Episode 88 - Superman and the Authority with J.D. Martin
Stupid Sexy Superman!
Case, Jmike, and special guest J.D. Martin breeze through Grant Morrison's farewell to DC, Superman and the Authority, like it's nothing at all! Nothing At All! NOTHING AT ALL!
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Men of Steel Full Episode
Originally aired: April 8, 2022
Edited by Matt Storm
Scored by Gen Moonen
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Notes
Grant Morrison’s Superman and the Authority Overview
This comic serves as Grant Morrison’s fitting farewell to DC Comics, blending nostalgia with fresh takes on Superman and the Authority team.
Final DC Project Amid Delays was Grant Morrison’s last DC work, delayed from 2020 by COVID and other factors (03:00)
Originally planned as a 2020 release tied to major events like Infinite Frontier
Green Lantern Season Two was supposed to be their last DC comic before delays changed plans
The book contains meta-textual farewell moments reflecting Morrison’s goodbye to the DC era
Superman also symbolically says goodbye to this chapter in his story
Title Confusion and Authority Legacy sparked initial confusion due to the Authority’s unique comic history (05:20)
The Authority was known for pushing comic boundaries and challenging status quos pre-9/11
The original Authority tackled dictators and political issues directly, unlike mainstream ongoing books
Attempts to revive the Authority in later years never matched the original’s impact
Characters like Midnighter and Apollo from the Authority have had varying levels of presence in DC continuity
Superman’s Role and Power Shift depicts a weaker, more tactical Superman leading the team (26:40)
Superman can no longer fly freely, relying on hover and physical training instead
His power decline is explained by poisoning, adding stakes to his leadership role
The story fits between Morrison’s earlier Superman arcs, showing a middle-aged hero managing power loss
His new suit design emphasizes his identity as a scientist and aging hero
Art Team Praise and Visual Style highlights Mikhail Henning and Jordi Belair’s sexy, striking artwork (04:30)
Henning’s art consistently draws attractive, powerful characters, setting a bold aesthetic tone
The new Superman suit draws inspiration from Kingdom Come but modernizes it with two-tone blue
Apollo and Midnighter’s costumes receive mixed but overall positive feedback for sleekness and style
Visual callbacks to classic and Morrison works enrich the reading experience
Team Composition and Character Dynamics
Morrison assembles a diverse team reflecting Authority archetypes, blending legacy characters with fresh perspectives.
Superman Leads a Reformed Authority Team combining old and new faces with distinct roles (22:50)
Manchester Black fills a Jenny Sparks-like role, symbolic of rebellion and complexity
Steel (Natasha Irons) acts as the engineer combating AI threats, showcasing her scientific prowess
Midnighter and Apollo reprise their Authority roles, with Apollo as a gay Superman analog
The team’s dynamic explores redemption and collective leadership under Superman’s guidance
Enchantress Explores Inner Conflict through a dark, magical journey reflecting Morrison’s Doom Patrol style (28:50)
The storyline dives into accepting dual natures rather than suppressing darker sides
Superman’s supportive role highlights themes of self-acceptance and growth
The narrative parallels Morrison’s earlier work with complex character psychology
While indulgent, it adds emotional depth to the team’s formation
New and Legacy Characters Intersect with Light Ray and OMAC bringing sci-fi and identity themes (35:20)
Light Ray is a Tangent Comics character reborn, adding multiverse complexity
OMAC appears as a possibly non-binary character, representing inclusivity and evolving identity
Jack Kirby’s influence is evident in the futuristic and meta-commentary elements
The blending of old and new enriches the Authority’s thematic scope
Ultra Humanite as Central Villain embodies authoritarianism and collective threat versus Superman’s idealism (38:00)
Ultra Humanite’s brain-swapping and cloning create a viral, parasitic menace
Contrasts Superman’s vision of collective action with forced control and domination
Brainiac’s role as an elitist critic of humanity echoes real-world billionaire attitudes
The villain’s design and motives deepen the comic’s political and philosophical layers
Narrative Style and Thematic Focus
The comic balances traditional superhero action with meta-textual commentary and unconventional storytelling.
Morrison’s Meta-Textual Approach blends in-continuity events with symbolic and non-linear storytelling (19:00)
The story’s time displacement and continuity ambiguities evoke Morrison’s trademark style
References to historical figures like Kennedy and King Arthur add mythic layers
Superman’s struggles and leadership explore themes of legacy, progress, and societal trust
The comic plays with superhero tropes, deliberately avoiding straightforward resolutions
Superhero Tropes Subverted with focus on team-building and dialogue over battles (50:00)
Major fights are minimized, often resolved through strategy or compromise rather than force
The narrative centers on Superman as a “man in the chair,” guiding rather than front-line fighting
The story highlights growth, redemption, and collective action over simple heroics
This approach challenges typical expectations and aligns with the Authority’s innovative spirit
Continuity and Canon Ambiguities create a unique place for this comic within DC’s timeline (12:00)
Originally intended as out-of-continuity, delays caused it to be folded into current canon
Some elements feel disconnected or unexplained, like the mystery of kryptonite mentioned
The story sets up ongoing arcs in Action Comics and Superman: Son of Kal-El
It functions as a middle chapter in Morrison’s Superman saga, connecting past and future
Political and Social Commentary runs through the comic with leftist and critical themes (39:00)
Superman is portrayed as a left-wing hero opposing authoritarianism and elitism
Manchester Black voices skepticism about Superman’s role and public trust
The comic critiques real-world attitudes toward power, control, and societal responsibility
Morrison uses the comic to explore how superheroes can embody complex social ideals
Visual and Design Elements
The artwork and costume design support the story’s tone and thematic richness.
Superman’s New Costume evokes Kingdom Come with modern tweaks for a “scientist superhero” look (58:00)
Two-tone blue colors and a red belt create a visually striking and functional design
The gray temples add maturity, reinforcing the “sexy daddy Superman” vibe
The suit balances homage and newness, resonating with fans of classic and modern Superman
Costume sketches at the back hint at alternative color schemes, inspiring cosplay ideas
Character Costume Updates blend sleek minimalism with legacy references (24:00)
Midnighter’s black streamlined suit returns to basics, emphasizing stealth and power
Apollo’s costume is lighter with fewer gold accents, sparking mixed reactions on visibility
The art team captures strong, sexy character portrayals, enhancing emotional engagement
The mix of old and new designs helps ground the comic’s blending of eras
Visual Easter Eggs and References enrich the reading experience for fans (33:20)
Fort Superman features King Arthur’s table, linking myth and time displacement themes
Kryptonese language in background panels adds depth and world-building
Classic comic moments and character callbacks appear subtly throughout
These details reward attentive readers and deepen the comic’s layered storytelling
Color and Lighting Choices contribute to mood but sometimes cause confusion (45:00)
Scenes in Candor are lit with green light, initially mistaken for kryptonite effects
Color decisions affect perception of power levels and environment authenticity
Some readers found certain hues diminished costume detail visibility
Such choices reflect artistic risks aligned with the comic’s experimental style
Broader Impact and Continuing Storylines
The comic acts as a foundation for ongoing Superman narratives and future projects.
Launchpad for Current DC Runs positions the comic as a prologue for Action Comics and Son of Kal-El (52:30)
Sets the tone for a more complex, less omnipotent Superman figure
Introduces characters and plot threads that continue in ongoing series
Explores Superman’s evolving role in a changing world and comic landscape
Readers are encouraged to follow related titles for full context
Exploration of Superman’s Middle Age provides a fresh angle on the character’s evolution (15:00)
Contrasts earlier Morrison arcs featuring young and dying Superman
Focuses on vulnerability, leadership, and adaptation rather than raw power
Reinforces Superman’s role as a symbol of hope and progress amid decline
Appeals to fans interested in nuanced character development
Unfinished Threads and Mysteries hint at further storytelling potential (01:03:00)
Kryptonite mystery and trust issues with the populace remain unresolved
The comic’s open-endedness invites speculation and engagement with wider DC continuity
Morrison’s departure leaves room for other creators to expand on these ideas
The story’s layered complexity rewards long-term reader investment
Community and Creator Engagement highlighted through podcasts and fan discussions (01:11:00)
Hosts promote related shows exploring Morrison’s work and comic culture
The comic inspires cosplay, fan art, and ongoing discourse around character design
Upcoming conventions may feature themed events around this Superman iteration
Encourages fans to engage with DC’s evolving superhero narratives actively
Transcription
00:00
Case
Again, Superman with gray temples looks pretty good. Again, Sexy Daddy. Yes, Sexy Daddy Superman.
00:06
JD
Is that just the subtitle of this episode? Sexy Daddy Superman.
00:11
Case
Like, in a weird way, like, I. When I started this podcast, I didn't think like Sexy Daddy Superman was going to be a thing for me, but apparently it is. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Men of Steel podcast. I'm Case Aiken and as always, I am joined by my co host, J. Mike Falson.
00:50
Jmike
Welcome back, everybody.
00:52
Case
Welcome back. Indeed. We are in for a bit of a nostalgic look back, while at the same time looking forward. Because that's the kind of thing you do when you're looking at a Grant Morrison property. Because today we're talking about Superman and the Authority.
01:05
Jmike
What?
01:05
Case
What? And for that we have to have an expert on Grant Morrison on. So we've got J.D. Martin.
01:12
JD
An expert. I've never been called anything like that in my life, but I. Thank you.
01:18
Case
I. I think you graduated from just well meaning enthusiast to an expert when you did an entire season of your show on Grant Morrison.
01:26
JD
Yeah, yeah. And I also, I, I'm. I don't know if I'd have the largest collection of Grant Morrison comics, but out of the people that I know, I might have the largest collection.
01:38
Case
That's very fair. There's a lot. There's a lot out there.
01:41
JD
There is a lot. That's what. Because like I have a photo on my phone of like, I took a picture of all. I took them all off my shelves and like stacked them all up together. I was like, I mean, this is like someone's comic book collection on its own is how much they've written and like. No, and discussing with you earlier, before the episode, I was letting you know that yesterday I went to a half price books and just happened to find all five issues of Grant Morrison's Batman story Gothic from Legends of the Dark Knight, which I covered on my podcast.
