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Murd's Time Bubble: The Twenty-Eighth Time Talkback

Just in TIME for Easter, the Time Bubble comes hippety-hopping down the timestream with a big basket of back-issue reviews, from Murd to you! Among the plastic grass and marshmallow chicks, you'll find reminiscences and ruminations on Harley Quinn in wartime, the origin of Wolverine, a cosmic adventure of the Avengers, an off-brand incarnation of the Suicide Squad, and the debut of Jessica Jones, among other goodies. (2:18:51)

Listen here.

Comments

  • matchkitJOHNmatchkitJOHN Posts: 1,030
    edited April 2017
    Maybe it's time somebody applies the concept of SORAS to Franklin and Valeria Richards. Cassie Lang passed them up! :smile: They use SORASA for sitcoms too. Family Ties and The Fresh Prince used the concept.
  • bralinatorbralinator Posts: 5,967
    Thanks @Adam_Murdough - I plan to get around to listening to this... in time. Always a sonic treat.
  • mwhitt80mwhitt80 Posts: 4,637
    Time to experiment with 1.2x speed, for a marathon of cgs.
  • nweathingtonnweathington Posts: 6,748
    Not to belabor the point, but while I wholeheartedly agree that Pokémon has had a much broader and deeper cultural impact than either DBZ or Sailor Moon, I think that impact came more from the success of the card game and the video games than from the anime or manga. In fact, DBZ had better ratings (at least in America) than Pokémon, and the manga far and away outsold Pokémon. So when speaking in terms of driving Americans to watch anime and read manga, I still think DBZ made the bigger impact.
  • nweathingtonnweathington Posts: 6,748
    Yes, @Adam_Murdough, it was Amanda’s first time penciling a Harley Quinn story. Glad the story lived up to expectations for you.

    I've never read Wolverine: The Origin. Personally, I don't want his origin to be defined. Kind of like the Phantom Stranger, I think he works best with a murky past of which we only get brief glimpses and hints. Maybe that's just me.

    Re: Suicide Squad, I was right there with you. I really wanted to like that series, but had to give up after three or four issues. And I didn't mind the military angle per se, and I wasn't expecting a quirky comedy, but the tone just felt off. Not to mention I thought Gen. (né Sgt.) Rock was mishandled. I read a lot of Sgt. Rock stories as a kid, and I don’t think he would have ever agreed to be part of the operation. (Frankly, I don’t think he would have stayed in the service after the war either.) “Almost a Good Idea” is indeed the perfect title.

    Alias was outstanding, still the best thing Bendis has done for Marvel as far as I’m concerned. The follow-up, Pulse, fell off a step or two, but the new Jessica Jones series is just as good as Alias ever was.

    Tangled Web had some really good stories, and I recall that Rhino story being one of the better ones.
  • Yes the time bubble has landed!!
  • The time bubble is really interesting to me because the Murd is right smack in the middle of my collecting/reading gap. I stopped cold turkey after the Jerry Ordway 'Power of Shazam!' series ended and didn't pick up again until about 10 years later. I have the general impression I didn't miss very much during that period but it's nice to hear you pick through some of the gems. Magniconte!
  • BionicDaveBionicDave Posts: 377
    edited April 2017
    HIGHLIGHT OF MY YEAR, PERHAPS DECADE: A SHOUTOUT FROM @Adam_Murdough!
    Been smiling from ear to ear ever since I started to listen to TB#28 last night, and after finishing up the podcast today I raced to this here Vanilla Forum to voice my appreciation to the wonderful wizard of Murd. Thanks, man! - for your acknowledgments, and also for another grandly entertaining episode of your timely, Easter egg-shaped Time Bubble.

    And now, a question:
    Does anybody out there know the origin story behind DC Comics' fascination with the number 52? As Murd points out, it certainly appeared in DC books before the famous _52_ weekly comic series. Shortly after that series finished, as the number started popping up in other DC titles, I'd heard that the company's esoteric use of the number came from Grant Morrison; that while pitching story to the DC brass sometime in the 1990s, he also explained his views of our universe in general, including a take on the natural, historical power behind the number 52. And apparently, Morrison's talk so wow'ed the DC folks that they adopted the number as their brand's lucky totem. I don't recall the source of all this, though. It very well could be apocryphal. Can anyone refute or confirm it?
  • BionicDaveBionicDave Posts: 377
    Holy secret cabal of DC's Silver and Bronze Ages, @nweathington!

    Your two examples have only poured more mystery onto the topic of DC's reverence for the number 52.

