Transmetropolitan Vol. 9: The Cure - with Duke
Spider Jerusalem is out of time—but he's not out of fight.
This week, Case and Keith are joined by Duke to discuss Transmetropolitan Vol. 9: The Cure, as Spider begins rebuilding his case against the Smiler after losing everything. Along the way, we revisit the sins of Fred Christ, celebrate Royce's unforgettable turn as the Two-Fisted Editor, and follow a former transient whose testimony could finally bring down the President.
We talk about corruption, journalism, cults, accountability, and why this volume feels uncomfortably relevant more than twenty years after it was published. Plus: Spider jumps on cars, Royce puts everything on the expense account, and Robert McX asks the question we've all been waiting nine volumes to hear.
The endgame has begun, and for the first time in a long time, the Smiler isn't smiling.
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Edited by Seth Decker
Scored by Bret Eagleston
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⏱️ YouTube Chapters
00:00 – Introduction & Duke Returns
01:45 – Duke's History with Transmetropolitan
03:18 – Who Should Play Spider Jerusalem?
07:00 – Where the Story Stands Before Volume 9
08:02 – Here Comes the Sun: Returning to the Disaster Zone
12:43 – Yelena's Anger & Spider's Investigation Begins
17:38 – Running Through the City Like a Motherfucker
21:22 – Fred Christ's Final Conversation
23:42 – The Truth About the Angels 8 Riot
31:35 – How the Smiler Really Operates
36:49 – Two-Fisted Editor: Royce Takes Action
40:02 – Royce's Investigation & Blackmail Campaign
45:01 – Royce Saves the Case
48:36 – The Cure Begins: A Woman in Hiding
52:24 – Spider Finds the Missing Witness
56:21 – Ambush at the Hotel
01:02:39 – Safe House Interview & The President's Secret
01:10:57 – Martial Law and the Final Push
01:16:35 – “When Was the Last Time You Had Sex with a Transient Prostitute?”
01:17:09 – Volume 9 Discussion & Final Thoughts
01:24:02 – Where to Find Duke
01:25:40 – Where to Find Keith
01:27:41 – Patreon Shout-Outs & Outro
Transcription
00:00
Duke
Foreign.
00:09
Case
Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Word From Tomorrow podcast. I'm Case Aiken and as always, I'm joined by my co host, Keith Letinen.
00:17
Keith
Hello, everybody.
00:19
Case
Keith, we are getting very close to the end.
00:21
Keith
Here we are. And it feels like it. It really does.
00:25
Case
It's been quite the journey. But to continue on that journey, we are joined for volume nine, the Cure by Duke.
00:34
Duke
Hi, Duke.
00:36
Case
It's great to get you on. You've been on Men of Steel a whole bunch of times, but it's been a minute since we've had a chance to chat.
00:43
Duke
Yeah, it's been a while. I'm kind of excited to be doing this one because I never thought I'd be able to talk about Trans Metropolitan in any capacity for a while.
00:54
Case
Yeah, I mean, we've talked about the state of things with the Warren Ellis of it all a few times at this point. You know, it's one of those ones where we're not divorcing ourselves the art from the artist completely, but it. Because we have reflected on some of those elements that have seeped into the actual writing. I was just editing episode three today where we talk about the Elena scene and how it's like a little weird in the. In the context of knowing, like, stuff. But, you know, it's. It's also still a really precious work that has a lot of really interesting things to say that I think is a worthwhile thing for us to talk about. And so I'm glad to get you on. What is your experience with Trend Metropolitan?
01:45
Duke
I think when I was in high school, it was one of the series I basically read going into comics, because by around 17 or 18, I was listening to a lot of podcasts like the League of Extraordinary ordinary gentlemen, Lily OG from spill.com back then when Spot was a thing, I was listening to their podcast and they would refer to Trans Metropolitan, Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen as some staples you can get into. And when I was in my early 20s, I was basically going on a big Warnells hit, you know, Warnell's Ride, which was Planetary Stormwatch Authority. And I was just kind of falling in love with this guy's style of writing. Kind of like his very dry wit, his. His approach to characters who feel very mercenary. You feel very kind of like addicted to, like, caffeine.
02:45
Duke
Like they're just trying to, like, keep themselves alive as they go in and about their jobs, no matter how kind of evil or ugly it is. But they do the work and they, you know, it's very mercenary, kind of, like, is preference for characters. And then, you know, Trans Metropolitan was this. And also, like, you know, Fear and Loathing Las Vegas was my big kind of wakeup call for Spider Jerusalem as a character. And then after that, it was like, you know, being that guy looking on TV tropes and wondering, patrick Stewart, really.
03:18
Keith
Kind of deal, you know, I love this. Comes up every single time. It does, yeah.
03:24
Duke
Like. Like there was going to be a Trans Metropolitan adaptation and, you know, Patrick.
03:30
Keith
Stewart was going to play him.
03:31
Duke
Like, what? Interesting, because, you know, I thought Spider wasn't. But, you know.
03:39
Case
Well, so that's the thing we've. We've chatted a lot about is who would you cast and. Or what is the voice of Spider Jerusalem in your head?
03:47
Duke
Yeah. He would sound like Dale Gribble from King of the Hill. Think about it. I. I guess I could see Patrick Stewart in a way. You know, it's. It would. It'd be its own thing. Like, he'd be as furthest divided from, like, you know, Hunter S. Thompson, because when I think of him, I think of, you know, the. The guy that played him in that movie that I won't mention.
04:14
Keith
Yeah. Another problematic guy. Right?
04:16
Duke
Yeah, yeah.
04:19
Case
I mean, not that Hunter S. Thompson wasn't also kind of problematic, just. Oh, that's true.
04:23
Duke
That too.
04:23
Keith
Yeah.
04:24
Duke
Which we should also keep that in mind as well. So.
04:27
Case
Yeah, well, so one of the things that we've. We've had a. An interesting conversation back and forth about is like, where is Warren Ellis's British voice bleeding into him? Trying to have an American character? And, like, you know, like, I like this chapter, for example, very early on, he refers to someone as like, my puppet. And like.
04:47
Duke
Yeah, yeah.
04:48
Case
You know, it's like, yeah, he's doing a voice like the character. Like, in. In universe, the character is doing, like, in like a. A bit right there. But at the same time, it's like that bit. Yeah, it's a bit that. It's like. Well, that's clearly something a British person thought to say.
05:05
Duke
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
05:07
Keith
At least he managed to go the whole volume without shitting on the Irish, the Scottish or the Welsh this time.
05:11
Case
That's right. Yeah. So. All right. Yeah. So Dale Gribble. That's a. That's a good one. That. You know, one thing I love is that everyone has had something new to say in terms of, like, their. Their voice for Spider Jerusalem.
05:25
Keith
Yeah.
05:26
Case
Which really just speaks to like, how, like, how broad of an interpretation people have for this character who has, like, you know, Legitimate, like, frames of reference that people can, like, go and look at. But at the same time, it's like, it's not Hunter S. Thompson. Like, it's someone doing a Hunter S. Thompson style character.
05:44
Duke
Oh, yeah. It's like. It's like the elements of that character just fires offward, and it's like, okay, what does that sound like to me? Because sometimes it's like, well, I have to go back to, like, you know, where was he born? Was he born, Was he American, Was he actually English? Stuff like that, and try to figure out, like, oh, well, any English actor can do an American accent, you know, so like, that's kind of a moot point. Not so much the other way around, as we all know. Unless you're Peter Dinklage, then you could probably do a British accent.
06:16
Case
Peter Dinklage would be an interesting one, particularly voicing the part.
06:21
Duke
But, yeah, it would be like Tom Hardy or something.
06:25
Keith
Yeah. I've really warmed up to the Ewan McGregor thing we talked about before from Trainspotting era. Oh, yeah, that came up in a recent episode. I really warmed up to that.
06:37
Duke
Now I would say Tom Hardy, only because it's like, he technically did play a young Patrick Stewart in one movie.
06:42
Keith
That's true. Also, he's a fucking weirdo.
06:46
Duke
Really buff. He would. He would totally dive into this kind of character.
06:50
Case
Speaking of diving in, why don't we start doing our rundown of. Oh, actually, wait, sorry, Keith. Where are we so far in the story for the listeners at home?
07:00
Keith
Okay, I'll make this short because I'm not summing up eight volumes. Rogue journalist Spider Jerusalem is currently trying to take down his second president, the Smiler. In this case, the worst person that has ever lived and the bane of my existence. Joined by his filthy assistants, he has gone from the. The peak of literary. Of the literary world, living in a penthouse apartment to the basement. And he has a little bit of a stable situation now, but we actually don't see a lot of it in this volume. Spoilers. But we do get to kind of, like, see him get to. He's getting to the ground level now. He's getting to the ground to rebuild this case that has been destroyed by the recent catastrophe intentionally and getting dirty and becoming a real rogue journalist.
07:54
Keith
And I'm so excited because, yeah, this is him, like, really getting to the meat of it, and I really like it.
08:02
Case
Yeah, that's a good synopsis of where we're at here. Yeah. So why don't we. Why don't we dive in so we open the first chapter. Here Comes the Sun, with. Yeah. And. And Shannon's waking up. And what does she find in her bed? But a. A thing from her nightmares. She wakes up next to Spider Jerusalem.
08:31
Keith
I swear to God, I thought it happened again. And I was like, God damn it. Like, I was like. I was like, he just can't help telling that story, can he? Like. But thankfully, no.
08:42
Case
But Shannon wouldn't. That's not the relationship that they have. Yeah.
08:47
Keith
100%.
08:48
Case
Even though Shannon wakes up in horror upon seeing Spider in her bed and confirming that it wasn't just a dream.
08:55
Duke
But.
08:56
Case
But Spider quickly reveals that he was just fucking with her.
09:01
Keith
Yeah. I like that it's fun. I like that it didn't end up being that way. And I like that we kind of start off on a fun beat in the volume. You know what I mean? Like. Because it's been pretty heavy. It's been pretty heavy for a couple volumes. So.
09:14
Case
Yeah. Some light ribbing between Spider and his. In his assistance. You know, in the grand scheme of things, this is. Yeah, it's just a. It's a joke. And it's a callback to an earlier scene that they've talked a lot about and Shannon's extremely aware about.