02:14
Case
Yeah, that's why I was excited when you mentioned. I was like, oh hell, you already like, did you have the trade or were you looking at that before with DC Unlimited.
02:20
JD
No, I have the trade.
02:21
Case
Yeah, the trade. Yeah. So now you've got the trade and the issues, which is also the case for me with this book, Superman and the Authority, when it was announced, I pre ordered the hardcover, but then I couldn't help myself and I bought every issue as they came out.
02:35
JD
I do have every issue. I have yet to purchase my trade. I'm slowly getting my trades of stuff that is ongoing because it's like, I already have the issues. I don't need the trade just yet. And then the trade sells out. Looking at you, Chip Zdarsky's Daredevil.
02:49
Case
So, yeah, we're talking about Grant Morrison's kind of their last hurrah for dc. I mean, as we mentioned, Grant Morrison has a huge portfolio of comics at this point, but has kind of said goodbye to DC Comics and is saying goodbye in the form of Superman and the Authority. Yeah, A book that. The name confused me so much when I first heard it.
03:10
JD
Yeah. Which. Well, we got to mention that this also wasn't intended to be their last work at dc. This is because of COVID and the. And the. And 5G and infinite frontier and all the things going on with everything at dc. This got heavily delayed and originally this was supposed to be a 2020 comic. And. And the Green Land, the season two of Green Lantern, was intended to be their last comic at DC when that came out, but because of all the delays, this wound up being the last one. And honestly, it's kind of a fitting farewell to their work at dc.
03:48
Case
Yeah, there is a. There is a bit of a farewell moment at the end that, if you look at it from the meta text of this, is Grant saying goodbye to this area that they've worked on for so much as they move on to other projects. And in a sense, Superman does as well here. That's really cool and it's fun to look at, but yeah. Oh, wow. There's. I don't know where to start with this thing because it is. It is crazy. It is weird. It is sexually frustrating for me. There's a lot going on with this book.
04:19
JD
Well, because that's the thing. We also mentioned the wonderful art team of artist Mikhail Henning and colorist Jordi Belair. Mikhail Henning doesn't know how to not draw a sexy human being.
04:33
Case
Like, I immediately saved the COVID art when that was. When that was first leaked. And under the title Superman is Daddy on my. On my work computer.
04:43
Jmike
I need that suit. That looks great. Great, man.
04:45
Case
It's so good looking.
04:47
JD
Yeah. And like Midnighter and then the new Apollo suit just. Oh, I love it.
04:53
Case
I don't know about the Apollo suit, I'm going to be honest, but we'll get to that in a bit.
04:56
JD
Oh, we about to throw hands.
04:59
Case
I mean, we. I mean, we're just going to talk about in general, but yeah, why don't we actually start with the Apollo. The Apollo of it all. The Authority part. So when they announced the Title. I was like, what are you talking about? We recently, at the time when they announced it had done an episode on the Authority. So I was like, very much thinking about the Authority. And then all of a sudden I was like, oh, there's a new Authority Superman in the Authority.
05:24
JD
What the. Yeah, I lost Manchester Blacks on that team. What a good Authority episode, I have to add.
05:31
Case
Oh, thank you. Yeah. I mean, because that was such a fun, influential book at the time, it was really cool to go back and look at it. But so were primed when this was announced to be like, wait. The Authority means a specific thing in terms of, like, of comics. Like, it's. It is an attempt at looking forward into the medium and changing your idea of what is possible. And what are the limitations of the medium? Because there's a lot of status quo that has built up over the years because, well, for one thing, Superman, despite swimming to Germany and arresting Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin and taking him to court or taking them to court, didn't actually stop World War II. So you have to figure out, all right, well, he didn't stop World War II, so what. Why not?
06:11
Case
Like, what's going on there? And then every story since, like, they've had to figure out a way that the status quo of the world can be preserved. I mean, that's. Every time there's a major tragedy. When 911 happened, I was like, are. Are they going to deal with a scenario where superheroes are going to be like, yeah, we stopped it. And like, you can't. In the mainstream books, like, in Ex Machina, you can do a story about how one of the towers was saved by a superhero. But, like, you can't do that in, like, a normal book that's going to continue, even though. Even if it's incredibly likely that a superhero would be involved, because that's what they do every issue. Like, there's going to be things in the real world that are going to bleed in.
06:47
Case
There's going to be tragedies that bleed in, and you have to figure out how you're going to deal with them. And if it's an ongoing book, some of that means that, like, it feels like they become kind of stooges of the status quo. And the Authority was very much a book about, well, what if weren't, like, what if we actually dealt with the dictators? What if we actually dealt with stuff? And, like, some of it was forward thinking. Some of it looks not as advanced as it did at the time. Some of it was kind of edgelord. You know, there's a lot going on with those books and it was. It was also pre 9 11, so there's some things going there too.
07:18
JD
Also a significant chunk of that book. Mark Miller.
07:21
Case
Yeah.
07:22
JD
And he. And you know, and like, for all, like, for all the love I will give him for certain comics of his, he really likes to go edgelord.
07:29
Case
For better or worse because sometimes it is like fun and cathartic, but there's a lot where it goes too far. And, you know, the. The Authorities was an interesting book in its regard and it tried to predict here's the direction comics can go. And it ultimately wasn't accurate. There's a lot of reasons why not. And the. The title has been attempted to be brought back up a few times. It never really worked. It never really quite had the same. Same vibe. Actually. When Grant, when. When they were doing the Wild Storm, like relaunch event in like the late Aughts, there was going. There was an attempt to revive the Authority. I don't remember if an issue came out or not or. No, it did. One issue came out and was interesting, but it like, didn't continue.
08:11
Case
Like wildstorm got folded into the new 52 and didn't really have a place for the Authority. It's hard having like all these XPs of characters running around and have the main characters also side by side.
08:25
JD
Yeah, it's. It's kind of amazing that like, Midnighter has actually had like as long as much as many comics as he has because there's like a significant Garth Ennis run. Steve Orlando took over the title and there was also an Apollo Midnighter series that he did that would like, fed into his run. Recently there were Midnighter backups in. I forget which comic recently did that, but there were Midnighter action comics. Action comics, that's right. Yeah.
08:50
Case
Yeah. Which that'll tie into what we're talking about today too. But yeah, Midnighter is probably the breakout star of the Authority, which is not surprising.
08:59
JD
He's Batman, but instead of a bat, instead of a cape, he's got a trench coat and he doesn't mind killing. And he's British like that. Of course that's going to, you know, like, excites a certain. A certain type of fan.
09:11
Case
Yeah, with just a little bit of Wolverine in there too. You know, government subject.
09:16
JD
He's Batman. Wolverine, but British.
09:18
Case
Yeah, all. All that prep time stuff is a computer in his head. All, you know, all that stuff like, oh my God, it's Prometheus a little bit.
09:28
JD
He got. Grant got to write Prometheus again. What do you know? But this. But this time Prometheus is actually like, good.
09:34
Case
Yeah. So it's the. The dressings of Prometheus as opposed to the inner core of the character.
09:40
JD
Oh, yeah. I refer back to the JLA episode of Morrison Quest with Case and I, where we discuss Prometheus being such an interesting character.
09:52
Case
Yeah, people should go check out that one also, because that deals with Grant Morrison's thoughts about teen books and how at the same time, you. You can move the medium forward. But the Authority was very much trying to move past that point. Like we said, the Midnighter kind of was the standout character. Apollo is an interesting character in that. Well, it was gay Superman. And that's cool. I like that part. And I like having the limited power, like a. The little limited power reserve, I should say. Like, I thought that was a cool convention of the character because it allowed for stakes. Like, if he ran out of power, he was vulnerable and. But he could charge up really quickly so you could have the big action scenes when you needed it. And the other Authority members have had presence over time.
10:31
Case
You know, like Stormwatch, when they launched New 52, was kind of the place where a lot of those characters sort of ended up. Recently they teased that Jack Hawksmoor is coming back to DC Comics, which is cool in a sense, but, you know, they were built for a different world. They were, because they were built to be the. The stand ins for these characters elsewhere, where it's like, okay, well, what if we. What if the Justice League didn't care about Borders? And, you know, DC Comics had parodies of that. They had the elite. We've talked about both the comic and the movie that they adapted from that comic, Superman versus the lead slash.
11:04
Case
What's so funny about Truth justice in the American Way, which introduced a team that was clearly modeled on the Authority and Superman, having to basically both do a piece of performance art and also a big speech explaining why, like, that's not always a good thing.
11:20
JD
And I love it.
11:21
Case
It's good.
11:22
Jmike
It.
11:23
Case
There are parts of it that don't hold up as well because it's an address to a thing that no longer is the point. Like, the Authority is no longer cutting edge. So, like, the rebuttal to that element is no longer cutting edge on it into itself.
11:35
JD
Sure, that makes sense. I agree with that.
11:37
Case
That's still in conversation here, because Manchester Black, the main character from it, the XP of Jenny Sparks, is also one of the main characters in this book. So there's a lot of things swirling around in this comic before you get into all the weirdness of the timeline for how it plays out, what it has to do with the continuity of the current books, all of that stuff. There's some weird stuff.
12:02
JD
Yeah. And I can understand this book can definitely be hard for someone. I can understand that because this does definitely play in. Inside the. The current continuity. And if you're not caught up with the current continuity, it's going to seem a little weird. But if you kind of. But it's also nice if you let go of that for a second, the book still holds up very well on its own.
12:27
Case
Yeah. So, yeah, let's mention that part. So the. The current continuity. This book is kind of sort of canon. There are some elements that are, like, a little bit dodgy in it. Like the. The costume he wears. Why is this costume not his just main costume now? Like what? Like, he puts on his old suit and you're like, why?
12:43
JD
I guess because Philip K. Johnson didn't want that costume, which I don't know why. It's. It's an awesome costume. It looks so cool. It's like he's in, like, it's Superman. Fully embrace. Like, look, his power levels are down and he's finally embracing more of these. And, like, he's like. He's a scientist, son, so, like, of course he's going to, like, embrace that. And. And like, having that type of suit, it just. It just makes him look more like a scientist superhero. And that's awesome.
