WWE V3: The Roman Empire Review

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Radio Network. So without any further ado, it's

time to talk about the comics we are reading

right now here inside the pull bag. Good to see

you again, brother. Brother? I'm sorry, I didn't

mean to interrupt. Yeah, yeah, no, I'm not sorry.

But look at you, you're just so full of yourself

now. Actually, you're full of something else.

You are a sniveling little suck -up sellout full

of suffering. Suck -a -tache, son! Hello and

welcome to The Pull Bag. This is episode 333.

No, there's no naked gun here. I am, of course,

TFG on mic. Joining me is Ryan the Unevenflow

Merkley. Hello, sir. What up, yo? What up, yo?

And we're back to Boom Studios and WWE. Done

by Dennis Hopeless, Serge Acuna, and Doug Garbark.

Volume 3 is The Roman Empire. Also, yay, more

mindless sort of... I shouldn't say mindless.

More disposable fun entertainment. Yeah. Which

it feels like we need more of nowadays. Yes,

exactly. Any media personalities that diss the

death of somebody because they don't feel that

comic books help the industry or help people,

you can go jump off a fucking cliff. So I assume,

yeah. We need to bring this up because... That's

actually a good point because, yeah, this is

the biggest news really in comics forever. Yeah.

I had... so it was a rough weekend that weekend

one of our cats passed away and then one day

later uh we died yeah so we put down a cat and

then you find out you know the man who created

or was responsible for an awful lot of the creation

of characters you grow up with yep and characters

I still live with and love now. Yeah. We did

a retrospective or not a retrospective, but we

did a tribute on, on geek cast radio's main podcast

about it with Neil and JT and myself. And I did

not like at that time, the Bill Maher news had

not hit or any, like it hadn't been Bill Maher.

I can suck it. I know exactly. But like you're

saying, like, you know, Stanley is, Not only

responsible, but he is a part of a... Let's face

it, it doesn't matter what order you put them

in, these three men are responsible for starting

characters at Marvel that have lived on in the

last 80 years in various stories over various

writers. It's Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and Jack

Kirby. Jack Kirby, yeah. You know, I mean...

It's weird to me that there's not the... There's

a bit of controversy, but there's so... little

yeah compared to the dc stuff like you can't

really anytime you talk about a lot of their

major characters most notably batman there's

controversy about who created what and that sort

of thing with the marvel stuff there's so much

less of it so it's a little less drama and a

lot of that too is that stan just seems like

such a genuine and good human being And then

for a complete pile of shit like Maher to try

to pile on, one of my favorite things with Bill

Maher is the fact that for some reason, hell

with it, I'm just going to be blunt about it

for once for a few minutes. That's fine. Trump

supporters seem to think he's somehow like some

liberal icon or something like that. No, everybody

hates him. Yeah. He's a misogynistic, woman -abusing

piece of shit. I mean, at this point, Bill Maher

should be more hated than Nickelback. Let's not

go extreme here. Come on! Yeah, Stan Lee was

– it's – when you sit down and you think about

what he created and what he's done and then you

look at stuff like the MCU, which clears a billion

dollars per film with ridiculous frequency. Yeah.

Something that not even Star Wars can do. It's

nuts. Like what he has done and what he's created.

And I've said this before about some of the people

that have passed on that we've talked about on

this show and others, but he gets a legacy that's

going to be remembered for all time, which is

one of the best tributes you can give a person.

Absolutely. You know, he's never going to be

forgotten. He seemed, again, he seemed like such

a good person and he seemed to love his fans.