09:32
Keith
It is funny because maybe for one moment Shannon's like, oh, I'm just as bad as she is. Like, I like that. I also like the. Yet another example of him preferring cats over dogs as a writer with the cat Dragon in A Dead Dog. Right. I was just like, yeah, he. Man, he hates dogs. I don't get it.
09:50
Duke
Yeah.
09:52
Case
But we cut to Spider and his assistants traveling in a car outside of a McVeigh High School, which, of course, is a Timothy McVeigh reference.
10:03
Keith
Which has got barbed wire along the top of the fence, by the way.
10:07
Duke
Yep.
10:07
Case
Well. And they've got thought scanners when you come in.
10:09
Keith
Oh, yeah.
10:10
Case
A student is pulled aside because he had thoughts about bombs and whatnot. And he's like, I watched an action movie the night before and he's getting expelled.
10:18
Keith
That's. That's some dystopian next level shit. That is just believable enough in the current political comment to scare me a little bit. Yeah.
10:27
Case
Yeah.
10:28
Duke
Well.
10:28
Case
And Spider and Enchanted both sort of reflect on how guns were actually encouraged back when they were kids.
10:35
Keith
Although I like the. Or the teachers had an unfair advantage.
10:38
Case
Right.
10:40
Keith
That's great.
10:41
Case
And Spider tells his assistants that they're heading to the disaster zone because they're starting at the end. And he. He's really Embracing the fact that he has brain damage at this point. Yeah, he's having a good old time talking about how he doesn't need to make sense anymore. He can just do things the way he wants to do it. So we get a lot of. A lot of coverage of what this disaster area looks like. And you know, it's Derek Robertson art. It just looks great in terms, like it looks awful, but it looks, you know, the artwork is great.
11:16
Keith
It's. It's. What's the word I'm looking for? It's poverty in the ugliest, most beautiful way possible. Like, it's just. Just hideous. Also the guys wearing the three eyed shirt, by the way. So that was cool.
11:30
Case
Yeah. I was just checking the publishing date on this one to see where this falls in relation to the 911 situation.
11:35
Keith
About a month before.
11:37
Case
Yeah. Yeah. Because I was thinking, like, this makes me think a lot of Hurricane Sandy and Katrina. Actually. Katrina is probably the biggest example that comes like, right. Right after this. Like it's a few years later. But 911 could also be sort of an example of like a disaster zone kind of situation. But none of this is apparently what this book is pulling on. It's just predicting the future.
12:07
Duke
It's just. It's just taking what's pretty much been happening and kind of threading the next logical conclusion of like, how does. How does this work? In a very kind of sci fi dystopia. And it's always going to be the same. Irregardless if it's, you know, now or 10 years or maybe two years after the fact. It's always going to be the same disaster and the same people targeted and it's. And they're all just kind of swept under the rug. Even though the real ugliness is out there that these poor people are suffering through.
12:38
Keith
Yeah. And it's a familiar. It's a familiar playbook.
12:42
Duke
Yeah.
12:42
Keith
Yeah, definitely.
12:43
Case
Yeah. So they arrive at the Vita Severn Memorial Federal disaster zone.
12:50
Keith
That, like, I got so angry when I read that.
12:54
Case
Yep. Well, you're not the only one who got really angry about it. Yelena gets very angry and she, like, in terms of us tracking how Yelena is just turning into Spider, she goes off on a very spider kind of rant and then points out to spider, like, why aren't you angrier?
13:16
Keith
I love her so much.
13:18
Duke
Yeah. Just the way her face kind of just warps to it. Like it's. It's so well drawn here because she's holding that cigarette and her face kind of gnarls into that. And you can see it on Shannon's like, oh, I'm seeing it. I could see it now. He's become like she's becoming more like him, which is such a very nice little subtle thing going on.
13:45
Keith
Yeah, it's. Yeah. Again, we kind of talked about in the past how Shannon's a little more numb to things, you know what I mean? And because she's, you know, and this, she's like, yeah. Like, she might be outraged by the name, but she's not outraged by the sight of everything. Because she's like, yeah, this is what happens. You know what I mean? Like, this is poverty. This is what it looks like. And you know, yeah, Yelena is just outraged and I love it. I love her just shaking with outrage, punching the fucking floater aside and everything. I thought that was cool.
14:17
Case
And then Spider just in response to her, just takes a picture of the.
14:22
Keith
Scene because he's got limited time, right? Like he's like, I have a job to do at this point.
14:29
Case
Yeah. And so he says, I'm working. And he walks off. And Shannon finds this like, kind of amusing. And the fact that she finds it kind of amusing pisses off Yelena even further. So Yelena says, like, you're a bodyguard, but like guard us. And she says, if I have to start protecting you from yourself, I want to raise. So they go get food and they talk it out and they point out that what is going on here is that this is. This allows for martial law, that the reclamation zone is. It is not the entirety of the disaster area. The martial law covers the whole city. And so they are. They start discussing like, so what's the problem that they have with the city specifically beyond the fact that it's where Spider lives.
15:22
Case
And Spider brings up this whole election like stat that where like the. The city typically goes with. And your first term, it will go for you if you're going to be the president, but if you. But then after that it will vote against you in all successive ones, which is just Spider's way of pointing out that none of this makes any sense. That, that all these like rules of thumb of politics are all kind of bullshit.
15:47
Keith
And it is interesting, you know, of course in a city like this where things don't really get better very often, they would usually swing, you know, on a second term president, you know, like, they would be like, you didn't fix anything. Like, so it makes sense. But yeah, there' also the aspect of like there's something more here, like What? You know? Yeah, there's a deeper plan, which we're used to from the spoiler.
16:10
Case
Yeah. I want to call attention to the fact that this meal is very squicky. Like, he's eating, like, sea horses, and there's just, like, goo flying everywhere while he eats. This is not the only time I've noticed that, like, their meals typically are. I mean, obviously he eats, like, caribou eyes and stuff. Like, the food is always supposed to be kind of gross and this world. But it was a spot where I was, like, really noticing that, like, the attention to the, like, goo flying off of the food as they eat it.
16:38
Keith
Seafood Dinothor. Yeah.
16:40
Case
Yeah.
16:41
Duke
I think I had this at a New York City museum once.
16:45
Case
So as they head out, Shannon points out that with Callahan's wife dead, his approval rating is super high. And she says right now, he could fuck lambs in the ass in the middle of Century Square and get a round of applause for it. And you know what the fuck that sounded like to me?
16:59
Keith
The first episode of Black Mirror?
17:03
Case
No, no, it's. It sounded like, frankly, Trump saying that I could kill someone on Fifth Avenue.
17:09
Keith
Yeah, yeah. Sound a lot like that. Yeah. I mean, this is one of the most prescient volumes we're going to read,.
17:17
Duke
Which is very distracting considering what she's throwing in that panel.
17:20
Keith
Yeah, that's. That's Metro trans Metropolitan in a nutshell, is just like, heavy political discourse that feels uncomfortable. And also a small person dressed as Hitler being thrown.
17:34
Duke
Derek, just draw this part and I'll just fill in a dialogue.
17:38
Case
Yeah. And then Spider thinks to himself, there's something I haven't done in a while, which is just run around on top of cars and causing a rampage kind of scene. But this time it's not him by himself. Like, he gets a little bit of a rant, which I find very fun. That eventually leads to him shouting out a driver, saying, show me your fucking thumbs.
17:59
Keith
So good.
18:00
Case
And then the next panel, he's just bouncing on cars shouting, thumbs. And it looks very much like Mario.
18:07
Keith
Yeah, it's great. And it leads to, again, the filthy assistants being like, fuck it, let's do it, too.
18:13
Duke
Like.
18:14
Keith
And I love that. Yeah.
18:16
Case
I love Yelena just, like, kicking out someone's windshield just for the fun of it. Like, she's inherited the sociopathic traits of Spider Jerusalem at this point, unfortunately, yes. Unfortunately, if this was not a work of fiction, I would be abhorred.
18:32
Keith
I adore her is all I'll say.
18:36
Case
And they know that it's a Lot harder to do this than Spider. Makes it look like Spider's very practiced at jumping on top of cars.
18:42
Keith
They're like, we underestimated your fitness level, actually.
18:45
Case
Right. Jenna goes, what's the first thing we do? And he goes, run down the street like a motherfucker.
18:49
Keith
And so they do again, starting on kind of like a lighter tone. Bring it up a bit because it's been so dreary. And we're going to get dreary again. Yeah, I think it's. I think it's a really good place to have a little bit of an up. You know, this whole. This whole issue actually is a very cathartic, fun issue, for the most part. Fun? I don't want to say fun is the part.
19:13
Case
Cathartic, yes. I 100% agree about it being cathartic. Fun is an interesting description for some of the violence.
19:19
Keith
There's a. A. I'm trying to. The word is not occurring to me for some reason, but we're schadenfreude of wanting to be like, watching Fred Christ, this entire fucking series, and we're gonna get to it, so I won't spoil it. But that finally coming out, it's not necessarily fun, but it's like, fuck, yeah. Finally.
19:45
Case
Yeah. So they kick open the door to a bar, and two transients are like, this is a private bar. And Spider goes, filthy assistance deal. And they both fire bowel disruptors at them. Or at least we're led to believe they're battle disruptors. And it's basically confirmed by dialogue next.
20:02
Keith
But one of them is clearly shitting himself in the picture. Like, his pants are full, so it's battle disruptors.
20:08
Duke
His pants are darkening.
20:09
Keith
Yeah.
20:10
Case
Yes, yes. Pants darkening.
20:12
Keith
I do like that Derek chose to draw their battle disruptors looking different. Like Yelena's being bigger and stuff. I like that little. Just kind of like character touch. I think it's cool. It'd be very easy to just make them, you know, perfectly the same, but that doesn't really make sense for them. So I think that's cool.
20:28
Case
Yeah, no, it's nice that. That we have those little bits of flair. Differences between it. Maybe it's different model numbers.
20:35
Keith
Yeah, exactly. I'm assuming I'll disrupt her.
20:40
Duke
Yelena. It's just going all in. Like, you're shitting the whole load, buddy. And Shannon's just a little bit like, holy crap, what are you doing?
20:48
Case
Oh, you think the barrel gets wider depending on, like, the sphincter settings?
20:51
Duke
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's like the phaser settings, it's like, oh, wow. Full release. My goodness.