13:09
Jmike
Yeah.
13:09
Case
Superman, man of science. This is. This is the culmination of that in terms of an aesthetic. I love this look so much.
13:16
JD
That is so cool.
13:18
Case
JD as you mentioned, the. The book was originally supposed to be tied into different events that didn't happen, and there were a lot of delays, and it ultimately got pushed from being out of continuity to. In continuity and sort of an explanation for things that are going on in the book right now with some backpedaling.
13:35
JD
And Grant wasn't supposed to write it in the first place, right?
13:37
Case
Yeah. And Grant stepped in because they were like, okay, we're going to make Superman a big authoritarian character. Yeah, exactly.
13:47
JD
Like, I'm gonna come in here and fix this shit.
13:49
Case
Which brings me to a question of, did they. I like this book a lot. It feels like a prologue for what's going on in the current books just fine. Is it a story on its own?
14:00
JD
Yeah, yeah, I think so. I believe so. Because, see, this story, this I feel is a. Especially if you take it within the context of Morrison's other work on the character. This feels like it's almost like a middle chapter to the two other big Superman stories that Morrison has done with their Action comics run with a blue collar young Superman just starting out. And then before that we had All Star Superman, which was the Superman at the end of his life. He is, he's. He's going to die. This is Superman dealing with middle age and dealing with the fact that yeah, his power levels are down and he has to, you know, it's like what it like, you know, we mentioned before this episode that this has major Tom Strong energy. But another character that Morrison mentions specifically is Doc Savage.
14:54
JD
And you know, I feel like you ksaken know quite a bit about Doc Savage.
15:02
Case
Yeah. So I mean Doc Savage comparisons with Tom Strong are pretty apt because Tom Strong was kind of an XP himself of Doc Savage in most regards. But Doc Savage, for listeners who are not familiar with the character in a lot of ways is the inspiration for Superman directly. It was the character who had a Fortress of Solitude, was named Clark, was Man of Blank Metal. In his case it was man of Bronze and was described as being a Superman, described as being the pinnacle of humanity, the best at everything they do. And they've got a team of people who are all second best at specific fields and try to keep up with Doc. And I'm always down for that kind of a character. I love that kind of larger than life hero at times.
15:51
Case
You know, not a hero without any flaws, but a hero who is at least inspiring and does not appear to have flaws from the outside. And then you have to sort of dig deeper to find out how to get there. And that isn't Superman. Well, right, exactly. And that is as an inspiration for.
16:04
JD
That's this Superman specifically because another thing that Grant has talked about is that you know, something that's hard, especially when you're doing into in continuity superhero comics is having that status quo change, is that you can't change the status quo too much. It's. It's that whole Marvel concept of the. The illusion of change. You can't have, you can't change the status quo too much. So. But, but something we love about Superman is that in Action Comics number one, he's arresting a corrupt politician. You know, you already mentioned earlier that he swam across to Germany and arrested Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler. We love Superman doing that because he is a left wing superhero. Well, the thing is that it's harder to convince a company like DC to do that now.
16:54
JD
But what Johnson did, what Johnson has been doing in Action Comics is, well, let's have Superman take down a tyrant regime, but let's do it on another planet. Let's do it with Mongol on War World. And Morrison is teeing up for that and saying, well, yeah, let's like, let's feed into that. Let's, let's talk about Superman taking like taking down a tyrant regime, but just on another planet. And, and also that feeds into Superman being also like a, a, like a galactic superhero as well as a Earth superhero.
17:29
Case
Right. I love that aspect of it. I do like how they've tied it all into what we're ultimately seeing in the current run of Action Comics because, man, have they upgraded Mongol from being a sometimes effective villain, but us, but for like very specific stories to being like, oh yeah, no, this is, this could be an a lister from now on. Like, this could be in the ranks of best villains for Superman.
17:50
JD
I like, I like my goal a lot. I mean my, my exposure to Mongol is like pretty much exclusively limited to the Justice League cartoon War World episodes, which are very good episodes, as well as the, as well as for the man who Has Everything and the subsequent Justice League Unlimited adaptation of that story.
18:12
Case
Yeah. And they've done a lot to like really make it a more complex thing going on there. And I, I like how that sort of forward thinking this idea of Mongol being the title of the ruler and like this like unending dynasty of like different villains that behind the scenes have been replacing each other and that we just haven't been paying attention because they all look like the same giant, terrifying monster. It's pretty cool. I, I love that, I love the stuff going on there. And it's a shame that like this show as a Superman show has never really been able to be about the current comics. Like there's, for one thing, they just moved too quickly.
18:50
Case
The pandemic kind of like threw us off a bit in terms of our ability to sort of like track some of it because we just didn't have the same axis at all times. And you know, there's a lot. And the show comes out bi weekly and like, what are like, unless we're gonna do to just be like Superman News, that wasn't going to be that effective. So we wanted to more focus on specific stories and specific properties that we cared about and check in from time to time on like Big arcs. So this is the closest that we're actually talking to, like, the current state of the. Of DC comics.
19:21
JD
Yeah.
19:21
Case
Which is weird because it also feels so out of continuity at moments and so metatextual at moments.
19:27
JD
Yeah. Which I love. I love that about Grant, too, is that you can take anything of theirs and think of it in continuity as well as out of continuity. And it still works.
19:37
Case
Like, it opens with Superman talking to Kennedy. And the first time I read the issue, I didn't catch the line where it's like, oh, I'd been lost in time. And it's like, oh, yeah, well, that's happened a whole bunch of times for Superman, so that makes a whole bunch of sense.
19:49
JD
And it also ties back into. To their Batman run, where that's the same thing that happened to Batman and he got shot by Darkseid and he had time displaced and he kept tumbling through time. So it's like, yeah, that's a. That's a very Morrison thing to happen. Just like. And also. And like, Kennedy. Like, having Kennedy there as, like, you know, at the time, like, is like, you know, like, in retrospect, we think of Kennedy as almost like the. The dawning of a new era. And so it kind of makes sense to have Superman there to speak with Kennedy and. Because, like, Kennedy was like, you know, we're going to put a man on the moon, and we wanted to do it without your help. Let's like. But. But we still want you here to. To.
20:34
JD
To reference All Star Superman, to catch us when we fall. Because that's. Because that's who Superman is. That he is the. He is the ideal version of us. He is us at our best. And the bet. And the best thing that he does about. About is that he lets us have human progress and have human ingenuity, and he is there to catch us when we fall.
20:56
Case
Yeah. And this feels like a Superman who is very much going to do that. Like, who's going to help on a. On a structural level in a more complicated way than just, like, stopping that typhoon or, you know, plugging a volcano before it blows. Like, there's more complex ideas going on with this character and with the larger book in general. Like, one. Because, like, we have this, like, little bit there, and we pick up with Manchester Black, who is on the run. And it's nice to see the character for the first time in a couple of years at this point.
21:28
Jmike
Yeah. Because it's been a while.
21:30
Case
Yeah. Superman gets involved and apprehends him and then presents the situation and we find out that Superman's a lot weaker nowadays and needs to put a team together, which is cool. And then we. The book is mostly getting the team together kind of thing, but with crazy fucking ideas, like, interspersed throughout. Yeah, yeah. Like all the, all the sensors that they put throughout. Well, throughout Candor, but also throughout the world to make up for the. The loss of super senses is really cool to deal with. Like, we get this, like, workout routine where it's like, God damn, like, you can't not draw, like, sexy daddy super.
22:11
JD
I mean, yeah. And also, like, you know, like, with your reservations about Apollo's costume aside, Apollo looks damn fine in this comic as well, as is Midnighter. I do not want to discount Midnighter's sexiness in this book.
22:27
Case
We put the team together and it does model itself after the classic authority. So Manchester Black is taking the Jenny Sparks slot. We get Steel, Natasha Irons playing the engineer spot. And the way we introduce her is that she actually deals with just weird comic AI stuff going on that is taking over stuff. It's clearly modeled after the Celestials in terms of design. It's supposed to be AI as if it picked up just like the most awful fanboy culture.
22:54
JD
Yeah, there's like literal trolls and then the Edge Lords.
22:58
Case
Yeah, they call themselves the Edge Lords, which is just delightful.
23:01
JD
And she just logics them out of. Out of existence.
23:06
Case
Which is, which is great because it's getting into that more com, like, complex level of thought about how you handle threats than just like, hit it with a hammer. Like, steel has a lot of, like, hit it with a hammer energy. But that's always just like the front part of it.
23:19
JD
Yeah. And I mean, we do get. We do get, you know, Natasha like, hammering it, like, hammering it down in this book. But we also get to show her as, you know, an extinction of the Irons family. Like, she's like, yeah, she's her father's daughter. Like, she is a. She is a brilliant scientist. So of course she gets to, you know, be on this team with Superman.
23:42
Case
As we mentioned, they. They recruit Midnighter and Apollo. Here's what I'll say about them. So Midnighter has had some rough costumes over the years since the. The original look was abandoned for new 52 stuff. This look, I think, works so well because it's a back to basics. Like, it's a little bit more just like all black than his like classic authority look. But I think it works really well by virtue of it being very, like, sleek and like, Streamlined. Here's my thought on the Apollo one. I miss the. The sort of like, chest, shoulder, triangular design to it.
24:12
JD
Yeah.
24:12
Case
And having a little bit more gold accent that you can actually see.
24:15
JD
Yeah.
24:16
Case
There's so many spots on here where I can't see any of the details on his costume because it's very light yellow on white.
24:22
Jmike
Yeah.
24:23
Case
I just wish there's, like, a little more gold. I also miss the long hair because, like, he just had, like, a nice Fabio thing going for him. But I get it. Long hair is not as in right now. Although, jd, you look amazing with your long hair at the moment. Thank you. I guess what I'm saying is I wish Apollo had hair like yours.
24:39
JD
I keep getting told it should be cut, and I say, I don't give a.
