 00:15:25.690
going to matter here, particularly when Backlash starts asking him
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00:15:25.789 --> 00:15:29.929
questions about Venom. And finally, we've got Pike, the guy
314
00:15:29.950 --> 00:15:34.139
that brought Chris Armstrong to the book. The primary Wildstorm
315
00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:37.080
villain involved in all of this, Pike is an assassin
316
00:15:37.299 --> 00:15:40.860
working for the Cabal, the organization tied to Taboo's past.
317
00:15:41.419 --> 00:15:45.129
He's ruthless, he's clearly got absolutely no problem hurting innocent
318
00:15:45.169 --> 00:15:47.629
people to get what he wants, and he's hunting both
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00:15:47.690 --> 00:15:50.649
backlash and taboo. Early in the story, he makes an
320
00:15:50.769 --> 00:15:53.669
uneasy alliance with Venom, and whenever Venom is the more
321
00:15:53.830 --> 00:15:57.620
reasonable path of your partnership, that probably tells you everything
322
00:15:57.629 --> 00:15:58.659
you need to know about Pike.
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Here we go. All right.
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00:16:02.700 --> 00:16:05.379
Backlash Spider-Man number one opens in New York City with
325
00:16:05.419 --> 00:16:08.360
Ben Reilly's Spider-Man stopping a mugging before the story shifts
326
00:16:08.419 --> 00:16:09.019
over to Psy-Tek?
327
00:16:10.529 --> 00:16:13.309
Is that the name of the corporation? I can't remember.
328
00:16:13.330 --> 00:16:15.789
The Department of Sci, I know, is the thing that
329
00:16:15.850 --> 00:16:17.889
he's part of. But I feel like it's like they're
330
00:16:17.909 --> 00:16:20.500
at a corporation. They're at the SciTech, like a SciTech
331
00:16:20.529 --> 00:16:21.519
building of some sort.
332
00:16:22.179 --> 00:16:27.350
Yeah. How do they say it? Yeah, Psytech Labs.
333
00:16:27.429 --> 00:16:28.450
Psytech Labs, okay.
334
00:16:28.889 --> 00:16:32.470
There's a much more serious situation unfolding there, as Pike
335
00:16:33.409 --> 00:16:37.389
is slaughtering technicians while searching for Mark Slayton, and specifically
336
00:16:37.429 --> 00:16:40.789
Amanda Reed, better known as Backlash and Taboo. Before Pike
337
00:16:40.850 --> 00:16:43.870
can finish the job, Venom arrives, looking for Taboo as well,
338
00:16:44.350 --> 00:16:47.389
believing that the strange substance surrounding her may be connected
339
00:16:47.409 --> 00:16:51.700
to the symbiotes. Rather than fight each other to the death,
340
00:16:52.019 --> 00:16:55.080
Pike and Venom strike an uneasy agreement. Pike knows how
341
00:16:55.100 --> 00:16:59.159
to find Taboo, and Venom wants answers about what she is. Meanwhile,
342
00:16:59.220 --> 00:17:01.830
Backlash and Taboo arrive in New York to investigate the
343
00:17:01.870 --> 00:17:05.490
attack on PsyTech. Amanda briefly separates from Mark to visit
344
00:17:05.529 --> 00:17:07.809
the grave of her father, only to discover that her
345
00:17:07.849 --> 00:17:12.210
limousine driver has been replaced by Eddie Brock. Venom reveals
346
00:17:12.269 --> 00:17:15.630
himself and abducts her, but the struggle spills out onto
347
00:17:15.670 --> 00:17:18.430
the street just as Ben Reilly happens to be walking by.
348
00:17:19.660 --> 00:17:23.630
Spider-Man intervenes and fights Venom alongside Taboo, but Pike creates
349
00:17:23.670 --> 00:17:27.269
a distraction by throwing a baby carriage into the path
350
00:17:27.309 --> 00:17:30.809
of an oncoming bus. Ben is forced to save the child,
351
00:17:30.890 --> 00:17:33.430
giving Venom and Pike enough time to escape with Amanda.
352
00:17:33.849 --> 00:17:36.490
Backlash soon arrives at the scene and realizes his partner
353
00:17:36.529 --> 00:17:40.210
has been taken. Later that night, Backlash tracks Spider-Man down.
354
00:17:40.599 --> 00:17:42.339
I think he tracks him down because Spider-Man goes back
355
00:17:42.380 --> 00:17:43.740
to the scene to kind of like check it out.
356
00:17:44.380 --> 00:17:46.440
And Backlash is like waiting there for him. He says, hey,
357
00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:48.880
I need help. I need you to help me find
358
00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:51.920
this Venom guy. You obviously know him. All the reports
359
00:17:51.940 --> 00:17:53.039
have been telling me that you know him.
360
00:17:53.640 --> 00:17:55.630
You know about him. I need some help trying to
361
00:17:55.660 --> 00:17:55.970
find him.
362
00:17:56.829 --> 00:17:59.650
Ben initially refuses partly because he doesn't have the same
363
00:17:59.730 --> 00:18:01.789
history with Venom. I think that's the way I take it.
364
00:18:01.809 --> 00:18:03.829
Like he doesn't want to get involved with Venom for
365
00:18:03.869 --> 00:18:04.329
some reason.
366
00:18:05.710 --> 00:18:06.589
Who does? Yeah.
367
00:18:07.160 --> 00:18:09.319
But Backlash doesn't exactly take no for an answer.
368
00:18:09.740 --> 00:18:14.259
The two briefly fight, of course, giving Spider-Man a firsthand
369
00:18:14.299 --> 00:18:17.779
look at Backlash's energy whips and his ability to transform
370
00:18:17.819 --> 00:18:20.759
into mist. Eventually, they stop beating on each other, or
371
00:18:20.779 --> 00:18:22.759
trying to beat each other. I don't even know if
372
00:18:22.799 --> 00:18:25.660
they land a punch. They're throwing things at each other,
373
00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:29.259
but nobody gets hurt, really. But they eventually stop, long
374
00:18:29.299 --> 00:18:31.579
enough to realize that they have the same goal. Backlash
375
00:18:31.619 --> 00:18:33.779
admits that Pike and the Cabal may have an entire
376
00:18:34.019 --> 00:18:37.980
army behind them, and Ben reluctantly agrees to help rescue Taboo.
377
00:18:38.640 --> 00:18:41.160
The issue closes with Amanda waking up captive in a
378
00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:44.140
church where Venom tells her that he intends to determine
379
00:18:44.259 --> 00:18:47.200
exactly what she is and what should happen to her.
380
00:18:48.500 --> 00:18:50.240
That is where we end issue one.
381
00:18:50.869 --> 00:18:53.750
So I'll go ahead and kind of get into my
382
00:18:53.829 --> 00:18:56.210
notes about the first issue here, and then I'll turn
383
00:18:56.230 --> 00:18:56.690
it over to you.
384
00:18:57.230 --> 00:18:58.829
So right out the gate, I'm just going.
385
00:18:58.750 --> 00:19:01.289
To say, Brett Booth is a huge part of the
386
00:19:01.329 --> 00:19:02.049
appeal for me.
387
00:19:02.630 --> 00:19:03.119
Brett Booth is.
388
00:19:03.690 --> 00:19:08.430
fantastic artist i love seeing him have the opportunity to
389
00:19:08.470 --> 00:19:11.609
draw ben reilly spider-man which by the way a.
390
00:19:13.630 --> 00:19:15.789
Huge fan of the ben reilly costume.
391
00:19:16.210 --> 00:19:20.720
Oh yeah that's the best alternate spider-man costume i think
392
00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:23.559
100 designed by dan jergens i'm pretty sure.
393
00:19:23.779 --> 00:19:27.200
And oh wow okay all right and booth's take on
394
00:19:27.259 --> 00:19:29.259
freaking venom is not bad either.
395
00:19:29.900 --> 00:19:33.119
It's great The thing about Venom that is interesting with
396
00:19:33.259 --> 00:19:37.200
Booth is one thing Brett Booth consistently does is all
397
00:19:37.240 --> 00:19:41.910
of his characters are really thin and lithe and just
398
00:19:41.970 --> 00:19:45.569
in body shape and stuff. But Venom is obviously supposed
399
00:19:45.589 --> 00:19:48.930
to be kind of a hulking monster type, and he
400
00:19:48.970 --> 00:19:41.630
does a good job with that. Yes. Yeah, 100%. Yeah.