Yeah, and there was a news story that came out,

I think it was last year or a couple of years

ago, about his handlers or people within his

camp that were mishandling. certain aspects of

his professional life and yada yada yada i i

almost got the same feeling as like a whole casey

casem thing is what happened to casey but it

obviously wasn't that it was not that yeah but

like when in retaliation they released something

about stan abusing his nerd like it got it got

icky for a bit which yeah I mean, that's more

so his people than it is him. Everything I have

ever seen him do. He's always been a stand -up

guy. In all of the conventions and everything

else he's done, I've never read of anyone, celebrity

or normal person on the street, having a negative

interaction with the guy. I can't think of anybody

else. that that has had that that's that's nuts

he's met probably he has probably met millions

of people oh yeah i mean over the years absolutely

and yeah it's his impact on comics i don't we

wouldn't be talking about any comics probably

oh no absolutely not like or at least or at least

not in this same format or anything like that

oh no He was a pioneer. He was someone who created

characters that were, at the time, you think

about it, Spider -Man in 62, even though it was

Joe Simon and somebody else that created Cap,

but Captain America, Stan's contribution to Cap.

Well, Jack Kirby, too, yeah. Jack Kirby, too,

right, yeah. Jack Kirby and Joe Simon are the...

The Incredible Hulk. Right. The Hulk. The X -Men.

Without Stan creating the X -Men, we wouldn't

have the best X -Men cartoon ever. And that's

X -Men the Animated Series. And it's funny because

the X -Men, Marvel, oof. You know, this is a

show we could talk about at some point. But Marvel

tried to kill the X -Men. Of course they did.

Because of the Fox stuff. Which, by the way,

is ridiculous. But anyway. And they couldn't.

These are all characters that have withstood

the test of time and are probably going to keep

going. Not probably, but in all likelihood, yeah,

they're going to keep going forever. Yep. And

even the company trying to get rid of them. Didn't

help. Didn't work. Yeah, exactly. They're going

to endure. And yeah, he's never going to be forgotten.

And it's still a really sad. It's still a ridiculously

sad event, and I admit it's going to be really

sad the first time I watch a Marvel film and

there's no cameo. You're going to expect to see

him to a certain extent, and I know that might

seem kind of silly, but he was always there.

He always knew you were going to see him or knew

you were going to... knew he was going to pop

up. And... Exactly. Like... I have to actually

go back and watch the original X -Men film. I

didn't know his cameos until Spider -Man. So

I actually have to go back and watch the original

X -Men film. I had forgotten he was in, not a

huge fan of them, but the Fantastic Four movies,

for example. Oh, I knew he was in that, because

that was... I had just forgotten, though. And

I had forgotten that he was in, yeah, X -Men.

In particular, X -Men... one where he's on the

beach yeah three i think everybody remembers

where he's on the on the lawn when he first manifests

their powers but yeah it just yeah i mean and

there's only one cameo where i'm like Why would

you want to do that? Why would you want to kill

Stan Lee? And that's 2008's The Incredible Hulk

when he drinks the tainted soda thing. I'm like,

don't do that. Like, yeah, give Stan a cameo,

but don't have him drink the bad juice. I'm sure

he was fine. It's Stan Lee. I'm sure. It's Stan

Lee. The man will live on forever. The man, as

you said, will be remembered until the end of

time, unlike some media personalities. Yeah,

the, by the way, favorite. I think cameo, oof,

that's tough. The Deadpool one, I thought was

fantastic. And I liked him in both Guardians

of the Galaxy cameos. I think my two favorites

are when Tony misidentifies him as Hef, as Hugh

Hefner. I believe that was an Iron Man 2. I think

it was an Iron Man 2, but I could be wrong. I

think it was one. I can't remember. Yeah, it's

one of those. Yeah, I think it is one, actually.

I don't know. Anyway. And the other one was when

he was delivering a package to Tony. Tony Stank.

I'm looking for Tony Stank, and Roni's like,

yep, that's Tony Stank right here. Yeah. Add

some levity to civil war, which was pretty dark.

Yeah. And yeah, definitely memorable. Yeah. It's,

it's just, the man will be remembered forever.

