Character Corner - A Podcast On Your Favorite Comic Book Characters

We're back with another Character Corner episode. This time we're diving into the first part of a two part series on the man himself, Superman. Created in 1938 by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, Superman is the first superhero and is the birth of the Golden Age. The first part of this series is going to focus more on the overall history and context of Superman and not really digging into the stories too much. Mainly because there’s so much. This is once again a Golden Age character and perhaps the most important character in comic book history. There have been some changes here and there but Superman has largely remained the same compared to other characters (go dive into the histories of Wonder Woman or Hawkman). Superman also had the benefit of radio serials (Over 2000 episodes) that were aimed at kids that really helped the character take root. From 1941 - 1970, under editor Mort Weisinger, Superman stories spend nearly 3 decades finding their footing. While there are definitely stories here that resonate, t

Covid made the release of comics a little wonky. But we're finally getting back to a normal schedule so the Pull List is back. We actually have a lot of books to talk about. One thing we do ask though is...when the hell is Saga coming back? It's been almost two years since we got an issues and it really drives home the fact that when it comes to independent books, nothing is guaranteed...even if it's super popular. Outside of the big 2, Dpalm sings the praises once again of the Power Ranger books and he might have even convinced Kriss to pick it up. Over at DC, we really need to talk about how great the Flash run of Williamson has been. We know he's coming to the end of his time on the book and of course like everything with Barry, Eobard Thawne is proving why he is the Flash's greatest enemy.  For Marvel, the Star Wars books are still great but the biggest thing right now is the Empyre event that's going on. While it seems to really be an Avengers/Fantastic Four event, X-Men #10 involves Vulcan and ties in

Kriss, Dpalm and Justin wrap up their revisit of Nick Spencer's Captain America run with the Secret Empire tie-in issues for both Captain America books as well as the Secret Empire cross-over event itself. As with the Captain America solo books, we discuss how relevant and timely some of the things Spencer brings  up are. From how evil Steve Rogers talks about Inhumans to  how easy it is to get so many people onboard with fascism when they think it personally benefits them.  Part 1 (Sam Wilson) and Part 2 (Steve Rogers) are on the Premium feed for Premium members. Issues: Captain America Steve Rogers #16 - #19 Captain America Sam Wilson #22 - 25 Secret Empire Free Comic Book Day Issue Secret Empire #0 Secret Empire #1 - 10 Secret Empire Omega Like what you hear? Subscribe so you don't miss an episode!   Follow us on Twitter: @Dpalm66 @InsanityReport @TheMTRNetwork   Our shirts are now on TeePublic:  https://teepublic.com/stores/mtr-network Want more podcast greatness? Sign up for a MTR

Nothing like squeezing in one more Character Corner episode at the 11th hour.  Anyway, Kriss and Dpalm are back with Part 2 of their Captain America Character Corner. In the first episode we covered Steve Rogers and in this episode we cover all the other men that have held the Shield (Minus Sam since we covered Sam a few years ago). While Steve Rogers was a Golden Age Character that eventually made his way to the Silver Age in Avengers #4, Marvel had published some comics with Captain America appearing in the 50's. Never to let mess continuity get in the way, Marvel decided to give us some interesting characters to fill in those gaps. Some where noble (William Nasland and Jeff Mace). Others...not so much. There's a recurring theme with the replacements of Cap. We go through the good and the bad. Issues: After WWII - What If Vol 1 Issue #4 William Nasland & Fred davis Jeff Mace (Also check out Captain America: Patriot) Cap of the 50's Captain America #153  - William Burnside & Jack Monroe - First App

We're back with a new episode of the Character Corner and this time we're covering the legend himself: Captain America Steve Rogers. This will actually be a two part episode with the second episode focusing on the other holders of the shield (Bucky, Sam, Isaiah and others).  For this episode though, we wanted to focus on Steve Rogers and some of the key runs for the character and how much of a symbol he is for the Marvel Comic universe. For those that falsely claim that comics today are "too political", it's clear they've never read a Captain America book because politics runs deep in these issues. Hell, the Captain America and the Falcon Secret Empire run (oh look at that, not the first time Secret Empire was used in a Captain America book) ends with Steve giving up the shield and becoming Nomad in a story that is a direct response to Nixon and Watergate that was happening around the same time. We're also using this to springboard into our rerun of Nick Spencer's run and to show how Spencer's run builds on s

