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Murd's Time Bubble: The Thirty-Second Time Talkback

Adam_MurdoughAdam_Murdough Posts: 506
edited December 2019 in CGS Episodes & Spin-Offs
There's a TIME to laugh and a TIME to mourn in this voyage of the Time Bubble, as we pause to reflect on a real-world national tragedy that sent shockwaves all the way to the Marvel Universe. Also: the striking debut of Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt; a one-mutant crusade for the X-Men's Nightcrawler; and a Peter David project you might have missed in 2001. (2:27:41)

Listen here.

Comments

  • Following up on your 9/11 story Murd, I remember being in class at Schuylkill Valley Elementary School back in 2001. I wasn't yet reading comics. I vividly remember sitting there as my teacher walks into the room and tells us that an airplane has crashed into the World Trade Center.

    I remember sitting there, stunned. Shocked that something like this could happen. I had no concept of it. Why would we be attacked? What did we do to warrant such an act of aggression towards our way of life?

    I'll never forget that day. Ever. For as long as I live it will stick with me. It will stick with all of us.
  • nweathingtonnweathington Posts: 6,736
    Re: Jonni Thunder’s pet rabbit, I know Roy & Dann have owned rabbits, though I'm not sure if they had any yet at the time this story was written. I wonder, though, if the inclusion of a rabbit, rather than, say, a more traditional pet like a cat or dog, wasn’t a sly nod to the creation of Roy’s friend Marty Greim, Thunder Bunny.
  • i_am_scifii_am_scifi Posts: 781
    I remember so many little things about 9/11 that I don't remember about other days. I was in high school, and I remember hearing from a classmate that a plane had hit the WTC soon after the school day began. We both figured it was a helicopter or something small, like what happened to the Empire State Building a year or two prior. Of course, that was not the case.

    It was a gorgeous September day outside, warm and refreshing sunshine, not a cloud in the sky. Then we found out it was more than just a small plane.

    I remember sitting in a History class about an hour or so later, and being one of the few people with a AM/FM Walkman, I was tuned to 1010 WINS for further updates, as our teacher sat there, trying to just have a conversation with us all and to keep us calm. I also remember social norms still applying that day, as although I wasn't exactly a social butterfly, people wanted to hear my updates over another girl in the class with a radio who was less well liked. Go figure.

    I remember informing the class when I heard the news the first tower had fallen, and then the second. We were silent.

    I remember one of the few moments of levity of the day being when Joe Pesci was called to the office, because we had a kid in the school who shared the actor's name, and that always made us laugh. The other was hearing W flub a line in a speech, because I needed to find a laugh somewhere.

    I remember the smell of the smoke as I exited Edward R. Murrow High School that day, as although we were far into Brooklyn, the smell from Manhattan was unmistakable. We left school early and headed back to my mother's apartment, because being in school the rest of the day after the day's events just felt off.

    I remember rumors running rampant about other attacks, the most prevalent for some reason being that a bomb had gone off at Lincoln High School in Coney Island, which was clearly not true. There was also a rumor of the Empire State Building getting hit as well.

    I remember my dad and I driving my HS girlfriend home to Coney Island, and that was the first time I could really see the smoke, as it was visible from the other side of the beach. Even at night, you could see it.

    I remember earlier that day, frantically calling my grandparents, asking if they were okay. I later found out that my Uncle Lloyd had a meeting that day at Canter Fitzgerald he decided not to attend because he had another meeting earlier in the day, and that a bunch of his coworkers were not so lucky. Every 9/11 I am so very grateful that my five cousins did not grow up without a father, because fate demanded it to turn out this way.

    I remember the smoke shadows visible on buildings in Downtown Brooklyn by my grandparent's apartment on Livingston Street, and papers strewn about that had floated all the way there from Manhattan.

    And I remember picking up the 9/11 Amazing Spider-Man comic, and the eventual Captain America issue, and being taken with emotion; even the Doctor Doom tear didn't seem so out of place, although I admit today it was a little bit cheesy. But I understood the sentiment. Same with the 9/11 tribute books that soon came out from multiple publishers.

    Thank you Murd, as always, for the stroll down memory lane. Excelsior, all.

  • nweathingtonnweathington Posts: 6,736
    Re: the Murphy Anderson question, starting in 1972, Murphy Anderson had the contract to produce/package P.S. magazine, a contract he'd won after Will Eisner decided to stop doing it. Murphy had worked on the magazine under Eisner during the ’60s, but now Murphy set up his own studio to put out the magazine. He lost the contract in 1978, but the Army quickly became displeased with the new packager, and six months later dumped their contract and asked Murphy to come back. Being back on P.S. meant that Murphy would still have time to ink things here and there for DC, but not enough time to take on a monthly penciling gig.
  • VertighostVertighost Posts: 335
    I haven't even downloaded the episode yet but after seeing there's a new Time Bubble OMG! OMG! OMG!!!!! Forgive me, I lost control.
  • Nearly 2.5 hours of Murdness! What did I do to get so lucky?! From his poignant thoughts on 9/11 and ASM's black issue to his illumination of a mostly forgotten gem by Peter David, this 32nd Bubble is an emotional vortex of veracity! Most importantly is this: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, MR. MURDOUGH! Thank you, yet again. "I'm with you 'til the end of the line!" (Copyright: Steve and Bucky in the MCU)
  • BryanBryan Posts: 207
    10 years! Wow. I've been listening for less than half of that, but still a cool anniversary. Good luck with the to-read list. Mine feels daunting and it's not even on the same scale as yours.

    I was living in NYC on 9/11 (though I had sort of stepped away from comics at the time) but I wasn't actually there that day. I was in Miami on business. The flight stoppage didn't really affect me as I was scheduled to be there for basically the entire month of September.

