Superman: Unchained Review

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on my fist let's go hello and welcome to the

pull bag it is the end of april 2022 2022 what

the fuck want to redo the intro you think hello

and welcome to the Pull back. This is episode

five hundred and fifty two. It is the end of

April twenty twenty four. I'm of course here

to invite joining me once again. Almost as always

is Ryan the Uneven Flow Merkley. Hello, sir.

How are you? Hello and welcome to Up Nerd. Today

we'll be doing top three bottom three Superman

Unchained comics. It's a series from Scott Snyder.

You can hear more on the Up Nerd podcast network.

With oh, this is my show, right? Oh, this is

not your show. But since you already gave away

the The creative and all that good stuff, which

is fine by me for all I care. But yeah, it's

good Jim Lee, which I had forgotten. Yeah Jim

Lee book and Honestly, I have to say this we

have only covered several I think actually no

we've only covered one in the 11 years this podcast

has been online. We've only ever covered one

Superman anything and we never finished it because

Frank Miller you asshat so my buddy Joe Reid

and I who do the Turtles comics on the podcast

from IDW publishing We decided to read Superman

What the hell is it called? I don't think that's

the subtitle of it. What the hell is it called?

God damn it. The Frank Miller Superman crap.

All -Star Superman? No, sorry. Yeah, I was going

to say no. Wait, sorry. All -Star Superman is

fantastic from Grant Morrison. You should read

that and never read any Frank Miller Superman.

But anyway, yeah, this is the this is the DC

Black Label Superman. So year one, Superman year

one, DC Black Label. So we covered the first

two issues because I liked it. I thought, oh,

it's going to be a cool, different, Frank Miller

-inspired origin story. And then after we released

the first two episodes, the first two issues,

I saw the solicits for the third and final issue

because the DC Black Label, most of those were

like three issues because they're like triple

size of normal comics or whatever as far as how

many story pages, whatever the hell it is. But

I saw the solicits for the third issue and I'm

like, asshole, why couldn't this just be a Superman

story? Why you got to bring Batman and Wonder

Woman in and just have it? Not really that, but

it went, yeah, it went absolutely off the rails

and it's - I don't, I have the third issue, so

I could do it at some point. I have refused to

read it ever since I found out about the, ever

since I read the solicit for it. Oh, you should

definitely never read it, is knowing it's one

of the worst comics. I think it's up there. It

is or down there depending on how you look at

it. And yeah, it is Cool unless superman has

been with batman or unless it's been a justice

league thing or unless it's been something else

On the pull bag in the past 11 years of our history.

We have never outside of the superman year one

issue one and two We've never done superman comics.

It's not because I don't like the character.

I absolutely love the character. I think he's

great He's just not He's just was never in the

rotation. It's not a lot of good runs, you know

I'm just saying in general we should yeah, maybe

I'll bring you on up nerd. We can do death of

Superman or something like that I know you never

want to do well death of Superman is another

one by the way that same with all -star superman

that i'm pretty sure you've seen the animated

version of animated version does not do it justice

at all especially uh the death of superman animated

one i remember how mad i was at how the comic

is not perfect either don't get me wrong it's

not it's not this amazing thing to be held up

as perfection, but I hated the animated and it's

weird because I'm a huge, I think anybody who's

listened to me on these shows knows. Huge fan

of the Tim and Justice the universe and this

wasn't set in that universe But it was kind of

Jason's like it was the same goal and yeah, it's

it felt similar But yeah, they really missed

the mark on it. Anyway, yeah, it felt that is

not unchanged and yeah No So the the whole reason

why we are starting the Superman coverage on

the full bag with Superman Unchained is because

Ryan and not Steve and I started doing That's

the whole reason why this podcast started was

Steve showed me issue 13 the covered issue 13

of Batman knew 52 with the Joker head in the

face and then the Staples and the whatever is

in his face and whatever else but But yeah, so

And we've covered plenty of Scott Snyder Batman

over the years you and I did we we need to probably

go back and finish it at some point But we did

volume 7 endgame, which was kind of the end.

