Apologies for the delayed release. Baby Dpalm came a bit early and so we've been on a little hiatus Thankfully we recorded the final episode in our Flash series earlier in the month. So without further ado, the finale of the Joshua Williamson run. We end this run as any good Flash run should with a finale showdown between Barry and Eobard. Throughout the 15 volumes, we got a really good reintroduction of Barry Allen that paid homage to the entire Flash legacy. We get the return and reunion...

We know last episodes we covered Year One but we decided to revisit that volume as well as volume 12 of the Williamson run of The Flash. Year One was worth a revisit because it not only reestablishes some of the lost history of Barry Allen but also starts off a new one as well (Barry meeting not only Wally but Wallace at the same time). It also takes a villain that we didn't think twice about and make him terrifying. Who would think the Turtle would be so scary? Then we get a return of...

We delayed the release of this episode until Kriss was out of town. We also timed it right around the time the Flash review dropped. Enjoy. Post Flash War, Barry turns back into a student and has to go through a bit of a re-education phase. This fits right in with the Joshua Williamson theme of taking Barry Allen on a journey we really haven't seen him in before. A lot of this feels familiar to those of us who grew up with Wally West as our Flash because we watched him go through the same...

We're back with more of Joshua Williamson's Flash run. This time we're talking volumes 7 to 9 (issues 39 to 57). Williamson's run really feels like a great jumping on point for the Flash. Since it's during Rebirth, it gives us a great reintroduction of not only Barry Allen and Eobard Thawne but also Wally West. This part of the run felt like Williamson telling all of us that grew up with Wally as our Flash that his years as the Flash mattered. And while this series is centered on Barry, it...

We promised 2 episodes in March and we're squeezing it right in there at the 11th hour. But we're back for the next set of issues from the Joshua Williamson Flash run. We first stop over at Batman and pick up with The Button which takes us closer to understanding the forces behind all the lost time and history in the DC Universe. But it also reminds us that Eobard Thawne is the epitome of evil. The way he beats Bruce's ass in the Batcave is a good reminder that speed beats prep time. It's not...

We finally get back into recording Character Corners and it still takes me 2 weeks to release the episode. Smh. Sorry for the delay folks but we're finally hitting the Joshua Williamson run of The Flash. We consider this the reintroduction of Barry Allen. Sure in 2009 Geoff Johns did a "rebirth" of Barry Allen, having him finally return to the mantle after being dead for so long. But this run during DC's rebirth really gets Barry back to the basics. Anyone that's read this run knows it comes...

Now that the first season of the She-Hulk series on Disney+ is over, now is a great time to talk about She-Hulks comic book history. The timing has nothing to do with the fact that Kriss is late on releasing this episode because work has completely swamped him. Nope, this timing is completely planned.  Anyway, after seeing some of the confused reactions to the Disney+ show, it actually is a pretty good time to remind folks just who Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk is and how writers have...

Kriss and Dpalm are back and this time we're revisiting a character we've spent some time talking about before: Dick Grayson aka Nightwing. We've covered Dick before in our previous Robin Part 1 Character Corner that covered Dick Grayson's years as the first Robin along with Jason Todd. This episode we're spending some time talking about his years after he put up the Robin suit and became Nightwing.  Much like his best friend Wally West, Dick Grayson is one of those characters that started...

Life has gotten really busy for Kriss and Dpalm so the regular Character Corner schedule has been a bit hectic these last few months. But thankfully Marvel has swooped in for a rescue by announcing a bunch of things for their next few phases of movies so that gives us a lot to talk about.  In this episode we'll talk about some of the trailers and announcements made for movies and TV shows coming out of SDCC. Not all of them involve Marvel and DC. We got the first teaser for the new John Wick...

We wrap up our Avengers part of our Hickman series with the 9-issue Secret Wars event that sees Hickman rebuild the Marvel Universe first in Doom's vision then from Reed's. Secret Wars is one of those events where you don't have to read all the related non-Hickman written issues to understand the story but you want to. It's a good cap to the end of the story Hickman has been telling not only from Avengers but all the way back to SHIELD. Also, just like in Time Runs Out you start to see where...

Stephanie Williams is a comic book historian and pop culture critic who has written for SYFYFANGRRLS, The A.V. Club, Nerdist, Den of Geek, and Rotten Tomatoes. Stephanie is also a comic creator with three ongoing webcomics, Parenthood Activate!, But What If Though?, and Living Heroes. She made her Marvel debut with a short story featuring Monica Rambeau in Marvel’s Voices: Legacy. She recently made her DC Comics debut in Wonder Woman Black and Gold #2 and is co-writing the Nubia and the...

With the mention of the word "Incursions" in Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness its timely for us to reach the "Time Runs Out" portion of our Into the Hickmanverse series. This is the lead up to Secret Wars and its basically Hickman destroying the Marvel Universe. All of it. Time Runs Out is actually jarring at first because there is an 8 month story gap. The Avengers have split. The Illuminati is on the run with new members. The Captain Britain Corp has been wiped out. The Cabal is...