    Suddenly, I can see a becloaked Julie Schwartz sacrificing interns to Quetzalcoatl while chanting "fifty-two... fifty-TWO"
  • BrettBrett Posts: 10
    This was the first Time Bubble I have listened to and it was fantastic ! Thank you sir !
    A quick note re: Midway, the location showcased in the Harley Quinn issue. You mentioned you would enjoy seeing more of the place, and you are in luck !
    Midway - in particular the Midway Orphanage plays a central role in the World's Finest miniseries from 1990. The story was written by Dave Gibbons, with art from Steve Rude and Karl Kesel (who obviously also liked the place which is why he included it in the Harley issue !!).
    Here's a great look at Rude's art in the first issue;
    http://www.cbr.com/year-of-the-artist-day-283-steve-rude-part-3-worlds-finest-1/

    Thanks again for the great episode @Adam_Murdough !
  • alienalalienal Posts: 508
    I can neither confirm nor deny, but some point to Flash #123, “Flash of Two Worlds” as being the first appearance of “52” in a DC comic—Jay Garrick’s address in the story is 5252 78th St. Also, there’s Jack Kirby’s cover to OMAC #6—check out the side of the bar in the bottom-left corner and the pillars in the upper-right corner:

    As for the veracity of the Morrison story, Grant did write Aztek back in 1996, and the Mayan and Aztec calendar consists of a 52-year round, where the New Fire ceremony must be performed in the 52nd year in order to prevent the end of the world. Surely Grant would have seized on that during his research. So speaking in Myth Busters terms, I'd say the story is “plausible”.

    [Edit: For that matter, Kirby was very familiar with Aztec mythology as well, and it shows throughout his work, even in his costume designs, from the late ’60s on. Now, the BMT had a station on 52nd St. in Brooklyn, which Kirby probably used many times before it was demolished in 1940. But it’s quite possible his choice of subway stations was a dual reference.]

    Wow, conspiracy 52! I'm lovin' it! I mean, even after the house number in Jay Garrick's address, you get the street 78 which is (26 + 52). That's just weird. And that Kirby cover? Aw, man! I've had that for YEARS without even noticing the 52's all over it. I'm hoping there's more of that in comics from 1961 to now. Now, I wonder who has the time to look through all of their comics to find such occurrences (Heheh...)

    Anyway, Murd! Thanks for the episode. I haven't gotten through even half of it yet, but I'm looking forward to the rest. Oh, by the way, I thought naming the Wolverine series "ORIGIN" (on the cover but not the official name) was a great marketing campaign (ploy? scheme?). Almost guaranteed to rake in the bucks and wasn't the cover "gold"en?
    The combination of the name, the clawed hand, and the color made it stand out amongst the other comics, I thought.
  • Mr_CosmicMr_Cosmic Posts: 3,200
    edited April 2017
    52 pages!

    image

    I'm going to start seeing it everywhere in old DC books now..aren't I? I'll be like Jim Carrey in the movie The Number 23.
  • Can't wait for "Murd's Time Bubble: The Fifty-Second Time"!!
  • BionicDaveBionicDave Posts: 377
    Mr_Cosmic said:

    52 pages! (...) I'm going to start seeing it everywhere in old DC books now..aren't I? I'll be like Jim Carrey in the movie The Number 23.

    GAH! 52 again! And it goes back to... 1945?? Now I can see President Harry S. Truman dressed as Wonder Woman while dancing around a Xipe-Totec statue and chanting "fifty-two, fifty-two"
  • alienalalienal Posts: 508
    edited April 2017
    Just finished! Well, not really, but only 4 minutes of listening fun left and I have to say, it is quite entertaining to hear Murd talk about comics (some of which I actually have in my collection) for 3 hours. It's also kind of amusing to hear the somewhat exasperated sigh sound he makes when he has kind of a negative opinion about the comic or something in the comic. Anyway, back to my collection: One of the reasons I like the Time Bubble is because I can look back and see what I bought during the time of the comics that Murd discusses. I was surprised that I DIDN'T have a copy of Avengers Celestial whatever (since I'm a big Avengers fan)...and that I DID have a copy of the Suicide Squad he talked about (I actually have the first two issues!). Of course, I have the Wolverine: Origin and I'm glad that I have the whole Alias series except for two of the later issues. (Something about Jameson's daughter, maybe?). In these cases (SS, W:O, and Alias) I pretty much agreed with Murd's opinions. Oh, by the way, I think ALL of the Netflix series could stand to be cut down to about 8 to 10 episodes. They all seem to have that padded feeling at some point, I think, even Daredevil.
  • bralinatorbralinator Posts: 5,967
    Fun episode, @Adam_Murdough - glad the Time Bubble episode returned.

    I agree with your comparison of the Alias Netflix series and the comic. In fact, I think the Alias series is my least favorite of the Marvel Netflix shows.

    Looking forward to the NEXT time...
  • bralinatorbralinator Posts: 5,967
    "Buying books would be a good thing, if one could also buy the time to read them"
    --Arthur Schopenhauer
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