401
00:19:59.880 --> 00:20:02.240
Slender look my next note here is Ben Reilly works
402
00:20:02.279 --> 00:20:05.180
perfectly fine as Spider-Man here I have no complaints I
403
00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:06.740
know the clone saga gets a lot of grief that
404
00:20:06.779 --> 00:20:09.289
it gets but I think one of the hardest parts
405
00:20:09.509 --> 00:20:11.369
that you kind of have to digest is the fact
406
00:20:11.380 --> 00:20:15.029
that you have to explain Ben Reilly in your book
407
00:20:15.069 --> 00:20:17.869
here because somebody's a backlash fan picking up a Spider-Man
408
00:20:17.950 --> 00:20:20.430
book for the first time they have no idea why
409
00:20:20.509 --> 00:20:23.390
Peter Parker has blonde hair but aside from that fault
410
00:20:23.430 --> 00:20:25.650
that you have to explain what's going on I think
411
00:20:25.690 --> 00:20:29.390
Ben Reilly does fine does a fine job here I'm
412
00:20:29.490 --> 00:20:33.009
okay with it. The opening Spider-Man sequence, nice straightforward introduction
413
00:20:33.049 --> 00:20:36.160
to Ben. He just shows up as Spider-Man and saves
414
00:20:36.200 --> 00:20:38.119
a grandmother from a mugging, which is fine.
415
00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:39.140
Hey, here's Spider-Man.
416
00:20:39.660 --> 00:20:42.380
And regardless of all the clone saga craziness, this is
417
00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:45.640
still Spider-Man doing Spider-Man things. Pike does make a strong
418
00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:50.039
entrance here. He immediately establishes himself as ruthless. He's definitely
419
00:20:50.059 --> 00:20:50.859
a serious assassin.
420
00:20:50.920 --> 00:20:51.039
Uh-huh.
421
00:20:53.400 --> 00:20:58.160
Has no problem killing people, also killing babies, or threatening babies, apparently.
422
00:20:58.619 --> 00:20:59.599
So, yeah.
423
00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.549
Venom's involvement makes enough sense to me. This is actually
424
00:21:04.569 --> 00:21:07.930
a great way of pairing these two universes together.
425
00:21:08.069 --> 00:21:09.150
Like, Venom.
426
00:21:09.750 --> 00:21:12.410
I don't know if separation anxiety... I feel like that
427
00:21:12.569 --> 00:21:14.509
might have happened at this point. You might know better
428
00:21:14.549 --> 00:21:15.230
than I do, but.
429
00:21:16.289 --> 00:21:18.109
I don't think I've ever read that. Okay.
430
00:21:18.130 --> 00:21:18.410
Okay.
431
00:21:19.059 --> 00:21:21.720
Is that the one that had introduced all the new symbiotes?
432
00:21:21.900 --> 00:21:22.559
Yep, yep.
433
00:21:22.700 --> 00:21:23.039
Brought in.
434
00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:26.140
It seems like it probably had because Venom mentioned something
435
00:21:26.180 --> 00:21:31.960
about Carnage's... Offspring spawn. Yeah, so that probably had happened already.
436
00:21:32.099 --> 00:21:32.380
Yeah.
437
00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:35.039
So I think that's a great way of making this
438
00:21:35.059 --> 00:21:36.960
story make sense and why Venom's involved.
439
00:21:37.480 --> 00:21:37.819
He wants.
440
00:21:37.940 --> 00:21:41.029
He's... he's sick of carnage and his shenanigans. So he
441
00:21:41.069 --> 00:21:43.910
thinks taboo is tied up and all that. The Pike
442
00:21:43.950 --> 00:21:46.930
venom Alliance is very much one of those classic crossover setups.
443
00:21:47.190 --> 00:21:49.430
You got the heroes eventually teaming up. So naturally you
444
00:21:49.450 --> 00:21:52.359
get the villains from each side coming together and It's
445
00:21:52.380 --> 00:21:53.000
not groundbreaking.
446
00:21:53.019 --> 00:21:54.200
You don't want to trust each other.
447
00:21:54.700 --> 00:21:56.519
It gives everybody reason to be in the same story.
448
00:21:56.700 --> 00:21:58.890
Taboo stood out as more than just somebody wanting to
449
00:21:58.920 --> 00:22:01.329
be rescued. She was kind of like the damsel in distress,
450
00:22:01.390 --> 00:22:04.170
but she was capable enough to sort of hold off
451
00:22:04.190 --> 00:22:07.230
Venom for a few, but she does get captured, so whatever.
452
00:22:07.450 --> 00:22:09.829
There is a lot of Wildstorm information being thrown at you,
453
00:22:09.910 --> 00:22:13.579
just to let you know this is a Wildstorm book. SciTech,
454
00:22:13.880 --> 00:22:18.500
Department Sci, The Cabal, Taboo's History, Pike's Motivations, all of
455
00:22:18.539 --> 00:22:22.369
its useful information... especially for Marvel readers who don't know
456
00:22:22.430 --> 00:22:27.539
these characters. But there are definitely some walls of text
457
00:22:28.900 --> 00:22:31.900
where there's just like, we've got to explain what's happened here.
458
00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:34.009
I would have rather have trimmed some of that and
459
00:22:34.049 --> 00:22:34.990
just let Brett.
460
00:22:34.869 --> 00:22:36.869
Booth and his art speak, man.
461
00:22:37.309 --> 00:22:38.089
But whatever.
462
00:22:38.509 --> 00:22:39.950
We got to get everybody again. We got to get
463
00:22:39.990 --> 00:22:41.849
everybody on the same page of who these people are.
464
00:22:42.930 --> 00:22:45.759
spider-man and taboo fighting venom works well visually i thought
465
00:22:45.779 --> 00:22:48.000
that was pretty cool booth really gets to shine there
466
00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:50.619
his venom especially stands out to me i love the
467
00:22:50.680 --> 00:22:52.880
expressions like venom has every once in a while he
468
00:22:52.920 --> 00:22:56.960
has these just goofy cartoonish expressions like on venom's face
469
00:22:57.460 --> 00:23:02.109
and i love how it's like he's just a straight
470
00:23:02.200 --> 00:23:05.869
black figure and you don't see anything other than his
471
00:23:06.210 --> 00:23:08.950
eyes and and his mouth and the outline of him.
472
00:23:09.289 --> 00:23:11.230
So there's some moments where that's like, and then there's
473
00:23:11.269 --> 00:23:13.299
some other moments where it's like, okay, we're going to
474
00:23:13.339 --> 00:23:17.200
pay attention to how Venom looks. So kudos to that
475
00:23:17.259 --> 00:23:19.900
and the coloring too. I think the coloring is on point.
476
00:23:20.789 --> 00:23:24.500
Pike throwing the baby carriage into traffic. Just that helps
477
00:23:24.539 --> 00:23:27.839
establish how ruthless he is. The little puddle of venom
478
00:23:27.880 --> 00:23:29.940
symbiote is a good setup. The second issue, we get
479
00:23:29.960 --> 00:23:31.680
a little bit more on this, but they find that
480
00:23:31.720 --> 00:23:32.640
little puddle of venom.
481
00:23:32.740 --> 00:23:34.859
Yeah, that's how they first meet. Cause like Mark is
482
00:23:34.940 --> 00:23:35.660
reaching down.
483
00:23:35.500 --> 00:23:37.720
To touch this puddle of goo that dropped off venom
484
00:23:38.200 --> 00:23:41.029
and Ben's like, no, he tackles them out of nowhere.
485
00:23:41.680 --> 00:23:42.329
Good setup.
486
00:23:42.700 --> 00:23:45.009
Mark obviously doesn't know what the hell's going on. I
487
00:23:45.049 --> 00:23:48.509
also like Mark noticing that this supposedly ordinary kid just
488
00:23:48.549 --> 00:23:50.710
tackled him with way more strength than somebody else.
489
00:23:51.250 --> 00:23:51.589
Right.
490
00:23:52.109 --> 00:23:52.730
Mark Slate.
