Title: Daredevil: Volume 1(Marvel Now!)
Author: Mark Waid
Artist: Paolo Rivera, Marcos Martin
Publisher: Marvel Comics (Marvel NOW!)
Release Date: August 8, 2012

I’m enjoying showing you the worst costumes in comic movies/tv shows. I’ve watched these things; had to have my eyes burned, now you do too! Also I’m going to, as I do exactly 37% of the time, talk about something that is not the podcast itself in the podcast write-up.

I am convinced that if you make a comic book movie but are embarrassed by  subject matter that your are “inspired by” you cannot make the best version of the film. This principle extends to all parts of the undertaking. If you are making a Superman TV show with a “no flights, no tights” rule, when you actually get around to having costumes, they won’t be great.

The same problems exists, I think, for the Daredevil movie. We know that tights based costumes can look rad, and Daredevil had a nice budget, so I think we can safely blame creative choices for how silly Affleck looks in the costume.

Hollywood: Stop giving adaption contracts to teams that dislike the thing they are adapting. Fans do it better.

The music for this episode of Vestrymen from the Future! is used under a Creative Commons licence. This week, we feature The Heavy – “How You Like Me Now?” and The NSJ Crew – “Swagger”. Intro music is “Action Figures” used by permission from Masai.

Title: Aquaman Vol.1: The Trench
Author: Geoff Johns
Artist: Ivan Reis, Joe Prado 
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: May 21, 2013

The above picture exists just to share how stupid I think Aquaman’s costume is. It is not that i think ol’ AM is a dumb character, I really don’t. I think the character has a really solid premise. People say he is underpowered, but no one said that about Grace! Arthur Curry is at least as powerful as her, plus the cool utility powers…  Who am I kidding? I was literally the only person reading Outsiders in the early 2000s; you don’t know who Grace is!

Grace was a tattooed First Nations woman, with Amazonian ties (I think.) Aquabadass, on the other hand, is an Atlantian warrior who renounced his kingship in order to serve humanity… Seriously, we should write a Grace and Aquaman monthly. We could call it Bruisers; perhaps if Bane and the Hawks agreed to be really good they could come too. This would be a comic book about punching people in the face.

Yes. Batman can come too if he wants. Who am to tell the Dark Knight where he can’t go?

You can download the podcast audio: VFCast Season 4 Episode 8

The music for this episode of Vestrymen from the Future! is used under a Creative Commons licence. This week, we feature Kreng – “Maia” and Uncle Neptune – “The Good in Everything”. Intro music is “Action Figures” used by permission from Masai.

Title: Justice League Unlimited
Author: Various
Artist: Various
Publisher: Cartoon Network
Release Date: July 31, 2004

Gone, gone the form of man, arise the baby Etrigan!

Cabel has been trapped in a void dimension by a petulant man-child and could not be rescued in time to be part of this week’s podcast! What’s the good news, you ask? Why, we have the mysterious John “The Bear” Coffman filling out his chair with a firm, but supple, beard.

What do you do when lessor known character’s come out of the woodwork to step into the big shoes? You talk about the Justice League, of course! In this case we’ve chosen to make like latchkey kids and watch some cartoons! Will there be blood? Does the Pope shit in the woods? Are babies born, or made? These mysteries, and more, this week on Vestrymen from the Future!

The music for this episode of Vestrymen from the Future! is used under a Creative Commons licence. This week, we feature Robodub – “Sometimes” and The Conquering Light of Flora and Fauna – “Easy Christian Kill”. Intro music is “Action Figures” used by permission from Masai.

Title: Morning Glories Vol. 1 
Author: Nick Spencer 
Artist: Joe Eisma
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: March 1, 2011

Leland and I could spend infinity time making fun of strange conspiracy theories on the Interwebs! Seriously, guys, there is a whole group of people who are 100% convinced that we had a cultural exchange program with the aliens from a planet called Serpo. The whole damn brunt of this theory seems to go like this. “

Dude 1: “Hey Dude 2! I read a great book today. It scribed by da ACC, yo! What if Aliens visited us, man?”

Dude 2: “I am totally not about to fuck with you, Dude 1! That totally happened. Arthur Cdawg totes has an inside man in the gover’mint!”