    As someone who wasn't home when it happened, I always felt like it wasn't really my place to talk about it in the same way. Does it matter where I was? I was safely on the ground 1000+ miles a way. The feeling in the coming weeks of wanting to help but basically being stuck in FL was pretty strong. I went out drinking with a friend towards the end of that trip, got pretty drunk, and just unloaded on some poor girl at a bar about not being able to do anything.

    Anyway, thanks for the episode Murd. Great as always.
  • BionicDaveBionicDave Posts: 377
    edited April 2019
    Wow, happy 10th anniversary to Murd's Time Bubble!! @Adam_Murdough, I am so appreciative of every single time you have traversed back through the years to discuss comic books both familiar and unknown with us. I can tell it takes a whole lot of prepwork on top of the love to put these shows together, and it all shines through. This 32nd time was no exception. So thanks again, Murd, for all the hours upon hours you've put into sharing your insights with us, and just plain entertaining everyone. You help us to love this comic book medium even more.

    Regarding the Solomon Grundy/Swamp Thing/Superman issue… When you were speculating that Grundy’s sudden resurgence here was in reaction to the success of “The Incredible Hulk” TV series, you also briefly referenced Grundy's accent from “Challenge of the Superfriends.” It made me wonder: might DC simply have been playing off his new recognition from that, in writing him back into comic books? Maybe his presence here was to promote “Challenge” action figures?

    Really admired your look back into the Marvel 9/11 issue, plus discussion of that tragic time in our history. I remember reading what a Marvel editor had to say about it at the time, something to the effect of "the New York skyline is part of Marvel's origins. Spidey swung from these very skyscrapers, the Fantastic Four was based in one… how can we tell any future stories set here without stories acknowledging what has just happened here?”
  • nweathingtonnweathington Posts: 6,736
    edited April 2019

    Regarding the Solomon Grundy/Swamp Thing/Superman issue… When you were speculating that Grundy’s sudden resurgence here was in reaction to the success of “The Incredible Hulk” TV series, you also briefly referenced Grundy's accent from “Challenge of the Superfriends.” It made me wonder: might DC simply have been playing off his new recognition from that, in writing him back into comic books? Maybe his presence here was to promote “Challenge” action figures?

    Well, there were no Challenge of the Super Friends toys. Mego still held the toy license (from 1972 to 1983) to DC characters, but they never tied in with the cartoons. But having Grundy in the cartoon certainly may have played some part in putting him in that issue. Much more likely though is that Grundy simply was a good fit to be the “bad guy” of a Superman/Swamp Thing story. He's strong enough to go head-to-head with Superman, and he has a similar origin to Swamp Thing.

    The better question may be, why Swamp Thing? It may very well have simply been Englehart and/or Julie Schwartz (the editor of Presents) just looking for characters they could use without having to worry about what anyone else may have been doing with them. Or it could be because DC, flying high on the success of the Superman film, was trying to sell the film rights to Swamp Thing—which they did in 1979, after many months of negotiations, to Michael Uslan when he also bought the film rights to Batman.
  • It's been a loooooooooong time since I've commented here, but I am back! As for my 9/11 story, I was a freshman in high school in a rural county in the foothills of Western North Carolina, hoping to do something fun during lunch (which I think was to play the Dragon Ball Z collectible card game with some friends... those were the days...) and one of my friends came and broke the news that both towers were gone. I had been somewhat luckily avoiding the news coverage up till that point, and the news landed horribly with me. I will never forget that day as long as I live.

    When I was buying floppy comics when I was younger, I remember some really bizarre Marvel and DC teamups (more bizarre than Swamp Thing and Superman, I assure you), but I cannot remember them right now.

    BJ
  • nweathingtonnweathington Posts: 6,736
    Welcome back, @BJWanlund! It’s always nice to have another fellow North Carolinian in the fold.
  • @nweathington I have long since left NC (but can be convinced to come back!), but now I'm living just outside of Philadelphia. (Meaning I'm not too far from the CGS Studios in Reading now...)
  • nweathingtonnweathington Posts: 6,736
    BJWanlund said:

    @nweathington I have long since left NC (but can be convinced to come back!), but now I'm living just outside of Philadelphia. (Meaning I'm not too far from the CGS Studios in Reading now...)

    We’ll let that slide. Once a North Carolinian, always a North Carolinian, as they say.

    Well, I’m sure somebody says it anyway.
  • Great episode and truly shocking to hear this show has been on for ten years. Sometimes I cant believe how long CGS is- I am 35 now and started listening when I was 22 and driving across America for my first job out of college, now I have to reconcile with the fact that I have been a passenger on the time bubble since the early days of the Obama administration.

    Murd- one note: I found your use of the word slut to describe the character in the PAD series a bit jarring. I understand the term is often used as a high school story character descriptor and it seems from your description that PAD was writing her in a way that he may also have used this descriptor but I think we would all enjoy putting the term behind us and living in a more sex positive world. Same goes for "angry young black woman".
  • Murd- one note: I found your use of the word slut to describe the character in the PAD series a bit jarring. I understand the term is often used as a high school story character descriptor and it seems from your description that PAD was writing her in a way that he may also have used this descriptor but I think we would all enjoy putting the term behind us and living in a more sex positive world. Same goes for "angry young black woman".

    I agree! In using terms like "slut," "jock," etc. in my discussion of The Haunted, I wasn't speaking to the characters themselves so much as to the unfairly reductive roles into which cruel and callous high-school society has thrust them. I'm pretty sure that it was PAD's intention to communicate that these downtrodden-yet-empowered teenaged characters of his are much more--supernaturally more, in fact--than the stereotypes foisted on them, and that real-life teenagers usually are too, even if they can't turn into werecats or raise the dead.
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