We're back with another Character Corner episode and this time we're talking about the character Moon Knight. Or should we say the characters Marc Spector/Steven Grant/Jake Lockley. Moon Knight is an interesting character to cover. First appearing in 1975 in Werewolf By Night, its pretty clear that early Moon Knight was Marvel's answer to DC's Batman. There's so many obvious comparisons. Early on in Moon Knight stories, Marc Spector wasn't suffering from mental illness. Rather his three...

We're getting closer to the end of out Hickman Marvel series and things are starting to fall apart for everyone. In the two series we watch as Steve not only remembers what the Illuminati did to him but also becomes hardened in his decision that they are wrong and must be stopped. On the New Avengers side, we watch as the Illuminati becomes even more broken. T'Challa, Namor and Black Bolt are all Kings without Kingdoms. Dr. Strange has sacrificed everything. Reed has pretty much given up his...

Reboots are a thing that happens all the time in comic books. But there are reboots and retcons and then there's what DC Comics did with the Legion of Super-Heroes. I take back what I said during part 1. The Legion of Super-Heroes might have the most complex and complicated history in DC. Yes that's over Wonder Woman and the Hawks. See, with the Legion, you take the confusion and complicated histories of Wonder Woman and Hawkman. Add in the time traveling of ALL the Flash characters. Sprinkle...

We're back for Part 7 of our Into the Hickmanverse series as we got through the world in Marvel that Hickman has built. After looking at what we have remaining, there will be 11 total parts. We'll get the way through Secret Wars with Part 10 and for Part 11 we'll talk about the new age of X-Men that Hickman has ushered in. Before that though, things are starting to heat up in Hickman's Avengers story with the Infinity Crossover.  There are three main stories here and they’re all...

So for the 100th episode of the Character Corner, Kriss & Dpalm are finally back on the DC side and we decided we didn't want to make it easy on ourselves and so we’re tackling the Legion of Super-Heroes. The the history of the Legion of Super-Heroes is one that rivals Wonder Woman, Donna Troy and Hawkman as having some oof the most convoluted and rebooted/retconned history on the DC side. There are several reasons for why the history of the Legion is so hard to pin down. Part of that is...

First Character Corner episode of 2022 and it's a Pull List. There are a lot of comics for Kriss and Dpalm to talk about. The biggest problem? There are so many great and good comics out right now. It's really hard to keep up. Of course this is a good problem to have (unless you're on a budget). At this point with so many good books out there, the best thing to do right now is to not only follow titles but writers.  On the DC Side, if you see that James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson and Tom...

We're ending 2021 with the beginning of the end. We've started Hickman's epic Avengers/New Avengers run. This is one of our favorite runs. We've covered it several times from Comic Book Book Clubs on premium to when we cover individual characters like Black Panther, Iron Man, Captain America, etc. This time we're covering it from the perspective of looking at how Hickman sets up and builds out this really long story. If you read these books in their individual release date order and not by...

Kriss and Dpalm are finally back with a new Character Corner episode. This time we're talking about the Marvel Master of Kung Fu himself, Shang-Chi. We decided to wait until after we talked about the movie before diving into this character and for good reason. See, there's really no nice way to say this but the history of Shang-Chi is pretty racist. From the inception of the character and tying him to the racist Fu Manchu character all the way to even more modern books with the character that...

We're back with part 5 of our Into the Hickmanverse series. This time Hickman teams up with Bendis again to dive into the Ultimate universe. But before we do that, we first have to address how we got here. Yes that means retelling the story (if you can call it that) of Ultimatum and how the Ultimate universe was left in shambles. We then cover Bendis' trilogy (Ultimate Enemy, Ultimate Mystery and Ultimate Doom) that casts the Ulimate Universe's Reed Richards as a villain.   All of that sets...

The latest part of our Into the Hickmanverse series by wrapping up his Fantastic Four run. This covers both Fantastic Four and FF (Future Foundation). We kick everything off with the new series, FF as well as some new uniforms for Marvel's first family. Also, Spider-Man comes in to fill in the spot left by Johnny. Things really take off here. First on the list of things for the Future Foundation to do: Solve the issue of Doom's diminished intelligence. The next thing? Get some of the...

We're finally back to our series covering Jonathan Hickman's Marvel runs. This time we're revisiting his great Fantastic Four run. We start first with the Dark Reign mini-series and then cover issues 570 to 588 in Fantastic Four. The great thing about reading a Hickman run is when you go back to read it and realize he's laid the groundwork for the next series he's going to write. Throughout the beginning of his FF run we see the seeds of what Hickman will do when he starts his Avengers...

We're back with another Character Corner, this time to talk about Natalia Romanova aka Natasha Romanoff aka The Black Widow. On the surface this seems like a pretty straight forward character. A former Russian spy who was trained to be a femme fatale in a secret Soviet program that was recruited and turned into an ally by Nick Fury. But there ini a lot more to the character. First, Black Widow is yet another example of a Marvel character that has a redemption arc. Like Hawkeye, Vision and...