24:46
Case
And we do have such a wonderful moment of when Apollo actually gets to meet Superman and he's like, oh, I modeled myself after you. And I think that's really cool. Like, it is so hard to have all these characters who are, like, based on Superman in the same world with Superman. And this is a good balance here, especially because Superman's powers are lower.
25:02
JD
Also, it's so cute that, like, Midnighter's anniversary gift to Apollo was you're on a team with Superman.
25:10
Jmike
Right. He's like, what?
25:13
JD
Oh, man, this is such a beautiful little moment. And Paul was like, oh, but I got you this thing. Wait, did you say Superman? Like, yeah, of course. Like, Apollo being, like, that type of character being created as a Superman analog and then, you know, being shuffled into the same universe as Superman. It would make sense that eventually, like, you know, even. Even if, like, you. You could. You could even say that, like, Apollo was just, like, on his own, and then when he got shuffled into the DC universe, he saw Superman and just decided to model himself after him and, like, go by his example.
25:51
Case
Yeah. It's taking that meta component and making it actual canon, which Morrison is great at. I love that Superman uses a Superman mobile, which is, like, a nice callback to, like, 70s stuff.
26:01
JD
Oh, yeah. And Black tries to make fun of it, and Superman's like, I mean, you can make fun of it, but it works. Yeah, it makes, like, it, like, it, like, you know, I have trouble, like, I can't fly now. Like, I can hover, but I can't fly.
26:14
Jmike
So you can hover for three inches? That's it?
26:17
JD
Yep.
26:17
Case
Well, that's how he works out. He might be able to fly a little bit.
26:21
Jmike
It.
26:22
Case
Depending on. If you're looking at this in the text of the Action comics run in that it's revealed that the reason why his hair is getting white and why his powers are dropping is because he's been poisoned and it's slowly getting to him. So like, regardless, his powers are fading and like he can't like fly casually and have it not be a waste of his power. Like eventually, like he can only do so much. So he has to rely on the physical stuff that he can at least work out and try to keep maintained. But he does mention that he like. Oh yeah, I like try to, I try to hover off the ground every now and then just as. Just to test myself. It's like doing push ups.
26:53
JD
Yeah, Superman, you go ahead and hover above the ground and call it push ups. I'll sit over here and be like, I can do five.
27:02
Case
I don't know as I get older. I mean, I shouldn't say as I get older because I always love this state too. But the idea of Superman as like his golden age power set, I just love more and more.
27:12
JD
Oh yeah, no, I will go ahead and say this. Right now. I'm working on a comic that has like a superhero that is essentially just golden. Eek. Superman.
27:24
Case
Which is perfect like that. It, it's just so great.
27:28
JD
Be on the lookout in 10 years.
27:31
Case
Yeah. That power set just in general in terms of being. It's effective because you've got all the senses, you've got all the stuff you need to solve a problem. But it's not as casually easy. I think is sort of the cool part there. Like Superman being too powerful, you lose the, like, look at the awe of someone solving a problem on that scale.
27:50
JD
Yeah. And, and that's what I think. That's why also people really latch on to, myself included, latch on to the Superman Animated series because it really does all that. That show, like, yes, it is modeled very much off of the John Byrne model and the, in like the Silver age stories. But it also almost feels like that Superman is just golden egg Superman but like maybe five times stronger. We like turn the, turn the strength dial up a little bit.
28:19
Case
It's very much in line with the John Byrne man of Steel Superman. Yeah, it's stronger but like not so strong that you can't have adversity, that you can't be knocked around a little bit. Because up until that point, the only thing you could really do to Superman that would have meaningful impact would be kryptonite or magic. And why don't we talk about the next character they bring on the team, which is the Enchantress.
28:41
JD
Yeah. And we get like, a full issue of just trying to get her out of her own mind.
28:48
Case
Yeah. This felt like Grant trying to do some Doom Patrol style shit again.
28:52
JD
Yeah.
28:53
Jmike
I was very confused. Not gonna lie. I was like, what the heck is going on?
28:58
JD
So I. I have to ask. So I remember for back for a cyberpunk week, I remember y' all did. Was it the first arc of the. The run after. So, Case, I'm assuming you've read Morrison's Doom Patrol?
29:13
Case
Not all of it. I read the first two trades.
29:16
JD
Tragic. J. I know. It's.
29:18
Case
It's on my.
29:19
JD
Jack, have you read.
29:20
Case
And J. Mike hasn't.
29:21
Jmike
No, I have not. That. That. That. That. That episode was my first experience with Doom Patrol.
29:26
JD
Oh, I am sorry. That is a really, like. It is not. It is like, that run is pretty good, but it's really rough to be your first.
29:36
Jmike
It was still pretty interesting, though.
29:37
JD
Oh, yeah. No, I mean, yeah, I'm very much a fan of it. I like. I believe that, like, if you're going to read Doom Patrol for your first time, it should either be Grant Morrison or Gerard Way, because both have a perfect introduction to those characters. And with Morrison especially, because, like, the Doom Patrol show has become so big. It's become such a phenomenon now. A lot of the characters that we love from that show are introduced in Morrison, like Dana the Street. That's Morrison. Crazy Jane. That's Morrison. Niles Calder. You know, major spoilers here. Niles Calder actually being the reason that they're all the way. They are. That's Morrison.
30:17
Case
Yeah. It.
30:18
JD
It.
30:18
Case
It's a run that I've always wanted to finish, but, like, only recently has it been easily accessible by virtue of online services.
30:25
JD
And also, like, you know, yes, there is that gigantic omnibus. However, there are three traits that you can pick up very easily. I'm just saying everyone should read it.
30:35
Case
I know. I got to finish it.
30:37
JD
It's so good. I love it.
30:38
Case
But that doesn't change that we're getting some Doom Patrol shit in the Enchantress to, like, two issues of this book is dealing with the Enchantress shit.
30:44
JD
Yeah.
30:45
Case
And that's indulgent, but fun. But indulgent.
30:49
JD
I mean, look, we, like, if. If you let Morrison go full Doom Patrol on anything, you know, that you're in for a fun time. But I. Yeah, I love. I love the Enchanter stuff. I love the like. Like, getting to deal with the concept of a character who, like, has, like, having magical powers and on top of that, having, like, a per. A type, like a darker personality within you that you are trying to suppress. And then you have the evildoers trying to bring that darker part out of you and make that the dominant part. But then you have Superman over here going like, it's okay. Like, it's all a part of you. Just accept all of it as yourself, and we'll deal with the rest after.
31:34
Case
Yeah, it's. It's really nice having that sort of synthesis of a character right there. I'm a little hesitant about, like, speaking too much on it because I am concerned about it sort of trivializing, but, like, sort of the darker aspects that some people go through. But it is an uplifting take on it, like, really kind of reconciling everything about who you are and kind of coming to understand and appreciate the value of who you are in. In all ways.
32:00
JD
Yeah. And this, as I mentioned earlier, like, I feel like this really does feed into Morrison's concept of Superman, especially regarding their. Their takes on Superman from All Star Superman and Action Comics. This kind of reminds me a little bit of that beautiful page from all star, Superman number 10 of him talking of, like, him saving a teenager from off the ledge. Of like, it's like, no, it's okay. Like, you know, you're not alone here. And that. And that's him doing that with enchantress of like. Like, yeah, like, yeah, we get it. Like, we know you have these two parts of you that are constantly at war with each other, but maybe it's. Maybe. Maybe you just need to accept the. Those two aspects of yourself. And once you've accepted those two aspects, work out how to move forward with those.
32:55
JD
With those aspects working congruently to become yourself.
32:58
Case
But it's. It is a. A trip. This whole journey into hell and so forth in this weird asylum state. There were moments where I had flashes to sucker punch while I was reading.
33:07
JD
It where it's like, yeah, like, it's.
33:10
Case
Layers within layers with lobotomy stuff going on. And I'm like, oh, that's. That's interesting that's going on here. Like a Zack Snyder kind of vibe, even if it's not intended or wasn't thought about, but it also might have been thought about. I don't know. It's Grant Morrison. Yeah.
33:25
JD
The thing is that you can never tell with those sorts of things. Right.
33:29
Case
Also, I just want to mention just how fucking cool it is that at Superman's they call it Fort Superman in this. But the Fortress of Solitude, he's got King Arthur's table. Yeah.
33:38
JD
And feeding more into, like, the time displacement shit of, like. Of course, like, if Superman's gonna, like, you know, if he's gonna tumble through time, he's gonna have some souvenirs.
33:48
Case
And I like that it was, like, from the actual King Arthur. It's from one of the actual King Arthur characters. Yeah.
33:53
JD
Cause he Imagine. Oh, yeah. I helped with two versions of King Arthur, and it's like, yeah, this is great. I love it.
34:00
Case
It's wonderful. Because I have to imagine I'd have to look. But I have to imagine that there have been multiple versions of King Arthur in DC Comics lore, because, of course, there would be in some regard. But I also have to imagine that Grant is also looking at how, like, there's probably a bunch of things that were the inspiration for King Arthur's stuff. Like, for one thing, a lot of the lore comes from France. For another, you know, there's like, okay, well, there's historic sites that might have been some. Some source of the Camelot rumor. And then there's probably multiple individuals. I think there's like, three or four individuals, actual named characters in history. Characters, People in history that are, like, the inspiration for aspects of Arthur. And like, they like, oh, this might actually be Arthur here.
34:41
Case
Or like, that shitty Clive Owen King Arthur movie from the. Don't you was inspired by, like, findings about a Roman figure who was the inspiration. Like, but it's just not, you know, the sole inspiration. There's so much that goes on.
34:57
JD
Yeah. And I love that. And, like, you know, tying it to, like, a modern comic Once in Future. They're toying with that. So much of, like, there being different versions. And of course, like, well, I have to fight you now. Everyone go to Once in Future. It's wonderful. But we're not talking about that. We're talking about Superman, the Authority.