491
00:23:52.769 --> 00:23:54.910
I didn't realize he was like a detective. Like, that's
492
00:23:55.069 --> 00:23:56.730
kind of the vibe I was getting from this. I
493
00:23:56.730 --> 00:23:58.269
was like, he's a detective or something.
494
00:23:58.950 --> 00:24:02.230
Yeah, he seems to be like almost like a spook,
495
00:24:02.289 --> 00:24:08.309
like a government, like a spy guy. Secret agent man.
496
00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:12.380
probably in deep with John Lynch you know.
497
00:24:12.779 --> 00:24:15.799
I got you yeah yeah that makes sense the backlash
498
00:24:15.819 --> 00:24:18.460
Spider-Man fight is probably where backlash really gets to show
499
00:24:18.529 --> 00:24:20.930
off for Marvel readers there get to see his energy
500
00:24:20.970 --> 00:24:22.789
whips his fighting ability you also get to see him
501
00:24:22.809 --> 00:24:25.710
turn to mist which is pretty cool and yeah again
502
00:24:25.750 --> 00:24:28.009
I don't remember him ever turning into mist before so
503
00:24:28.029 --> 00:24:29.970
I have no idea what's going on there that's where
504
00:24:30.009 --> 00:24:32.750
I'm like okay I obviously need to read backlash they
505
00:24:32.769 --> 00:24:35.920
get the obligatory superhero misunderstanding fight out of the way
506
00:24:36.079 --> 00:24:38.420
but they don't drag it on forever probably like a
507
00:24:38.460 --> 00:24:40.420
couple pages and And by the.
508
00:24:40.400 --> 00:24:42.019
End of the issue, the team-up makes sense.
509
00:24:42.359 --> 00:24:45.509
Even if the crossover itself really isn't a natural pairing,
510
00:24:46.160 --> 00:24:49.190
Spider-Man and Backlash aren't two characters I would automatically put together,
511
00:24:49.250 --> 00:24:52.289
but once Pike, Venom, and Taboo are involved, the story
512
00:24:52.329 --> 00:24:56.009
creates enough common ground really to where this thing can work.
513
00:24:56.730 --> 00:25:00.089
So, there you go. I think the first issue does
514
00:25:00.109 --> 00:25:01.049
a lot of heavy lifting.
515
00:25:02.109 --> 00:25:06.130
It introduces everybody, explains both universes, sets up Venom, Pike,
516
00:25:06.309 --> 00:25:11.480
gets Taboo kidnapped. Finally brings Spider-Man and Backlash together. It's
517
00:25:11.500 --> 00:25:13.480
more exposition heavy than it needs to be. And it's
518
00:25:13.579 --> 00:25:15.660
more exposition heavy than issue two, I think.
519
00:25:16.140 --> 00:25:16.380
Yeah.
520
00:25:16.589 --> 00:25:17.450
But I understand why.
521
00:25:17.630 --> 00:25:19.650
And Brett Booth's art, of course, keeps the energy just
522
00:25:19.750 --> 00:25:21.210
like really flowing.
523
00:25:21.289 --> 00:25:23.750
So that's all my notes for issue one. What do
524
00:25:23.789 --> 00:25:24.309
you got there?
525
00:25:26.410 --> 00:25:29.359
Brett Booth does a great Spider-Man. Like he's, it's almost
526
00:25:29.410 --> 00:25:33.019
like a perfect character for him and his style, I think.
527
00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:38.230
And again, I love, This sensation, I call it the
528
00:25:38.269 --> 00:25:42.519
sensational Spider-Man costume because that's the series it debuted in
529
00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:44.940
or whatever. But when we first see him flying through
530
00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:47.019
the city or swinging through the city and he's got
531
00:25:47.059 --> 00:25:50.609
his inner monologue kind of going over, basically catching the
532
00:25:50.619 --> 00:25:52.630
reader up on what's going on in the clone saga.
533
00:25:52.930 --> 00:25:53.170
Yeah.
534
00:25:54.069 --> 00:25:57.430
He reiterates several times that it's been five years that
535
00:25:57.470 --> 00:25:59.950
he was missing, which is kind of, I think, the
536
00:25:59.990 --> 00:26:04.559
first time I ever... got a sense of the floating timeline.
537
00:26:04.579 --> 00:26:07.119
When you're sitting there thinking of what happened, the whole
538
00:26:07.160 --> 00:26:10.799
Jackal thing and Clone Saga, the origins of it, that
539
00:26:10.819 --> 00:26:12.200
was back in the 70s, right?
540
00:26:12.500 --> 00:26:17.769
I believe it was 20 years before this. So basically
541
00:26:17.890 --> 00:26:21.509
they're saying like for every four years that passes in
542
00:26:21.529 --> 00:26:24.390
the real world, it's basically a year of comic book continuity.
543
00:26:25.130 --> 00:26:28.089
And of course that continues to change over the, like
544
00:26:28.710 --> 00:26:31.130
a recent Captain America story I read had him coming
545
00:26:31.170 --> 00:26:36.099
back during the middle of the afghanistan war like it's
546
00:26:36.160 --> 00:26:39.069
always they're always having to kind of update that stuff
547
00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:42.710
but pike showing up i do like that character he's
548
00:26:42.809 --> 00:26:46.650
just kind of a cool looking assassin with superpowers he's
549
00:26:46.670 --> 00:26:48.750
not doesn't have a whole lot of personality but i
550
00:26:48.769 --> 00:26:52.470
still like it when he shows up so venom being
551
00:26:52.490 --> 00:26:56.569
the counterpart for him venom was still like so maybe
552
00:26:56.589 --> 00:26:59.640
just past his peak popularity back then yeah yeah he
553
00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:01.599
might be more popular now than he ever has been
554
00:27:01.640 --> 00:27:04.319
honestly but This is when Venom was still cool. I
555
00:27:04.339 --> 00:27:06.680
don't think he's been cool for, like, 30 years now.
556
00:27:07.079 --> 00:27:07.759
Or at least 20.
557
00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:11.599
Are you aware of who Venom is in current comics continuity?
558
00:27:12.119 --> 00:27:12.390
Is it.
559
00:27:12.680 --> 00:27:14.480
Hold on. Flash Thompson?
560
00:27:15.339 --> 00:27:16.519
No, he was Venom for a while.
561
00:27:16.539 --> 00:27:19.160
He was Agent Venom, I think, right? And then... Yeah, yeah.
562
00:27:19.759 --> 00:27:22.160
I don't know who Venom is now. Oh, wait, wait.
563
00:27:22.220 --> 00:27:23.000
Is it Mary Jane?
564
00:27:23.700 --> 00:27:24.460
It is Mary Jane.
565
00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:26.240
That's right. I remember hearing about that.
566
00:27:27.859 --> 00:27:29.599
It's fucking crazy. Comics are so stupid.
567
00:27:29.640 --> 00:27:30.619
Ha ha ha ha ha.
568
00:27:31.470 --> 00:27:33.529
Like, you don't have to make them that stupid, though, guys.
569
00:27:33.630 --> 00:27:36.349
I can't imagine who is into that. But I think
570
00:27:36.369 --> 00:27:38.730
she's been Venom for a while. I finished reading this
571
00:27:38.869 --> 00:27:44.349
Venom-Spider-Man crossover that they did recently, and it was just awful.
572
00:27:44.549 --> 00:27:49.190
I was basically just reading it because I read Spider-Man monthly,
573
00:27:49.339 --> 00:27:51.660
and I thought, well, I've got to read the Venom issues, too.
574
00:27:51.680 --> 00:27:57.039
It was just a bad story. And, like, in this story,
575
00:27:57.200 --> 00:27:59.359
I found out that Eddie Brock is Carnage now.
576
00:28:00.279 --> 00:28:01.119
Eddie is Carnage?
577
00:28:01.650 --> 00:28:07.289
Yes, and Flash might be anti-venom. I can't remember now.
578
00:28:09.250 --> 00:28:14.029
You guys have just really overplayed all this. Wow. But anyway,
579
00:28:14.150 --> 00:28:16.259
I digress. I'm sure some people like it.
580
00:28:16.329 --> 00:28:18.809
No, I'm definitely not keeping up with it at all.
581
00:28:19.630 --> 00:28:21.130
So, geez.
582
00:28:22.519 --> 00:28:24.630
Yeah, sometimes I have to find out the stupid stuff
583
00:28:24.799 --> 00:28:28.140
because I'm reading books that I actually like and then
584
00:28:28.180 --> 00:28:28.599
I get.
