Batman Smells, Robin Laid an Egg Review

Hi, this is Kevin Conroy, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. You've just jumped

inside the pull bag. Join TFG1 Mike and the rest

of the comic crew here at the GCRN as they make

their great escape into comics. From DC, Marvel,

and Image to IDW, Bloom Studios, and Xenoscope,

we have everything right here. We cover things

like Transformers, He -Man, Super Heroes, TMNT,

and Radiant Black. Yeah, we have all that and

so much more. It's all inside the pull bag here

on the Geekcast Radio Network. So, without further

ado, it's time to talk about the comics we're

reading right now, here inside the pull bag.

This is Kevin Conway. And I am the goddamn Batman.

hey hello and welcome to the pull bag this is

episode 570 i don't know if it'll be the last

one of 2024 but It might be. You never know,

folks. And I'm, of course, TF2 and Mike. It's

been a while since I've recorded one of these

things, since I had a bunch of stuff pre -recorded,

since I've steal Jesse's content, essentially.

It's not stealing. We share it. I republish it

on the pull bag after it's already gone through

his stuff. Permanently borrowing. Yes, yes. Exactly.

Permanently. I like that. I'm going to steal

that. And as you can hear, folks... Why are you

permanently borrowing my joke? Exactly. Hey,

well, you know, you didn't copyright it. Right

in the end even flow from up nerd. Yes. That's

right. Up Nerd Podcasts with an S. Up Nerd Podcasts

Network. Absolutely. So you have a podcast now.

Jesse has a podcast now. Everybody has a podcast.

You got a podcast. You got a podcast. You got

a podcast. Of course, that's the way it's been

since COVID and all that and everything else.

But this is episode 570 of the pull bag and it

is time for Christmas. I was not expecting a

holiday comic this year. I think the last holiday

comic we reviewed on this podcast was. EW holiday

special, which was what? 2015, 2016. Something

like that. Yeah, something like that. But DC

is jumping into the anthology of holiday. tails

with batman smells robin laid an egg just like

the song exactly did you think and the funny

thing is the the copy on dc's website dingle

bells batman smells robin laid an egg the batmobile

lost the wheel well you know the rest Read these

six merry tales about characters from DC you

set during the holiday season be enthralled by

dr. Midnight's literally silent night Become

captivated by dead man's story written by Marv

Wolfman and pondered the question in a world

without the Joker's torment Is it really a wonderful

life probably not wait? It was eight stories

not six Well, then whoever wrote this DC thing

needs to Fix it. I didn't write this. Interesting.

The first of the short stories is John Stewart

in Santa's Oath. Okay, so we'll go through one

by one and we'll see if you somehow found a copy

that was missing too, but anyway. I don't think

so, because I've read all, I've read them all.

Like I think it's just the copies wrong. I think

the copy from the web, I literally got this from

the DC comics website. I didn't get it from anywhere

else. So DC screwed up because you're right.

There are the, the eight stories here. So we

have, like you said, John Stewart in Santa's

oath written by Dorado quick art by ML. It's

an apple. Sorry if I'm against that colors by

a riff Piri onto your own toes by Dave. Sure

Uh -huh. Then we have these secret six in Secret

Santa written by drew maxi art by Mariana Ignasi

if nazi there we go. That's my brain wanted to

say that but I couldn't Giovanna Nero is on colors

and letters are done by pat brosu don constantine

okay sorry oh you crazy english speakers geez

although i'm not actually french my french accent's

terrible but anyway let's hear it i triple dog

dare you no John Constantine in the Ghosts of

Christmas Present, written by Ricardo Sanchez,

art by Aaron Conley, color by Ivan Placentia?

Yeah, Placentia. Okay, I just want to make sure.

Letters by Steve Wands. Probably my favorite

one, unfortunately, and not surprisingly, the

Joker in It's a Criminal Life. So much better

than the actual thing. Anyway, written by Alexis

Quasarano, art and color by... Marschel... I

can't pronounce that. I'm sorry. Marschel Toledano

Vargas. There you go. Letters by Carlos M. Manguel.

Then we have Dead Man and Dead Man Walking written

by the legendary Marv Wolfman. Pencils by Paul

Pelletier. Inks by Norm Rapamond. Hey actual

people I know by their name. Color by Erin Angolini.

Letters by Carlos M. Mangle again. Dr. Midnight

and Silent Night written by James Reid. Art by

Francisco Fransavilla letters by Frank Avila

Frank Avila. Sorry. I've met them. Anyway, yeah,

awesome. Very cool. You'll tell that story later.