I think there were two more volumes after that

So yeah recently repicked up the so initially

I had it all in digitally right and I've been

picking up the trades because I find that I still

read it and enjoy it So I have no issues having

physical copies. So I've actually reread it recently,

which we'll get into. It's pretty important for

this as well. Yeah. So like you said, Scott Snyder

is on writing. Jim Lee, Dustin Yin, Scott Williams

are on art. Alex Sinclair and John Kelsen and

a couple other people are on color. The whole

reason why I wanted to start with this as the

first Superman coverage is because we covered

Snyder's Batman. And I wanted to see and learn

how Snyder was going to write Superman. I thought

that was an interesting. It's always interesting

to me when you have a writer who has written

a character that, you know, you've loved for

however many years, whatever, and you really

liked what they did with most of their story.

And then they switch to a character that you

like. Again, I think JT and I did this, but when

we were doing Superior Spider -Man and the Dan

Slott run and all that and everything else, Dan

switched from even though Superior Iron Man was

only nine issues, he switched from writing Spider

-Man to writing Iron Man. I thought, ooh, that's

a cool twist. I'd love to see what he, so that's

why we're doing this. And honestly, I have to

say, outside of seeing prints and things online

and art pieces, I think this is the first Jim

Lee art I've ever, like as far as like, comic

reading ever have read in the last 11 years.

So, but yeah, Superman, Unchained, I love the

art. I have no problem with the art pretty much

throughout. The story is just wild. Is it so

the plot of this? Yes. We get a little bit of

sort of time jumping around, but to kind of shorten

things. Mm -hmm. It's because we learn that for

75 years roughly General Lane has had a secret

military insulation Which houses a superhuman

from another planet who feeds off of the Sun

by the way, which you know sounds familiar he

is not from Krypton by the way, but They've been

housing somebody who's been working with the

United States for roughly 75 years, kind of in

the background or adjacent to Superman and clearing

up things that Superman couldn't get to or wasn't

able to or stuff like that, I guess. And employing

a little more sort of military. So his name is

Wraith. Yeah, sure. It's it's William Rudolph's

ace in the hole Yeah, but his name is race and

he's a little more militant having grown up in

a military base versus Clark Kent who of course

grew up with the Kent's in Smallville, Kansas.

Yeah and That's sort of the central theme and

then around that we get all these other elements

of There's this Terrorist group, I guess we'll

say the essential technology terrorists basically

called Ascension who are causing all of these

attacks and doing all of these things and in

the end kind of working I don't know working

towards resetting the or destroying the earth

and starting over essentially Mm -hmm, and then

we have good old Lex Luthor escaping prison early

on and Lex just kind of He doesn't do a lot.

I mean he kidnaps Jimmy Yeah, and he chats with

them here and there throughout But really doesn't

show up or make his presence felt or known until

the end. Yep and so really it's it's Wraith and

Superman is the main main sort of Fight here

combined with Batman is involved Wonder Woman

is involved and that works by the way I think

they've found good ways to have them in the series

without making the main characters or anything

Yeah, it was just here's Batman. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it wasn't just here's Batman and it was

not just okay Batman's here Move over Superman.

It's Batman's book now. It wasn't that at all

because again, this is 2013 This is two years

into the new 52 Yep, Snyder was still doing his

run as far as I know on Batman when he was doing

this he didn't take a break as far as I know

and I like a lot of things in this. I love how

they handle Superman's. I love how he writes

Superman's powers. I love how he writes Superman's

character. But for me, it's those simple, easy,

oh my God, gotcha moments of, oh, this is why

I like this book. Not the whole reason, but like,

ooh, this jumped. The bat suit in this is amazing.

I love the way the bat suit looks. Yeah, he has

a stealth suit, too. Enable him to stay hidden

when Superman is looking at him and it works

on Wraith for a while, but we eventually kind

of learned that Wraith has Wraith is sort of

a combination of Superman and Magneto he uses

a magnetic fields to fight an awful lot and so

he's able to eventually adjust to it and that's

where Wonder Woman kind of comes in and and helps

because She's the he's the brains, but she's

the brawn that can at least stand up to him a

little. Yeah. Absolutely. And yeah, I agree.