35:13
Case
Well, so. And then this is where we get into the. One of the weirder parts of the team that they're building. So, like, the Enchantress fills the Doctor role, but then the next part of the team is Light Ray, or a new Light Ray, I should say. But she's not really a fully new character because you know who this character is. It's the Tangent comics. Flash first. First person born on Mars. Like that. It's. It is that character. Like, they just changed the name because calling her the Flash would be way too confusing.
35:39
JD
And she does mention that she was born on Mars in a parallel universe. And her bodyguard is omac.
35:45
Case
Yes, a non binary OMAC or sort of non binary. Maybe trans, I'm not sure. Yeah, we'll call. Pronouns are he, him, they.
35:54
JD
Yes. So non binary.
35:55
Case
Which is fitting for an OMAC type character, especially like, oh, that is me. It's me.
35:59
JD
Just think, just think. Omac. J.D. There you go. Also. Oh, Mac. Highly, highly underrated character. If you ever want to go read good OMAC stuff, the Jack Kirby OMAC stuff has recently been collected and is available for people to read. So go check that out.
36:15
Case
And that's a big thing I wanted to bring up, which is the Jack Kirby connection right there. Because there are so many touches of people who have had thoughts about the comics industry here. You know, Tangent was an interesting conversation about comics and about pop culture and so forth and forward thinking. The Authority by itself is a, a forward thinking thing. Jack Kirby is such a futurist. He loves all that stuff like that, like all these characters, like wonderful looks at like how we can revolutionize comics. And OMAC is part of that same pantheon of like big thinkers discussing comics in a broader sense. I mean, Suicide Squad is too, like, that's one of the, like the peak Bronze Age books of like, well, what can you do with comics material and in a new direction?
36:55
JD
Yeah. And then there's Enchantress. I mean, still happening today with like the recent Bad Blood comic by, you know, Tom Taylor, the fixture of my cult.
37:05
Case
Yes, your cult master, Tom Taylor,
37:09
JD
Which I, I, I have. Every time I'm talking about this on a podcast, I have to mention he has accepted the cult.
37:15
Case
This is true. He did mention that it was kind of charming.
37:18
JD
Yeah. And that made me so happy. Also, everyone I, everyone who reads Nightwing and fell in love with his Black Canary World Tour T shirt, I found it and I have one, so you can go find it. It was on Red. It was on redbubble.com. So everyone who is so inclined, please get that T shirt and join me in the power of Tom Taylor.
37:42
Case
But if you want to be a part of a different type of cult, you could be a part of the Ultra Humanites cult, which is.
37:48
JD
Yeah, I wanted to get into this.
37:50
Case
Yeah, this is where it gets really interesting. So the Ultra Humanite, for people who are not familiar with like the sort of niche kind of old school characters. Ultra Humanite is a, is the first supervillain. Yes.
38:02
Jmike
Is he the first or is he technically the first? Is he officially the first?
38:05
Case
Yeah. No, he's the first. He's the first Superman super villain. So for our purposes, if Superman is the first superhero, this is the first supervillain. And the main shtick is the. This brain swapping thing, which by, I think it was in the 70s, became stuck in a gorilla body and that sort of became the iconic one. The one that appeared in Justice League cartoon was the gorilla body one. We get some of that here. But they take it a lot further in terms of concept where they start cloning the brains and it's all. There's this like ever growing, sort of parasitic growth, kind of like viral kind of aspect to the character, which I think is really interesting because both Superman and Ultra Human, I talk about the power of collective action, but in different ways, which I think is such a cool component.
38:52
Case
And also, God damn, is this book lefty.
38:55
JD
I mean, Morrison.
38:57
Case
I know, it's great. Morrison.
38:59
JD
To quote Green Arrow from Justice League Unlimited. They're an old lefty.
39:05
Case
Because what we're doing here is we're actually having a conversation about like the negative stereotype of it and like the sort of. The dangers of that sort of way of thinking. But it's the way of thinking through a totalitarian kind of component. You know, Ultra Humanitarian is putting his brains in bodies and imposing his will on them as opposed to trying to inspire people and bring them together to act collectively.
39:25
JD
Right.
39:26
Case
Which Superman in the text says is what his goal is to do. Like, he wants to bring, he uses at one point the phrase collective action. And I'm like, fuck, yeah.
39:35
JD
Yeah. And also it makes it. Honestly, at the end of the day, it makes sense for him to put together the authority. Because of course, Superman being like this, being like a left wing superhero, he's very much, you know, someone who. He doesn't want to just pummel villains into the dirt. He wants to help people. And one of the parts of helping people is helping criminals reform and helping people who are helping, you know, quote unquote evildoers pay for their actions and possibly turn over a new leaf and possibly become some. Something new, something. A better version of himself. So it makes sense for him to have to bring in like Manchester Black, which we gotta mention, Manchester Black has done some heinous shit to Superman and his family over the years. Some absolutely heinous shit.
40:24
JD
And now he's on a team of Superman and Superman is like trying to help him grow into a new version of himself. And he's doing the same with Enchant and he's been doing the same thing with Enchantress and bring him. By bringing Midnighter and Apollo into the. From the. From the original Authority. And then having. And then having these characters who are all. Who are like, types of characters from the Authority and Superman coming in to lead them and saying, I'm, like, I'm here to just kind of help you grow into better versions of yourself or to. Or to lead by example.
41:02
Case
And.
41:02
JD
And, yeah, like, at the end of the day, like, the title is jarring, but. But once you get. But by the end, it's like, yeah, this makes total sense. It makes sense that Superman would lead the Authority.
41:15
Case
Yeah, it makes perfect sense by. By the time you're looking at it from the macro, like, when you look at this whole, like, sort of conversation about the future of superhero comics to a certain degree, even though it's under, like, the sort of disguise of being like, oh, we're getting the team together, going to go fight an alien dictator, which is all, like, kind of classic superhero fare. But there. There is all this, like, underlying element of greater thought about how this reflects on our world and how we should act in regards to it that I think is really inspiring and really cool. And the ultra humanite, our main body that we see for him is him and Solomon Grundy's body. And that's, you know, a literal plant zombie. There's no plants versus zombie. It's just one. One and the same. Yeah.
42:02
Case
And we've got a businessman Brainiac design, which I find fascinating.
42:05
JD
I was so cool, caught off guard.
42:07
Jmike
By that, because first, like, you see the suit, I was like, is it Lex? Like, is really Lex behind this? And I was like, wait, Brainiac in.
42:13
Case
A power suit with a monkey?
42:15
JD
Yes.
42:16
Case
An alien monkey.
42:17
JD
Look, we can't overstate the fact that Brainiac is in a suit and he has a monkey. This is the best comic ever. Can't overstate how much I love that.
42:30
Jmike
I was not expecting that at all.
42:32
Case
Yeah, And Brainiac ends up having this sort of role as being that sort of that elitist thinker. You know, he talks about how humanity is a parasite or, like an omni predator destroying our planet and so forth. And how, like, that is kind of the way you hear some of these sort of, you know, billionaires talk about the world where it's just like, well, we need to colonize Mars and we need to, like, get off of it because we're destroying everything and seeing themselves as above it all. Like, you know, not. Not tied to this world, not tied to making it better. Just Being like, well, humans are disgusting to me.
42:59
JD
I mean, honestly, Brainiac kind of fills a Mr. Smith role here because he essentially does the same thing that he says, the same thing that Mr. Myths that Smith said in the first Matrix where he says, like, you know, humanity is a parasite and he compares it. He compares humanity to a virus. So, yeah, Brainiac in a suit. Yeah, makes sense.
43:20
Case
Yeah. And existing on sort of a larger mental space. They have like Kryptonian, like. Like the Kryptonian psychic Internet at one point in this. And like, is this all the Matrix?
43:34
JD
I made it make sense. I'm going to take that to my grave.
43:38
Case
I mean, it works. The. And especially because the. There's sort of a non ending here. There's. The big confrontations are ultimately kind of minor. Like, none of them are really that big of a threat. Like, Superman had outplayed them at every point. So all of his people in the field countered the powers of the people who they were up against.
43:56
JD
Yeah.
43:56
Case
And Superman had the ultimate contingency plan for when the Ultra Humanite would attack him, which is that he's married to Lois Lane and she can take care of stuff.
44:06
JD
Yeah, look, when you're married to Lois Lane, that's the counter. That's the perfect counter for everything.
44:11
Case
I love that they have a Kryptonite gun that can be set to different types of kryptonite. Yeah. They used white Kryptonite against Solomon Grundy, which I don't know if it's. It's ever been used, but God damn it. Was that rewarding.
44:22
JD
It's like the coolest comic book shit we can see. And a comic book. This is a very comic book.
44:29
Case
Are you sure setting five is the right one? I don't want to turn him into like a giant monkey or something.
44:34
JD
It's so good. And like in like the idea of like, it's like, oh, yeah, Lois has actually been here the whole time in the background, but like she's getting shit done. Like, she, like, she's been like, she's been studying Kryptonian technology and Kryptonian history and she's the one who turned the, like the Krypton sensors off and in candor, so that he would be like at his power, at his main power level here and he wouldn't just be like another human, like another Kryptonian on Krypton.
45:06
Case
Yeah. The only thing that I thought was a little weird, and this is purely just a coloring thing, was that they illuminated the scene with Green light.
45:13
Jmike
I was very confused.
45:15
Case
And with him feigning weakness, I thought that it was Kryptonite at first. And then it's like oh no, it's just during Candor. So you're supposed to have. It's supposed to have Kryptonian level or like a Kryptonian environment, so you should be depowered. And then it's like, oh, they're all turned off. And I wonder if it had been like eliminated with like blue light or something instead, if it wouldn't have been quite so. I. I don't want to say confusing, but it just like giving me the wrong vibe up front. Cuz like the reason he was weak is because it's Candor or in theory that it's Candor and that the like as opposed to its Kryptonite. Because that sure did look a lot like the Death of Superman comic from the 60s that where Lex Luthor kills Superman by way of trapping him in a.
45:54
Case
In a chamber with kryptonite. Like, or like Kryptonite beams. Like it looks like that. So that's how I read it at first. And then it's like, oh, it's not. Oh, it's just green light. Okay.