Oh Boy those vixen stuff. I'm gonna need help

with that one vixen in the perfect gift written

by Zippora Smith. Okay. There we go. I wasn't

sure Art and color by Andrew drillin Letters

by Josh Reed, probably not the former Buffalo

Bill's second round pick in the early 2000s,

anyway. Oh, and then finally Superman in Oh Glowy

Night written by Calvin Keseluki? Could be wrong

on that. Art by Anthony Marquez and colors by

Will Quintana and letters by Pat Bersou. Bersou

again. Yep. The main cover is done by Riley Rosmo.

The variant covers, I don't actually have the

variant covers in front of me, but they were

done by... I didn't see them either. Yeah. Santa

Zong, who I do not know who that is, actually.

And then Lee Bermagio, who I think most people

know who that is. Anyway. Absolutely. Famous

for his covers and interiors on Joker and...

Luther, that was it. It's two most notable ones

anyway. Absolutely. Absolutely. Before I mentioned

this to you, had you heard about, had you seen

this? Had you heard about this, that they were

doing this? Nope. Okay. I don't know where I

saw it. I don't, I, it was on some DC, either

Facebook or Twitter or something. And I was like,

Ooh, really? Interesting. Very interesting So

the first one is The Green Lantern story. Yep

Santa's oath Which I mean Lantern comes across

Seemingly Mrs. Claus, but anyway, yes being toy

jacked I guess by toy man Toy Man who appears

in two different books and gets captured in both

of them, poor guy. It's a rough Christmas for

him. Anyway. Yeah. And yeah, turns out she and

Green Lantern end up teaming up. She has the

one of the hope rings and they team up, take

Toy Man down and get the bag for the kiddies.

Yep. I think newly noted here. I liked how they

did the story with so most of these have like

some type of quote heart unquote. I really like

how they did John Stewart story where he tells

her, you know, how come Santa never showed up

for me? And she explains like, Oh, you needed

somebody who was always there for you. You could

believe in and I don't know. It was just kind

of sweet. Sort of the highlights of that story

for me anyway Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, the highlight

and the writing for that was the whole you know,

you know, you needed your mom You needed someone

to be with them with you all the time so They

put her in blue and when I first saw the blue

panel I was like with her out in her get up with

the ring on I was like Very godmother. Where's

Cinderella? That was my first thought Yeah, that's

the hope panel. All the lantern rings correspond

to color, but yeah, for some reason, hope is

that kind of brightish blue, usually. But it's

just how she looks in the blue. It's not about

the blue itself. It's about the get up and the

fact that, again, I'm not, it's not the end.

Hope should be orange. Feel like hope should

have be orange and it should have been orange.

I know we're going back into Green Lantern lore

here. But anyway, I thought I thought our fleas

was evil isn't orange. Yes No, I'm just saying

no, I'm just saying like I feel like you the

color when I think of hope I don't think of blue

Okay, it's just a weird choice to me for color

period Same with I guess willpower is green.

I'm not sure if that's anyway Oh green means

go so and red means stop so you got to stop the

evil and go with the heroes, right? I don't know

sure That's a cool ass sleigh though. That's

awesome Toy man had the robot reindeer. Yeah,

they did he does have robot reindeer. Those are

cool But John's always had awesome constructs

whether it's in comics or animation. Yeah, he

has An imagination unlike some Jesus Jordan characters

Well how stuff is always like planes or stuff

he knew from 1950 whatever yep Yep, and yeah,

they they save Quote -unquote Christmas or they

save the night and I like that one. I like the

Green Lantern one is good Was not so sure about

this secret Santa the secret six Santa thing

Oh it focuses on Bane as he tries to figure out

who is his secret Santa and It's It's sort of

amusing I'm not a huge fan of it. I know part

of it is because to be blunt I have Fallen in

love with the Bane parody that's in Harley Quinn

People who listen to Ufnerd can hear us talk

about seasons one, two and three of Harley Quinn.

But anyway, it's a parody of a mixture of Bane

and the Tom Hardy Bane. And so whenever I read

his voice now, I read it in that voice, which

probably doesn't help any. Overall, yeah also

to be fair secret six or at least this iteration

of it has some of like not great Characters,

I don't know. There's been a lot of different

secret sixes and suicide squads and stuff and

I don't know. This is not the best lineup for

them. But whatever anyway, yeah, it's a solid

little story He tries to figure it out and sort

of questions each one of them and he goes through

his thoughts on each one It's amusing little

story and then he gets gifted. Spoiler alert,

he gets gifted his bear from his time in prison.

Yep. And then he gives his blood, which I mean,

I know why he does it. He does it so that she

has a piece of him with her all the time, which

is oh, so sweet. It's a little disturbing. I

don't know. Very, very disturbing. Don't feel

like hanging around with people's blood. Yeah,

no. No, not at all. Also, I've never been a big

fan of Deadshot. Just got to throw that one out

there. I mean, he's kind of like lame punisher.