Dude 1: *Mind Blown*

Dude 1: *Relaxes for a minute and then founds serpo.org*

Oh! If you are a Serpo believer, and you think the facts stand for themselves, email us, ask to join a podcast, or post a comment on the blog. Convince me, and I’ll convince Leland for you. It is well known that so goes Leland so goes the legitimacy of your conspiracy theory. [Your conspiracy theory is irrelevant. -L]

If you feel like we shorted you on Nick Spencer research listed to our last podcast. If you feel like we shorted you on Joe Eisma research, than you can suck it, you got great humor in its place!

The music for this episode of Vestrymen from the Future! is used under a Creative Commons licence. This week, we feature Secret Boyfriend – “Jamaica Berlin” and Hunter Gatherer – “Junior Atlas”. Intro music is “Action Figures” used by permission from Masai.

Title: Bedlam Volume 1 TP 
Author: Nick Spencer 
Artist: Riley Rossmo
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: May 14, 2013

Can anyone tell me anything about this TV show “Bedlam” that keeps gumming up my searches for Nick Spencer’s creepy comic book of the same name? The posters are so very, very generic that I can’t tell anything about the show. It looks a bit like a lawyer/police procedural show, but there is that one creepy dude in the mirror that suggests it might actually be a horror show. It wasn’t the subject of our podcast, and really didn’t touch on the thing we where supposed to be researching, so I did this rant instead. There are too many people in its posters for it to be a adaptation of Spencer’s work, I think.

Apropos of very little:

DIRECTOR: Guillermo del Toro
PRODUCED BY: Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures
IMDB for more info?: Here!
RELEASE: July 12, 2013

Guillermo del Toro is a godsend to the American geek. In the podcast we will speak in pseudo-academic terms about him, his filmography, and his amazing beard. We don’t, however, come right out and hail him as a visionary responsible for pushing a stagnant Hollywood to do more, to reach farther, to take risks, and to animate awesome giant monsters.

I’m in the tank for Toro. I’d bet Leland is too, if you asked him. We are not #journalists, but we are part time critics. I believe critics should reveal to you their predispositions before they do the criticism. Here is my predisposition: I will try and see almost any del Toro movie on opening weekend. I will tell others to do the same. I will pilot a giant robot against hordes of giant monsters if he asks me to.

To War!

The music for this episode of Vestrymen from the Future! is used under a Creative Commons licence. This week, we feature Good Old Neon – “Home with the Device” and Riff Action Family – “Not OK”. Intro music is “Action Figures” used by permission from Masai.

Title: My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic: Volume 1
Author: Katie Cook  
Artist: Andy Price 
Publisher: IDW   
Release Date: May 28, 2013

I hear you, Rainbow Dash. I feel that way every Friday night. I am awesome, but none of the fillies that hang out around my cloud want to talk to me, either. That might be because I call them “fillies.”

I am so very over the hard demographic delineation of certain things being “for” one group of people or another. Batman is not “for” little boys, nor is my little pony “not for” men 20-35. Good art is good art. Engaging writing can be targeted but people outside your target demographic are gonna love it. The loudest example of this, in geek culture of late, is the attack on “fake geek girls.”

The fact that Bronies are not accused of being “fake MLP fans,” illuminates the hypocrisy of geek culture’s entrenched misogyny. This (mostly) white, (definitionaly) male move into an assumedly female dominated fandom has elicited a few chuckles here and there, a little bit of gender baiting, but overwhelmingly Bronies have been welcomed with open arms by MLP’s established adult fan base.  The Insecure Masculine assumes it is welcome anywhere its gaze decides to fall, but recoils in hate, fear, and loathing at the “invasion” of its “protected spaces” by  outsiders (geek girls).

I’m not saying Bronies shouldn’t love what they love, or even that any individual Bronie is consciously pulling tools out of their napsack in order to feel more comfortable about their chosen passion. I would never tell someone that their love of a “kids” TV show for girls makes them less of a man. I would however ask male geekdom, particularly white male geekdom to offer the same welcoming hand to non-white, non-male fans of video games, superheroes, and miniatures, that their bronie brethren have received.  Rage won’t make you happy, and exclusion won’t make your hobby or passion better. I’ll likely keep talking about this as long as there continues to be problems reported at cons, so if your a fan of our podcast be awesome rather than an asshole and we can talk about something else!