585
00:28:29.710 --> 00:28:31.869
You get disappointed in yourself.
586
00:28:32.250 --> 00:28:36.869
Oh, man. But anyway, he's been wearing the FF gear
587
00:28:36.950 --> 00:28:37.369
is cool.
588
00:28:37.410 --> 00:28:37.970
Yes.
589
00:28:38.069 --> 00:28:38.799
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
590
00:28:40.019 --> 00:28:45.019
And I wonder if this is intentionally like the design
591
00:28:45.059 --> 00:28:48.940
of his Fantastic Four like shirt that he's wearing is
592
00:28:49.900 --> 00:28:52.940
with the FF almost like the four is almost like
593
00:28:52.960 --> 00:28:58.079
a badge. It's more like what that Heroes Reborn.
594
00:28:58.099 --> 00:28:59.019
Heroes Reborn.
595
00:29:00.809 --> 00:29:03.490
FF costumes look like so that was cool I guess
596
00:29:03.509 --> 00:29:05.029
the last thing I really got on this issue it's
597
00:29:05.109 --> 00:29:09.329
on the cover as well behind the Backlash and Spider-Man
598
00:29:09.509 --> 00:29:13.450
logos but it's also on the last page and to
599
00:29:13.730 --> 00:29:18.619
be concluded it's got like a little Spider-Man Backlash amalgam
600
00:29:18.680 --> 00:29:21.779
logo with like a spider on one side and the
601
00:29:21.819 --> 00:29:24.640
blade on his mask which is a cool little logo
602
00:29:24.779 --> 00:29:27.799
that Booth probably just sketched out in 10 seconds yeah.
603
00:29:27.920 --> 00:29:31.670
Man good stuff And talk about the cover real quick.
604
00:29:31.690 --> 00:29:32.900
You've got it there in front of you.
605
00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:36.769
It's a gatefold, I guess. It's a two-page cover with
606
00:29:36.980 --> 00:29:41.089
our trio of heroes on the front cover. Venom and
607
00:29:41.170 --> 00:29:43.410
Pike on the back cover, kind of facing off with
608
00:29:43.470 --> 00:29:44.990
each other. Yeah.
609
00:29:45.529 --> 00:29:49.210
I think at this point, too, I'm trying to figure
610
00:29:49.299 --> 00:29:56.990
out how many Marvel image comic crossovers were happening. In 96,
611
00:29:56.980 --> 00:29:59.559
I feel like Hulk Pit's going to happen soon. If
612
00:29:59.599 --> 00:30:01.650
it hasn't happened already, because I remember picking that up
613
00:30:01.690 --> 00:30:02.569
when I was in college.
614
00:30:03.289 --> 00:30:05.109
Yeah, I think most of the ones they were doing
615
00:30:05.130 --> 00:30:11.230
around this time were Marvel teaming up with Extreme Studios
616
00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:15.640
and Wildstorm Studios characters because of the Heroes Report.
617
00:30:15.759 --> 00:30:18.880
Okay, that makes sense. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah,
618
00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:21.890
there's something to be said about... this is just probably
619
00:30:21.950 --> 00:30:23.829
some kind of personal thing for me where when you
620
00:30:23.849 --> 00:30:25.970
hit your wagon to an up and coming, like, okay,
621
00:30:26.029 --> 00:30:27.670
I want to see these guys succeed. This is the
622
00:30:27.690 --> 00:30:30.650
comic book universe that I'm going to read for a
623
00:30:30.670 --> 00:30:33.650
long time from here on out, which unfortunately it was
624
00:30:33.670 --> 00:30:36.450
just a few years for me, but regardless, you wanted
625
00:30:36.490 --> 00:30:42.400
to see the competition, recognize them. And this right here
626
00:30:43.259 --> 00:30:47.960
to me, these, when crossover started happening between image and
627
00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:52.430
the big companies, uh, Then I was like, okay, they've
628
00:30:52.470 --> 00:30:52.819
made it.
629
00:30:53.369 --> 00:30:54.390
They're recognized.
630
00:30:54.430 --> 00:30:58.359
Like, Backlash is not, when somebody says name, like, the
631
00:30:58.420 --> 00:31:01.940
first ten image superheroes, Backlash is not on that top
632
00:31:01.960 --> 00:31:02.619
ten list.
633
00:31:03.339 --> 00:31:03.619
Yeah.
634
00:31:03.660 --> 00:31:06.920
So this is them going, okay, who do you guys
635
00:31:06.940 --> 00:31:09.700
got for us? This is probably Marvel, just like you said,
636
00:31:09.720 --> 00:31:12.390
the Heroes of War and things probably happening, and, yeah,
637
00:31:13.289 --> 00:31:14.789
let's stick Spider-Man with Backlash.
638
00:31:14.809 --> 00:31:15.410
That makes sense.
639
00:31:15.589 --> 00:31:18.150
And that's probably one of the things that, made me
640
00:31:18.349 --> 00:31:20.730
pick this issue up too i was like haha image
641
00:31:20.779 --> 00:31:23.440
has had its day ladies and gentlemen spider-man is on
642
00:31:23.519 --> 00:31:24.680
front hanging.
643
00:31:24.440 --> 00:31:26.700
Out with backlash of all people.
644
00:31:26.720 --> 00:31:28.059
That's all i got on that one do we want
645
00:31:28.079 --> 00:31:31.200
to do a panel let's do a panel because best
646
00:31:31.240 --> 00:31:34.940
of luck trying to pick something because every single like
647
00:31:35.069 --> 00:31:38.250
there's some stuff that's kind of humdrum but man there.
648
00:31:38.109 --> 00:31:40.589
Is a lot of stuff that really looks good in
649
00:31:40.630 --> 00:31:42.630
this first issue you go first.
650
00:31:43.700 --> 00:31:46.740
I think it's on page seven, panel four, which is
651
00:31:46.779 --> 00:31:50.160
most of the page at the bottom. It's when Pike
652
00:31:50.220 --> 00:31:54.680
first sees Venom. Son of a bitch. He's kind of
653
00:31:54.700 --> 00:31:56.690
hanging out in the corner of the room there, up
654
00:31:56.730 --> 00:32:00.029
in the corner ceiling or ceiling corner. Yep. But he's
655
00:32:00.069 --> 00:32:01.769
not just up to the wall. I think it's cool
656
00:32:01.789 --> 00:32:04.329
that Booth put him in like some webbing, his web
657
00:32:04.410 --> 00:32:05.509
up there waiting on Pike.
658
00:32:06.720 --> 00:32:09.519
What a freaking image, man. This is the one that
659
00:32:09.559 --> 00:32:11.319
I was going to pick. It's so good, too.
660
00:32:11.440 --> 00:32:12.500
You should have gone first.
661
00:32:12.539 --> 00:32:13.559
Yeah, I am.
662
00:32:13.859 --> 00:32:17.190
Brett Booth taking on Venom. There are so many spots.
663
00:32:17.490 --> 00:32:19.170
As I was reading this book, I was like, gosh,
664
00:32:19.190 --> 00:32:21.869
that Venom looks cool. Man, that Venom looks cool. And
665
00:32:21.890 --> 00:32:24.690
this is probably the best one in this first issue
666
00:32:24.769 --> 00:32:28.890
where Venom looks freaking awesome. So I'll choose to fight
667
00:32:29.710 --> 00:32:33.819
between Backlash and Spider-Man for a quick second there.
668
00:32:34.319 --> 00:32:35.420
I'm going to take the one panel.
669
00:32:36.019 --> 00:32:39.880
That completely surprised me, which is when Backlash was wrapped
670
00:32:39.940 --> 00:32:43.279
up in webs and then just turns into mist. So
671
00:32:43.740 --> 00:32:46.200
I had no idea that that was, neither did Spider-Man.
672
00:32:46.220 --> 00:32:50.019
He had no idea what he was doing. I had
673
00:32:50.160 --> 00:32:54.230
no clue. But yeah, I'm going with that. I'll go
674
00:32:54.269 --> 00:32:56.369
with the Backlash turning into mist and all the webs
675
00:32:56.410 --> 00:32:57.190
dropping to the ground.