I think he writes Superman really well. I think

I think he writes most of the characters really

well. And I like this book. It is a very solid

like Superman book. I wish I could go back to

when I first read it. Because I just read it

now and I mentioned I've just reread new 52 Snyder's

Batman run. I've read one to five of it recently

This is a lot like cord of vowels The plot is

actually pretty much the same in that there's

this secret organization that's been working

adjacent or behind the scenes with the main character

for X number of years. It involves the parents

of one of our main characters in the same way.

And it's really, it feels like Snyder had all

of his best story ideas on Batman. And somebody

told him like, Well, we need your right. Can

you write a Superman story? Kind of whip it up

quick and it's it's definitely not bad because

he clearly understands the character I wish he'd

I wish he were able to get more time With it

or maybe have written it at a time when he wasn't

doing X number of other number of comics and

everything else I yeah, you know, it feels like

it's It's very good and I enjoy it. It is a good

Superman story. It is well worth reading. The

art is excellent, et cetera, et cetera. But there's

a part of me that wonders what if, especially

with Snyder, because he is so good and paired

up with a great artist, which he is here and

we see on New 52 as well. There's part of me

that thinks like, okay, this is really good.

But like I feel like he had a great superman

like he was capable of writing a A story that

we'd still be talking about today like people

would still be saying oh you got to read this

the same way like maybe all -star superman or

something like Like that, you know, it's it's

so close Yeah, it's so close and then the funny

thing is is every time so there's so this book

I have the deluxe edition digital version, which

has the director's cut in it. I didn't really

look at the director's cut. I probably should

have, but I didn't. I just read the nine issues.

This is my first time reading this. Like I said,

I've been wanting to do this for years. It just

never really come up until now. And you're right.

This is very court of owls, very court of owls.

but it's not bad because he takes the cord of

owls premise that he created and caters it and

manipulates it to the superman universe characters

like i said before he's not just saying here's

superman here's this here's that oh by the way

batman's here move over superman it's batman's

book he's not doing that because he knows and

i know he knows this you know this is you know

the other guy this is not batman but and it works

it works very very well and i like it like this

is like i said first time reading it i wanted

to go in fresh that's usually how i usually end

up doing comics whether i've read them before

or not is it's probably been years since i've

read something before we end up covering it or

i just wait i i will wait until 20 minutes before

and try to consume 300 and something pages the

recording kind of thing And I really dug this.

There isn't a moment in this where I'm like,

okay, I'm out. Oh, Superman wouldn't do that

or oh this or oh that or whatever. I will say

that there were several times in the whole story

where Was like, oh he's gonna pull this card

or he's gonna like there were a few times when

they were talking about who's in the crystal

What's the signal in the crystal? I'm like, oh

fuck. It's Brainiac. I know it's fucking Brainiac

I thought it was Brainiac or they were gonna

use Lex. Yeah. Well, I mean Lex is here No, I

know but I mean it's always Lex, you know, like

that's always in the back of your head Yeah,

when he's in one of these Yeah, it's always Lex

Yeah, he's here and it wouldn't surprise me if

that was what it was but whatever but like the

first like I'm like, okay It's either brainiac

or dark side or dark side yak or brainy side

or whatever the hell like it's it's good somehow

you got to work in the two biggest Superman villains

summer and he didn't And I really like that.

It wasn't yeah, it was nice that it was different.

It was nice that it was someone completely different

Yeah might have been I mean, maybe if there was

more so this is nine issues, by the way, I should

mention this sometime Okay, but anyway it I kind

of wish there was more time because I wouldn't

have minded seeing maybe something of race race

As in why they are conquerors or something like

that, you know, maybe give them give them a little

reason There's nothing wrong with what they did

or anything. I guess the only The only negative

I have with them, it was as soon as they were

introduced in my head, I went, okay, so the resolution

is going to be, you know, Wraith has to, something

is going to happen to Wraith and he's going to

have to sacrifice himself so that we can kind

of return to a status quo. Cause unfortunately

this was just a mini series. It wasn't. Yeah,

it wasn't part of the actual Superman series

at the time, which is a little unfortunate. It

would have been nice if they could have done

a new status quo or something out of it or spun

more of who knows what else General Lane has

from that 75 years. Yeah, he had with Wraith

and with the technology and everything else But

it ends up not not really being picked up on

which is a bit of a downer Right. And the other

thing for me is and I know And you and I talk

about this all the time. I Separate fiction from

reality all the time Yes, Dean Cain is Whatever.

