Content warning: Suicide/self-murder

On this episode, we kick off a two-part look at the definitive Adam Warlock story, The Magus Saga, aka The Strange Death of Adam Warlock, as featured in Strange Tales issues 178-181 and Warlock issues 9-11, written and drawn by Jim Starlin, published by Marvel Comics!

Who is Adam Warlock, the mysterious character slated to make his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3? He’s an artificially created, super-powered space messiah, cursed with a gem on his forehead that devours people’s souls. And in this far-out tale, he faces off against the evil head of an intergalactic empire ... who just happens to be his future self!

With newfound allies Thanos, Gamora and Pip the Troll at his side, can Warlock prevail against his despotic shadow self? And will this cosmic receive the blessing of that Universal Church of Truth known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:
•  The Adam Warlock rock opera
•  Our Thanos War episode
•  Elric of Melnibone 
•  Jim Starlin’s Adam Warlock vs. Jack Kirby’s Fourth World
•  Fantastic Four: Life Story
•  For All Mankind
•  Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
•  The Spider Man & Hulk Toilet Paper Infinity Comic

Join us in two weeks as this saga (and our two-parter) concludes with Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2!

Until then: 
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And as always, thanks for listening!

Episode 184 – The Strange Death of Adam Warlock Part 1

Our two-part look at Hulk/Thing fights wraps up with a look at one of the twosome’s more recent titanic tussles in Fantastic Four Vol. 6, issues 12 and 13, by Dan Slott and Sean Izaakse, published by Marvel Comics!

But first, because this episode drops on Valentine’s Day, we discuss the wedding of Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters in Fantastic Four Vol. 6 issue 5, most notably the story “4-Minute Warning” by Dan Slott and Aaron Kuder!

Then it’s time for the main event, as the Immortal Hulk interrupts Ben and Alicia’s honeymoon, with a little help from Alicia’s father, the pernicious Puppet Master!

Is this really our last episode discussing these Marvelous melees? (Who knows?) Can the Thing keep the Immortal Hulk from endangering an entire seaside resort before he reverts back to all-too-human Ben Grimm? And can either of them prevail against that titanic tag team known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:
•  Kevin responds to Curt’s song from last episode
•  We talk about whether we should talk about Cerebus
•  Curt’s article on the ends of Bone and Cerebus
•  Point of Origin from Fantastic Four Vol. 6, issues 14-19
•  Do A Powerbomb
•  The Thing Vol. 1 #6, “Mindscape”

Join us in two weeks as we make a long-overdue return to the world of manga to discuss Lone Wolf and Cub Vol. 1: The Assassin’s Road!

Until then:
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And as always, thanks for listening!

Episode 204 – Hulk vs. Thing: The Last Round?

On this episode, we take a long-overdue look at one of the most influential manga of the last 50 years: Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima! Specifically, selected stories from Vol. 1: The Assassin’s Road, as published by Dark Horse Manga!

Who is this taciturn assassin known as Lone Wolf and Cub? Why does he push his young son across feudal Japan in a wooden baby carriage with a banner that reads “Son for Hire, Sword for Hire?” How did he get to be such a proficient killing machine? And can father and son survive their harrowing journey along that Road to Perdition known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:
•  “I’m Ogami Itto, and this is Jackass!”
•  Daigoro’s tricked-out baby cart
•  The return of everyone’s vampire-slaying pig!
•  Dune: Part Two
•  Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. 1
•  House of R on the Lone Wolf and Cub trope

Join us in two weeks as we discuss the 1982 Wolverine miniseries by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller!

Until then:
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And as always, thanks for listening!

Episode 205 – Lone Wolf and Cub Vol. 1: The Assassin’s Road

On this episode, it’s the return of “Miller March,” featuring a month of Frank Miller comics! First up is the 1982 miniseries Wolverine by Chris Claremont and the aforementioned Mr. Miller, published by Marvel Comics!

The very first comic series to feature Wolverine’s name in the title takes Logan to Japan, where his lady love Mariko has entered into an abusive marriage arranged by her father, the crime lord Shingen. His heart broken by Mariko, humiliated by Shingen, Logan spirals into a dark night of the soul as he’s pursued by the deadly ninja clan known as the Hand!

Will Logan’s new friend Yukio stop trying to make “Gotcha!” happen? Can Logan redeem himself, defeat his enemies and regain Mariko’s love? And can this miniseries fight its way ino that House of Flying Daggers known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:
•  There sure are a lot of ninja in 1980s Japan
•  Does the Hand recruit from Cobra?
•  Avengers: The Impossible City
•  Shōgun
•  X-Men Epic Collection: The Fate of the Phoenix
•  Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Anthology
•  Curt’s appearance on The Origin Story Podcast

Join us in two weeks as we revisit our most controversial episode with a FRESH NEW LOOK at Batman: The Dark Knight Returns!

Until then:
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And as always, thanks for listening!

Episode 206 – Wolverine (1982)

Explicit (a few swears scattered throughout) and content warning (brief mentions of death by suicide and attempted sexual assault)

This isn’t a podcast—it’s an operating table, and we’re the surgeons! 

This time, we revisit one of our most controversial episodes (okay, pretty much our only “controversial” episode) with the first installment of a two-part, in-depth reexamination of Frank Miller’s 1986 landmark miniseries Batman: The Dark Knight Returns!

Does this paradigm-shifting, game-changing series hold up to scrutiny nearly 40 years since its publication? And what are its chances of finally gaining entry into that Home for the Emotionally Troubled known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:
•  Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg
•  Buy-ins you have to make when reading a Batman comic
•  What’s the deal with the Mutant gang?
•  Curt gets something off his chest
•  Late Night With the Devil
•  Aard Labor, Tom Ewing’s breakdown of Cerebus, on Freaky Trigger
•  Christine by Stephen King
•  The unique terror of calling girls back in the landline era

Join us in two weeks as we conclude this two-part look back and once again render judgment on The Dark Knight Returns!