46:04
JD
I don't know. Morrison put it there to trick you. I don't know. I'm not the expert here. Or am I?
46:09
Case
You kind of are. I do love when they leave Candor and the so the. After defeating the Ultra Humanite, it's revealed that all the brains of the Ultra human knights that are in. In play are all secretly bombs. And they leave Candor. And then we just see in the little model of can or not the model, the little city of Candor, this tiny little explosion.
46:28
JD
It's cute. It's a cute.
46:29
Case
Yeah.
46:30
JD
The only time I'll ever call it an explosion Cute. Yeah. And actually like right before that we have. Or like in that moment, there's also the. The moment where Lois and Superman are tele. Like teleported out of Candor. And it looks like Jor El and Laura on Krypton.
46:51
Case
Yeah, they. They embrace each other and it kind of look.
46:53
JD
Yeah, just kind of feeding more and more into things repeating itself, but in a different way.
46:58
Case
Meanwhile, we've got a couple other scuffles going on. We've got the Dubai fight with a group calling themselves the Authority that includes both Cold Cast, who was another member of the Elite. And I was like, glad to see someone else Elite show up in this book along with Iron Cross. Yeah, it was like a literal Nazi super soldier.
47:17
JD
Yeah. I was, I was so happy to have Midnighter just go like, iron cross meet steel toe boot.
47:25
Case
Which is a classic Midnighter move.
47:27
JD
Yeah. Yeah. And actually, okay, I, I. Speaking. Speaking of classic Midnighter moves, I do want to go back and really quickly mention my favorite Midnighter moment in this comic is really just a callback to a Midnighter moment from the original Authority run. When Midnighter shows up and he's about to, like, he's like, about to beat up a bunch of people with. With Apollo, and he just has this giant speech about, like, I thought about every moment, like, every possible way to this is going to go down, and every way ends up with you dying. And it's like that, like, Midnighter just said that exact same thing in the authority back in 1999. And I. And I know the reason it's here is because Morrison loves that, and Morrison said it in their book. It's like. Yeah, it's because it's a great line.
48:16
JD
It's a great. Because, like, I remember Morrison talking about in Super Gods of, like, in any other context, like, the. The guy with the gun would have gotten bored by the third word and would have shot him by the fifth word. But because this is superhero comics, Midnighter will say that whole spiel and we'll believe it. We'll be there for it.
48:35
Case
Talking is a free action in. In comics. It. The amount of time it takes to say a whole speech versus one line, it's still just one panel.
48:43
Jmike
Yeah.
48:44
JD
Time is a lake.
48:45
Case
Yeah. For our purposes. Yeah. It's all just individual ripples. It doesn't matter how many words you said on it. Yeah.
48:50
JD
I love the fact that we have all just decided that, like, Rachel was. That we have all collectively agreed that Rachel is right. I mean, they are like. Like they're proven right by a astrophysicist. Like, time is a lake.
49:06
Case
Yeah. Time is a lake. I mean, I prefer to think of it as a giant pattern, a giant intricate quilt that makes up the world and that each of our electromagnetic signatures are different threads that run through it. It's all just different ways of visualizing the same basic concept.
49:21
JD
I like it to be a lake in a forest. Oh, it is a lake with a cabin.
49:25
Case
I'm just saying it's also a quilt with a cabin.
49:27
JD
With a cabin on the side, a cabin on the lake, a cabin in the woods, if you will.
49:31
Case
Or. Or it's a forest with all these different roots just interconnecting with each other. We could go real weird if we wanted to.
49:38
JD
I mean, we are discussing.
49:39
Case
Great. It's just a sea of monkey brains that have been cloned and put inside different bodies, including what appears to be a dinosaur at one point in the Soul series.
49:47
JD
Yes. That's like, yeah, I love it.
49:50
Case
Yeah. So in addition to the Dubai fight, which is like some nice superhero fare, we've. We've got some good moments of superheroes hitting real hard and also some good moments of superheroes coming to understand problems of things that are being manipulated. Like Civ, the sentient computer algorithm system that's going on there and coming to a peaceful resolution with that one. Likewise, we've got the other fight going on, which is them trying to get to Light Ray, who is being manipulated by Eclipso. And OMAC and Apollo coming to terms, going in pursuit just in time for Light Ray to outsmart Eclipso, but at the same time be sort of rescued by Enchantress. And, you know, there's a lot of, like, big moments that, like, are kind of intentionally not paid off in a way that would be like a classic comic.
50:35
Case
Like, oh, we're going to punch each other kind of stuff. Like, almost. Almost everything gets worked around. Like, really the only. Only thing that just straight up, like, just like ass whooped is like, the Neo Nazi. Yeah. Which is appropriate.
50:48
JD
I was like, which makes sense because, you know, that's something you just can't reason with. And it's like, well, then just punch it, just pummel it, and we'll be. And we'll all be happier in the end. And actually, I think that also just feeds into the. I like this comic as a whole. At the end. At the end of the day, this. This is a comic. They just like it. Like, like the major conflict happens after the comic. It's like, that's not. But because, like, that's not what this comic at the end of the day is supposed to be. It's like something I love about this is that it doesn't like, it has the feel of being like a traditional Superman comic of, like Superman up, you know, like getting the team together and going to save the world. Well, yeah, but instead it's.
51:35
JD
It's Superman just getting the team together with a couple. With. With a couple fights here and there. But it's really super. Like Morrison taking on the nature of Superman leading by example and the idea.
51:49
Case
Of collective action, which is just fucking rad.
51:52
JD
Yeah, it is. It's perfectly said.
51:57
Case
I think the only thing I wish is. I wish that this was an ongoing series.
52:00
JD
Yes. This would be, you know, like, I.
52:03
Case
Understand that it gets picked up over in action comics, and I'm liking that action comics run a lot. But first of all, some things go awry over in that book. So some of the focus is more on Superman than some of the other characters, which is, you know, I would have liked some more time with the other characters or more focus on it. And I feel like if this book had been like a continuing thing, you would have. Your viewpoint would be on all of them, which would have been fun.
52:25
JD
Yeah, but this is a great focal point for Morrison to just like I've done like I've done the young Superman in action comics. I've done the Superman at the end of their life. Let's take a look at middle aged Superman and let's take a look at Superman who is, who is depowered and has to kind. He kind of is just the man in the chair in this book. He is the person who's like slightly on the sidelines, has his own little. Has his own conflicts, but he's. But he's leading the team that is also. That is gonna go out and save the world. Yeah.
52:59
Case
But they tease that man in the chair scenario too. At the beginning. Manchester Black thinks he's been paralyzed.
53:03
Jmike
Yeah.
53:04
Case
Like, oh, you've made me the professor, which is both like a Miles Calder, but also Professor X kind of call.
53:09
JD
And Zimmerman's like, actually, no, I'm saving you. You're gonna be walking within an hour.
53:14
Case
Right? Yeah. Wonderful spot where he like, did heat vision to, like do surgery on his spine.
53:20
JD
That's exactly what I was thinking about. That panel is so good and such.
53:24
Case
A nice also callback to the original Elite appearance where while it doesn't actually happen because it's not what, like he lies in the scene, but he says that he lobotomized Manchester Black with his heat vision. It's not actually what occurs. All he does is give him a concussion, which is, you know, it's. It's vaguer on how that all works out. But yeah, it's still a callback to the most famous scene. Like this idea that with his vision he can manipulate your nerves. And in this case he's doing it to heal him, which is, again, fucking rad. Yeah.
53:53
JD
All this stuff is everything in this comic fucking rad.
53:56
Case
Yeah. Like, the only thing I can really say as like a big like the pet peeve is that there's so many amazing fucking moments that are just sort of a panel and then like, you move on. And I'm like, oh, I would have liked to have that breathe. I would have liked a whole comic about that sequence right there.
54:14
JD
Yeah.
54:15
Case
Side note, so while we've been talking, I was skimming through the TV tropes for this issue or for this comic and the multiple Camelots and King Arthur's thing is a direct reference to Seven Soldiers.
54:26
JD
Okay.
54:27
Case
Another Morrison book.
54:28
JD
Okay. Yeah, that is one I have, I have not gotten through it yet. I'm. I'm working my way through that one. That's a difficult one for me.
54:35
Case
Morrison Quest, Part 2.
54:38
JD
Oh, please don't break me.
54:40
Case
Sexy dad Superman. Not skinny Next gen. I like from two scenarios as a line in there, which is the fact that we get, yeah, Superman is sexy dad in this. His son is running around. And I get that as well. But also it kind of feels like a call out to New 52 Superman. Like when I was reading it.
54:57
JD
Totally is.
54:58
Case
Yeah.
54:59
JD
Because like, I mean, if you look at Morrison Superman and then you look at like the other, like the, the regular continuity, New 52 Superman look very different.
55:13
Case
Yeah, like New 52 Superman. Honestly, kind of feels like John a lot nowadays. Yeah.
55:18
JD
Yeah.
55:19
Case
Big firebrand, like doing a bunch of, you know, trying to like change the world in positive ways of today. You know, like the Morrison update of the golden age. Superman's like, ethos feels very similar tom Taylor's take on a young Superman living in this world.
55:35
JD
See, we just can't escape the tailor. You can't do it. You can't escape him.
55:40
Case
That cult. Now, now the listeners can't see it, but we all just gave the hand signal for the cult. It's how we understand that we are all members of the Tom Taylor cult. We form a T with our two hands. And I will let you figure out how we do it. It's not the way you think. And we gesture towards our forehead and towards our heart because both our thoughts and minds is where Tom and Taylo.
56:06
JD
Honestly, we really have to come up with a name for the cult. I have, I have to. I have to come up with a clever name.
56:12
Case
The well Tailored Men.
56:14
JD
Oh. Oh, shit. The well Tailored.
56:18
Case
I meant men in like the. The Omnisense. Like, you know what's really frustrating about the English language? Man used to mean person and then it became gendered.
56:26
JD
Yeah.
56:27
Case
Not the other way around.
56:29
JD
Gender sucks. You know, it's a construction, and we. And we refuse to be a part of it.