I still like Lois and Clark And what you just

said about how general lane probably has all

this the first thing I thought of when they said

that he's been building all this is saving all

this shit for 75 years first thing I thought

of was the scene in Lois and Clark when they

were trying to find When they were going through

the warehouse in one of the episodes and they

find his his ship like because of whatever black

Market government bullshit is in the show Like

literally I was like, Oh, this is kind of like

a little bit like Lewis and Clark is a blah blah

blah. Cause you didn't think of Michael Ironside

from small though. Oh, no, not really. Cause

remember he was general. Yeah. He was. Yeah.

I remember that. I remember. I just, you know,

other than, other than top three bottom three

on the up nerd network folks. I haven't watched

small villain over 20 years. It made me want

to watch it again, though. It's one of those

things that if I ever get some time, maybe some

time on a vacation or whatever, sit down and

revisit at least parts of it. We'll definitely

skip those. Some of the bottom. Well, thirst,

really. That's anyway. Anyway, no, I like this

a lot. And you're right. The only thing, the

only other thing I wanted to make sure I brought

up too is so Scott Snyder. and you mentioned

this too. This could have become a Batman book.

It also could have been sort of discount Court

of Owls if he didn't have a really good grasp

of the character of Superman. On that note, how

did you feel with, we get Superman's inner monologue

in this, and he's a lot less sure of himself,

I guess. Like there's a lot of him guessing.

there's a lot of him trying in his head to figure

out okay how can i save all these people i have

you know xxx whatever in my way what can i do

to fix this okay can i do this no that won't

work that you know there's a lot of that and

it presents them as a little more of a regular

person than i think we're used to because usually

he's the infallible guy who's always got He can

do anything. He can fix it. He's always inflappable.

He's... I don't know. What did you think of that?

I know some people didn't like it. I'm good with

it. I think that it's another way that Snyder

kind of gets in his head and A, makes him a little

different, but B, makes him a lot easier to relate

to. Because that can be a problem with a guy

who is essentially a god. Yeah, he's essentially

a god, but most of the time he's played as boy

from Kansas who now has superpowers who wants

to stay grounded with these superpowers no matter

what kind of thing. I like the internal monologue

because I like knowing what Superman is thinking,

like his process of thinking. And every time

that I read the internal monologue in this, I

was like, oh, I hear a mix between Tom Welling

Dean Cain Dean Cain usually when he's like after

he's gone through the thought process so when

he's going through the thought process I heard

Tom Welling in my head and once he figures it

out and whatever I heard Dean Cain in my head

only because I Don't think Only I hear the animated

voices like Tim Daly or George or whatever, but

I think the reason why I'm hearing Dean and Tom

is because they both went through things in their

series for the character that in Superman the

animated series and in Justice League, he was

already Superman. He was already sure of himself.

Yeah, I feel like Wellings, Clark Kent in particular,

is completely unsure of himself. He's still trying

to get a handle on his powers and what he can

or can't do and he's got to kind of think things

through of okay How do I beat this guy without,

you know blowing up the city? And like we said

folks this came out 2013 2014 somewhere around

there in those two years there and the whole

building falling scene Where he has to save the

people I'm like You know, if you switch universes

and put a metal suit on him, it's basically Iron

Man 3. Oh, OK. With the pledge. I thought you

were going to go. What's his name? Zack Snyder.

There we go. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no Well again because

he has to like he as he's in this building Collapse

thing or whatever as he's trying to save these

people he has to reassure them he has to reassure

himself and It just the way that that scene played

out in the comic. I was like, oh It's like Iron

Man 3 with the passengers falling out of the

plane and he has to catch them and he has to

have Jarvis tell him how to catch them. Well,

similarly to the opening bit where he's rescuing

the astronauts from the falling space station.