We're finally back with a proper Character Corner. We get back to our roots with this episode. We're not doing Creator Spotlight runs or a Comic Book Book Club. No this time we're just going to take one character and tackle their history and we go for a big one: The Hulk. Created in May of 1962 (seriously, we didn't plan on doing this episode in May, it just happened), Bruce Banner/The Hulk is an interesting character from Marvel in that his first appearance is is own solo book (Incredible Hulk #1). A lot of other big names from Marvel & DC got their first starts not in their own solo books, but as part of anthology series. The Hulk also built on the horror comics base of Marvel at that time. Modeled after Frankenstein's monster as well as Dr. Jekyll & Mr Hyde, what we see with The Hulk is a character that is written at his best when writers focus more on the horror as well as the internal psychological struggle between Banner & Hulk. Yes, "Hulk Smash" and "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry" are the things

April  has been a long year and so we're doing a bit of switching up. We  were supposed to be doing a Hulk Character Corner this month but life was just so busy that didn't happen. We still wanted to put out a show for the fans though. So we decided to put part 3 of our Tom King Batman Run up for all listeners on the MTR Network. Part 1 and Part 2 are up on the Premium feed so sign up if you want to hear those. In Part 3 we cover volumes 7 through 9. That's The Wedding, Cold Days and The Tyrant Wing. There's a lot that happens here and it's all revealed to be the master plan of Bane to finally completely "Break the Bat": Booster Gold is an idiot and tries to give Bruce/Batman a "gift" and it goes as horribly as you'd imagine a Booster Gold gift to go Joker and Selina have a heart-to-heart as they both lay bleeding out. Joker plants the "He can't be happy and be Batman" seed Selina leaves Bruce waiting on the rooftop instead of marrying him A distraught and distracted Batman makes a mistake and Bruce is f

2020 has been a weird decade. Yes you read that right. We finally come back for a  Pull List episode to discuss some of the comics we're reading only to record on April 1st and there be no new comics released for Marvel or DC due to a world wide pandemic. Yeah, not an April's Day joke. The good news is there are still a ton of  comics to read and now is the perfect time to catch up on them. We catch  up on The Flash, Superman, Legion of Super Heroes, Coates' Captain America  and of course what that crazy man Jonathan Hickman is doing with the X-Men. So tune in.  Like what you hear? Subscribe so you don't miss an episode!   Follow us on Twitter: @Dpalm66 @InsanityReport @TheMTRNetwork   Our shirts are now on TeePublic:  https://teepublic.com/stores/mtr-network Want more podcast greatness? Sign up for a MTR Premium Account!  

On this episode we wrap up our read of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps with the last 4 volumes.  Volume 4 Fracture Volume 5 Twilight of the Guardians Volume 6 Zod's Will Volume 7 Darkstars Rising There are some really great moments in the remainder of this run. Last time we talked about how great Guy Gardner was and this time it's John Stewart. This run really shows how strategic Stewart is and what his leadership is like. Honestly in someways it's like if Batman was Black and had a Power Ring.  The other thing this run does really well is set up a connection to the past and leave bits and pieces of other writers to come bak and fill in. Now whether they do that or not is beyond the scope of this episode, but we can appreciate what was done here.  Also, if you're like Dpalm, you're gonna love all the professional wrestling homages.  If you want to hear us talk more about the Green Lantern Corp, check our our three part deep dive into the Corps. And we'll be back to finish the last 4 volumes

On this episode we start the first of our two part Comic Book Book Club on the DC Rebirth run of Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps. We've covered the Green Lanterns before in a regular Character Corner but we really wanted to dive into this Rebirth run because it's really great. For this first episode we cover the first three volumes: Volume 1: Sinestro's Law Volume 2: Bottled Light Volume 3: Quest for Hope This run throws the reader right into the deep end. The Green Lantern Corps has been decimated, the Sinestro Corps has taken over as the galaxy's police force and Hal Jordan is trying to control the power of a prototype Lantern ring that is basically consuming him. And that's just the beginning. The great thing about this run is that if you have a favorite between Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner or Kyle Rayner then each of them gets their moment. Even better, if you weren't a Guy Gardner fan before (and let's be honest, there's plenty of reasons not to be), you will be by the end of these t