56:35
Case
Just like omac, we can escape that Tesseract, the gender tesseract.
56:41
JD
That. You don't know this, but that was my punk band in high school.
56:45
Case
Pretty. Pretty awesome punk band right there.
56:49
JD
I apparently had, like, 20 punk bands in high school, but I'm cool with that. No one actually knows the real name of my band in high school. And we're going to keep it that way.
56:59
Case
Now, listeners, what you don't know is that JD actually just held up a sign that indicated what the actual name is. And that's our secret that we're going to take to our graves.
57:06
JD
Oh, yeah. No and no. No. And in actuality, I really am going to tell them off mic, and no one else is going to know. If you. If you too want to know, you're just going to do a podcast with me.
57:19
Case
So, J. Mike, what was your take when reading this? I know you were excited when you first heard about it, but, like, when you got it, what was your thoughts? What's. What. What is your big takeaways?
57:28
Jmike
I need that suit.
57:32
Case
That's fair because I put it on Twitter.
57:34
Jmike
I put it on Twitter. I was like, oh. I was like, the book's great, but I really need that suit.
57:41
Case
Yeah. And then the natural rival of this podcast, Ben Milton, was like, must we. Just a reminder. This show started because we had to, like, combat the negativity towards Superman.
57:50
Jmike
Yeah, that's legit how it started, everybody.
57:54
Case
And then we had them on for, like, the two of the first five episodes. But I love that they take the Kingdom Come Superman design and, like, incorporate that into this very modern kind of look. The costume is so fucking good. Like, we talked about Tom Strong energy and Dax Savage energy. We got the gloves, we got the short sleeves. We got his big biceps rippling out because, you know, he can hug you so good. I love the pattern work on it. I think. Looks really cool. It isn't. It's still like a singular costume with just a red belt, but. But, like, having the two different tones of blue, like a light blue and a dark blue, I think is really nice. The kingdom comes S, I think, actually looks perfect here.
58:34
JD
Yeah, this is the best.
58:35
Case
I don't always want that.
58:37
JD
I think this is the best version of it outside of the. The original Kingdom Come suit from.
58:41
Case
Yeah, yeah. Like, I've seen them try to bring that into Superman looks too many times where it, like, didn't quite work. But this is A really good use of it. Like, I think it looked great.
58:51
JD
Actually. You know another one, Chris is on Infinite Earths. The. The crossover with Brendan Routh.
58:57
Case
Yeah, that's another one.
58:58
Jmike
Yeah.
58:58
Case
Like, that I think was a good look for it, but this is a really good adaptation of that. You know, again, Superman with gray temples looks pretty good. Again, Sexy Dad.
59:09
JD
Yes.
59:09
Case
Sexy Daddy Superman.
59:11
JD
Is that just the subtitle of this episode? Sexy Daddy Superman.
59:16
Case
Like, in a weird way, like, I. When I started this podcast, I didn't think like, Sexy Daddy Superman was going to be a thing for me, but apparently it.
59:26
JD
Should your wife be worried?
59:30
Case
No, because she's expressed that if Henry Cavill was involved, she'd be down.
59:35
JD
Okay. I mean, if Henry Cavill involves is in anything, I'm down.
59:41
Jmike
I did have a question though, about this story.
59:45
Case
Lay it on the X, not about your sexuality.
59:48
Jmike
You're fine, case. But like Manchester, he hints like three or four times in this book that like, there's something happened with Superman and like the. The populace at large doesn't really trust him anymore. Like, did I miss that? And like, something before this?
01:00:05
Case
I took that as a meta commentary about the intent for this book as a right wing Superman story as pitched by Dan Didio, combined with his original appearance in Superman and the Elite. I don't know if that's.
01:00:16
JD
Well, there's also the fact that I, I Now granted, I didn't read the Bendis Superman run, which I plan to at some point in that run, Superman did announce to the world his secret identity that Clark Kent is Superman and vice versa. So I feel like that's also maybe a commentary on that, stating that, you know, because Superman hid that for so long, maybe people don't trust that about.
01:00:41
Jmike
Him because, like, Clark goes on to say, like, that's like one of the reasons why, like, the main members of the Justice League kind of stepped down and like, went away because people lost like, their trust in them. So I was like, did I miss a big story point before this?
01:00:53
JD
I think there's also death metal things going on.
01:00:56
Jmike
Okay, that's still lingering.
01:00:58
Case
Okay, again, I took that from the, from a meta perspective of Superman as a character, like, who has been continuously published since the golden age, since the 40s. And taking it from a standpoint of him kind of becoming the man at a certain point, you know, like the Elite, like, appearing in. What's so funny about Truth justice in the American Way is a conversation about how Superman is an outdated look upon heroism and that decisive action was called for in. In this much more like, uncomfortable era that were going into in the 21st century. And I, I think that this is an agreement of, like, that has always been Manchester Black's standpoint that Superman is. Is the man, like, in. In a bad way. Like, and that it's only gotten worse that people don't trust Superman.
01:01:45
Case
People don't look to him as a beacon of hope. In the same way, like man of Steel, the movie and like, up. You know, that those kind of things, like, all are sort of impacting our. Our look at Superman. Like, so many people try to push this tyrannical alien oppressor kind of viewpoint on a character when it's not endemic to who they are.
01:02:04
JD
Yeah.
01:02:04
Case
Like, it's. It's just been an adaptation that was.
01:02:07
JD
Popular popularity of injustice.
01:02:08
Case
Right. And. And I, like I said, I think this is kind of. That is Manchester Black's viewpoint, but not necessarily the world's viewpoint. I think that he's.
01:02:17
JD
He's.
01:02:18
Case
He talks shit all the time. Like, that's who he is.
01:02:21
JD
And also, like, seeing it at a metatextual level, like, that makes sense. And it's like, it's just. It's just a continuation of Manchester Black's character and him being kind of, in a way, almost a mouthpiece for a certain type of person in the world. And. And that goes all the way back to his first appearance in Action Comics.
01:02:41
Jmike
Okay. I was just making sure I didn't miss anything. Make sure I'm just all. All caught up with the story beats and everything.
01:02:47
Case
Well, I've got one that I am actually curious about because I, I. So I read Superman comics regularly, but I constantly have moments of like, I. I was reading the Bendis run pretty consistently and then there's like a gap in there, like, basically right when he revealed his identity. And I picked up more recently, you know, some of this is like the pandemic and there was like the hiatus that D.C. went on. But in this book they talk about the mystery of kryptonite, and I have no idea what that is.
01:03:11
JD
Oh, me neither.
01:03:12
Jmike
Yeah.
01:03:13
Case
Yeah. Because there's that one point where they say that he has to leave and also Supergirl has to leave. It's possibly. And all of this feels like things that kind of happen in future State also. So it's a weird question, and I guess I'm left lingering it. We did a quick Google search that we cut out because obviously we cut that out because we didn't find the answer.
01:03:33
JD
So, yeah, cut that out. That was so boring,
01:03:37
Case
Guys. You don't understand. It was like 10 minutes. We don't know is, I guess, the deal. I. Maybe Alex knows. Maybe he's yelling at us secretly from. From Georgia right now, being like, damn you. If you were truly caught up, if you were panelologists, you would know, but you're not. And that's true. We're not. We're not. We're not that good. We're not as caught up. There is a mystery that we just don't know the answer to in this book. Like, this book feels like there's a lot of threads coming off of it again. It feels like while, sure, it's a middle chapter in terms of Superman's existence and Morrison's conversation about Superman, it is the jumping off point for a lot of arcs that are going on. You know, it is setting up Jonathan. It is who we never see, by the way.
01:04:21
Case
It is setting up what's going on with War World currently in the books, which we do get a lot going on for that one. But it. It is definitely setting the tone for a modern Superman. And you kind of feel like this should have been the book right after whatever the last set of events were or something to that effect, and then jump into the current status quo or jump in, you know, come off or go into, like, future state or something. It comes at a weird time. It feels weird in terms of continuity, but it's also like, again, radio. It's. It's kind of this anomalous book. Like, it doesn't quite fit, but it also doesn't quite not fit and has too much good going for it to not fit.
01:04:56
Case
Like, I wonder if it's kind of like the Killing Joke, where it wasn't supposed to be continuity, but it's like, no, that's. It's too cool. We gotta make a continuity. Like, the Authority in this is so cool.
01:05:06
JD
Yeah. The only. The only part of that I remove is that. Is the Killing Joke cool.
01:05:09
Jmike
The movie was.
01:05:10
Case
There's a lot. I. I think it is. Oh, yeah, the movie's terrible. I think that there are still good elements to it that are worth discussing in the larger sense of comics in general. I think that it is overrated. I think is a very valid for it.
01:05:29
JD
I would agree.
01:05:30
Case
But I think. I think that it is not without merit. I think there's a lot of good stuff going on with it. It's just, you know, they shoot a character and paralyze her just for the shock value, and it's not even a story about her.
01:05:41
JD
Do we ever need to put it in the top 10 Batman stories of all time? No, never.
01:05:49
Case
No, but when it came out, it was up there. It's just that they've since done more.
01:05:53
JD
Yeah. And far better.
01:05:55
Case
Yeah, but. And I don't mean to draw such strong comparisons with a controversial book. I don't think this book is innately controversial in the same way. I think that this is more. Look how cool Superman can be. He has a tesseract space fortress made of ice that also has Kryptonian robots who, if you can translate the Kryptonian, say things in the background about like, cleaning up vomit and stuff. It's a really cool book with a lot of.
01:06:16
JD
Yo.
01:06:16
Case
Yeah, yeah. Like when. When they're cleaning up Manchester Black. It's Kryptonese. But Kryptonese is something you can translate because it's just. It's just English but you. But with characters swapped out so. So you can replace it all.
01:06:27
Jmike
Oh, crap. We gotta check it out.
01:06:30
Case
There's so much cool shit going on in here and it's just like so jam packed. I just like, there's so many panels. I want to be a full issue. There's so many story like sub beats that. I want to be multiple. Multiple issues. There's a lot. And Morrison crammed it into six issues and it's like, that's lovely. Could you could keep it going?