Other than Harley, I don't give two shits about

the Suicide Squad. Well, this is secret shit.

I know this is secret. Well, you mentioned Deadshot.

Yeah, well Deadshot's been in both, but yeah.

Yeah, but like, because that's where I know him

from mainly. Yeah, I don't care about him. I

don't care about any of those other characters.

Like you said this lineup probably isn't This

is probably like outside of Bane. This is probably

like C tier DC characters I would say maybe D

tier like it that you know, you're not getting

your Most people have heard of Deadshot, but

yeah, the others are not. Outside of Bane and

Deadshot, I'm saying the rest of them. People

have heard of Catman, but mostly because he's

a meme, like before they kind of reinvented him,

etc. But yeah, anyway. And the only reason why

I know Catman is because he was in Justice League

and Justice League Unlimited for a couple episodes.

And Scandal Savage is not an interesting... character

although to be fair comics vandal savage is not

super interesting either anyway i mean the dude

just wants to destroy the earth like he just

wants to be by himself and he's oh no he's he's

kind of discount no real motivation rachael ghoul

but anyway he's rachael ghoul if you took away

any interesting aspect very true And I will say,

now I have not read a lot of Bane comics, so

keep that in mind when I say this, folks. This

is probably the most interesting thing I've ever

seen Bane do. Bane can be fun. Bane can be a

good character. Yeah, no, he can be. But in comics

specifically, okay, not just in comics specifically,

but in my lore of Bane, Batman and Robin, a few

times he showed up at that I was terrible in

the animated series, except for out of the past

when they finally kind of gave him a story and

a writer who gave him something to do and actually

made him threatening. He's just sort of generic

strong guy and all the others. But you know,

I mean like comics version of him is better.

Harley Quinn version of him is hilarious. So

anyway. Very cool. John Constantine in Ghost

of Christmas Present. Yeah good old John Constantine

yeah I was wondering how they're gonna do a Constantine

story when I first saw the. List of upcoming

stories cause Constantine's just a old prickly.

Jerk kind of yeah I don't really associate John

Constantine with Christmas no. So you so we were

saying earlier about hearing voices when with

Green Lantern obviously I hear Phil Lamar because

of John Stewart because that's who he played

in Justice League Justice League Unlimited with

this I hear Matt Ryan because that's who was

kind of cool team the former quarterback from

the Falcons Wow, no His name is Matt Ryan, right

the actor. I believe so. I believe so. Yes Well,

I have to double -check you talk about the story

while I double -check my facts here No, it's

just sort of Constantine and he is to be visited

by at least one ghost it turns out it's his and

he gets kind of haunted who His ghost slash demon

following him puts together pretty much the worst

possible day for John he gets Well, he throws

up on himself. He gets It's a rough day Ruin

his nice Christmas sweater Yep. It's an odd one.

He's very British and very Constantine. I don't

know. It's kind of fun, though. Yeah, it was

very fun. I very much enjoyed it. And yes, I

was correct. Matt Ryan. Real name according to

Wikipedia, Matthew Darren Evans. So suiting him.

He's actually only a year younger than us. Wow.

So maybe it was the quarterback. Oh, anyway.

No, it wasn't the dang quarterback. Boy but yeah,

no I like for the little that I've seen of Constantine

in the in the Berlanti verse or arrow verse or

whatever you want to call that and then reading

this I'm like, oh, this is kind of cool and and

fun He's mostly just a curmudgeon that fights

demons. Yeah pretty much He's very British. Yes,

very British and then we get it's a criminal

life only the joker could do this story fine

i don't know i wasn't as big on this as you apparently

this is yeah the joker loses his will to go on

when he's stopped by robin and batman can't even

be bothered to show up So another robin who he

killed which by the way that's a little interesting

which robin is that cuz jason is not dead. Yeah

but he's not dead he's not dead now but he's

not dead i know he's not now but in this fictional

area of story apparently he's dead. Alright anyway,

I don't know I don't think these are because

these are anthologies I don't think they're trying

to tie all of this in no I mean I knew it had

to be Jason Todd and you get the crowbar reference

as well, too It just it was kind of funny to

me reading it cuz I'm like, well, technically

you didn't actually manage to kill it Robin cuz

he's back. So yeah, he didn't even manage that

Joker Yeah, anyway biggest most overrated things

in Batman lore Martha's fucking pearls and that

goddamn crowbar. He overused that all the time.

It's not here though. I mean the crowbar is here

but yeah anyway. So he's haunted by Robin who

tries to show him that the world would be a better

or is a better place sorry with him and not without

him except he's wrong. The world is much better

without him. and there's absolutely no crime.