Same idea. He even says like, I've got to talk

to them before the oxygen runs out and explain

to them things so they don't panic, etc. Yeah,

same idea. Yeah. So yeah, I really dug this.

I thought it was fun. Like I said, I have no

complaints about the art. I find it hilarious

because they kind of all look like versions of

Misia's Pidlick, but Luther's paper dolls that

he uses, I'm like, oh my god. That was a little

much, but it's not it's not bad like it's not

something in the art that makes me go It's just

like oh That was a choice. Yeah Overall, there's

nothing really wrong with it. Like I said, I

kind of You know, and it's probably unfair to

judge a guy or judge what he worked on based

on expectations from other work that he's done.

But also in reading this, I just feel like he's

so close. He's so close to a 10 out of 10 instant

classic. And he clearly grasps the characters.

And like I said before, I'd love to see him try

again. That should be noted. You mentioned tooth

came out from 2013 to 2014. Technically it came

out from 2013 to 2015. Okay. For whatever. No,

no, I'm just saying like in general, for whatever

reason, there was just a tremendous amount of

delays with this. And I remember when we were

going to do this and I sat down to read it. I

sat down I had it digitally and I sat down to

read it and I remembered thinking I Don't even

remember how this came out in issues and how

I read it right and I now know I Was good thought

I was going crazy. I needed to make sure that

I was remembering everything Right and no I looked

it up that no, I wasn't great. Well, it might

be crazy but not for this anyway, but It was

yeah, it was just heavily delayed and it was

tough to pick up. And it's always hard when you

get a book that the first group of issues came

out. And then it just kind of disappeared for

X number of months. It was really weird. I think

it was the first three or so and then it just

kind of. No, that's right. It was eight and nine

that were. Super delayed and at one point they

were kind of canceled completely. Yeah, we weren't

sure if this was ever going to finish. Yeah,

and I remember I wasn't even sure. Yeah, if I

could get the final issues or what was going

to happen and then randomly X number of months

later it showed up in the solicitations. With

my comic guy and I'm like, oh, OK, I is going

finishing it now, right? I don't know, it was,

yeah, that's always weird. I have no idea why.

I don't think there's any solid info on why,

but it happens. And it's one of those things

with comic. So the in -store date, not the cover

date, because the cover date's always different,

but the in -store date for issue eight was September

10th of 2014. And the... In -store date for issue

9 was... Oh. Yeah. What did I just say? September?

September 10th. Of 2014? 2014, yeah. Two months

difference. November 5th, 2014 for issue 9. So

it was a two -month delay. What the hell happened?

I don't know. It's always weird. I don't know

either. That's fine. It's funny, before we started,

we were talking about Void Rivals, which you've

been reviewing with Jesse. Yep. On was it just

another pop? Another comic review is what it

is. I turned into him because he got the name

wrong in the most recent. Anyway, yeah, you've

been reviewing it there and we were talking about

how it got delayed and I couldn't remember, you

know, it's order or anything either. It's funny

how only one or two months really throws you

off when it's comics and you're used to. We're

used to getting the monthly, especially now.

everything digitally available and this is Mixed

in with this conversation here folks, but this

is kind of relevant because Jesse and I've already

talked about this because we already knew about

it but like Skybound under image Skybound entertainment

under image comics with starting void rivals.

I Think the only reason why there was a two -month

delay between issue 6 and 7 issue 6 was the final

arc of the first story and void rivals is because

they had to launch Duke and Cobra Commander.

I think that's the only reason why, because Transformers

came out in October of last year, Duke came out

in either late October or November, and then

Cobra Commander came out in December. So I think

it was them saying, hey, we need a little time

to get these other things launched and set up

and whatever else, so you're going to get a two

-month break. It wasn't anything major. There

was no pandemic. It wasn't like, poor IDW during

the pandemic when, um, when the last Ronin issues

got delayed all the time. Yeah. Um, but yeah,

no, uh, Superman Unchained. I don't know if it's

something I would reread, but I'm glad I read

it. I love it. And I think one of the cool things

about this is normally I will praise comics when

they have, when they do flashbacks, when they

have different artists do, like you and I know

this. Livia Remedeli would always do the flashbacks

for the Transformers comics and IW for the most

part versus having like Alex Milne or whomever,

Andrew Griffith on the main art. This is all

Jim Lee. This is all him and the colorists and

everything else. I like that it's all him. Because

I love the way he draws the smallville stuff

or the or the past stuff with with Lana and everything

else I think that is super cool because it's

so different from the actual rest of the core

of this story Yeah, when you read a lot of the

90s jim lee stuff, you kind of feel like he's

got a style and There's nothing wrong with that.