We’re back with part 2 of our Oliver Queen/Green Arrow Character Corner. We held off on it for a little bit so that we could record it after the final episode of CW’s Arrow. Watching Stephen Amell say goodbye as Oliver Queen while reading about Ollie’s return from death by writer Kevin Smith really complemented each other. It was fitting that Ollie’s return in the comics involved Hal Jordan as the Spectre as Arrow closes with Oliver being the Spectre himself.    Ollie’s return in the comics also sets up a clear difference between him and Bruce Wayne/Batman. It feels like the best stories with Oliver Queen always revolve around him being more grounded and emotionally connected than Bruce. We see Oliver struggle with finding the best ways to save his city while also keeping those around him, close. He struggles with the fact that he abandoned Connor at a young age, failed Roy and has a complex relationship with Dinah. There are ups and downs in this whole thing but it all sudden comes to an end with DC relaunch

We're kicking off 2020 by covering the Emerald Archer himself, Oliver Queen. With Arrow on CW coming to a close soon, we thought it would be a great time to talk about Oliver Queen. Green Arrow is another character from DC Comics that has his origins all the way back to the Golden Age. First appearing in More Fun Comics #73 in November 1941 along side his sidekick Speedy (Roy Harper).If you remember back to our history of comics episode, it was comics like Action Comics or Detective comics or in the case of Green Arrow, More Fun Comics, that hosted the first appearances and origins of some of the characters we know. More Fun Comics also had the notable first appearances and origins of: Doctor Fate Green Arrow & Speedy Superboy Aquaman Golden Age Green Arrow was nothing more than an archer version of Batman. Interesting enough though the character survived relatively in tact with the transition to the Silver Age. Whereas Golden Age Green Lantern (Alan Scott) and Golden Age Flash (Jay Garrick) were

It’s here! The last Character Corner and Pull List of 2019 (and the decade). We told you all we’d be back if Doomsday Clock stuck to it’s release date and guess what? It did. Not only that, but in the end the entire series was worth it. Yes, there were a bunch of frustrating delays. But Geoff Johns Geoff Johns it up and delivered a great series that really brings all of what DC has been working on with Rebirth together. It’s an exciting time for DC Comics and to see what the future holds as it finally feels like there is an actual long-term plan at DC and the mess that came out of Flashpoint has been resolved. Thanks, Geoff Johns, for cleaning it all up and giving it all purpose. But that’s not all we’re here to discuss. We’re also talking about how much our wallets and budgets have been destroyed by all the new X-Books and the end of an era withTom King finishing his epic run on Batman as well as Jason Aaron saying goodbye to Thor. We finish it all up with a discussion about some of our favorite runs, comics

We’re finally here. The end of our Claremont X-Men run here on the Character Corner. We started this almost 6 months ago. To be fair we took a few detours and breaks but we’re wrapping it up now. Honestly, this has been one of our favorite series of episodes and not just because we got to talk about the X-Men. Rereading Claremont’s run and what he was able to do really exposed how much of the traits of the X-Men come from his time on the series. And even though this took us 5 episodes (4 on the X-Men and one on the New Mutants) by the end, we still only scratched the surface. We barely touched Excalibur and we didn’t revisit the Wolverine series that Claremont was also writing at the time. There’s just so much. For this last run we cover the 19 remaining issues of New Mutants that Claremont wrote before handing off to Louise Simonson (who deserves a lot of credit for what she wrote in New Mutants and X-Factor running parallel to Claremont), the lead up to and through X-tinction Agenda, the Muir Island Saga wi

To Me My X-Fans! It's Month of X time.   It’s finally here. It’s October so it's not only time for another episode of the Pull List but this is a special month. It’s the Month of X. We’re going to discuss Jonathan Hickman starting his X-Men run with Powers of X and House of X that set the table for the upcoming Dawn of X that feels like a X-Men story that has been brewing since the Claremont era.     But you’ll have to wait for that Month of X discussion. Before we get to that we want to go through all the other great (and some not so great) comics we’re reading. Spoiler Alert: There are a LOT of great comic books out there. It’s actually becoming a problem for our wallets. Below are some of the highlights of the books we’re reading. It’s not a complete list, for that you have to listen to the episode.    Non-DC/Marvel Books: Catalyst Prime Seven Days - A few months ago news came out that Gail Simone would be tapped to be the chief architect for Lion Forge’s Catalyst Prime superhero line of comics. If you