Until then:
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And as always, thanks for listening!

Episode 207 – Return of The Dark Knight Returns Part 1

Content warning (death by suicide)

Our reexamination of Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns continues! How good IS this story, really? Will things go differently than they did in our fourth episode way back in 2016, allowing this universally acclaimed 1986 miniseries to avoid nuclear winter and score a ticket to that David Endocrine Show studio audience known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:
•  The only Bartleby the Scrivener reference you’ll hear in a comics podcast this week!
•  What’s the deal with the flying bomber Garbage Pail Kids?
•  The 99% Invisible Power Broker Book Club
•  Robert Caro’s The Path to Power
•  Douglas Wolk’s Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean
•  Some Fantastic Four movie talk

Join us in two weeks as we discuss Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith, by Grace Ellis and Hannah Templer!

Until then:
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And as always, thanks for listening!

Episode 208 – Return of The Dark Knight Returns Part 2

One of our co-hosts is quarantined at home, so we’ve decided to postpone our next proper episode until we can be together in person! Meanwhile, Curt surprises Kevin with a pop quiz on quotes from books we’ve covered on the podcast. How good is Kevin’s recall? (Spoiler: It’s bad! Very, very bad!)

Quizzical Canonical 5: Word Balloons

Mild parental advisory warning: The b-word is used once or twice.

On this episode, the recent launch of the series “Ripley” on Netflix gives us a reason to discuss Flung Out of Space: Inspired by the Indecent Adventures of Patricia Highsmith, by Grace Ellis and Hannah Templer, published by Surely/Abrams ComicArts!

When we meet the future author of “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” she’s struggling to overcome her attraction to women and escape her job as a writer of comic-book stories—a job she hates. While freelancing for a pre-Marvel Comics Stan Lee to pay for a psychiatrist to “cure” her, she falls for Virginia, a member of her therapy group who helps inspire her to write “The Price of Salt,” which would become a landmark of queer literature.

Can a deeply conflicted Pat overcome her disdain for comics (spoiler: no) and herself? And will this moving graphic novel earn its way into that exclusive speakeasy known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:
•  What if Patricia Highsmith worked in a comic book store?
•  Which previous episode should we “redo” next?
•  Ripley on Netflix
•  Vulture: Is Tom Ripley Gay?
•  Love Lies Bleeding
•  Fallout
•  Carol
•  Spider-Man and the X-Men

Join us in two weeks as we discuss Uncanny X-Men #162-167, better known as the Brood Saga!

Until then:
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And as always, thanks for listening!

Episode 209 – Flung Out of Space

On this episode, we use the popularity of the first season of X-Men 97 as an excuse to tackle a story we’ve long had our eyes on: The Brood Saga from Uncanny X-Men #162-167 by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum and Paul Smith, published by Marvel Comics!

The X-Men have been captured by the Brood (a race of nasty winged aliens) and implanted with eggs—when they hatch, the X-Men will transform into superpowered Brood queens! 

Can our beloved mutants (and their friend Carol Danvers) escape these evil ETs and save a race of space whales before turning into Brood 2.0? And can this spacefaring superhero saga make landfall on that forbidden planet known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:
•  The 10 basic X-Men plots
•  Are convoluted X-Men stories a feature or a bug?
•  The influence of Alien on the Brood
•  Kitty Pryde is a great character
•  Chris Claremont’s Phoenix obsession
•  Curt has issues with the New Mutants
•  Immortal Hulk Vol. 10: Of Hell and Of Death
•  Sugar on Apple TV+

Join us in two weeks as we shift gears to discuss the graphic novel Here by Richard McGuire!

Until then:
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And as always, thanks for listening!

Episode 210: Uncanny X-Men – The Brood Saga

Richard McGuire’s 2014 graphic novel Here takes place in one location—the corner of a living room in a house in what is probably Perth Amboy, New Jersey—over the course of billions of years, from 300,000,500,000 B.C. to the far-off year 22,175. 

In between, we see slivers of events both dramatic and mundane, catching glimpses of ordinary lives and extraordinary creatures, and watch as small moments echo and comment on each other across the decades and centuries.

It's a fascinating work that makes use of the comics medium in original and inventive ways, a seemingly unfilmable book that’s somehow being adapted into a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, directed by Robert Zemeckis, for release later this year. But is that enough to score a ticket to that Land That Time Forgot known as ... The Comics Canon?

In This Episode:
•  An unlikely Forrest Gump sequel
•  Hey, it’s Ben Franklin!
•  The Reversible Man by Alan Moore and Mike White
•  Evil Season 4 
•  Reinventing Comics by Scott McCloud
•  Flash Gordon by Dan Schkade

Join us in two weeks as we discuss Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Who Is Scorpio? by Jim Steranko!

Until then:

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And as always, thanks for listening!

Episode 211: Here

Due to a family emergency, we weren’t able to get together and record a new episode for this week. So here’s an encore presentation of our Deadpool episode, With Great Power Comes Great Coincidence from May 2018. Please enjoy, and we hope to be back with you again in two weeks!

Canonical Rewind: Deadpool – With Great Power Comes Great Coincidence

The Comics Canon is the podcast that renders judgment on the greatest comic book stories of yesterday and today. Each episode, Curt Holman and Kevin Moreau take a critical and completely subjective look at one of the biggest stories and most seminal moments in the medium’s history, as they decide: Does this belong in the pantheon of classic and iconic tales known as … The Comics Canon?

Episode 184 – The Strange Death of Adam Warlock Part 1

The Comics Canon

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