And at some point, I don't know who it's going

to be. I said something to JT about this. I went

online to comiXology .com and I just, by sheer

looking it up, amazing fantasy 15. the debut

of spider -man digitally is two dollars like

that's nothing i'll grab that so at some point

we will have another full -on like remembrance

kind of thing or dedication to stan it's near

impossible to do comic shows without i know some

at this point too yeah i mean i have plans for

us whether it's you and i whether it's jt and

i whatever to do uh the the final uh dan dan

uh slot arc uh red goblin because i have that

trade too it's so weird i always i always felt

with spider -man and batman specifically because

those are two of my favorites on either side

whatever i could never get into them because

like you know 80 years 75 years of content and

where do you start kind of a thing but yet Every

time I'm reading a Dan Slott book when it comes

to Spider -Man, I'm at the end of one series

going into another. I started with 698 to 700,

which ended his original numbered run. He went

to Superior Spider -Man. I read that. And now

I'm going back to the end of the next amazing

arc. Slott did a really good job of acknowledging

the history without being weighed down by it.

I really liked his run. overall and yeah I liked

that he tried different things WWE Studios Hi

heroes this is Stan Lee coming at you want you

to know Marvel has always been and always will

be a reflection of the world right outside our

window That world may change and evolve, but

the one thing that will never change is the way

we tell our stories of heroism. Those stories

have room for everyone regardless of their race,

gender, religion, or color of their skin. The

only things we don't have room for are hatred,

intolerance, and bigotry. That man next to you,

he's your brother. That woman over there, she's

your sister. And that kid walking by, hey, who

knows? He may have the proportionate strength

of a spider. We're all part of one big family,

the human family, and we all come together in

the body of Marvel. And you, you're part of that

family. You're part of the Marvel universe that

moves ever upward. and onward to greater glory.

In other words, Excelsior! WWE, back in the ring

here with Roman Reigns. I've already given the

creative team, but again, Dennis Hopeless, Serge

Acuna, Tim Latie, pencils done by him on chapter

10, pages 10 to 16, chapter 11, and various things.

Doug Garbark on... Colors, Jim Campbell on lettering,

Dan Mora on the cover. So you mentioned Dan Mora,

who again we need to have on. Yes. But the cover

to number 10, which was a Dark Knight Returns

homage, if you remember. Which is the podcast

art for this episode, yes. Yes, okay. Well, I

didn't know that in my defense. Wow. Also...

It's weird. He gets to do more, with the exception

of Eleven, but he gets to do more kind of comic

book -ish covers. And I think a lot of that,

too, is because Roman's sort of a comic book

character. But yeah, I really liked the cover

to Eleven. The trade starts out with the main

cover of Roman with Bray and everybody else overseeing

him. I read this story, but I don't remember

him... I remember all the S .H .I .E .L .D.'s

animosity in this part of the series. I don't

remember Bray and Roman going up against each

other in this. We'll find out. As I said before,

in the last episode with Dean, there is quotes

on each of these covers from whoever's the star.

Roman says, This is a great comic book, and you

can believe that. So we start out Chapter 9 of

the series. We're at the T -Mobile Arena in Las

Vegas, Nevada, June 19, 2016. Roman is champion.

Dean has money in the bank. Seth has turned on

them at this point. Yeah, Seth has turned on

them at this point. Seth, by the way, makes an

excellent comic book villain. Yes, he does. That's

what I discovered. Yes, he does. Yeah, absolutely.

Anyway, continue, sir. I just, I love this. I

think it's so great that these artists and this

writer with Dennis Hopeless, that he's, you know,

all of this team are just capturing the behind

-the -scenes stuff with the now broken -up S

.H .I .E .L .D. kind of thing. And then it sets

up, you know, Roman to go into his own, you know,

singles stuff that he had done. And again, a

lot of this seems to be the creation of hopeless

because, uh, again, referencing real life, they

continued to travel together. Like they're still

friends in real life, obviously after they broke

up. Um, but yeah, just, uh, it's interesting

that. You get to write for something that happened

in real life and make stuff up for it, too. Which

I don't know how often that gets to you get to

do that as a writer. Not often. So, you know,

Roman's coming into the ring. He has a match

with Seth and obviously they're all booing him

and whatever. Seth comes out and he's like, that's

who they decide to cheer. Mr. Backstabber, Mr.