His style is outstanding. He's very good at it.

Right. But then you look at the flashbacks in

this and you remember, holy cow, this, this guy

is just a brilliant artist. Like he can do different

styles, different sort of genres, even with it.

It's just, he doesn't always get the chance to,

you know, and this, I think it was probably fun

for him because it gave him an excuse to draw.

differently in different ways than he normally

gets to on all the different superhero comics

he does. Yeah, absolutely. It's really good.

I guess what I feel like I'm with you that it's

not. It's not something I need to have in in

physical trade paperback form so I can just pick

it off the shelf like, say, Snyder's Batman,

where. You know, I talked about it at the start.

I do kind of want that in physical form because

I just I'm consistently drawn back to it and

I reread it every year or so. So decided, you

know what? I want to keep these, et cetera, et

cetera. Anyway, it's really close to that, you

know, but just not quite. It's definitely worth

a read, though. I mean, if you're listening to

this and you've never read Superman Unchained

and you're curious about it, definitely should.

Certainly worth the read digitally or physically

if You want to pick it up and I don't like yeah,

it's gonna vary. It's a very good book There's

nothing wrong with owning it. It's not one that

you're gonna look at on your shelf and go Yeah,

no Well, the story is is awesome the Story is

awesome. The art is amazing It's a story that

has, like I said, it has beats that you don't

necessarily expect, but when you see them, you're

like, oh, that's nice. It's kind of like a nice

homage type of thing, but the story that they're

telling that Snyder is telling here is not. But

like I said, it's got legs. Obviously, but it's

not solely focused on Lex. It's more focused

on General Lane and the military and all of that.

And I think the only thing that bugs me, but

it doesn't bug me enough for me to like take

a point off or anything like that. Why they got

to call him Jim? He's freaking Jimmy. Jimmy.

Yeah, that was like that's the only thing, by

the way, every time they said Jim, I thought

of Jim Gordon. Yes, especially initially. I thought

like why is Superman talking to? To the police

chief and Gotham, you know, that doesn't he never

doesn't talk to him and then I remember it Oh,

yeah, right. It's Jimmy Olsen. Yeah, that's a

bit odd I will say that one other thing too.

This is something to get into maybe someday but

I read this and rereading Snyder's Batman and

keep in mind like I said before this Unchained

was not part of the standard Superman continuity

or the new stories in the new 52, which I think

is a mistake. But I read stuff like this, and

of course I read Snyder's Batman, and I go, why

did the new 52 fail? And, you know, eventually

I kind of come back around and remember that,

okay, you know, the quality of this stuff is

really high, but it wasn't that way across the

board. Yeah, certainly for every kind of big

swing and that kind of and that stuff they had

some real Weird decisions. I mean, I'll never

forget the first time I read the Reimagining

of mr. Freeze for example in the new 52 version

Which is just crazy. Oh, he was a crazy stalker.

Oh Who froze Nora like there's no sympathy or

anything He was sort of a crazy stalker who had

Nora froze because he was in love with her. Oh,

God. Yeah. And it's it was also so weird because

we weren't that far removed from Heart of Ice.

You know, it's only been like 10 years or so.

That's not a huge amount of time. And that was

the definitive kind of that's what made Mr. Freeze

not a joke. We were a long ways away from heart

of ice by the time new 52 came around Actually,

yeah be about 20. Well, what a year 20 years.

Yeah 20 years 92 to true true true. Yeah, but

even then In coming yeah, like that's time. That's

not a huge amount of time though Oh, you know,

you're talking about characters that have existed

for 60 some odd years Yeah So I don't know. I

just it was really weird. And yeah, I think of

decisions like that versus Some of the cool stuff

they did with these characters Yeah, and I kind

of go. Oh, yeah, right. That's what happens.

