Comics Remastered show

Comics Remastered

Summary: Comic books can be complicated. I'm hoping I can make things a little simpler for you. Tune in every other week for an in depth look at comic book characters, themes, and whatever else I can think of. Hopefully, you'll find this program informative as well as entertaining.

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Podcasts:

 The X-Men | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 10:50

As a child, I didn’t have a whole lot of exposure to comic books. I was the oldest in my family, so I didn’t have the benefit of an older sibling who could introduce me to them. And, as far as I know, my parents weren’t all that into comics either. I had some nominal exposure to certain properties. I was familiar with the big names like Superman and Batman. Movies had been made about *them*. They were kind of hard to ignore. But, other than those big two, I had no real comic book knowledge or experience. I honestly can’t remember if I even knew they were comic book characters. At that time, I was more of a fan of cartoons. I loved shows like Thundercats and the Real Ghostbusters. Like many kids my age, I spent a lot of my free time on Saturday mornings plopped right in front of the TV to catch all my favorite shows before I’d be kicked out of the house to go play outside. Many of those shows still have a special place in my heart. Fast forward to Halloween 1992. I was 9 years old and enjoying my regular Saturday morning ritual of eating as many bowls of sugary cereal as my mother would allow while watching close to 4 hours of brightly colored, often action packed cartoons. On this particular morning, I was surprised to see a new show. It was called X-Men and, honestly, it blew me away. It’s no exaggeration for me to say that this show single-handedly started my obsession with comic books. 75 episodes spread over 5 seasons just wasn’t enough for me. I had to know more. By 1995 I had convinced my mom to let me spend some money to purchase some comic book subscriptions. X-Men and Uncanny X-Men would be delivered to our mailbox once a month. The anticipation absolutely killed me, but it was always worth the wait once I was able to leaf through those glossy pages. But who are the X-Men? Answering that question in detail would likely take several hours. Perhaps days. Definitely days. Diving into the quagmire that is the history of the X-Men could easily provide enough content for its own podcast. In fact, there are a few out there. I checked. But don’t worry. I’m not here to give you every little detail about the X-Men. I’m here to give you broad strokes. The X-Men, like many of Marvel’s golden age comics, was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. They first appeared in The X-Men #1 in 1963. If you’re completely unfamiliar with them (and honestly, I don’t know how you could be with close to a dozen animated shows since the 60s that either starred or featured the X-Men, coupled with nearly the same number of big budget Hollywood blockbuster films, and a handful of live action TV shows, as well as several video games, but, hey, maybe you just woke up from a coma), the X-Men are a team of superheroes. Specifically, they’re mutants. The team was formed by Professor Charles Xavier (affectionately referred to as Professor X), who is a mutant himself with immense telepathic abilities. Xavier recruits other young people who possess similar special abilities. These abilities are tied to the X-gene — a mutation in otherwise normal human DNA. In the team’s original incarnation, these abilities ranged from Cyclops’ powerful optic beams, to Jean Gray’s telepathy and telekinesis, to Iceman’s ability to manipulate ice and cold, to Beast’s increased strength, stamina, and intelligence (and huge hands and feet), to Angel’s giant freaking wings that sprout from his back. Over the years, the team’s membership has changed. Obviously, anyone familiar with the animated show from the 90s knows names like Wolverine, Storm, Gambit, Rogue, Banshee, Nightcrawler, Colossus, everyone’s favorite sparkler shooting mall rat Jubilee, and many others. There have also been several other teams that have branched off from the main X-Men team, like the New Mutants, X-Force, X-Factor, Excalibur, Generation X, and literally over a dozen others. There have been over 100 members of the X-Men.