Architect. Yeah. Well, I mean, that happened

too. It's weird to me by the... Hi, Basil. Basil

wants to guest star. It's weird to me that they

acknowledge that Reigns got the... We'll use

the Michael Cole divided divisive reactions.

Yeah. Because usually they just want to depict

that everybody loves him and that sort of thing.

But they don't. Not even just in this, but like...

No, yeah, I'm just surprised, though, in the

comics that they allowed them to do that. Again,

I feel like these comics to this point that we've

been reading them are basically, yes, you're

right, Dennis is adding in certain things, but

I feel most of this is like, you know, what actually

did kind of, it's basically a visual retelling

of what happened on the shows and on the pay

-per -views and yada, yada, yada. I think where

Dennis in this, maybe he talked to Roman, maybe

he talked to WWE, I don't know. I feel like most

of Dennis' creative writing part of this comes

in the history and how that's... Because we cut

to some sold -out arena back in the day after

the thing with Seth and Roman, or in between

it kind of a thing, where Roman's flashing back

to... But my dad's the hero and these guys are

just the jerks kind of a thing. So I think that's

where most of his creative comes in really nicely.

It's written all well and good anyway. It doesn't

really matter. I don't know what the boom studios

deal is with WWE as far as quote unquote creative

control. I assume. Yeah. That's what I was sort

of getting at. I wonder how much, you know, is,

is he, do they read it? Yeah, I guess. Is it

like, um, is it like a Marvel or somebody like

that where they're allowed to say, no, this is

what you, you need to put in. I have no idea.

We wouldn't know unless we talked to him. Yep.

So as kids, Roman and the Usos have wrestling

matches, like all kids do, with action figures.

Eh, you know, what are you going to do? There's

no... No, I'm pretty sure I did that with the...

Yeah, I know I did too, so... I can't remember

the name of the company now. But it was the ones

that didn't have any poseability at all. Migo?

No, I don't think so. Anyway, continue. Anyway,

so Rikishi shows up. I love what they did with

Rikishi art style wise. I think that is super

cool. And it's undeniably him. Yeah. Which is

nice. I like all of them, actually. The Usos

look good, although we saw them in other issues.

Yeah, we didn't. Did we see them younger in other

issues, though? No, no. It's the first time they're

younger, but still. Yeah, but we've seen them,

you know, in the issues so far. And, you know,

as the match is going on, Roman, you know, he

keeps flashing back through, like, you know,

his football days and things like that. I love

how that's written. Like, you know, after football

was done with me, WWE was the one place that

I got a second chance kind of a thing. Which

very much is something that he said. Absolutely.

I feel like the match here between the two of

them... I forget if... I assume this is how it

actually went down, obviously, with the pedigree

and the pin, but... I don't know. At one point,

it feels like it's just kind of there. It's not

a bad thing, but I was so focused on reading

the story of the backstory of Roman, like when

he was a kid and his upbringing, that almost,

like in one of these panels, when he's ready

to do his spear, I almost got taken out of the

page for a second. It quickly gets back in there.

Uh, so to talk about the rest of this too, just

say that much like real life, uh, some of the

booking gets in the way. Like Roman's feud with

Hunter in reality was not something that really

benefited him. Oh no. And the book. It doesn't

really, yeah, it just kind of happens or interjects

in the comic series too, which I actually think

is really good writing because I don't think

there's a way to shoehorn it in. No. It wasn't

a great feud. It didn't help anybody. And it

was just, it just sort of happened. Yep. That's

pretty much how it is in the book too. So. That's

actually capturing it really well. Absolutely.

The fault's on WWE, not the writer. Oh, no. Yeah.

Well, the fault's always on WWE creative. I mean,

there's not much that you can't fault the creative

team at WWE. No, this hasn't been a good series

of time for them. No, but this comic is amazing.

The comic encapsulates a time where they didn't

do a great job of booking or writing for Roman.