Whoops Yeah, and they what I love about Snyder's

Superman here is that he works everything into

the Superman story from the Superman character

point of view without Having to tell you the

origin of Superman. Yeah, you didn't need that

here at all Yeah, we don't need to need know

who Clark Kent is or that that's his yeah, like

it's I think Clark is barely in this like Clark's

in this in the beginning and Clark is in this

at the end close man, I think I talk about this

every time that We talk about or review anything

to do with Batman in media That we don't need

Batman's origin. We already know his parents

get killed He's a rich guy Dresses like a bat

the we know we know we don't need to see the

pearl necklace again Zach. Just leave it alone

We know everybody knows we're in the alley, oh

my god But yeah, I mean it just It's just one

of those things where, yeah, I love, that's another

reason why I love this story, is that it's a

whole story that does not prey on the Superman

tropes of including insert villain name here,

whatever, whatever, whatever, and it's not a

Superman origin story. Yeah, it's very accessible

without that too. Like, you don't need to know

every character. Like, even if you know the basics,

you know who... You know who Lex Luthor is and

we get in a very quick, not expository bit about

General Lane and he sums it up really quickly

and yeah, there's no need to. A lot of us, especially

those of us who have been reading this from the

start or for years and years, really don't need

a primer on who Superman is. The average person

probably doesn't either We know yeah, and again

one of the reasons why I love this is that monologue

is He basically introduces himself without really

needing to tell the reader Hey I'm an alien I

Might my planet blew up blah blah blah. I got

sent to earth blah blah blah. I have Kansas parents

smallville blah blah blah Yeah, didn't even do

any of that what didn't need to do any of that

at all, so yeah Superman on chained zero to five.

What are you gonna give it? Four like a high

four. Yeah, I agree. I wanna lean towards four

and a half Right, but I just can't yeah, it's

funny cuz like, you know, we talked about and

I can't put my finger on exactly what's missing

it's It's just on the tip of my tongue sort of

like, you know, but yeah, it is very good. Yeah,

it's worth reading. It is worth seeking out if

you enjoy the character. I think you should definitely

read this. Or if you're looking for what the

character is about, I think it's a perfectly

good book for that. It's. You know, just not

quite on the level of some of the. Super classic

stuff, but it's it's so close. Yeah, it gives

us everything that we need When it comes to Superman

It's in Snyder's voice. It's like you said there

is you know, he does bring over his quarter vowels

type whatever but that doesn't matter because

it's the Superman characters and even in the

flashbacks the flashbacks I love the flashbacks.

I thought it was great Him and Lana and all this

and all that and everything. They mentioned Pete.

It felt like Smallville. Yeah. Pete gets one

sentence mentioned. That was basically every

episode of Smallville. Pretty much. Oh yeah,

right. We need to include this character for

a second. He's in our credits. Yeah. Poor Pete.

Pete gets no respect. Peter Acher. Exactly. So

I think we're gonna go to a quick ad break. You're

gonna hear some ads and some other stuff and

we will come back to close the show right after

this. So how'd you do Batman's voice? Precise

muscle control. Plus I have a pretty good ear.

Don't do that again. Hello Geeks and Geekettes,

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on the Geekcast Radio Network. Hey Jared, I have

this idea for a new show for the network Yeah

What is it? You know how I liked the 1990s comic

book series the new warriors Yeah, yes. Yes.

Mm -hmm. Yep And you know how at the long boss

crusade we're trying to get the YouTube channel

going Yes, yes also correct Well, thanks! So,

how about you and me do a livestream show about

the new warriors? You've never read the books

before, and I have them, so that's a great setup.

We could give it a catchy name, like, Come Out

to Play. Don't you think that's the greatest

idea? Sure, sure, sure, Delvin, that's a great

idea. Just one question. Yeah? Why do you have

me dangling off this ledge, holding me by only

one arm? Oh, yeah. Well... You'll get it soon,

I hope. Come out to play. A new Warriors podcast

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Play, Spotify, Stitcher and everywhere you find

great podcasts. So, um, can I go now? Let him

go. He did everything you asked. No. Hello, listen

to the Up Nerd Podcast Network. We do podcasts

every week. That's your head break, huh? All

right, fine. You already gave me a better one.