 Captain Marvel | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 10:43

When you hear the name Captain Marvel, what comes to mind? I’m sure most of you would think of the latest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Brie Larson is set to take up the mantle of the cosmic champion March 8, 2019 and, for many, the excitement is palpable. But who is Captain Marvel? Well, the answer to that really depends on whom you ask. And, if they’re a comic book fan, it probably depends on when they started reading comics and, most importantly, whether they’re a Marvel or DC fan. You see, there have been a couple Captain Marvels. Well, more than a couple. Seven, actually. And that only counts the ones that have been published by Marvel Comics. There’s also a DC superhero by the same name, and a legal fight between DC and Fawcett Comics over this character back in the 50s was integral to Marvel decision to create their own character by that name. One of the dirty little secrets of the golden and silver ages of comics is that there was a problem with plagiarism. A big one. Just think about it. How many comic book characters can you think of that are basically carbon copies of other characters from other companies? Specifically, from Marvel and DC we have Deadpool and Deathstroke, Black Cat and Catwoman, Hawkeye and Green Arrow, Namor and Aquaman, the Nova Corps and the Green Lantern Corps, X-Men and the Doom Patrol, and many more. Superman has several clones as well, but I don’t mean actual clones. I mean, there are several of those, but that’s a topic for another episode. One of those clones was the very first Captain Marvel. A year after Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman for Action Comics in 1938, C.C. Beck and Bill Parker created a character called Captain Marvel. Cap was first published in Fawcett Comics in 1940. For anyone unfamiliar, Cap is basically a magical Superman. On the surface, he doesn’t seem all that similar. He’s not an alien. He’s actually a young boy who is granted superhuman abilities by an ancient wizard. His powers are derived not from Earth’s yellow sun, but from ancient gods like Hercules, Hermes, and Atlas. The problem is he looked really similar to Superman. So much so that DC, who now owned the Superman character, sued Fawcett in 1953 for copyright infringement. The case eventually settled and it was found that, while Captain Marvel was indeed a ripoff of Superman, DC hadn’t done its due diligence to maintain the copyright. That meant they couldn’t stop Fawcett from publishing Captain Marvel-related comics. But Fawcett did stop. Waning comic book sales coupled with the prospect of future legal costs convinced Fawcett to get out of the comic book industry. Fawcett’s Captain Marvel eventually found his way to the pages of DC, but not before Marvel Comics decided to create their own Captain Marvel character. See, by the time all these legal issues had been settled, Marvel was really starting to come into its own. The 1960s were the Golden Age of Marvel, and with the recent availability of the name, it made sense for Marvel’s writers to strike while the iron was hot. In 1967, the first iteration of Marvel Comics’ Captain Marvel appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes #12. This character, whose secret identity was a Kree warrior aptly named Mar-Vell, became the champion and protector of Earth after betraying the Kree Empire to align with his newly adopted world. The character’s popularity rose and fell through the years, leading to changes that writers hoped would attract new readers. Eventually, Mar-Vell graduated from Earth’s guardian to a cosmic guardian after Eon, one of the oldest and most powerful cosmic beings in the Marvel Comics universe, appointed him Protector of the Universe. After a few years, Mar-Vell finally met his end — not at the hands of some galactic-level calamity like Thanos or the Celestials. No, what finally ended Mar-Vell’s long battle was something with which many of us are probably familiar — Cancer.

 Batwoman | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 4:19

Batwoman Batwoman is a name few casual comic book fans would recognize. In fact, I would wager most people have no idea who she is and, if they do, they don’t really know much about her other than her association with the Bat Family. That was certainly the case with my wife. She first heard about Batwoman because it was announced recently that Ruby Rose would be playing the caped heroine in an upcoming episode of Arrow. So she asked me about her, and I did what I normally do in these situations — a Wikipedia deep dive. There are basically two version of Batwoman as a character. Initially, she was created to help combat the commonly held belief, at least at the time, that Batman was gay and in a relationship with Robin. This arose because of a book published in 1954 called Seduction of the Innocent. The solution was to create a character that could act as a romantic interest for the Caped Crusader. And it worked, at least for a little while. This version of Batwoman, whose secret identity was Kathy Kane, lasted about 10 years before she was cut, along with several other incidental Bat characters, when a new editor took control of the Batman comics. She was, in fact, canonically erased because of the events of the Crisis on Infinite Earth, which is a topic for another day. She made a few cameo appearances through the years, but never really regained her star status. That is, until 2006, when the character was revived after the crossover event Infinite Crisis. The new Batwoman’s name was Kate Kane and was pretty different from the original. Firstly, Kate Kane’s Batwoman doesn’t exist simply to help quash rumors of Batman’s latent or explicit homosexuality, mostly because that’s not an issue for comic book characters and readers anymore. Point of fact, Kate Kane is depicted as a lesbian herself. This was a bit controversial when it was first revealed, but readers soon came to embrace this new character. In an interview with Wizard Entertainment, DC Comics Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Dan DiDio stated “It was from conversations we’ve had for expanding the DC Universe, for looking at levels of diversity. We wanted to have a cast that is much more reflective of today’s society and even today’s fanbase. One of the reasons we made her gay is that, again when you have the Batman Family—a series of characters that aren’t super-powered and inhabit the same circle and the same city—you really want to have a point of difference. It was really important to me to make sure every character felt unique.” Kate Kane has a military background. She actually attended West Point and is a highly trained soldier who uses military hardware in both her bat suit and her weapons. She’s a wealthy heiress who uses her vast resources to fight crime in Gotham City. Sound familiar? She has a relationship with Renee Montoya, who fights crime as The Question. She regularly interacts with the members of the Bat Family, and in her most recent titles she actually runs a boot camp for young heroes that Batman organized. If you want to check out some essential Batwoman comics, you can grab issues 7 and 11 of DC’s 52 from 2006, Batwoman: Elegy from 2009, Batwoman: New 52 from 2011-2015, and Batwoman: Rebirth from 2017 until now. I hope you’ve enjoyed this deep dive. I’ll try to bring you interesting topics and compelling characters as they arise. If you have suggestions on topics or characters, feel free to contact me on twitter. You can find me at eyeheartcomics. Until next time, this has been Comic Books Remastered.

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