Crisis Tapes 23 Talkback: Crisis on Infinite Earths #6, Part 1
Adam_Murdough
Posts: 506
For the first time in the COVID era, The Crisis Tapes are back in production! The Monitor's satellite explodes and emotional mayhem reigns on Earth-X and Earth-4, as Peter and Adam pick apart the pertinent plot points of the first half of Crisis #6. BONUS: More fun facts about the cover of issue #5! (2:54:37)
Listen here: https://www.comicgeekspeak.com/episodes/comic_geek_speak-2695.php
Comments
Thank you for another heaping serving of knowledge and analysis!
IIRC, Roy incorporated the Quality characters under the Earth-2 umbrella for two reasons: 1) because he wanted more female characters, and 2) he thought Plastic Man was too important a character to ignore. Though in retrospect he kind of feels he should have left them on Earth-X and created new female characters instead.
As an aside, @Adam_Murdough, even though I've never seen them admit it, I have to believe the Tarkus was named after Tars Tarkas, leader of the warlike Green Martians from Burroughs’ John Carter novels.
Ever since @Peter mentioned them I can't stop thinking of Earth 3 Stephen King stories.
The Shining: A family man is crazy about bringing a crumbling old hotel back up to code.
It: A group of kids meet a mischievous clown who teaches them to float a raft to win a town race.
The Green Mile: a children's book about a gentle giant of a man who befriends a timid mouse
Kujo: It's basically Beethoven
Carrie: A young girl thinks everyone has forgotten about her birthday, but in the end the school throws her a surprise party because they love her so much.
Maximum Overdrive: It's Cars but with 18-wheelers.
Firestarter: Charlie McGee goes camping with her Girl Scout Troop, but they are met with a heavy thunderstorm. Charlie saves the day by starting a campfire with only wet kindling when no one else can, and earns her badge.
I feel like saying "as usual, a great episode" does this little justice.
I can't believe it's been over a year. It never feels like it's been as long as it has been. Maybe that's the COVID effect tho. I certainly don't want to encourage another long break. Because I could listen to these all day long. Literally, the only podcast that I will stop all other podcasts and let it jump to the top of the queue.
I am continuously amazed at the analysis you two can bring to this work. The depth of thought and ideas are brilliant. I don't mean to keep waxing your car, but I am 100% serious. The parallels to first act, tying the emotional spectrum colors, etc - things I would never in a million years think about when reading this story.
Whether intentional or subconsciously, Wolfman should be considered a master storyteller because of this story.
Looking forward to the next episode.
I second @Alpinemaps' sentiment 🎉 Said it before, will say it again: Peter's & Adam's CRISIS TAPES podcast is the most granular analysis I have seen of anything, ever. The Warren Commission could've learned a thing or two by listening to our boys, they'd've figured out who killed JFK in only 106 three-hour-long podcasts! 😂
This latest episode was as fun and insightful as ever. Yes it's been forever, but once we all gather again and start listening to our hosts and start thinking about this comic book 'event of events' again, it really does feel like we never said goodbye.
Peter's observation about the Anti-Monitor's suit, how it looks like an inverted reflection of the Monitor's suit - pure genius. Had never even thought about that before.
Also enjoyed Murd's musing about what the fashions and other culture would be like on Earth-X of the 1980s, decades after that world's Nazi Germany won WWII. I love parallel world/ alt. timeline fiction, and one of the interesting facets to the recent "The Man in the High Castle" TV series (also about a world in which the Nazis won) was in how it showed what American life might look like in the early 1960s, after an Axis victory essentially aborted our natural, national culture in 1946. Chilling, but fascinating, stuff.
Lastly, I must give long, heartfelt applause to Adam's and Peter's deep-dive into the naming and symbolism of "Anti-Monitor" - including the idea that in Wolfman & Pérez creating an antagonist from an "anti-matter" universe, that perhaps it was a subtextual way for their villain to tell us DC Comics readers "your continuity doesn't matter! Muah ha ha ha!" I love that. That's something I'll be thinking about for the rest of my life 😎
Thank you so much again, @Peter and @Adam_Murdough, for carving a chunk of time out of your busy schedules to entertain and enlighten the rest of us. This is the only crisis which I'm thrilled to see continue unaverted!