The music for this episode of Vestrymen from the Future! is used under a Creative Commons licence. This week, we feature Plastic Flowers – “Fog Song” and Talk Less, Say More – “Black Eyes”. Intro music is “Action Figures” used by permission from Masai.

Title: Thor: The God of Thunder, Vol. 1: The God Butcher
Author: Jason Aaron  
Artist: Esad Ribic 
Publisher: Marvel Comics  
Release Date: June 11, 2013

This may be the season where the teaser image at the top of the podcast’s blog post is just something vaguely related to the material that I enjoy. Sometimes it will be a sweet picture of old Nick Fury chillin’. Sometimes it will be an even sweeter picture that makes me terrified that someday I might actually meat Jason Aaron and he will eat my liver. Perhaps it will be a picture of Venom Galactus, you never know what is coming in the future, boyz and gurlz[zz].

When I was a kid I used to think how sweet it would be if Superman and Spider-Man would just have more comics together. Well, really I was more of a Batman/Spidey guy, but it’s the same thing, you know? These days I imagine what it would be like if Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic made a comic book together. Alternatively, in my comic book fantasy world, David Aja could draw a story written by Matt Fraction.

…

What you say? All those things have happened? I really should spend more time wishing for world peace and less time wishing for strange comic book related things.

The music for this episode of Vestrymen from the Future! is used under a Creative Commons licence. This week, we feature Coconut Monkeyrocket – “Bloops, Bleeps, Bongos, Brass” and Still Pluto – “My Own God”. Intro music is “Action Figures” used by permission from Masai.

Title: Fury MAX: My War Gone By, Vol. 1
Author: Garth Ennis 
Artist: Goran Parlov 
Publisher: Marvel Comics (Max Imprint) 
Release Date: December 19, 2013

So I feel like I should address something. I’ve lied to you right out of the gate. That picture? The one of Fury sitting there, holding some strange tech thing and reading? That never happens in this book. Not only does it not happen, but nothing even a little bit like this happens in this book. I really, really think that image is great, and I couldn’t even tell you why.

We’ve discussed the work of Garth Ennis before. We where not huge fans of the first work of his we read. Wanted feels mean spirited, lazy, and trite. This book is lots of things, but I wouldn’t call it lazy or trite. I might call it overly gruesome, dark, and brooding. If you’ve ever ready anything by Ennis before, these should be things you expect. By the bucket full.

I really like Captain America and I really like evil twins. They are even better handled with a little bit of grace and charm. If you’ve ever thought that you’d like to see an Anti-Hero version of cap, read this damn book.

I have no more random thoughts to spew in your general direction, now go listen to the podcast!

The music for this episode of Vestrymen from the Future! is used under a Creative Commons licence. This week, we feature Mudhoney – “Chardonnay” and Chris Gheran – “Dante”. Intro music is “Action Figures” used by permission from Masai.

Title: Hack/Slash: Volume 1: First Cut
Author: 
Tim Seeley Artist: Various 
Publisher: Image Comics (Previously Devil’s Due Publishing) 
Release Date: Various

Even after after podcasting and more thought about Hack/Slash I’m just not sure that one can identify as a feminist and enjoy this book as much as I do. Its just … exploitative. Perhaps it is problematic for models of female sexual awakening to be written and imagined by male authors, but I really don’t think that male authors have to constrain themselves to male protagonists.  but something about the sexy, sexy, girl in danger upsets me, in a sexy and dangerous way. Then again, perhaps that is just the rectification of the chattel norm as perpetuated by the heteronormative power structure I am so subconsciously comfortable with. Perhaps Seeley’s examination of violence, de-sexualized, for the most part, stands as a criticism of the “violence against is always rape” script of mainstream superhero comics. Perhaps it is just fun to watch pretty girls hit monsters with bats!

Being a feminist comic book fan is hard, ya all! If you care about feminism and comics, read this one and tell me what you think?

[For those of you who noticed that this podcast posted late, you can blame Alan Kunts, our errant Vestrymen blonde correspondent. Homey got married last weekend, I was in the wedding, whole think sort of murdered my productivity.-lwebb]

The music for this episode of Vestrymen from the Future! is used under a Creative Commons licence. This week, we feature Jack Ruby – “ Hit and Run”, The Humberts – “Charlene”, and Whore Paint – “This Body”. Intro music is “Action Figures” used by permission from Masai.