We're back with the 78th episode of the Character Corner. We're almost to the end of our Claremont X-Men run. Picking up right where we left off after the Trial of Magneto with issue 201 and it's Cyclops vs Storm for leadership of the X-Men! Scott is reunited with his wife, Madelyne, and his son Nathan but he's struggling to figure out where he fits in. Does he stay with the X-Men or does he retire and go off as a husband and a father? Storm sensing the struggle inside of her friend and colleague uses Scott's distracted mind against him and even though she's de-powered, easily takes Scott down to assume leadership. That would be the end of Scott's time as a team leader and set him off on a path of growth however, we must address the elephant in the room: The Return of Jean Grey.  John Bryne brings Jean back in the pages of the Fantastic Four (Fantastic Four #286) much to the chagrin of Claremont. Claremont then sets forward to put together a saga that gives a purpose to the now abandoned Madelyne Pryor. In t

We're back with another Character Corner short. This time Dpalm & Kriss are doing a short update on their favorite Flash: Wally West. Wally has been through so much. Is DC finally prepared to give Wally West the respect he deserves? Maybe but of course without putting him through the ringer again. We pick up with Wally's return to the DC Universe with Rebirth and go through Heroes in Crisis and talk about what might be on the horizon for the red headed speedster. You can check out our original Character Corner on Wally here. Issues: DC Universe Rebirth Titans Rebirth Titans The Return of Wally West Flash Flash War Flash Annual 1 Flash 47 - 50 Flash #51 - The Life Story of Wally West Heroes in Crisis Like what you hear? Subscribe so you don't miss an episode!   Follow us on Twitter: @Dpalm66 @InsanityReport @TheMTRNetwork   Our shirts are now on TeePublic:  https://teepublic.com/stores/mtr-network Want more podcast greatness? Sign up for a MTR Premium Account!

We're officially back with a new Character Corner episode. First off, we want to thank all the fans who nominated us for the Podcast Awards. We've made the final slate of 10 in the Entertainment category and that means a lot to us. So thank you to everyone who voted. And if you're a new listener who has found us because of the podcast awards, welcome and we hope you enjoy. Now...as for this episode. So we started off with going through the Claremont X-Men run (Part 1 and Part 2 are here) and realized that we can't really cover Claremont's run properly without covering the New Mutants. When you really look at it, the New Mutants were Claremont's way of retelling the origin of the X-Men with a new and diverse team. There were 5 diverse students that all had powers they needed to learn to control as well as their own personal issues. And because Claremont was writing both this series and Uncanny X-Men, he basically gets two series to tell one big story. We get more about why Kitty hates Emma (Emma is really real

So small announcement. Normally we discuss our comic pull lists at the end of each Mailbag on the Super Tuesday Recap podcast. But we've decided to do some reorganization and make the Pull List a special recurring episode on the Character Corner. It just makes more sense to discuss the comics we're reading on our comic book podcast. So...welcome to the August Pull List on the Character Corner. Every few months we'll discuss what we've been reading the last few months and have some discussions on that. Below is a taste of what we discuss this episode: Power Rangers Dpalm is not a fan of the new IDW Transformers books Doomsday Clock is finally living up to the hype Heroes in Crisis and can Wally finally get a break Tom King is putting Batman through the ringer It's official: Jason Aaron has the greatest Thor run Ta-Nehisi Coates is scary good on Captain America Hickman is about to blow our minds with House of X and Powers of X That's just a taste of what we discuss (We talk for 90 minutes and

Our first foray into micro-pods, our Character Corner Shorts are small bites that will serve to update existing Character Corners. While this seems like an excuse for us to read more about characters we already love, it's also a great way to talk about old favorites who have been positioned to be even more important in the future. This episode, we head to Gotham to reconnect with the Robin of my youth, Tim Drake. Biting my tongue, we dig into not just the New 52 iteration of the character, but take a hard look at a lot of the character work done in the various Batman weekies and during James Tynion IV's Detective comics run. All leading to the newly launched Young Justice book written by Brian Michael Bendis. Get all caught up in just a few minutes with the best Robin, Tim Drake. Tim Drake: The Detective Like what you hear? Subscribe so you don't miss an episode!   Follow us on Twitter: @Dpalm66 @InsanityReport @TheMTRNetwork   Our shirts are now on TeePublic:  https://teepublic.com/stores