676
00:32:58.250 --> 00:32:58.670
What do you think?
677
00:32:58.690 --> 00:33:00.329
That's a good one. Yeah, that's a good one. That
678
00:33:00.349 --> 00:33:02.849
was one that was on my short list. All right,
679
00:33:02.890 --> 00:33:03.210
good deal.
680
00:33:03.900 --> 00:33:05.039
Okay, well there it is.
681
00:33:05.099 --> 00:33:07.480
That's issue number one. Let's get into issue number two.
682
00:33:07.500 --> 00:33:10.299
We're giving you bonus content here, ladies and gentlemen. So,
683
00:33:10.420 --> 00:33:12.220
issue two picks up right where we left off in
684
00:33:12.259 --> 00:33:15.279
the first issue, Taboo being held captive inside a cathedral
685
00:33:15.339 --> 00:33:18.299
by Venom and Pike. Venom has now realized that Taboo's
686
00:33:18.339 --> 00:33:21.619
living armor has no connection to either himself or Carnage,
687
00:33:22.019 --> 00:33:25.099
and he's furious that Pike manipulated him into helping capture
688
00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:28.720
an innocent woman. Meanwhile, Backlash and Spider-Man are at Psy-Tech
689
00:33:28.759 --> 00:33:31.380
trying to figure out how to locate Amanda. Using a
690
00:33:31.420 --> 00:33:34.519
small piece of Venom symbiote recovered from the previous battle,
691
00:33:34.680 --> 00:33:37.900
they hope to track Eddie Brock while also learning more
692
00:33:37.960 --> 00:33:41.789
about Taboo's own suit. An artificial creation, which we find
693
00:33:41.869 --> 00:33:44.130
out from a lab guy there who helped create it,
694
00:33:45.569 --> 00:33:49.130
it's apparently an artificial creation derived from vampiric DNA that
695
00:33:49.190 --> 00:33:51.069
carries its own dangerous side effects.
696
00:33:51.089 --> 00:33:51.950
And I think they were trying to.
697
00:33:51.970 --> 00:33:56.119
Develop it so that vampires could withstand vampires walking out
698
00:33:56.160 --> 00:33:58.859
during the day a search eventually leads them straight to
699
00:33:58.880 --> 00:34:01.900
the cathedral where pike has been torturing amanda and waiting
700
00:34:01.920 --> 00:34:05.079
for them to arrive backlash and spider-man crashed the scene
701
00:34:05.119 --> 00:34:07.940
with backlash taking on venom while spider-man battles pike and
702
00:34:07.980 --> 00:34:11.340
freeze taboo things quickly get much worse when the recovered
703
00:34:11.400 --> 00:34:15.719
piece of venom symbiote escapes its containment unit and bonds
704
00:34:15.760 --> 00:34:19.610
with pike transforming him into an even more powerful threat
705
00:34:20.269 --> 00:34:24.130
With Pike supercharged by the symbiote, Spider-Man, Backlash, Taboo, and
706
00:34:24.190 --> 00:34:27.199
even Venom are forced into an uneasy alliance to bring
707
00:34:27.239 --> 00:34:32.079
him down. Spider-Man realizes their best chance is, hey, we're.
708
00:34:31.940 --> 00:34:32.659
In a cathedral.
709
00:34:33.380 --> 00:34:36.579
We need to go to the bell tower. Because one
710
00:34:36.619 --> 00:34:41.440
of the symbiote's weaknesses is, in fact, intense sound. After
711
00:34:41.460 --> 00:34:45.079
getting Pike into position, Spider-Man rings the massive bell, weakening
712
00:34:45.119 --> 00:34:47.360
the bond enough for Venom to reclaim the piece of
713
00:34:47.400 --> 00:34:51.489
his symbiote and leave the Pike vulnerable once again. Pike
714
00:34:51.530 --> 00:34:55.130
still has one final move, however. Grabbing Amanda and threatening
715
00:34:55.190 --> 00:34:59.190
everyone with a fusion detonator. When Pike loses his footing
716
00:34:59.210 --> 00:35:02.150
near the edge of the cathedral, Spider-Man manages to save Taboo,
717
00:35:02.190 --> 00:35:07.329
while Backlash shows considerably less concern for Pike himself. It's
718
00:35:07.369 --> 00:35:09.820
almost like he allows the assassin to fall after he
719
00:35:09.860 --> 00:35:12.519
drops the detonator. There's a lot of talk about Backlash
720
00:35:12.539 --> 00:35:14.639
being the hero and rescuing Pike, and I don't know
721
00:35:14.659 --> 00:35:18.260
if Pike believes him or not, but regardless, Pike lets
722
00:35:18.300 --> 00:35:21.340
go or falls down or something, and in the middle
723
00:35:21.380 --> 00:35:24.789
of that, throws the detonator at the same time, so
724
00:35:24.849 --> 00:35:27.750
everybody at this point is forced to leap clear as
725
00:35:27.789 --> 00:35:32.489
the cathedral explodes. Later, Psy-Tek searches the wreckage but finds
726
00:35:32.550 --> 00:35:37.909
no definitive sign of either Pike, Venom, or Spider-Man. Only
727
00:35:37.969 --> 00:35:41.929
Backlash and Amanda are left wondering whether Spider-Man survived as well.
728
00:35:42.590 --> 00:35:45.510
But naturally, Ben Reilly is nearby, watching from the shadows,
729
00:35:45.550 --> 00:35:48.530
leaving the door open for these characters to cross paths
730
00:35:48.969 --> 00:35:49.820
again someday.
731
00:35:50.570 --> 00:35:53.829
So there you go. That is issue two. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
732
00:35:54.150 --> 00:35:56.050
All right, I'll give you the opportunity first here to
733
00:35:56.090 --> 00:35:56.590
go with your notes.
734
00:35:56.610 --> 00:35:58.349
What do you got?
735
00:35:58.369 --> 00:36:00.960
Yeah, the first thing I thought was, why would Venom
736
00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:05.679
go to a cathedral? Especially if he's worried that Spider-Man
737
00:36:05.719 --> 00:36:09.619
might be involved. But it didn't end up hurting him,
738
00:36:09.639 --> 00:36:09.900
did it?
739
00:36:09.940 --> 00:36:12.110
Yeah, that's one of my notes here. It's like.
740
00:36:13.119 --> 00:36:15.219
I'm trying to rationalize it in my mind because this
741
00:36:15.280 --> 00:36:18.699
is probably the biggest drawback of this book is that
742
00:36:18.820 --> 00:36:23.809
logically Venom shouldn't be anywhere near that bell tower. And
743
00:36:23.869 --> 00:36:28.289
if he is, he should be like really suffering from
744
00:36:28.949 --> 00:36:30.210
what's going on because.
745
00:36:30.030 --> 00:36:33.269
Clearly Pike is. Like Pike is in agony when the
746
00:36:33.309 --> 00:36:34.159
bell's being rung.
747
00:36:34.820 --> 00:36:37.099
And the only thing that I could say is like, okay, well,
748
00:36:37.159 --> 00:36:39.239
there's a lot of talk about like we got to
749
00:36:39.280 --> 00:36:42.210
get to the suit before it bonds, right? And I
750
00:36:42.230 --> 00:36:47.019
was like, maybe Venom and Eddie have bonded so much
751
00:36:47.099 --> 00:36:49.579
that it takes more intense sound.
752
00:36:49.219 --> 00:36:52.440
To do it. I don't know. But regardless, that was
753
00:36:52.460 --> 00:36:53.139
the point where I was.
754
00:36:53.159 --> 00:36:55.059
When Venom's sitting in the background, he's like, all right,
755
00:36:55.099 --> 00:36:56.119
give me back what's mine.
756
00:36:56.139 --> 00:36:58.039
And he grabs the symbiote and pulls it off of him.
757
00:36:58.059 --> 00:37:00.519
I'm like, well, why is it all being added?
758
00:37:00.619 --> 00:37:02.840
Yeah, why ain't he on the ground? Like, it doesn't
759
00:37:02.860 --> 00:37:03.519
make any sense.
760
00:37:03.599 --> 00:37:05.760
But that's probably the only downgrade I'm going to give
761
00:37:05.780 --> 00:37:08.480
this comic is that logically that's not explained well. Like,
762
00:37:08.500 --> 00:37:10.239
they probably should have said something like, well, I don't
763
00:37:10.260 --> 00:37:11.469
understand why he wasn't hurt.