20:59
Keith
I like the idea that, like, in character, Shannon's more subtle. Right. She wants something that is easier to hide, whereas Yelena wants you to start shitting yourself before she shoots you. You know, like she's. She's inherited that from Spider. She wants to terrorize you.
21:15
Duke
Yeah. She's going, maximum volume.
21:17
Keith
Yeah. She's like just this big ass thing to make you look at. I like that idea.
21:22
Case
So the bartender starts to threaten Spider, and when he starts to pull a gun, Spider whacks him with his cane and then knees him in the face and kicks him a few times and then says, that man is full of shit. And then Shannon just says, not for long. And they both aim their guns.
21:39
Keith
That's such a good one liner.
21:41
Case
I love such a good one liner. But then Spider walks into the back room and a person who's just sitting there, I'm guessing he's several. I mean, he's. There's empty bottles all over. So, like, we know he's pretty drunk because he doesn't respond to Spider, like, making all that noise outside and then, like, coming up behind him. It's only when he gets the chair pulled out from under him and then yanked up by his neck where we see it's Fred Christ. And Spider says, this is our final conversation. It will be a good one.
22:11
Keith
Yeah. He was like, oh, good.
22:13
Duke
Totally hiding out for, like, just. Just pretend I'm not here. I'll be in the back room looking at these beer bottles.
22:22
Keith
I'm so happy. We're coming full circle with this. Like, this is volume one. We're going back to volume one, where all this shit started. And again, it's kind of cool because, you know, Spider said we're starting at the end. They're kind of starting at the beginning at the same time. And I think that's like a cool, like, twist on that. So.
22:41
Case
Yeah. And then we pick up the next issue is Happy Talk. And it opens with a splash page of just Fred Christ getting decked in the face.
22:50
Keith
My favorite part was. I mean, I'm skipping a page, but there's not a lot of dialogue where he says, will you hit me if I stand up? No more hitting him again. I love it so much. That's so funny.
23:05
Case
Yeah. Well, he bats him around and he says, it's not nice when people lie to you, is it?
23:10
Keith
So good. It's great because if someone does that to you can't trust anything they're saying at that point, because they just lied to your face, and now they could just hit you if they wanted to. And that's horrifying. I love it. It's so good. It's so dehumanizing. I love it.
23:25
Case
Yeah. I mean, it's certainly like, Fred Christ had to be a real piece of shit for us to feel that this issue is as cathartic as it is. And it is as cathartic as it is because Fred Christ was a real piece of shit. Yeah.
23:37
Keith
And we actually find out a little bit more how much of a piece of shit he is as we get into this. So.
23:42
Duke
Yeah.
23:43
Case
So Spider says that they need to talk about Fred's connections to the Smiler and specifically his campaign in the city.
23:53
Keith
I want to real quick, before we jump into that, the page opposite that shot of his face with Fred's eyes reflected in his glasses. In Spider's glasses.
24:03
Case
Oh, yeah.
24:03
Keith
Is one of my favorite shots in this entire comic book.
24:05
Case
Especially because it's the human eye in the little lens and then, like, alien eye in the big lens.
24:09
Keith
Fucking brilliant. That's just a brilliant choice.
24:12
Case
Yeah, it's really good shot right there. But. So Spider breaks off a chair leg and the chair leg. Yeah. Shannon says, jesus, Spider. And Fred says, you wouldn't dare. But Spider says, there's no back talking.
24:29
Duke
Here.
24:31
Case
And goes into a whole rant about this, eventually starting to talk to the chair leg. He says, share leg of truth. It does not lie. What does it say? It says, shut up, Fred. Can you hear it?
24:43
Keith
It's so crazy because we've talked about him, like, his cartoonish violence, you know, throughout the book, and this is that cartoonish violence, but done in a serious situation. We're bringing his two worlds together kind of in the storytelling of him taking this shit seriously. But also, at the same time, he still Bugs Bunny. He's just literally a horribly dangerous Bugs Bunny. And I love that.
25:06
Case
Yeah. Or you could say that it's. It's all of a sudden, like, looking at Bugs Bunny with fresh eyes and seeing the violence.
25:13
Keith
Yeah.
25:15
Case
In, like, a real context. But so Spider asks him, he wants to know when Fred first got involved with Gary Callahan. And Fred says, the Angels Ate Riot. Which means that we go full circle to the start of the series. Shannon gets up close because, well, she's ready to assist if anything needs assisting. But also she has a personal connection. She was a bride of Fred Christ.
25:39
Keith
Another reason I hate him.
25:40
Case
And she wants to know about this because the Angels Aid riot happened right where she worked. You Know, she witnessed this riot, and it was a horrible thing for her. She was in tears during it.
25:50
Keith
This is what put her on the path, you know what I mean? Like, she wouldn't be here if that didn't happen. Like, she wouldn't be Spider's assistant or bodyguard at this point. So.
26:00
Case
Right. Yeah, we saw the handoff in. In Volume one, where we saw a bunch what Spider identified as lawyers giving money to some transients that he thought was just to start the riot or do something. You know, he wasn't. Like, he. He assumed that it was the Beast trying to crack down on something, but it turns out it was actually the Smiler setting this up to create a bad look for the Beast and for. For the mayor of the city, who was one of the Beast's people at the time. So the fact that Spider saw it and wrote about it, like, already, like, is putting, like, the screws to the plan, like, right from the get go. Yeah.
26:44
Keith
It is interesting because, again, we're going back to the beginning to see this. We talked quite a bit in that episode about, like, what is going on here? You know what I mean? Like, we don't see the actual. Like, we talked about the inciting incident of what actually caused the riot, and we had some assumptions about it. I thought we might actually get a straightforward answer about it. We don't really get that, but we do get so much more texture as to what's happening and reframing it as the mayor, you know, about the mayor, not about the Beast, was really interesting because it makes me think about what we learn about the Beast later on about him, you know, being a bastard but not being the Smiler, you know what I mean? It kind of, like, makes me look back a bit.
27:25
Keith
I think it's very interesting.
27:27
Case
Yeah, it was definitely an election of who is the lesser of two evils. And it's really frustrating to see that the Smiler was the worst of the two evils.
27:36
Keith
Yes. Yeah, definitely.
27:38
Case
Fred explains that the money that he got from this whole situation is what allowed him to buy the religious status for his church, which we kind of already knew.
27:46
Keith
Like, we.
27:46
Case
We.
27:48
Keith
Or at least together.
27:49
Case
Yeah. And. And while he's talking about this whole thing, we. We cut to Yelena, who's sitting in the back and she's holding a recorder, and we can see that the light is lit up and that she's recording the whole thing.
28:02
Keith
We would be remiss if we don't mention Shannon saying, I want to in your heart.
28:07
Duke
Right.
28:07
Case
She's taking this Very personally. Yeah.
28:10
Duke
Yeah.
28:11
Keith
Another zinger for her today.
28:13
Case
So Fred opines that he was always the loser, that he never was able to be top dog in any situation, and that he jumped on the transient movement because it gave him the opportunity to be a big shot for once. And he kind of talks about some sort of the. The issues with the transient community and, like, the type of people who tend to go for it. It's what we've said that it's. It's always been depicted as something of a cult, and for people who were looking just for something to belong, as opposed to people who had, like, real profound, like, identity kind of changes to it.
28:50
Keith
Yeah. Which, again, I've talked about this for. I actually, really appreciate them making this distinction, because originally, I remember I was very worried that, like, this was gonna be a commentary on trans people. And it's getting further and further from that. I think we're getting a distinction. Like, this is something completely different. Don't confuse that. And I really appreciate that because I was a little bit worried about that at the beginning.
29:14
Case
And Fred tries to sort of pat himself on the back for his decision to become a part of this whole. Whole thing by pointing out that, like, his visual cortex has changed and so he's having a lot of sex with what looks like Marilyn Monroe to him every night. And that's. That's enough to piss off Channon to. To actually take a swing at. At Fred.
29:32
Keith
Yeah. Which he. Which he takes, by the way, and just moves on. I think he knows he deserved that one. So.
29:38
Case
Yeah, so he. He talks about how he was bought off cheaply and notes that Vita never liked him and that the scene at the convention now sort of has additional context for what was going on, because it. Like, this is Fred, who had already been sort of, like, promised, like, political cachet with this new administration already being pushed to the back. And we saw that earlier, and now we understand more about, like, why he was in such a bad mood at the time.
30:07
Keith
I think an interesting revelation is Vita, you know, Vita not liking Fred. Right. Well, and I'm, like, looking at this. So Vita knew Fred was involved in this. So obviously, we look at Vita very positively. We adore Vita, and we kind of look at her like the public looks at her. You know what I mean? Like a sacrificial lamb. But she's in dirty. You know what I mean? It's just, like, how deep, you know? I think that's. I think that's pretty interesting because she would have to know why Fred's there. Which means she would have to know about the vice presidential candidate, which I think we know. She. She knew about that and disagreed, but I didn't know how deep she got into it. You know what I mean?
30:49
Case
She reacted when she found out it was one of Heller's people. Yeah, she was. She was surprised that it was a Heller person. So I think she was actually kind of in the dark.
30:58
Keith
Okay.
31:00
Case
At least at that point now, like the way it's being written here, like, maybe she just understood that the Church of Fred Christ was becoming a political ally of the Smiler at the time.
31:14
Keith
It's ambiguous.
31:14
Case
Yeah, it's ambiguous. It's curious how much she knows and how much she suspects because probably the reason that she would hate Fred Christ is because he was running girls, but probably couldn't prove it. And maybe this is kind of an Epstein situation.
31:28
Keith
Yeah. And honestly, I mean, if you're in politics, you're not clean. It's just. To what extent are you dirty? Know what I mean?
31:34
Duke
Right, right.
31:35
Case
But when the bastard farm story was blown of Josh Free being a cloned candidate that was upgraded by money from Fred Christ, that apparently was the cue to completely cut Fred out of the Smilers machinations. But he notes that he knew that this was also the point where Vita was going to get killed. And he says that a lot of people did. And he even won drugs off it. He scored it off of Kristen or Kirsten or whatever that bitch's name is.