01:06:51
JD
No, Morrison wants to do TV stuff and you know what? I'm happy for them.
01:06:55
Case
Yeah. And that's. And that's all fine. Like we got this. It's great. And. And again, the run currently happening is a lot of fun. I'm very much enjoying it. People should check that out. People should. I mean both Superman, Son of Kal El, and also the action comics run that is going on. Like, those are like great books and worth like worthy continuations of this story. But the story is also like deliberately playing with like superhero tropes and so like they're kind of non endings there deliberately to sort of troll us as an audience. Being like, no, you thought it was going to be all about a big fight with the Ultra Humanite and Brainiac. Now he's just like, nah, peace out, guys. Like, my son can handle you. You're beneath me now.
01:07:36
JD
He literally just does do that.
01:07:38
Case
It is deliberately different than what we have come to expect from the medium. But that is the point of an authority book.
01:07:46
JD
Agreed. Everyone go read it. It's good you went through this whole episode without reading it. Go read it now and have a jolly old time.
01:07:55
Jmike
I want that suit.
01:07:56
JD
We get it, J Mike. We get it.
01:07:59
Case
I mean, it's a really good suit.
01:08:00
JD
It is a really good suit. We should all get matching ones whenever. Whenever. We eventually have a certain POV con I will attend only if I can wear that suit.
01:08:09
Case
J Mike, could I propose for you, how dope would it be with, like, a little bit of color change to make this a Valzad suit for you? Valzad being the Earth 2 Superman. Yummy. And what I'm thinking is, like, imagine that aspect inverted with the. With the white going on for it instead of red. Have red interior and then do, like, maybe, like, white accents on. On this costume. That'd be real fucking cool. Like, that'd be really cool, actually, because I don't think this was in the individual issues, but they've got a bunch of these sketches that were for the costume design. And there's some at the back. Yeah, yeah. Some really cool ones I really like. There's some, like, white and black versions of the costume. So, you know, thinking about that, playing with.
01:08:59
Case
With those color schemes, but applying it to, like I said, the Valzad kind of look. I don't know, I just thought that might be kind of fun. It was a moment of inspiration there.
01:09:08
JD
Well, tune into the 2024 certain POV con where we're all going to be dressing up as a version of sexy daddy Superman.
01:09:18
Case
Actually. Yeah, why not? We could have a trio of it. Like, so if jmux like the Valzad version of this. Jd do you want to be Superman? Red and blue versions of this with me?
01:09:32
JD
I mean, I will. Absolutely. I will. I will actually cut my hair slightly so I can be Mullet Superman.
01:09:40
Case
I feel like you could keep it going with your luscious locks, like.
01:09:43
JD
Yeah, I could, actually. Yeah, I will. I will be. I will be 90s mullet Superman.
01:09:48
Case
You son of a bitch. I'm in. All right, we're circling around on this one. The thing is that this book is a. Is a dense text for what it is, but also because there's some atypical story structure elements to it, and it is a launching point for other stories. It's difficult to be like, that was a thrilling conclusion kind of thing. It's a lot of stuff is. Is starting at the last page, like when. Like, this is effectively where John takes over as Superman on Earth, where Superman goes off into space. You know, we see the same scene a few times. We're not talking about this today, mainly because I didn't think it was a very good comic. There was the.
01:10:26
Case
The Superman, Batman, and the Authority, like, one shot that they did that was kind of a bridge comic in there where they go off into another dimension and deal with, like, Batman who laughs kind of. There's a lot of weird stuff going on with how DC was trying to handle this book, but I. I think that this core book has so much cool stuff. Like.
01:10:45
JD
Yeah, check.
01:10:46
Case
Check it out. Just for all the. All the weird words that Morrison wrote and the beautiful art and everything, like, it's. It's worth it.
01:10:54
JD
And of course, come for a sexy daddy Superman.
01:11:00
Case
Yes. After he gets off the treadmill, running at the speed of sound, he's shirtless and he's sweating. It's so. It's so weird. Bisexuality was never like that keenly. Like, it was never that keenly defined to being like, oh, daddy Superman. Oh, there. There we go.
01:11:16
JD
We're all gay here. Anyway, I think this is the end. I think this is the end.
01:11:22
Case
Yeah, I think we're at the end. All right, so, J.D. What have you got to plug? Who are you? Why are you here?
01:11:28
JD
I don't know. Where did I even come from? Where am I going? Well, what you can do, listeners, is you can go check out alongside Men of Steel on the certain POV Network. There's a little show called Fables and Reflections that I host with Angela Bones Bullock. We have been. I've, you know, I've. I've, of course, been on here a couple times, but Angela and I have both been on here a couple times now, and we on that show discuss the works of Neil Gaiman. We have covered many things already. We're. We're slowly going through the Sandman. We've covered a few movies and books, comics, short stories. We're getting ready for Batman Week, and we're going to be discussing whatever happened to the Caped Crusader, which I'm really excited about. And we're gonna continue to be discussing this weird bard's journey into mystery.
01:12:25
JD
Didn't know the sentence was going that way, but it went there, and I'm okay with it. Also, even though it is currently on indefinite hiatus, maybe it will turn this year. I hope. I hope it will return this year. Comics Quest. You can check out all of our back episodes.
01:12:39
Case
Kay's popping in here in post to note that J, Mike and I actually just recorded an episode of Comics Quest with J. So it is coming back soon.
01:12:49
JD
And in connection to this episode, There was Morrison Quest. I'm really immensely proud of the episodes that we did there. Also on the long haul, there were a couple episodes like Arkham Asylum with Alan Kistler. So yeah, check all that stuff out. Certainpow.com you can follow me on it on Twitter jdmartin. I think. Or maybe I changed it. I'm not sure anymore. Time is a lake.
01:13:15
Case
Time is in fact a lake. So much lake that this has actually been recorded before Batman Week, but it's going to be dropping after Batman Week. So definitely check out all of the contributions for Batman Week. If you like Batman over at Fables and Reflections and whatnot. J Mike, where can people find you?
01:13:28
Jmike
I am on Twitter mike101. I delve in conversations sometimes, but I also post fun memes.
01:13:34
JD
He does.
01:13:36
Case
As for me, you can find me on Twitter Aace Aiken. You can find the podcast anofsteelpod. You can find all of us at certainpov. You can find a link to our Discord server there where we're just happy to chat with all of you. We're having this call right now on Discord, but you know, just come share memes, talk random stuff. We've got sections on comics, we've got sections on books, we've got sections on gaming, we've got sections on movies. You know, we're happy to engage on a variety of topics. So come engage there when this episode is dropping. I am still in the midst of an indiegogo for a Star Trek fan film that I'm working on. So I'm giving a plug, baby. Check out Farragut Forward.
01:14:13
Case
If you search Indiegogo for Farragut Forward, like Admiral Farragut, as in the ship, because it's a Star Trek thing, you can find it. We're doing movie era stuff. That's a lot of fun nerd. Yeah, I am. But I'm a nerd who will live long and prosper as long as you guys contribute to my indiegogo. So check that out.
01:14:33
JD
I just wanted to let you know.
01:14:34
Case
I'm not writing this one.
01:14:35
JD
I just wanted to let you know that I love you.
01:14:37
Case
I'm the production manager for this shoot, but once this is done, what we're raising money for is sets and costumes that we hope to use for future productions, including one that I am writing the script for. So check out Farragut Forward if you like Star Trek stuff. And you know what, if you like a positive future that Superman is advocating for. Star Trek is in the same vein. So I Think it all. I think it all works together. Check that out. And until next time, stay super man.
01:15:05
Jmike
Men of Steel is a Certain POV production. Our hosts are J. Mike Folson and Case Aiken. The show is edited by Matt Storm. Our logo is by Chris Bautista. Episode art is by Case Aiken. And our theme is by Jeff Moon.
01:15:25
Case
Okay, good, cool. This is what, 6, 40?
01:15:30
JD
Guys, this is what happens when you get me on a call.
01:15:34
Case
Alright, let's do a clap to sync up. J Mike, you recording?
01:15:37
JD
Yep.
01:15:38
Case
All right. I tried Craig. Craig didn't want to join us.
01:15:41
Jmike
That jerk.
01:15:43
JD
That.
01:15:43
Case
Yep.
01:15:45
JD
Yeah.
01:15:45
Case
Anyway, so let's do a clap, let's sync up and then we'll get this episode going. And Matt, we've been talking for like 30 minutes. We stopped recording and started again because of that.
01:15:56
JD
Yeah, you're welcome.
01:15:59
Case
Just so you know, you're welcome. Video games are a unique medium. They can tell stories, immerse us in strange, fantastic worlds, blur the very boundaries of our reality. But at the end of the day, video games are fun. Whatever fun is to you. I'm Jeff Moonan. And I am Matt, AKA Stormageddon. And on Fun and Games, we talk about the history, trends and community of video games. It's a celebration of all the games we play and all the fun we find within them. And there's so many more games out there, so we hope you'll share in that conversation with us. Fun and Games podcast with Matt and Jeff. Find us on certainpov.com or wherever you get your podcasts and happy gaming. Hey, all you amazing sentient beings. This is Case Aiken from Certain pov.
01:16:43
Case
And outside of podcasting, I work with a group that does Star Trek fan films called starship Farragut. For 15 years, we've been doing material inspired by the original Star Trek series, but now we're moving on to the movie era with our latest production, Farragut Forward. And that means new sets, new props, and we're gonna have to make those monster maroon uniforms. So we have a crowdfunder running right now. Backers can get access to our soundtracks, have their names show up on screen as part of a duty roster, or even get a walk on role.
01:17:12
Case
Our hope is that this is just the beginning and that the assets we create with the money we raise will go towards future productions, including possibly a sequel that may just be written by a certain square, scruffy nerf hurting man of steel who will take another pass at it. Wink, wink. To back the production, go to Indiegogo and look up Farragut Forward or find us on Twitter @Farragut 1921. And hey, while you're at it, check out the three minute prologue we put together to show what we can do. But in the meantime, live long and prosper. Certainpov.com.