764
00:37:12.210 --> 00:37:14.630
They didn't do that, but whatever. I'll let it pass.
765
00:37:14.750 --> 00:37:17.329
Brett Boots has got way more clout than I'm going
766
00:37:17.349 --> 00:37:19.010
to let that do anything for me.
767
00:37:19.030 --> 00:37:19.829
So, anyway.
768
00:37:20.030 --> 00:37:22.309
I don't remember where it was, but somebody used the
769
00:37:22.329 --> 00:37:25.010
term ghosted. It has a new meaning now, but apparently
770
00:37:25.050 --> 00:37:26.889
ghosted back then meant they were being followed.
771
00:37:26.909 --> 00:37:27.610
Being trailed.
772
00:37:28.190 --> 00:37:30.269
Yeah, and I did think when we get to the
773
00:37:30.309 --> 00:37:34.920
big fight with Pike and Venom taking on Backlash and Spidey,
774
00:37:35.420 --> 00:37:39.679
Pike doesn't seem that formidable until the symbiote takes him
775
00:37:39.739 --> 00:37:44.119
over himself, of course. Whenever he pulls out the, what
776
00:37:44.139 --> 00:37:45.909
do they call it, the fusion detonator, all I could
777
00:37:45.929 --> 00:37:52.050
think was C-3PO screaming, he's holding a thermal detonator! From
778
00:37:52.070 --> 00:37:55.230
Return of the Jedi. But yeah, a lot of action
779
00:37:55.269 --> 00:37:59.289
in this one. A lot of fun splashes and semi-splash
780
00:37:59.309 --> 00:38:02.190
pages from Booth. One thing I really like about his
781
00:38:02.429 --> 00:38:04.690
art that I didn't mention in the first issue is
782
00:38:04.730 --> 00:38:09.469
the way he draws face masks on characters. All the faces.
783
00:38:10.300 --> 00:38:13.340
where they're basically suctioned to their face, like they're so
784
00:38:13.380 --> 00:38:16.139
tight you can see the outline of their nose and
785
00:38:16.159 --> 00:38:18.639
mouths a lot of times, which is a unique kind
786
00:38:18.760 --> 00:38:20.949
of booth signature thing that I don't think anybody else
787
00:38:20.989 --> 00:38:23.429
really does that. Yeah, and Backlash has that as well,
788
00:38:23.469 --> 00:38:26.690
where he does that with his, not in every panel
789
00:38:26.750 --> 00:38:28.050
or whatever time you see him, but a lot of
790
00:38:28.090 --> 00:38:31.190
times that's how he specifically does it. But that's pretty
791
00:38:31.230 --> 00:38:32.730
much all I got for that second issue. A lot
792
00:38:32.750 --> 00:38:35.030
of cool action, and overall this is a really fun
793
00:38:35.210 --> 00:38:36.929
two-issue mini.
794
00:38:37.190 --> 00:38:38.960
Yeah, yeah, 100%.
795
00:38:38.960 --> 00:38:41.329
I like that issue two immediately pays off the misunderstanding
796
00:38:41.369 --> 00:38:43.969
with Venom. He discovers pretty quickly that Taboo's suit has
797
00:38:44.110 --> 00:38:45.789
absolutely nothing to do with him or Carnage.
798
00:38:46.610 --> 00:38:48.489
And he realizes Pike manipulated him.
799
00:38:49.030 --> 00:38:51.289
And that kind of works for me. Venom's, I don't
800
00:38:51.309 --> 00:38:54.510
want to say he's dumb, but that is probably accurate.
801
00:38:54.550 --> 00:38:58.360
Like he's pretty, can be easily manipulated. I've not seen
802
00:38:58.460 --> 00:39:00.539
any of the Venom movies yet, and I really need to.
803
00:39:01.309 --> 00:39:01.869
But I feel like.
804
00:39:01.889 --> 00:39:02.670
I don't know about that.
805
00:39:02.969 --> 00:39:04.510
Okay.
806
00:39:04.610 --> 00:39:07.840
I'm not saying that it's essential watching or anything. But
807
00:39:07.880 --> 00:39:08.940
it's on the list.
808
00:39:08.639 --> 00:39:09.199
At some point.
809
00:39:09.639 --> 00:39:12.900
I watched that first one. And then Carnage shows up
810
00:39:12.940 --> 00:39:15.820
in the second movie. Yeah. And I think I was
811
00:39:15.840 --> 00:39:19.139
still working at Cinemark when that came out. And I
812
00:39:19.179 --> 00:39:24.210
didn't even watch it. I would pre-screen movies and stay
813
00:39:24.269 --> 00:39:29.030
on the clock. And I didn't... Even being paid to
814
00:39:29.070 --> 00:39:32.469
be there, I didn't watch it. to watch that that's
815
00:39:32.530 --> 00:39:34.489
sad i remember if you had told me when i
816
00:39:34.530 --> 00:39:36.369
was 13 14 year old there's going to be a
817
00:39:36.389 --> 00:39:38.550
venom movie and carnage is going to be in it
818
00:39:38.630 --> 00:39:40.869
right and you're not going to want to watch it
819
00:39:41.050 --> 00:39:41.289
i'd be.
820
00:39:41.250 --> 00:39:44.090
Like that can't be oh yeah what a horrible timeline
821
00:39:44.139 --> 00:39:48.400
am i living in how is that possible so is
822
00:39:48.440 --> 00:39:50.380
tom hardy's venom like a smart guy.
823
00:39:51.510 --> 00:39:54.210
I think he is a photographer in the movie. It's
824
00:39:54.269 --> 00:39:57.369
a little different than the Eddie Brock from the comics,
825
00:39:57.389 --> 00:39:59.659
but I do think that's what his job is. He
826
00:39:59.679 --> 00:40:01.539
might even be a reporter. He ends up getting in
827
00:40:01.579 --> 00:40:05.239
trouble because of some snooping and stuff he does, if
828
00:40:05.280 --> 00:40:08.219
I remember correctly. Okay. No, he's not an idiot, I
829
00:40:08.239 --> 00:40:08.639
don't think.
830
00:40:08.659 --> 00:40:10.159
Well, I put down that he's kind of dumb, but
831
00:40:10.199 --> 00:40:13.099
maybe it needs to be something different. Because he's got
832
00:40:13.139 --> 00:40:15.179
tunnel vision about carnage, and it doesn't take much for
833
00:40:15.219 --> 00:40:19.199
Pike to figure out, like, oh yeah, carnage, yeah, that guy.
834
00:40:19.360 --> 00:40:21.409
And he's like, okay, sure, let's go find this girl.
835
00:40:21.449 --> 00:40:23.489
I want to figure out what's going on. So anyway,
836
00:40:23.550 --> 00:40:27.329
the explanation of Taboo's suit is some fine Wildstorm weirdness.
837
00:40:27.349 --> 00:40:30.429
I thought that was pretty cool. Vampiric DNA, designed to
838
00:40:30.469 --> 00:40:31.969
protect vampires from sunlight.
839
00:40:32.409 --> 00:40:34.050
It was pretty cool. And the fact that it's different
840
00:40:34.070 --> 00:40:36.050
from a Marvel symbiote makes sense.
841
00:40:37.139 --> 00:40:39.920
Ben recounting the Secret Wars origin of the symbiote was
842
00:40:39.960 --> 00:40:42.760
interesting because he's essentially pretending he lived Peter's life.
843
00:40:43.139 --> 00:40:44.559
Because he doesn't want to let.
844
00:40:44.500 --> 00:40:48.760
On like he is not Peter Parker for some reason.
845
00:40:49.039 --> 00:40:53.079
And granted, he's probably as confused as we are about
846
00:40:53.099 --> 00:40:54.639
the Clone Saga, so he's just trying to.
847
00:40:54.619 --> 00:40:55.699
Explain to somebody else.
848
00:40:56.400 --> 00:40:58.969
And he has kind of like Peter's memories, but he
849
00:40:59.159 --> 00:41:02.500
wasn't actually the guy standing there during those events. So
850
00:41:02.659 --> 00:41:05.960
another way of characterizing Ben Reilly. Once Spider-Man and Backlash
851
00:41:06.000 --> 00:41:09.000
locate the cathedral, this issue really starts moving. I'm fine
852
00:41:09.019 --> 00:41:12.000
with that. Issue gave us, issue one gave us the explanation.