32:09
Keith
Yeah, it's really interesting and we get an awesome anecdote here. And like, it's so interesting because when you have a character like the Smiler, who is a diabolical sociopath for all intents and purposes, you realize with a lot of characters like this and with a lot of real people like this, they are fundamentally lack imagination. They just do the same thing over and over. Right. You know, and that I think that's really like, puts him into context because he's been kind of like a. Like I will. To quote or to reference your other show, Lex Luthor, you know, a man. A man standing over everything, cackling and he has all the plans and he's, you know, he's one step ahead of you. And then it's like, no, this guy is just.
32:58
Keith
He figured out one thing that works and he's going to run into the ground until it doesn't. He's not that, you know, smart. He's not a genius. So, yeah, it.
33:07
Case
It seems it. I should also call out this one very much reminds me of the Checkers speech from Nixon where.
33:15
Keith
Yeah.
33:15
Case
Where he says the only political contribution I got was a dog.
33:20
Keith
Yeah.
33:21
Case
But it feels like, you know, it's an even more perverse twisting of it because he kills the cat.
33:25
Keith
Yeah. And then blames it on somebody else.
33:28
Duke
Right.
33:28
Case
But, yeah, we established that this is just his mo. He just. The Smiler will just kill someone and then get the pity for it. And he's been doing this way before.
33:37
Keith
The presidency, and it's escalated, if you think about it right then. So to the point that he sacrifices his own family. It's like, what does he have left? You know what I mean? Like, at a certain point, he's going to run out.
33:48
Case
And. And then Fred continues after sort of like, giving his whole, like, thesis about how the Smiler operates. He says that he tried to get back in his good graces by providing him with girls. But then we reveal that was it Lindsay. Something from Hotel Fat was taking the credit for all of the. All of the. I keep saying girls, but, like, arrangements.
34:14
Keith
Yeah. And that's interesting because we saw what happened to him, so maybe Fred's better off. Ish. Kind of.
34:21
Case
Yeah. He points out that. That the Smiler didn't even think to go after Fred in this situation when he. When he cleaned house. And we. We get confirmation that, yes, that was one of the Smilers people who killed him. Not that we needed further confirmation. We saw him get in a police car. But.
34:36
Keith
Yeah, exactly.
34:37
Case
Yeah. And this is a moment where we have a little bit of a. A, A goofiness here where sm. Or where Spider goes to strike Fred, and Fred, like, sits up just in time to avoid it, and then has this sort of, like, weird, goofy smile when he notes that the guy got killed instead of him.
34:54
Keith
Yeah. That's funny. I didn't even notice that when I first read it.
34:58
Case
But Spider then asked Shannon if she can confirm the whole transient hooker situation. And she says that, like, we all knew. We all knew that piece of. The only thing that I find surprising is that she takes the cigarette out of Fred's mouth and takes a. A drag and then throws it at him. And I'm like, he's covered in blood. Like, there is no way I'd put my lips on anything that his lips have touched.
35:21
Duke
He wiped it off. Here's a. There's a nice little panel between. Where she's wiping it off. And it's like, okay, there you go. All right, back.
35:28
Case
But that's when Spider asks Elena how the recorder's doing. And Fred's like, you're recording me. Like this is under duress. Like, this is not legitimate evidence here. And Spider's like, I'm like, you forget, Fred, I'm not employed. Not employed on a paper anymore. Journalistic ethics no longer apply to me. The rules don't apply to me. And then we get the shot.
35:49
Keith
I also like that he brought around the chair leg again for that rant. Very good. Just reminding us. But yeah, just the. The shot. The shot of the hit, but then also the shot afterwards of him dropping the stick is iconic looking.
36:01
Case
I. I will give you a spoiler, Keith. I had stopped sending you episode art when I got ahead of where you were in the reading order. This shot of Spider hitting of hitting Fred is the episode art for this episode.
36:14
Keith
Hell yeah.
36:15
Case
So Spider says, this was our final conversation, Fred. Like I said, I don't need to follow rules. I'm an outlaw journalist now. I can use your words any way I like. And then Spider and his assistants all take out cigarettes and all light up at the same time. And they note that if Spider could find him, Callahan can find him.
36:33
Keith
And so good.
36:35
Case
Yeah. I mean, yeah. And they head out and that's the end of that little duology right there.
36:41
Keith
And probably the end of Fred. Christ.
36:44
Case
I mean, it's strongly implied that he doesn't have much time left.
36:48
Keith
Yeah, exactly.
36:49
Case
Then we pick up with one of my favorite stories in the book, which is Two Fisted Editor.
36:54
Keith
I fucking loved this issue so much. You know, I have a little weakness for Royce. I always have.
37:02
Duke
I know, right?
37:05
Keith
He's great.
37:06
Duke
Yeah.
37:06
Case
We. We open with Royce feeding the. The four winged pigeons on a bench that says this bench releases level eight virus. 10:10Pm to 6:00am it's like the.
37:16
Duke
The joke about, like, the power plant in the Simpsons. Just like, you know, how it, like, irradiates the fish and causes them to mutate, but, like, in a dystopian level. So it's just. Yeah, sure, four. Four winged pigeons. It's just the same thing, but more, you know, it's like dogs with two. Two tails and cats with two heads.
37:37
Keith
It's.
37:37
Duke
It's so depressingly absurdist in it is.
37:41
Case
But you know what? Like, so I was listening to the Superman commentary track last night for an upcoming appearance one Track Mind, which is a podcast about commentary tracks. And James Gunn talks about the parrot flocks of la, and I was like, wait, I'm not familiar with this. And then he, like, continues that it's from, like, domestic parrots. That it just got loose in LA and there's just, like, flocks all around now. And I'm like, that's fucking wild.
38:08
Keith
That's so L. A. It's the most LA thing I've ever heard. Of course it is.
38:12
Case
But, I mean, even that gets back down to, like, pigeons were, like. Were like doves. Right. That were. Right.
38:20
Keith
I think they're essentially the same thing. Yeah. I don't know exactly, like.
38:23
Case
But, like, specifically, pigeons in, like, New York are, like, domestic birds that got loose. Right.
38:28
Keith
Likely. Yeah. I'm trying to think because, like, London's known for pigeons too, so. So this whole next issue, I want to say, like, we talked about this before with another episode. I think this is a very Rodney Ramos Inc. Forward issue. And again gets the art credit alongside Derek this time. But just the way, like, Royce is drawn throughout this, it's very. It's very much a collaboration between them. You can feel it. Yeah.
38:55
Case
So Royce seems kind of depressed, and heads back to the word and, you know, is in a bummer mood. He. You know, we've seen him have, like, suicidal thoughts before when going into his office and he sits down, he's. He sees dripping water from his office ceiling. He asks his computer for what the status of the recovery is. And it's. It's not good. It's not good. It's not very much. And he seems stressed about this one. And then after a second, he goes, computer, activate stealth mode.
39:31
Keith
I don't know what I expected. It wasn't this.
39:35
Case
And the computer gives a rundown of all the information that has actually been able to recover, and that this is all secret information that no one knows about. And then Royce turns to the camera and goes. And then Royce goes off and does some investigative journalism himself. He convinces some tech support people to give him phone records that he's not supposed to have, just with bluster. Which is great.
40:02
Keith
I love this, because I felt like this is the issue that tells us why he's Spider's friend, not just his boss. This is why Spider. This is why he went to Royce when he came back to the city. Right, Right. Because he knows this guy. We did. We've not met this guy yet, but he knows this guy.
40:21
Case
Yeah. I mean, he even was, like, sad that Royce had taken, like, a desk job when he, like, got back to the city. And. And now it's like, nope, now. Now we're seeing, like, all of the awesome shit that he does. Because then we cut to a dive bar where Royce is talking to A PI and after the guy's like, I'm not going to go after, like, your bosses. Like, I have high profile clients. I'm going to lose all my people, and you couldn't afford me anyway. And it's like, well, I wasn't going to pay for you anyway. I'm going to blackmail you.
40:49
Keith
So.
40:49
Duke
Good.
40:51
Case
And this just reading to the lonely.
40:54
Duke
Tear running down that man's nose.
40:57
Case
Well, yeah, I was about to.
40:59
Duke
Okay, I'm like. I'm like, just. Just beholden by that singular image where it looks very resigned and he's just, like, kind of looking up and his tear runs along the entire curvature of this man's nose and kind of down. Oh, just. Just the fact that, like, he's. He's completely screwed.
41:18
Case
Yes. Yeah, My language for some kind of pederasty we should point out.
41:24
Duke
Yeah, yeah.
41:26
Keith
There's another example of, like, sometimes Ellis likes to throw in an unnecessary bit. And it's that last line in that scene where it's just like, oh, they're 15. It's like, man, we didn't need that. Like, yeah, this was bad enough. Like, it just. I don't know. Sometimes he likes to put that extra bit in that doesn't need to be put in.
41:44
Case
Yeah, but. But then Royce returns to the office and he's like. He's got his, like, he's. He's strutting, he's, like, all excited till he gets to the actual door. And then he, like, hunches over so he can, like, keep. Keep the facade of being, like, depressed.
41:58
Duke
So good, he just slips back into Al Bundy mode. Like, oh, just my life's still out.
42:02
Keith
Bundy mode. Yes, that's exactly what it is.
42:06
Case
Then he gets a call. I'm presuming from that same PI.
42:09
Keith
Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I didn't even consciously think of it.
42:12
Case
Who sends him all the info and then asks, can I please have my genitals back?
42:17
Keith
I love the wallpaper on his computer.
42:19
Case
Yeah. Which is just Spider Jerusalem saying, I'm an idiot.
42:23
Keith
I'm just imagining Royce in fucking Photoshop making that. Being like that son of a bitch.
42:31
Case
And then Royce has a meeting with someone who is on a board, presumably the board of directors for the. For the word. Royce convinces him to come down and talk with. With no frame or nothing to record him of any kind. But Royce drops a thing of source gas, which at this point, if this is just a readily available thing, like, who could trust anything at this point?
42:55
Keith
It's probably not super ready Available, I guess. Like, it does seem like a shady ass thing to do.
43:00
Case
Like, it's like, it's just one of those things where, like, the tools they have are just wild and, like, we've seen what the tools we have today can do to, you know, making faith and, like, just. Even video evidence fall away completely.
43:18
Keith
Maybe it's. Maybe it's that point of, like, you reach a certain point of paranoia that you can't even. Just. You can't even be paranoid anymore. You know what I mean? Like, anything. Yeah, anything could be recording me at any time. You know what I mean?