And in the comic, he comes across as a much better,

more sympathetic character than anything they

managed to do on screen. Yeah. So getting into

it and getting into the rest of it. So for example,

Seth. is seth is about actually as douchebaggy

as he was in in real life but as they continued

on to uh i'm gonna skip ahead a little bit but

uh you know we continued on and cena's written

pretty much as john cena would be and so a i

like that so these issues each encapsulated portions

of the main focus is on the shield breakup right

which we saw in the other trades but that's sort

of the bulk of these of the focus here and seeing

it kind of refocuses him but it was very john

cena -esque oh yeah should be mentioned by the

way a another friend of at least me because i

love her writing uh margaret scott co -wrote

on issue 11. the one i'm mentioning now with

cena yes oh wow yeah which i was surprised to

see her name on it too but Marguerite Scott's

really good for anyone who doesn't know. Everything

from she's currently writing Batgirl to she wrote

a number of the Transformers books and was excellent

on it. She's done short stories in the Star Trek

universe. She is excellent. So seeing her on

a series with strong dialogue is not surprising

to me at all. Oh, no. Because Cena's speech could

have been Cena. Mm -hmm. I mean, it was taken

out of his playbook. It could have been anywhere,

but it was really well done. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

And, yeah, I did not know that she had wrote

that one chapter. Yep. Very cool. So, yeah, and

Anthony Burch was part of issue 10. I don't know

what he wrote. But anyway, you mentioned too,

we get to see Roman's family in issue nine. We

get to see more of his time with family in 10

as well. And it's more stuff that we never saw

on screen. And it's more stuff that I wish we

had seen on screen because it helps his character

quite a bit. Yep. And, like, I knew he was part

of that, you know, Samoan family thing. I knew

that, but I didn't really know, like, I kind

of thought they were cousins, but I wasn't sure

how he was tied in with the Usos. And seeing

them kind of, not necessarily hold him back,

but, you know, try to steer him in the right

direction, even though he's, you know, a bull

in the china shop here. was kind of interesting

and fun. And that's why I liked the backstory

beginning of the three of them doing the wrestling

action figures. I'm going to beat you with Macho

Man. No fair, Roman. Your guy always wins. The

stuff with Cena was great. I had forgotten. This

is why I love reading this comic book. I forgot

that John and Roman had... I knew they had done

some stuff, but I forgot they had this whole...

feud at the time right after uh the shield breakup

thing which uh this is a topic for mayhem mics

but uh the fact that i had forgotten that the

two of them have really interacted much i do

vaguely remember portions of their feuds and

i remember them using a bit of real life stuff

But it should be bigger than it was. And the

fact that I can't remember portions of it is

a bad sign. And a sign that maybe when he comes

back, they should seriously consider doing something.

Yeah. The only portion of the Cena -Reigns feud

that I remember is the fact that Jon took him

to school on the microphone because he couldn't

cut a promo for crap. at that time no yeah Roman

was Roman or whoever was writing his stuff yeah

exactly but Roman on the mic was was severely

lacking at that time in WWE and since then obviously

he's gotten a hell of a lot better either he's

gotten better or they've let him speak uh as

himself or whatever it was but yeah the yeah

So the bulk of the rest of this after the refocusing

battle with John is that, you know, the shield

and all of that and hey, let's team up again.

Let's get back together again and have this all

-out brawl kind of thing. And they basically

fight each other. Yeah, you mentioned it too.

these issues seemed to read a lot quicker than

other ones. Yeah. And I think a lot of that is,

yeah, there's a lot of sighting and action sequences.

Yeah. Yeah, it's absolutely crazy. Yeah, I love

all of the, at least in the trade here, we get

all the... alternative covers from the series.

I love all of those. I think it's super cool.