853
00:41:12.139 --> 00:41:15.139
Brett Booth gives us plenty of pages of action. And
854
00:41:15.159 --> 00:41:17.539
that happens in issue two, just like you said. The
855
00:41:17.559 --> 00:41:19.800
fights are very easy to follow because everybody has a
856
00:41:19.840 --> 00:41:23.789
natural opponent. Backlash takes Venom because he wants Amanda back.
857
00:41:24.130 --> 00:41:28.150
Spider-Man goes after Pike and frees Taboo. Then everything gets
858
00:41:28.389 --> 00:41:31.760
scrambled once the loose symbiote comes into play. And Pike
859
00:41:31.840 --> 00:41:35.469
bonding with the Venom symbiote genuinely.
860
00:41:34.929 --> 00:41:37.010
Caught me by surprise. I wasn't expecting it.
861
00:41:37.650 --> 00:41:40.889
Visually, I thought symbiote Pike might be one of my
862
00:41:40.929 --> 00:41:44.559
favorite things in this book, really. He's dark reddish, like black,
863
00:41:44.679 --> 00:41:47.880
almost sort of carnage-like, but more evil looking. He's got
864
00:41:47.920 --> 00:41:50.099
that energy coming off his hands and out of his mouth,
865
00:41:50.559 --> 00:41:52.539
which kind of symbolizes the kind of power that, like
866
00:41:52.559 --> 00:41:53.500
he has some kind.
867
00:41:53.409 --> 00:41:56.269
Of staff that he energizes. I don't know if it's
868
00:41:56.289 --> 00:41:58.110
more like a gambit power. I have no idea.
869
00:41:58.670 --> 00:42:04.230
But regardless, this is a visually cool-looking villain now.
870
00:42:04.269 --> 00:42:07.090
The symbol that's on his chest, I think, is on
871
00:42:07.150 --> 00:42:10.429
his belt. I'm not sure what. It might be like a...
872
00:42:10.429 --> 00:42:13.320
What's the name of those aliens in the Wildcats fight?
873
00:42:13.480 --> 00:42:15.619
Oh, there's the Karabum, and then there's the.
874
00:42:17.179 --> 00:42:17.739
The Daemonites.
875
00:42:17.780 --> 00:42:19.400
Daemonites, yes, yes, yeah.
876
00:42:19.539 --> 00:42:20.960
So that might be what that symbol is.
877
00:42:21.420 --> 00:42:24.559
Then we have a forced alliance between Venom, Backlash, Taboo,
878
00:42:24.619 --> 00:42:27.199
and Spider-Man. Now they've got to take on this dude
879
00:42:27.239 --> 00:42:30.960
that nobody likes. who's got powers, which is Pike and
880
00:42:30.980 --> 00:42:34.800
the simian there. The ending with Pike is interesting because, again,
881
00:42:34.820 --> 00:42:36.880
I don't know, how'd you take that? Did you take
882
00:42:36.920 --> 00:42:39.760
it that Backlash was actually going to try to help
883
00:42:39.820 --> 00:42:42.730
him because his words were like, I want to show
884
00:42:42.769 --> 00:42:45.050
you the same mercy you showed your victims. And then
885
00:42:45.070 --> 00:42:49.829
he sends his Psywhip down, and it's not like there's
886
00:42:49.869 --> 00:42:51.130
a panel of the Psywhip hitting.
887
00:42:51.329 --> 00:42:53.530
Right. Yeah, so, I don't know. What are your thoughts?
888
00:42:53.590 --> 00:42:57.989
Yeah, I take it as he knocks Pike off, and in...
889
00:42:58.929 --> 00:43:02.300
A desperate move. Pike throws the detonator as he's falling.
890
00:43:02.519 --> 00:43:04.980
Yeah, that's the way I took it. I think he
891
00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:08.219
was perfect. Spider-Man who's saving Taboo. I don't know if
892
00:43:08.320 --> 00:43:10.380
Spider-Man would have made the same choice that Mark Slayton
893
00:43:10.400 --> 00:43:13.860
did here. I think he would have probably saved Mark.
894
00:43:13.679 --> 00:43:14.239
Because he's the hero.
895
00:43:14.280 --> 00:43:14.980
Yeah, one of the worst.
896
00:43:15.679 --> 00:43:19.420
Because he's the hero. And yeah, and then the cathedral explodes.
897
00:43:19.480 --> 00:43:21.119
It's very big. It's a 90s finish.
898
00:43:21.239 --> 00:43:23.340
Everybody jumping clear of the massive explosion. You could have
899
00:43:23.360 --> 00:43:27.889
freeze-framed that probably. and rolled credits or something. But it's
900
00:43:27.929 --> 00:43:29.989
a completely appropriate way to end the book, although it
901
00:43:30.030 --> 00:43:34.130
feels like we're pretty rushed into the ending where Mark
902
00:43:34.170 --> 00:43:37.730
and Amanda are kind of up there at the scene
903
00:43:37.769 --> 00:43:40.099
with the rest of BSI, and they're like, I wonder
904
00:43:40.159 --> 00:43:41.559
if Spider-Man still lives.
905
00:43:42.239 --> 00:43:45.960
Yeah, the big explosion happens, and then four panels later,
906
00:43:46.320 --> 00:43:47.320
the story's over.
907
00:43:47.679 --> 00:43:52.849
It's like, okay, Venom's gone, Pike's gone. So anyway.
908
00:43:53.460 --> 00:43:56.780
Yeah, okay, so my final thoughts here, again, not a
909
00:43:56.780 --> 00:43:59.550
pairing I would have naturally thought of, Backlash and Spider-Man,
910
00:43:59.570 --> 00:44:03.409
but it works. Once you introduce Taboo's suit, Venom's symbiote,
911
00:44:03.989 --> 00:44:07.190
Pike and the Cabal, there's enough connections there to justify
912
00:44:07.230 --> 00:44:11.550
bringing everybody together. Good, complete two-issue story, in my opinion.
913
00:44:11.639 --> 00:44:14.099
Maybe I would have wanted a third, but hey, that's
914
00:44:14.139 --> 00:44:16.420
just because I wanted more Brett Booth. I think the
915
00:44:16.800 --> 00:44:20.739
plot itself, I feel, is pretty solid. It's not over-the-top
916
00:44:20.800 --> 00:44:22.940
or stupid. I think it's a pretty solid plot.
917
00:44:24.320 --> 00:44:26.420
It gives a good excuse for these two to get together.
918
00:44:26.460 --> 00:44:28.820
That's all we need, really. 100%.
919
00:44:28.820 --> 00:44:31.409
Extremely 1996, and I mean that affectionately.
920
00:44:31.510 --> 00:44:36.809
Ben Reilly, Venom, Wildstorm, Living Armor, Energy Whips, government agencies,
921
00:44:36.909 --> 00:44:37.630
huge action.
922
00:44:38.329 --> 00:44:40.389
Not Hugh Jackman. Huge action.
923
00:44:40.969 --> 00:44:43.730
He would be a great backlash.
924
00:44:43.769 --> 00:44:46.969
Intercompany crossover, Brett Booth drawing the whole thing. It's perfect.
925
00:44:47.170 --> 00:44:47.570
I love it.
926
00:44:47.650 --> 00:44:52.090
It's a decent story, fantastic artwork. Fun crossover, solid choice
927
00:44:52.130 --> 00:44:55.090
by the listeners for the August winner. There it is,
928
00:44:55.130 --> 00:44:59.369
ladies and gentlemen. You got a twofer, as Chris Armstrong
929
00:44:59.409 --> 00:45:04.769
put it. Issues one and two of Backlash Spider-Man.
930
00:45:05.610 --> 00:45:07.409
Do you want to pick the panel this time first?
931
00:45:07.429 --> 00:45:08.360
No, I'm going first.
932
00:45:08.469 --> 00:45:11.820
I'm going with the one where Spider-Man and Backlash crash
933
00:45:11.840 --> 00:45:15.119
through the window of the cathedral, and.
934
00:45:15.059 --> 00:45:16.159
There is Venom and Pike.