43:30
Duke
Q was outfitting all the journalists after he left MI6. He was just like. And it's a source gas. And you get like, what are you doing, Q?
43:39
Keith
Like us with our phones, right? We know our phones are recording everything we do and sending it to companies. We still use them. You know what I mean? That's kind of what I'm saying. It's the price of doing business, I guess.
43:51
Case
So we get a great splash panel of Royce just walking with three cigarettes.
43:55
Duke
In hand like he's Wolverine. Like, he's nicotine Wolverine.
44:00
Keith
Yeah, that's pretty great, actually.
44:01
Case
Actually, Sorry. Three cigarettes in one hand, a cigarette in his mouth, and a cigarette in his other hand.
44:05
Duke
Oh, gosh, Amy.
44:07
Keith
Yeah, that's crazy.
44:09
Case
And then he goes to Elena's dad's house, and Yelena greets him by saying, uncle Mitch, which is a nice callback to the original facade that they had put up. They ask, is he around? Yeah, he spent the morning collecting frogs in the garden, and now he's throwing them at the tv.
44:23
Keith
It's funny because you're like. Part of you is like, oh, yeah, his mind's really degrading you. You're like, no Volume one spider would have done that.
44:29
Case
Yeah, yeah, the shadow Spider sitting there with a bowl of frogs, throwing them at sex puppets. That competed also for the episode art, but I opted for the violence. Mitch asks, how you doing, you freak of nature? And Spider says, I am good. I have frogs. What the hell are you doing here? I have buffs. And Spider notes that his hand eye coordination is getting worse and that he's looking forward to being incontinent soon.
44:53
Keith
I like that Spider's wearing both his glasses and goggles, implying that he just pulled them down over the glass.
44:58
Duke
Right.
45:00
Keith
I think that's great.
45:01
Case
Mitch reveals that the. The disc that he just threw is all the fucking evidence. Which gets back to my whole thing earlier about, like, their. Their whole, like, storing everything on the, like, the word servers. Like, how big of a format do you need? Like, if. If Royce can just hand him, like, a disc, and that's, like, all of the evidence. Like, I guess I'm just confused what they see storage capacities for. For things to be. And I realized that it's none of my fucking business. It's not the point.
45:29
Keith
Yeah, but it goes back to that last volume when he showed up at the press conference and just threw around a bunch of. Just with storage, with information on it to all the. All the journalists. And we're like, oh, that's him giving it away. And then it's like, no, everything was erased. We're like, but he gave hard copies away. And were all kind of like, that doesn't make any sense.
45:44
Duke
Right?
45:44
Keith
And then we kind of, like, just moved on. And now this brings it back up. It's like, wait a minute. Like, yeah.
45:49
Case
Spider is surprised at this whole situation. And Royce explains that, like, he's really good at his job, and he does everything else. Like, Spider's a really good writer, and, like, is a master at that. And, like, needs to. Needs to be there to do. To do that job.
46:03
Duke
He needs a guardian angel or, like, a provider. Right. It's like, you function as a writer, but as a person, you're. So I'm the guy that's to pick up the slack.
46:13
Case
Yeah. He says it's because you only know how to write, and I've had to learn to do everything else. So you look at me, you weird little fuck, and you tell me you thought all the evidence was wiped, and I tell you that it's your ass that's just been wiped. Big Daddy Mitch Royce makes it all better.
46:28
Keith
It's. It's a glorious monologue, I will say that. Yeah.
46:31
Case
Right.
46:31
Keith
And also, he leaves Spider speechless, which not many people have in this book.
46:36
Case
So heads out saying, get the bastard. Or he says, catch them, Spider, specifically. And then he gets in a cab, and he has a great monologue about what he's going to do. And I have never missed having an expense account more than I did in rereading this issue.
46:50
Keith
Yeah, really great stuff. Like, again, we're building. We're building the case back up, and this is a big injection of information back to him. I like Royce playing such an integral part to the. To the conclusion of this story. You know, I was worried he was going to be a really passive character the entire way through, and this really made him. You know what I mean? Like, I love it. Yeah.
47:16
Case
This is like the Mary story. It's like one that has always stood out to me in talking about the book. And it's why every time we've talked about Royce, I've said Royce, Two Fisted Editor.
47:29
Keith
I've never caught that.
47:31
Case
Well, he's referred to himself as that at other points. But the fact that issue is called Two Fisted Editor has always been a thing that's stuck out for me about Royce.
47:43
Duke
First, I want to walk into a bar and drink it. Then I'm going to start a fight with five men and win. I love this guy so much.
47:50
Case
And then I'm going to make use of a truly staggering number of prostitutes, some of whom I may have once been married to, following which I will buy drugs. In fact, I will show them a large pillowcase and tell them to fill it with drugs. And I'm putting it all in the goddamn expense account.
48:07
Duke
It's like I. I feel alive again, damn it. It's like, you know, Kirk at the end of Rathicon, where it's like, how do you feel alive? But in this case, it's more like, you know, the news editor got out of, Got off his keister, did something. It's like, yeah, now I feel alive.
48:22
Keith
I think also, I don't think we mentioned. The interesting part is not only did he get all that evidence, he also provided that evidence to prove that, yes, the word was pressured to get rid of him. Yes, like, he added his own, which I think is really cool. So, yeah, yeah.
48:36
Case
So tons of evidence and yeah, just did a great goddamn job. So moving on to then the arc that takes us through the remainder of the volume, which is the Cure. As we noted, these volumes tend to be 3, 3 ish issues, plus then a 3 part story somewhere in there. And so this is then the three part story, the Cure. And we open with fairly detailed drawings of someone rolling a spliff. And. And then we cut to seeing the person smoke it, which is this prostitute who is laying low and just getting high watching Anthrax Cat. And at this point, there is an Osama bin Laden reference on Anthrax Cat. And so I can't tell.
49:25
Keith
Like, fuck, man. Yeah, yeah, like the math checks out. Like, he would have had to do that, right? He would have written that right after, like within a couple weeks of it happening because of how far in advance you write comics. You know what I mean? Like, that's crazy.
49:40
Case
Just immediately brought those references in. I love that the. The sign or the window that she is sitting next to has a sign that says suicide is illegal.
49:51
Keith
I like that. She is. She's an immediately likable character. Like, Derek's art has a way of telling you, especially with the women he draws of, this is a character you're supposed to care about. It happened with Mary, right? It happened with Vita. It's happening with her. Like, I really like that. Like, immediately I was like, I don't know what's going on, but we need to protect this girl is my immediate thought.
50:20
Duke
Yeah, right.
50:22
Keith
Yeah.
50:23
Case
But she's just getting high. She's. She's laying low. And. And we. We get a page of just noise from Anthrax cat while she is having visions of. Of weird starships and stuff, only for her to be awoken by her neighbor who is a. A porn star and also a junkie. And it's like, do you want. Do you want to have sex? Also, do you have drugs?
50:47
Keith
Also, she mentions that he has a STD called Razors, and I don't want to know. Let's just let that go.
50:56
Case
Yeah. He also apparently has a textbook dick.
51:03
Keith
So stupid.
51:04
Case
Right. And he tries to convince her that she could have done porn. And she says it's not enough money, too many hours. And also it's something you can't walk away from. And walking away from the job is important to her right now because she is currently in hiding from her previous gigs as a prostitute. And she gives an interesting speech here where it's like that if. If you walk into a. Like, if you. She says, if you speaking to her friend who is a porn star and I were to walk into a bar and both of us get recognized, they can say, hey, look, that's Phil Hole. He's a porn star. But they can't say, like, I paid 800 bucks to have sex with that girl last weekend. And I'm like, that's an interesting point.
51:44
Keith
Yeah, Yeah, I think it's. That's. You know, there is definitely a distinction there. You know what I mean? So.
51:49
Case
But we also get a moment of her being like, are you sure the door was unlocked?
51:53
Keith
Yeah. Nice and ominous.
51:57
Case
She heads out of the hotel. She's staying at Hotel McCree. Just what is it? The artist, John McCree.
52:04
Keith
Oh, yeah.
52:06
Case
And then when a black car comes by, she takes off her sunglasses to make sure that they can see that she has human eyes.
52:12
Keith
Yeah, I like that. I know. It's also because her sunglasses are literally shaped like transient eyes. Right?
52:19
Case
Yeah.
52:19
Keith
So she's really given the impression of it. So she's like, nope, look, I like That a lot actually.
52:24
Case
And we see that the people riding by wearing meta glasses, by the way, are looking for a transient girl, which.
52:32
Keith
We can kind of summarize from what we've been, what the rest of the volume has been about.
52:36
Case
Yeah, we also see her name on the thing that they're looking at. She walks into a bar to use the phone and she says that she's running out of money and that she can't stay hiding. Hangs up, very frustrated and is about to smash it when Spider, Jerusalem and co show up saying that we've got questions for you. She says at first that she's not going to go with him, but Spider is like, do you know who I am? And she's like, yeah, do you think I'd lie to you? She's like, probably not.
53:03
Keith
Again, kind of like that reputation he has in the city, specifically. Yeah, like they trust him. The city trusts him.
53:13
Duke
Yeah. Like those moments where it's like he's saying he's throwing frogs at the tv, he's smashing up windows and then here's. There's these moments where it's just like he's very sincere and you kind of. And you get why it's like this guy is so compelling as a character because he can wield both extremes and it doesn't feel off putting at all. Like it feels natural. It's like when it comes to the suffering of others, so beautifully put. He will always care for him. He'll always lend that heart out to him. He's just a crazy bastard the rest of the time because it's his mind just telling him like it's all farce.
53:50
Case
But Spider reveals that the only reason that she hasn't been picked up yet is that they're looking for a transient girl and they haven't used a G reader on her and he presents one. So G readers have been really useful ever since they first popped up in this book.
54:06
Keith
Yeah, obviously like the result of the, the big assault that set everything off in the really bad times. That's not a great use. But yeah, it does keep coming up and we kind of talked about like the prevalence of it. Like having access to that would like really make things fucked up, especially for people of that sort. And you know, like, it's just very interesting. Yeah.
54:34
Case
So they head out. So the reason I avoid saying this girl's name is that it's like Leslie, but it's like Lazel is how it's spelled.