I'm gonna insert anyway, you idiot. What's better

than a live read? Everybody loves those. Uh,

no. Hi, welcome to Up Nerd. What is Up Nerd?

Up Nerd is a podcasting network of shows hosted

by me, The Uneven Flow. People have told me I

like to talk at them about a pretty wide range

of topics, comics, games, movies, books, whatever,

and now I'll be able to talk at you. Along with

the weekly show will be two bi -weekly shows.

First we have Fine You Pick, a show where one

host picks a movie, then both hosts have to watch

it. Then the next episode, the other host picks

the movie. Each show will have a breakdown of

why it is that movie was picked by that host,

after which will be a discussion about what it

is we just watched. Lastly we have the show Top

3 Bottom 3. Similarly to Fine You Pick, one host

picks a television series, and the next week

the pick alternates to the other host. Here the

episodes of the show are chosen by the Top 3

episodes and the Bottom 3 episodes, as rated

on IMDb .com. Yes, this is probably the worst

way to watch and review a television show, and

yes, that's the idea. On our shows I'll detail

out how you can suggest things for us to watch,

you can reach out and talk with the hosts, and

maybe even appear on an episode. I hope you'll

join me for this exciting new podcast adventure.

I swear we're going to make it more than eight

episodes. All right, we are back here inside

the pull bag this is episode 552 Superman unchained

Go check it out. Like we've said, what do you

got coming up on up nerd, sir when this airs?

Who knows? We will probably have No, I know.

Um, yeah. Yeah the end of a no. No will yeah

No, no will fairly recently done caddy Shaq Not

to be confused. Not to be confused with Groundhog

Day, which is the actual movie we'll have done.

That is a weird inside joke. But anyway, now

we'll have done Groundhog Day because we've been

in a weird time loop a bit. And then, yeah, I've

got top three, bottom three of... The Witcher

in two weeks time. That'll be interesting. And

yeah, just recorded one on. Again, those two

will be out and this will be out as well in terms

of an X -Men 97 first two episodes discussion.

Which holy cow. Yeah, yeah, we just. Well, we'll

be here the rest of the night talking about that.

Don't do that. I don't know. Yeah, don't talk

about that off air I don't like nostalgia stuff

usually so like for it to be huh as enjoyable

as it was For me is really surprising surpassed

any of my expectations Absolutely beyond good

beyond evil evil beyond your wildest imagination

Yeah. See, I know the line. All right. Yeah.

Let's do one. Yeah. Watch that. Yeah. So watch,

watch X -Men 97 because by the time this airs,

hopefully all 10 episodes will be out by then.

Actually go outside these things. What would

you prefer? Yellow spandex. Almost forgot. Am

I going to war or a circus? What'd you expect?

Black leather? Thank you for joining us here

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at The Pull Bag for the show. I am at TFG and

Mike and Ryan is back on Twitter. Yes at up nerd

podcasts you can interact with us there. I'm

also on blue sky which you are also on. Yep.

I Don't promote that as much. Yeah, I don't promote

that as much because I just wish it was at TI

I don't like the oh, it's it's Why didn't they

just have it like whatever dot blue sky or something,

you know Yeah, or something easy to remember.

I'm old. I can barely remember what we just read,

you know. Yeah, exactly. Or just, you know, bluesky

.com slash TFG and Mike or at TFG and Mike or

whatever. I mean, it is the guy that did Twitter

originally, so you could always do whatever.

Anyway, you can check us out on Facebook as well.

Geocaster, you know, and the pull bag is up there

on Facebook. I don't think it's up there podcasts

on Facebook. There you go. Next time. I have

no idea. So. Enjoy that folks. I I have no idea

so that's that's what's coming up next on the

show for now. I am TFG and Mike with Please make

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great escape into comics and unleash the geek

in you snap out of it Kent or Joker gets the

last laugh that's not fair