935
00:45:17.150 --> 00:45:17.829
Where's Morbius?
936
00:45:18.929 --> 00:45:19.809
Where is Morbius?
937
00:45:20.309 --> 00:45:23.389
Morbius crashes through plenty of windows. That's where Spider-Man learned
938
00:45:23.429 --> 00:45:26.670
how to do it. This is what you came to
939
00:45:26.690 --> 00:45:29.650
the dance for. As I always say, it's these two
940
00:45:29.690 --> 00:45:31.090
heroes taking on these two villains.
941
00:45:31.949 --> 00:45:35.500
And it's dynamic. It's Red Booth showing off here.
942
00:45:35.840 --> 00:45:39.199
Got a great look at the Ben Reilly Spider-Man costume.
943
00:45:39.300 --> 00:45:43.039
Sensational Spider-Man costume, as you call it. Backlash coming in there.
944
00:45:43.099 --> 00:45:47.000
Energy whip ready to go. And Pike and Venom Unawares.
945
00:45:47.320 --> 00:45:48.599
So, there you go. What's your pick?
946
00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:51.980
There's another cool one of them just kind of flying
947
00:45:52.000 --> 00:45:54.239
through the city. It's a one-page splash that's really cool,
948
00:45:54.280 --> 00:45:57.590
similar to the cover. Yeah. I'm going to actually go
949
00:45:57.929 --> 00:46:01.510
with the page. It's actually directly after your pick. The
950
00:46:01.530 --> 00:46:04.429
first panel on, I think it's page 15, which is
951
00:46:05.369 --> 00:46:09.969
in the foreground, we see Spider-Man whacking Pike. And in
952
00:46:10.010 --> 00:46:12.730
the background, we see Venom and Backlash going at it. So,
953
00:46:12.769 --> 00:46:16.090
we get a little combo effect. dual battle going on
954
00:46:16.139 --> 00:46:20.880
good stuff yeah good stuff i should have just pointed
955
00:46:20.900 --> 00:46:22.559
this out in my notes but i kind of forgot
956
00:46:22.579 --> 00:46:25.039
about it this page also has the great sequence of
957
00:46:26.840 --> 00:46:30.360
spidey jumps up to dodge a swing of pike's staff
958
00:46:30.400 --> 00:46:32.400
there and then.
959
00:46:32.400 --> 00:46:34.300
Oh yes yes this page can't run.
960
00:46:34.199 --> 00:46:38.079
Forever he can't run forever and then the last panel
961
00:46:38.159 --> 00:46:42.429
is spider-man's hand coming down knocking pike unconsciously who's running.
962
00:46:43.519 --> 00:46:44.179
Oh, that's great.
963
00:46:44.199 --> 00:46:46.239
Kind of shows you that Pike's not quite up to
964
00:46:46.260 --> 00:46:48.139
the task of going against Spider-Man.
965
00:46:48.300 --> 00:46:49.980
Yeah. Yeah, I love.
966
00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:51.699
Some of the fights in here are great. As we
967
00:46:51.719 --> 00:46:54.099
continue through that, like, you see the fight between.
968
00:46:53.840 --> 00:46:54.460
Backlash and Venom.
969
00:46:54.719 --> 00:46:54.940
Two.
970
00:46:55.519 --> 00:46:57.559
A hero and an anti-hero in a black and white
971
00:46:57.619 --> 00:46:58.420
costume going.
972
00:46:58.480 --> 00:47:00.860
They're fighting each other. It's beautiful.
973
00:47:01.119 --> 00:47:01.840
Yeah. Man.
974
00:47:02.949 --> 00:47:05.550
Good couple issues. I know you wanted to talk about this.
975
00:47:05.610 --> 00:47:07.269
I'm glad we had the opportunity to do so.
976
00:47:07.889 --> 00:47:10.889
And it's so funny because you had mentioned... I think
977
00:47:10.909 --> 00:47:14.099
we were going through a Wizard magazine... And I was like, oh,
978
00:47:14.119 --> 00:47:14.500
look at this.
979
00:47:14.599 --> 00:47:15.570
It was a badge for it.
980
00:47:15.619 --> 00:47:16.300
It was a promo for it.
981
00:47:16.300 --> 00:47:18.320
And you were like, we got to talk about that someday.
982
00:47:18.429 --> 00:47:20.949
And I'm kidding you not. Within three days later, I
983
00:47:20.969 --> 00:47:22.389
had found that it was going to be on the
984
00:47:22.469 --> 00:47:23.150
August poll.
985
00:47:23.230 --> 00:47:27.070
And I was like, man. So the listeners picked a
986
00:47:27.070 --> 00:47:27.869
good one here.
987
00:47:27.789 --> 00:47:30.489
And definitely gave us the opportunity to discuss something that
988
00:47:30.510 --> 00:47:31.809
we wanted to talk about as well.
989
00:47:31.889 --> 00:47:34.340
So, yeah. All right. Very good. All right.
990
00:47:34.489 --> 00:47:35.900
Many thanks to the listeners.
991
00:47:35.940 --> 00:47:40.099
Many thanks. That's right. All right. Well, you have the floor, sir.
992
00:47:40.159 --> 00:47:41.360
Please let everybody know.
993
00:47:41.380 --> 00:47:45.190
Plug away. Yeah, I've got a couple other podcasts, movie
994
00:47:45.230 --> 00:47:48.010
podcasts that I do with my buddy AJ. One is
995
00:47:48.090 --> 00:47:51.090
Small Screeners where we talk about directed video and made-for-TV movies.
996
00:47:51.730 --> 00:47:53.750
We've got another one called Because Movies where we just
997
00:47:53.769 --> 00:47:56.449
kind of talk about any kind of movie stuff that
998
00:47:56.489 --> 00:47:59.309
we feel like. You can find those on whatever you
999
00:47:59.389 --> 00:48:00.210
use for podcasts.
1000
00:48:00.670 --> 00:48:04.210
All right. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Unspoken Issues podcast. Hey,
1001
00:48:04.610 --> 00:48:07.250
we are eight months into 96 number ones.
1002
00:48:07.820 --> 00:48:11.059
If you haven't had a chance, go back and listen
1003
00:48:11.179 --> 00:48:13.760
from the first up till now. Get yourself caught up
1004
00:48:13.780 --> 00:48:16.260
and listen to what the listeners chose and some books
1005
00:48:16.280 --> 00:48:18.530
that we had the opportunity to talk about. A lot
1006
00:48:18.570 --> 00:48:21.130
of fun here on the Unspoken Issues podcast, 90s comics
1007
00:48:21.369 --> 00:48:24.269
all the time. And, hey, go check out the Source
1008
00:48:24.309 --> 00:48:27.849
Material Comics Podcast proper, where myself right now and Mark
1009
00:48:27.889 --> 00:48:31.210
Radlich are probably making our way through the end of
1010
00:48:31.869 --> 00:48:33.690
Batman Fugitive.
1011
00:48:33.769 --> 00:48:35.329
No, I keep saying Batman. It's Bruce Wayne.
1012
00:48:35.610 --> 00:48:38.130
Bruce Wayne Fugitive, I think, is what we're at. Anyway,
1013
00:48:38.150 --> 00:48:40.090
check that out, Bruce Wayne Fugitive. We're having a good
1014
00:48:40.130 --> 00:48:42.530
time discussing comics over there, comic books of any era.
1015
00:48:42.820 --> 00:48:45.300
And then, of course, the Snap Material Podcast, where me
1016
00:48:45.340 --> 00:48:48.059
and Evan Bevins get together and we talk Marvel Snap,
1017
00:48:48.179 --> 00:48:50.760
that fun mobile game that you can play on your
1018
00:48:50.800 --> 00:48:51.380
mobile device.
1019
00:48:51.739 --> 00:48:55.440
So... With that being said, I am Jesse Starcher. That
1020
00:48:55.500 --> 00:48:56.679
over there is Chris Armstrong.
1021
00:48:57.030 --> 00:48:59.630
Can't wait to talk to you next month for September
1022
00:49:00.409 --> 00:49:02.570
as 96 number one rolls on.
1023
00:49:02.590 --> 00:49:03.960
Until then, have a good one.
1024
00:49:04.460 --> 00:49:04.719
Bye-bye.
1025
00:49:05.739 --> 00:49:06.039
Peace.