54:42
Duke
It's a very allegiance superhero's name where it's like, it can go either way.
54:45
Keith
I just said Leslie to make it easier.
54:47
Case
Yeah. We'll just say Leslie for the, for this purpose. But there is no like, Y or E at the end of it to actually make the Lee part of it. Yeah. Liesel. I'm gonna say Leslie. It's hard to say something else. So Leslie says, we have to go back to our. Or to my hotel. It's where all my stuff is there. It's not just drugs. I can't just leave them. And they eventually agree and they go in and the doors open when they get there. And she says, Phil.
55:17
Duke
Yeah.
55:18
Case
And she goes to start getting her stuff. And we see while. While they're getting stuff out of the closet on the other side of the bed is Phil dead with a gaping wound in his stomach.
55:29
Keith
It's pronounced Liesel.
55:31
Case
Liesel.
55:32
Keith
It's German. It means good. That's interesting.
55:38
Duke
Yeah.
55:39
Keith
All right, I'll say.
55:40
Case
I can say. I can try to look it up.
55:43
Keith
Yeah.
55:43
Case
Okay. Anyway, so they're. They're cleaning up stuff and that's when they. They discover the body. And Spider has a little bit of a quip, which is Phil's had his last hole.
55:53
Keith
Yeah, that was roll.
55:56
Duke
And I'm like, that makes sense.
55:57
Keith
Oh, that, that was a really trying to think of the right. Maybe Hitchcockian shot, you know, like. Of showing us the body. But they don't find it.
56:09
Case
Right?
56:10
Duke
Yeah. I love this image.
56:11
Keith
Yeah, you're just like, oh, fuck. You're like, oh, no. They find it almost immediately. And I thought, man, if they go a couple pages with it just sitting there, I'm going to go crazy. Like. Yeah.
56:21
Case
But then two people in blur suits come, and Spider says Yelena, and she pulls out a PlayStation Move controller and turns off their blur suits. Yeah, that's.
56:30
Keith
That's what happened.
56:31
Duke
That. Oh, they do work.
56:33
Keith
Oh,.
56:36
Case
It deactivates the blur suits. And we've got two guys in suits, one holding a knife, one holding a gun. And Spider immediately takes a picture of. Of them and points a gun and it's like, what are you going to do? Shoot me with your bowel disruptor? At which point he just shoots the guy in the waist with his actual gun that he was holding.
56:56
Keith
Yeah, just a gangster ass shot.
57:00
Case
Now I don't think this guy is dead. Just, just as a note on that one, he is like clutched in pain and the wound clearly went through his body, but I feel like it's low enough that he actually might have a chance of surviving.
57:13
Keith
Yeah. Maybe not walking, but surviving.
57:15
Case
Yeah. And then after Spider says, yelena. Yelena. She finally, like, shoots the other guy with the battle disruptor and they all run. Spider throws his gun away and it explodes. And they. They get in the car and drive as fast as we can. And here we get into one of those little bits of continuity issues that I think start popping up towards the end of the book, which is Elena then starts yelling at Spider, you insane bag of dog. You never told me you had a real gun.
57:48
Keith
Yeah, I'm pretty sure he did.
57:50
Case
We know that. We know that she knows that he had a real gun. He had a whole gun scene earlier they talked about, like, where you learned a gunfight. She asked, how many people have you ever killed?
58:00
Keith
Yeah, I remember though, obviously, people. I was like, she's seen a gun. Yeah, yeah, you're right.
58:04
Case
This is not a surprise. Maybe it's a surprise that he specifically had one with him at that moment. But, like, that is not the right reaction. And unfortunately, the fact that, like, he.
58:14
Duke
Fired it in front of her, it's.
58:16
Case
Not even the first time he's shot someone in front of her.
58:20
Duke
It must be her swept up in the moment, like, holy shit. Kind of deal.
58:24
Case
But yeah, I mean, it's almost the same situation because it was also a dude in a blue and a blur suit. So this is one of those spots where it's just my interpretation of this and there might be some sort of headcanon that makes this work, but my interpretation of this is that there are some continuity issues that pop up in this book just because it was a monthly book that someone is writing as quickly as they could, even if they had a grand story in mind. There's like little pieces that don't quite fit together.
58:50
Keith
Yeah. It's like the people. I use this example the other day in an argument of people who find slight continuity errors in, say, Star Trek. And I'm like, thousands of episodes, over a dozen movies, hundreds of novels. And you're like, well, this thing. I'm like, it's fiction, man. Maybe this isn't for you.
59:10
Duke
Like, TNG's like seven seasons and 25 episodes each season. It's like, it's gonna happen.
59:15
Keith
Nothing's waterproof, man. That's what I'm like. Just let it go. Yeah. If you want to enjoy long term fiction, you gotta let some things go.
59:24
Duke
Yeah. And with this one, it feels like. I was gonna say, like, maybe she swept up the moment, but it has happened to her before. But you know, it's just a kind of like a reminder of like what the stakes are going on right now where like for Spider, this is not a laughing matter. This is something like he is running on a deadline in every sense of word. He's on a deadline. This, like, he has to get this done as soon as possible. So he's not like around. And now she's starting to notice that like he's changed or there is that pressing looming thread and he is not in his right mind anymore, which arguably, when is he ever. But again, that's besides the point.
01:00:11
Case
Yeah, like I said, I, I think it's just a continuity issue where they had some good lines written out where it's like, that was the point. The last thing anyone briefed on me would expect is a real gun. Which is a good line.
01:00:23
Keith
Fair.
01:00:24
Case
But again, we've already had Spider like pull a gun. And, and sure, the Smiler doesn't necessarily know that he killed those agents before using a gun just because they burned the bodies.
01:00:36
Duke
Yeah.
01:00:37
Case
But Yelena does, which is the only spot where I find that specifically weird. And, and then after pointing out that he, I just saved your worthless anal discharge of a life. And yours. And he points to Liesl and she says, what do you want, a blowjob? And then Yelena says, do not answer that. We get a weird little smirk from Liesel and Spider tells Shannon, stick to the plan. And he gives a little Batman speech. Atomic turbines to speed Wonder. Atomic batteries to power. Turbines to speed to the spider cave is what he says.
01:01:09
Keith
I like Yelena's description of Spider next was like working for a four year old boy with a massive caffeine high in a permanent yet very small erection. It's like, girl, you were you. You saw that erection, like talking shit.
01:01:28
Case
So the next issue opens with them saying plan B. And that's where they ditch the car that they were in. Yelena and Liesel complain about the car real quick.
01:01:39
Keith
Let's talk about this Glenn Fabry cover. Oh sure. This is just a Batman cover.
01:01:43
Case
Oh yeah.
01:01:45
Keith
Like, I love it so much.
01:01:47
Duke
It's too heroic. Like you're expecting him to be like kind of like draped over it, just like passed out, maybe drooling on the gargoyle like he's looking very heroic while the signal is shining bright like,.
01:01:59
Keith
You know, it's almost like what he sees in his head, what he thinks he looks like.
01:02:03
Duke
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It's, it's the call Jim, I must answer it kind of deal.
01:02:07
Case
Yeah. Fun cover. He's. He's holding the bottle, so at least he's, like, understands that he's a drunk. Even his heroic fantasies. That's a spinach, but yeah. So they switch cars, and Yelena says, I don't see the point. We're going back to my dad's place anyway, and I'm damn sure they know where that is. And Spider says, no, we're not. And this is when he reveals that he doesn't actually trust Yelena with everything, but he trusts Shannon. Meanwhile, Liesel is. Is taking space dust. And Spider is able to size up the vintage just based on smelling her finger.
01:02:39
Keith
Stupid. Like, see how long ago it was made? I also like how condescending. He's like, oh, yeah, space does. Yeah, okay. I guess. I guess that'll get you high. It's just like, you want to do some real.
01:02:52
Case
Yeah, yeah. So they. They kind of stew while. While heading out. And they eventually arrive at K's apartment. We get, like, a little bit of a scene of her computer trying to feed her porn, indicating that it was paid to do so because the artificial intelligences of this world are just as corrupt as all the people. And that's when Spider bursts in the room saying, behold. Bring your finest meats and cheeses. Your greatest benefactor is made manifest in your tiny peasants hovel.
01:03:18
Keith
I love this scene with her talking to her computer. I think of the wacky technology interactions. It might be my favorite of the book because it's very funny. Like, just the whole, like, you know, like, I'm sorry, but I can't let you do that. It's like, you know, like, just the way they go back and forth. The dialogue is very funny. A lot of the time we do this, it's Spider yelling at something. This is an actual argument, and that's funnier.
01:03:45
Case
But they bring in Liesel and they sit her down and explain that, like, hey, we need to get the whole story now. We don't think were followed, but we can't be sure that weren't. And here's my glasses. Try to get all the footage taken off and. And let's get this interview going.
01:04:03
Keith
So the other. The. The other person from the word or from the hole. We just. They just disappeared the other guy. Like. Like, we keep seeing this specific character and not the other one that was there at the original meeting. And I don't think we've seen him since we saw.
01:04:19
Case
They had sex afterwards when Spider, his first column, showed up. But you're right. I can't even remember his name right now.
01:04:27
Keith
Yeah, it feels like he was a duplicate character or not duplicate, but excessive. It's like, we don't need two of these.
01:04:36
Case
So Spider sends the assistants out to get stuff to deal with the crash because Liesel is going to fall hard because she's just been doing drugs for the last, like, several weeks. And Spider sits down and he says, I'm Spider Jerusalem. I'm here to help.
01:04:51
Keith
He's such, he's so funny. It's a good shot, though. It's a really good shot. It's probably the most human shot there is of him.
01:04:58
Case
Yeah, he looks older in this shot.
01:05:02
Keith
Like, he, yeah, definitely.
01:05:05
Case
I, I, it's, there's something kind of like a father figure to him in this shot.
01:05:10
Keith
Yeah, yeah.
01:05:11
Duke
That to me is like you strip all the grinning, like, real away. It's like this is a man that's feeling it because he knows it's coming. So he's like, okay, I have to be a bit more vulnerable with this person. And this is what his vulnerability is now safe to be.
01:05:31
Keith
Yeah.