I love when they do the action figure covers

because you have like, you can't see this and

the listeners can't, but you have like Cesaro

in an action figure kind of card back thing as

a cover. You have the British Bulldog as one,

uh, Naomi and Jeff Hardy. Um, but yeah, no, I

mean these first three, uh, trades for the main

boom studios wwe series uh you know focusing

on seth dean and roman it's just what i wanted

there's nothing in here that that isn't what

what i what i wasn't expecting there are a couple

of surprises and things like that but i love

reading wwe right now more than i do love watching

it Yeah, I think part of it, too, is when you

read these, we keep saying it, but there's stuff

I forgot. Mm -hmm. It's more memorable in the

comic than it was in real life. Sadly, yes. I...

I don't know. It's just crazy. Yep. Overall,

again, though, it's a solid read, solid series.

I, again, would probably recommend it to people

who even aren't WWE fans. Absolutely. Ooh. Technical

difficulties. Let's move on, shall we? No, I'd

probably recommend it still to non -fans and

the presence of the different writers, too. they

have a different feel at least with dialogue

that kind of thing but the dialogue is still

really good overall so it's they're enjoyable

reads and it's kind of fun if you are a fan i

find it adds an awful lot more to the characters

than a lot of the real life writing yeah to them

absolutely Like, the fact is that these three

men can go and do a match against, you know,

a triple threat match against each other at the

end of the book, and then at the very end just

all be sitting around the cooler and the campfire

or the grill or whatever, because again, like

you said earlier, they are all still friends

in real life. Just because what's written and

what's shown on television is a different angle

to it all doesn't mean that these three men...

are not real people in real life. And that's

the thing that, like, we've talked about this

for three years now on Mayhem Mics. It's been

talked about for decades. Wrestling isn't fake.

They're all real people. All wrestlers' lives

matter, you know. But no, I absolutely love this.

I think it's great. Zero to five for me. I'd

probably give it... I'd probably give it a 5.

There was nothing wrong with this for me. If

I was going to take a half point off, it would

probably be for the main cover, not because of

what Dan Mora did, but because of the actual

cover. There's nothing in this book that has

anything to do with Bray Wyatt. Oh, yeah, that

was a weird choice. Yeah, Volume 3 has nothing

to do with Bray whatsoever. Volume 2... Because

Dean had something to do with Bray. Or Volume

1, I think Seth had. I forget which one it was

at this point. But it was a little weird seeing

Volume 3's cover be Roman and Bray. When at the

time, during this part of the story that's being

told in this trade, Bray's nowhere to be found.

I don't know. That's a question for the creative

people at some point. Hopefully. Well, to be

fair, Bray and the Wyatt family are contained

in the write -up for the trade as well, which

is weird. I remember recalling that that was

odd, too. Yeah, strange. Maybe they were supposed

to be in there, and then they weren't? I don't

know. Who knows? To be fair, that does happen

an awful lot with comics. Yeah. Look at some

of, you mentioned reading Spider -Man. how often

stuff that's on a Spider -Man comic cover doesn't

actually happen in the issue. Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

What would you rate this 0 to 5? Yeah, probably

a 4 .5. Yeah. Yeah, still very, very well done.

There are still the single issues, folks. I don't

know if we'll be doing those, because I like

doing them in trade. The next trade that's being

released, it's currently up for pre -order, is

Volume 4, Evolution. And no, it's not that evolution,

it's the other one. It's the women's evolution.

So we go from three stories with the shield and

the breakup and everything else to what I assume,

because I have not read it, What I assume is

going to be the breakout of the women's evolution.

Yeah, I don't get them in individual issues.

Yeah, I don't either. As I said last time in

episode 332 when we finished our Batman White

Knight coverage, I don't know what's coming up.

It could be any number of things. Come on, dude.

It could be... TMNT Ghostbusters 2 with myself

and Joe Reed. It could be Nightwing Huntress,

the old Devin Grayson four -issue miniseries.

It could be Venomverse and Venomized. I'm not

even sure. So, just playing it by ear. Where

can the people find you online, sir? End of the

Transformers universe? Anyway. Yeah, that'll

take me until next year to do, sadly. Yeah, and

it's real sad. I know. Nightbeat on Twitter.

I'm at TFG1Mike on Twitter. You can follow at

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