01:05:31
Duke
And obviously the windows are blown out. Gives a very kind of saintly image. Like, like, you can believe it. This is not like an insincere joke. He is being really sincere. He's trying to help heal her in a way. And that's why, like, you have, like, the latest little lighting effect going on, or at least that's what's going on my screen, I think, hopefully.
01:05:50
Keith
Yeah.
01:05:51
Duke
Yeah. Okay.
01:05:53
Keith
I'm reading from the book itself, so, yeah.
01:05:55
Duke
Okay.
01:05:57
Case
One thing I want to call attention to that we haven't talked about, but they have referenced in story is that, I mean, we've referenced this, but Lazel is formerly a transient. She took the cure to revert her back to being a human, which is apparently a thing that they haven't really discussed so far in the series. And we open with Spider asking why she took the cure. And so she says that part of that is because she was told to change her appearance real quick. Part of that was that the transit community kind of doesn't give a about you aside from that you're a transient,.
01:06:35
Keith
Which I thought was really interesting. And one of my thoughts when I, when she was telling this, I thought, oh, it's great, because, like, if Fred Christ does want to get away, he might have to take the cure to hide. And that's very funny to me. Like, like he'd have to give up the whole transient thing to get away. Like, like she did, you know, and. Right. I kind of had that in the back of my head. Like, if he ever does want to get away, that's what he has to do. But yeah, it's just a really interesting, like, tale of like, again, I keep bringing it back to it, but like, this is not a, a metaphor for the trans community. This is a cult. This is. Yeah, this is Scientology, if anything. You know what I mean?
01:07:14
Keith
Like, it's like if you're not one of them, they don't care. Like.
01:07:18
Case
Yeah, yeah. I mean, we've compared it more with like just body modification kind of stuff, but yeah, it's certainly not as deep rooted in an identity.
01:07:26
Keith
Yeah.
01:07:27
Case
As anything. So we get some more information about the sort of hierarchy of like, how this all works, that she didn't directly work for Fred, but Fred sort of arranged it and he got a percentage of this whole thing. Over the course of the conversation, she confirms that she did have sex with the Smiler. And not only that, she has the dress she wore when she had sex with the Smiler. And this is where that G reader comes in handy again. Yeah.
01:07:52
Keith
Is this what she went back for? To the house? Probably, yeah, that's what I was thinking. Because she's like, no, it's not just drugs. So. And she does, she makes a big deal. Not just that it's evidence, but like, this is the fanciest thing I own. You know what I mean? Which of course breaks my heart.
01:08:11
Case
So it's this very nice dress that you have to pay extra to get. And the Smiler did. He's also noted as being like, kind of mundane, that like, just getting a blowjob is considered like a big thing for him.
01:08:23
Keith
Yeah, it's about.
01:08:26
Duke
I wonder what this is about.
01:08:28
Keith
Yeah, it's about getting it. It's not about what happens. It's the fact that he can get it that's the difference.
01:08:35
Case
The, the assistants are out and there's a big fucking screen that they notice that is available for like all the people in the reclamation zone to be able to watch. And as they walk by, we see a helicopter enter the. The live feed of the reclamation zone. But then we get more of the sort of story of hooking up with the Smiler and, And yeah, confirmation that they, that she. The President, she says just another gig. But that's when it sort of like causes her to process that the people that she used to have relationships with like the other girls that were involved, they're all dead. And this is where she starts to crash.
01:09:20
Keith
Yeah. Like this, that trauma plus like the coming down from the drugs, it's just a bad combination. It's going to make you trip. Right. Like, and just have the worst fucking time.
01:09:33
Case
Right. But K comes back in with the G reader and reveals that because the President's genes are apparently on record because of the physicals that he has to take, they were able to match this up with the G reader. And so they have actual proof that this girl slept with the. With the Smiler.
01:09:52
Keith
And that's really interesting. And I really like the way because this is the end of the issue. I like this cliffhanger we're left on because we see that helicopter again and we see you guys rappelling down and it doesn't tell you exactly where they are. So I'm like, they're coming to the apartment. You know what I mean? That's the cliffhanger they leave you on. And then one thing this series does is kind of twist things. Twist that expectation, but in a really interesting way. And that doesn't hear. Again, we.
01:10:28
Case
We have kind of a surreal cover of Spider on the next issue. Just holding a chainsaw, wearing. Wearing fake boobs. The fake boob stuff really makes the Hunter Gatherer character from Venture Brothers be.
01:10:40
Keith
Be.
01:10:40
Case
Be much more present there. But then the last issue of the Cure, part three of three picks up with armed men rappelling down into the reclamation zone. We see lots of helicopters and lots of thugs. Like armed thugs.
01:10:57
Keith
Yeah. It's another pretty action packed sequence which we talked about. We don't. We didn't get for very, a very long time in this. And we're just now starting to get again and again it goes back to the smile is complete lack of imagination. Right. This is what he does. He picks on the lowest of the population. The people who can't defend themselves.
01:11:17
Case
They start firing grenades throughout the reclamation site. And we see explosions going off. And then we cut back to Spider and Liesel. He says that I'm going to write the story and that's how you're going to be free. Like they currently want you because of what you know. But if I get what you know out there, then they can't. Then there's no reason for them to come after you.
01:11:39
Keith
Except the Smiler is a sociopath who punishes people just because. But hopefully he'll be out of power.
01:11:45
Case
But before he's able to start working, they get a Call from Shannon who says that they think they've been made. Like, there's no way to get back to Kay's apartment without walking by some cop car.
01:11:56
Keith
Which I really like, because, again, a lot of this has been them protecting Spider. Right. And I was kind of like, okay, he's on his own. That's not quite where it went, but that was my thought for it.
01:12:05
Case
Right. We do get a little bit of weirdness in their tech situation where it's like, do you have your, like, little news reader device, which is its own separate thing that she has.
01:12:14
Keith
Go.
01:12:14
Case
Go to. Specifically the hole slash filthy. And we'll get. We'll feed you instructions on how to get out of there.
01:12:20
Keith
Again, the technology level kind of varies depending on what they need us. Need us to know.
01:12:25
Case
But Spider gets a hold of a keyboard and starts typing up the story. And we note him having some issues. He says, like, come on, keep it together. We see ships pulling in with more armed goons.
01:12:36
Keith
Definitely not reminding me of anything going on in the current political climate, I guess.
01:12:42
Duke
Yeah.
01:12:42
Case
Climate is cold and icy.
01:12:45
Keith
Just masked goons going into major cities committing crimes. Yep.
01:12:50
Case
So Spider's working on the story, and he hits a spot where he can't think of the word anymore, and he has to sort of talk his way around it. He beats himself up at first. And then he says, restructure the sentence. Work around this is not going to beat me. And we cut to one of the masked men illuminated by fire saying, objective achieved. Retreating to start point and awaiting instructions.
01:13:09
Keith
Jesus, man, The Smiler is such a piece of shit.
01:13:12
Case
Like, that's when the assistants get back. Spider reveals the. The story that he's writing. He explains that they have the G reader evidence and says, we need to publish the story now. And that's when K says, like, come check out the news. And they're claiming that the people in the reclamation zone started a riot and burned down all these buildings.
01:13:35
Keith
Same old playbook.
01:13:37
Case
Yep.
01:13:38
Keith
Like, the transients started the riot. You know, the protesters started the. Right outside the police station. Same thing.
01:13:45
Case
And when Yelena remembers that she saw briefly, the helicopter show up, that's when Spider runs back to the computer and is like, we've got to get this feed out because they are using emergency powers. Like, which. The one thing that surprises me here is, like, the emergency, like, they already had it because it was already. It was already declared martial law. They already understood that part. But he emphasizes that it is martial law and that if they don't get the story out right now, Every feed site's going to get shut down and they're not going to be able to get it out at all.
01:14:18
Keith
Yeah, they'll just, they'll get around the hole by just shutting the net off. The hole can't go onto the net if the net's not there.
01:14:24
Case
Right. Spider starts bleeding as he begs K to like get the file out. And you know, it's that the drugs were supposed to control the damage, but he doesn't care. With a bloody fist. He's like, help me get the story out while we still can, if we still can. And then we cut to the President.
01:14:43
Keith
I like the change to the. I think it's the first time we've seen the full flag because I don't remember seeing a single star flag. So I would have been like, isn't that the flag of Texas? Like it's similar. It's not the same thing but.
01:14:55
Case
Right. I'm not sure if we've seen the full flag before at this point. We've seen lot of patriotic stuff. Like we've seen a lot of like red, white and blue with like stars on it. I'm not sure if we've seen the full flag but certainly it's a workaround instead of having to admit to how many states we've got at this point just have one giant star.
01:15:14
Keith
A certain point you have an odd number and then it's like this looks crooked.
01:15:17
Case
The Smiler thinks that everything's going according to plan right now. He's pretty happy about this. He's explaining that the National Guard and other troops are required, will remain in the reclamation zone and on the main routes to the zone. And they're being directed to help the city's police force. But the situation remains fluid. That's when Robert mcx checks out his.
01:15:38
Keith
News feed with a big grin on his face.
01:15:41
Case
Yes, I love it. Again, Robert McX like I end up really liking. Because he doesn't like fuck around.
01:15:49
Keith
He feels like an old school journalist, you know what I mean? Like, like especially in this world where they have fucking citizen journalism guys with just cameras on their helmets walking around interviewing people. This dude is just like in the dirt, you know what I mean? Even if he does seem like he has a Bill O'Reilly type show or something like that, you know, I think he's, we talked before. He's delighted by Spider's nonsense. Right. So yeah.
01:16:15
Case
He seems legitimately anti establishment in a good way.
01:16:19
Keith
Yeah. And also like the nerve of this man, like the way he does this. Because I know you're about to ask, you're gonna quote it, so I'll let you do it. But the way he says this isn't just like a journalist. This is someone twisting a knife he's been waiting to twist.
01:16:35
Case
Question, Mr. President, I'm Robert McEx. Of course you are. Good to see you, Robert. Mr. President. Tell me, when was the last time you had sexual intercourse with a transient prostitute?
01:16:44
Keith
God damn. Just fucking boom. So good.
01:16:50
Case
And then cut. Then conclude the issue with this big splash panel of just the smiler with the biggest frown.
01:16:56
Duke
Yeah.
01:16:57
Keith
So good. Such a good lead into a final volume. I'm like, give me six issues of this guy's life falling apart. I'll eat it up. Yeah, yeah. And that's it. That's the volume.
01:17:09
Case
It's a breezier story in a lot of ways. The fact that we open with a two parter as opposed to the one shots that are like spider columns or anything like that, like the very cathartic beating of Fred Christ is great. And then we have a very fast story in the form of two Fisted editor, which is just a delight to read. And then the cure is its own like tight bit right there. So it's. We're, we're certainly. I mean we're. This is volume 9 of 10. We're very much in the end game now.
01:17:39
Keith
Yeah. And it's again, it was a little more optimistic compared to the last few because the last few have been really grim. Spider's diagnosis, the whole issue with the kids, which we just didn't even really want to talk about. Like, it's nice to kind of like brighten up a little bit.
01:17:55
Case
So Duke, how has this experience been for you reading through. Did you read through the whole series before you got up to here, or did you just read this volume for.
01:18:05
Duke
I read the previous few issues to remind myself where it was. Then I got this one off of my Kindle account and I reread it and just to reacclimate myself and then go, oh yeah, it's nice when high political figures were, you know, held accountable. Held accountable for their sex crimes.
01:18:26
Case
Yeah. Now do you think you're going to join us on concluding the. The story? Are you going to keep reading?
01:18:32
Duke
Oh hell yeah. Absolutely, Absolutely. Like I'm already here so I might as well, you know, reread the final volume again.
01:18:40
Case
Yeah, I mean it's hard to imagine a person just reading this volume and being like, okay, and that's it. I'm done.
01:18:48
Keith
Don't need any more information.
01:18:50
Duke
Yeah. One of the things I just love about, like, the. The first part of the Cure was essentially kind of like, it's a very. I say it's a very solid way of writing for scripts, for comics where, you know, obviously you have the tells, like the, you know, did you leave the door unlocked? And then the obvious, like, okay, they enter the apartment. Where's the friends? You see the shoes? It's. I always loved just picking apart those scenes because there's always a tempo to this. You don't want to drag on too long. You want to get into, where's the dead body? There's the dead body. They don't know about the dead body. Stuff like that. That always interests me the most about, like, you know, seeing a master at work here and how, like, the artist works off of that.
01:19:38
Duke
And just this, like, the very, you know, very clear kind of build up to like, oh, this guy's dead. Oh, we didn't get out of here. Stuff like that always impresses me because it's. It's. It's. It's just so well done. And I. I love this, you know, three part. Like, obviously, the two fists editor thing. Wonderful, nice breather issue. Because again, you go through the onslaught of everything falling apart for this poor guy, and. And you finally get, here's this guy's guardian angel coming back saying, you go write that story. You go nail that son of a bitch to the wall. And you remember that I've always got your back. And that's kind of like that thing in, like, those boxing movies where it's like, you go back there and you go back in that round and.
01:20:26
Duke
And you fight one more time and you show them who you are kind of deal. And I love that about this because it's just a marathon fight. I always. I always appreciate this volume. Because when you finally get that right hook in, even if it's not Spider Jerusalem asking that question, you feel it. Especially that. That's. That, you know, that. That splash page of that man fucking frowning.
01:20:50
Keith
Yeah.
01:20:50
Duke
I love it so much. So good.
01:20:53
Keith
And even if, like, I think it might even be more important that it's not Spider asking the question.
01:20:58
Duke
Yes.
01:20:58
Keith
That it's because we know Spider's on a deadline. We're on not a deadline. You know, literally, he's. He doesn't have much time left. And it's kind of being like, yeah, there are the people who might not have his Methods, but aren't going to take the shit lying down. And I really like that. So.
01:21:15
Case
Yeah. Keith, how are you feeling?
01:21:18
Keith
Really good volume. I really liked it a lot. I like the Liesel character quite a bit. I have a, I have a weakness for a tragic female waif like I always have, so I really liked her. And the Royce issue is one of my favorite solo issues in the entire run, of course, because it's great. It is up there with the Mary issue, like you said. Yeah. It's just, is really good. I liked it a lot and I'm just so excited to read it the next volume, which I got right here already right in front of me, because he's getting what's coming to him and it's finished. Going to be the most cathartic thing ever. And I, I'm bracing myself. We talk about this almost every episode, but Cyberpunk, Israeli, and they all went home happy like.
01:22:10
Keith
But I think we're going to get a happy ending, just not necessarily the happiest ending, so. But I really like this volume. It was a nice change of pace.
01:22:20
Case
Yeah, it's really the remounting of all Spider's efforts to take down the President for real. You know, we've seen him getting ready, but at the end of the last time, it was like, oh, all my evidence is gone and we have to start over. And fortunately, I mean, yes, it's kind of a cop out that Royce is able to give him everything back, but it's such a compelling story that gets us there. And, and Spider certainly had to like, do a bunch of work which includes like manhandling Fred Christ to get himself into position. Like, it's not just. If the two fisted Editor episode happened right after the last volume, then it would have felt more like a bait and switch. But instead we have a pretty compelling two part story there.
01:23:11
Case
And then we have this, just one really fun story with Royce doing a goddamn good job. And then we got the cure.
01:23:18
Keith
And the story that breaks, the story that has the Smiler finally frowning isn't the evidence he got before, it's the story it's the evidence he had to get after he lost everything. So what Royce got him is now going to be everything else they can reveal later. But the headline, the thing that makes this guy, it's the thing the Smiler didn't see coming. You know what I mean? Like, because he probably knows exactly what evidence Spider has, You know what I mean? Like, because they've got access to it. They probably, you know, looked at it, made a copy, whatever, but he didn't see that shit coming. And I really liked that.
01:23:52
Case
So, yeah, that wraps up volume nine, the Cure. Duke, thank you so much for joining us for this conversation.
01:24:00
Duke
Thank you for having me.
01:24:02
Case
Where can people find you in Volley, man?
01:24:05
Duke
You can find me on Blue Sky. I believe my handle is Duke of Doom. I think it is Duke of Doom. I don't know. I usually just go by Duke. Unlike right here under. Under my window where it says Austin. Don't worry about that. I know whose name that is. But still. Yeah, so you can find me on Blue sky, on Duke of Doom. I'm on Twitter, but not much. I'm afraid of it because I don't want to add to the discourse anymore.
01:24:39
Case
So yeah, Twitter. I could wax so long and nostalgic for the old days of Twitter and now it's just er.
01:24:48
Duke
Yeah, it's like the cacophony of wailing demonic sounds in the ninth circle of hell. It's like, okay, yeah, you kind of get used to it or you don't.
01:24:57
Case
And that's a bummer because like, you and I first connected on Twitter back in the day.
01:25:01
Duke
Yeah.
01:25:01
Case
Yeah. So it sucks that once wonderful representation of social media has become a cesspool of the worst people. But all good things get corrupted in the cyberpunk world that we live in.
01:25:18
Duke
It's a very mundane cyberpunk world. Where's my cybernetic blitz?
01:25:22
Keith
I know, right?
01:25:23
Case
I don't know. At CES this year they were showing off viral knives for. For like cutting bread. And I was like, that is so cyberpunk. But at the same time, like, it's just the mundane capitalist world that we live in version of it.
01:25:38
Keith
Yeah.
01:25:38
Case
How about you? Where can people find you and follow you?
01:25:40
Keith
So I'm the host of certain POV comic book review show. We have issues. So make sure to check me out once I get going again. I don't want to date this, but I should be getting out weekly episodes where I review comic book. Every single comic that comes out that week, or at least it feels like it. And just give them quick fire reviews and just positivity. I like positivity on my show. No negativity. Unless you're comicsgate. Go fuck yourself. You can find me on bluesky at. We have issues for the show. We have issues. Bsky Social. You can find me at keithhasissues Bsky Social because I like a theme and also the probably the best place to find me is going to be on our Discord, which I absolutely love and I'm on every single day.
01:26:25
Keith
And I think Case is about to tell you about a little bit more.
01:26:28
Case
Yeah, the Discord is a great place to find us. You can find a link@ certainpow.com or in the show notes for this episode. It's a great time. We don't bite the conversations flow, but they don't have that super rapid fire where you can't keep track of what you wrote, like kind of speed. It's a, it's a good chill kind of Discord and we're all really happy and nice and I really like the space that we've commun that we've like cultivated there.
01:26:55
Keith
Yeah, 100%. Like I said, I check it every day. The only things I check every day are Blue sky and Discord.
01:27:02
Case
So the Discord's a great place to check us out. If you want to find me and are not a fan of Discord, you can find me on most social media platforms. Ace Aiken with the exception of Instagram, where I'm holding on 4 dear life to my AIM screen name, which is Ket co5q u e t z l c o a t l 5 because I was pretentious in high school as evidenced by the fact that I was obsessed with Trans Metropolitan.
01:27:24
Duke
That is okay, dude.
01:27:26
Case
Yeah.
01:27:27
Duke
My, my Internet handle was Draco Wheels because I was just like, I was fascinated with constellations. So it was like Draco the, the dragon constellation. Like no one gets it.
01:27:41
Case
Yeah, it's funny what the handles that we hang on to over the years and the ideas that we had. But things that we should hang on to for sure are the people who have supported this show on Patreon. We've got a Patreon going for certain POV media. You can join@patreon.com certainpov media and there you can sign up even at the free tier. I do essays weekly. One on a nerdy topic, one on a D and D topic every single week. That's at the free tier. But at paid tiers you get sneak peeks at stuff that we're working on. And at the highest tiers you get a shout out at the end of episodes.
01:28:20
Case
So I'm going to shout out some wonderful people that are supporting certain POV media and that is Micah McCaw, Carter Hallett, Sean Muir Lee, Gregor Memento Young, Logan Crowley, Joe Masterpiero, Casey and Nancy Akin and Adam Sampter and Keith Lettinen.
01:28:35
Keith
Boom me.
01:28:38
Case
If you want to be awesome and join in at the executive producer levels, we would really appreciate it. That helps keep the lights on and by the time this episode is dropping, I will be a dad a second time. So that is just the craziness of the world. Consider chipping in or even at the free tier. We'll appreciate having you. But yeah, that is a really big thing and people should check that out. Otherwise, check out certainpov.com It's a great website with tons of great shows. We have issues as a great show on there. Or you can check out my shows which are Men of Steel or Another Pass and otherwise. This has been the word from tomorrow. Have a great week. Certainpov.com.