I appreciate that he brings crime back and as

soon as he drops the gun, Joe Chill shoots two

people who just happen to be Bruce's parents

anyway, which is just kind of funny. It's so

wrong. And yeah, it helps Joker see that no,

he's needed. He needs to bring fun and entertainment

to Gotham. And so he decides he wants to live

and Robin gets his wings, although he does get

Resurrected by the Lazarus pit and then they

use clay face to fake his body for a bit and

then anyway, oh geez I Do wish I could have Mark

Hamill say that last line though And if Steve

was here he would do it I might actually have

Steve do it if I can get him to do it before

I edit this episode Move over Santa joker's coming

to town Hmm. Oh Yeah, it's no it's fun. It's

a cute spin on yeah It's something to do with

the Joker that's not thoroughly out of character.

So I mean, it works. Yeah, it works very well.

I have never been a dead man fan. I don't, yeah,

not a huge fan either. It's not a, so again,

they, they find a way to use him, which is good

though. So in this story, there's a mine collapsed.

All the miners are trapped inside. dead man being

non -corporeal. So he just inhabits people for

anyone not familiar with them, but he's non -corporeal

when he's outside of inhabiting a person, but

he's able to go between the outside of the mind

and the inside of the mind. And he essentially

like grabs people and coordinates efforts so

that the mind doesn't collapse. And Randomly

the children decide to wander out just a little

odd I don't know if I had you know, if I was

taking care of the kids or something while the

miners are Working and then their mind collapses.

I probably wouldn't just ferry all the children

over Maybe it was after 430 and the babysitters

all decided to go home there. So they're like

well I'm not staying tonight I mean i'm not getting

paid for this am i so you just drag him to the

mine like here stare at this your dad's somewhere

under that anyway uh but they sing carols and

dead man's able to free up enough rocks so they

can breathe and then presumably get out at some

point he doesn't actually stay until they're

completely free it's very very poor superhero

work you gotta make sure the job's finished Yes,

you do absolutely And then dr. Midnight in silent

night. I Like this quite a bit actually. So I

mean the art does all the heavy lifting. It's

very noir ish Dr. Midnight Comes a well dr. Midnight

pursues a criminal Turns out he's providing for

his family at Christmas time. Things are pretty

bad the Person the father who? Did the criminal

activity presumably some type of robbery ends

up getting shot dr. Midnight ends up saving his

life Oh, he also did it I should mention he also

did it and boy, this is timely. Anyway, he also

did it because the Daughter is very very sick

And so it couldn't afford the bills for Christmas

So anyway, and yeah, and it's Christmas time.

So anyway, um, yeah, so he turned to a life of

crime. He gets shot by the police. Dr. Midnight

saves his life. Dude ends up going to prison

while he's headed to prison though. Dr. Midnight

in his normal everyday persona comes up with

some type of cure or something for the daughter.

And so when he gets out, finally he's. The father

is ecstatic to see and he's reunited with you

know, his healthy family and things are seemingly

better Yes, the only quibble I have with this

one Not enough CEOs get anyway No Stop it Stop

it The only quibble I have with this one, and

it's just, it's very much a nitpick, I do not

like that owl at the end, because even though

these are anthologies, I feel like every time

DC puts an owl in anything, there's gonna be

a court somewhere. I mean, no. There were no

owls for like decades before the Scott Snyder

story. But that's what I'm saying! Now, well,

since 2011, every time an owl shows up, I'm like,

oh crap. I go also like owls are kinda like doctor

midnight thing they always were anyway. Honestly

I think this is the first doctor midnight thing

I've ever read so I maybe I need to do some research

for next year folks. Up next we have a vixen

in the perfect gift iron or start with this fix

is trying to find a gift for Ben and like yeah

I gotta be honest with you the stakes have never

been lower. Yeah this is yeah. The art is nice,

the art looks cool, but the overall story plot

is just like, okay, this could be a Hallmark

commercial. Not even a Hallmark commercial. Come

on, Vixen, you don't know what he would want,

you know? Yeah, you don't know what he would

want, really? Well, no, he's a dude. Just get

him a new PlayStation game or like, you know.

So many choices. So many choices. So many choices.

And then I mean, I was cool on this one. I'm

not super big on Vixen. God, I think I've only

read. Maybe a couple of books that that she's

in. Yeah. Yeah, and even then, like not as a

starring character, I mean, my apologies for

anyone who. You know, that's your favorite character.

But yeah, I just haven't I just haven't read

a lot with her in it, unfortunately. So, I mean,

I'm not super attached with the characters. Yeah,

that's fine. I mean, that's also what anthologies

are for. You know, it's it's like the old 90s

soundtracks. There's going to be some songs,

you know, and then some songs nobody's ever by

groups or that just nobody's ever heard of. So

it happens. Yeah, could be different for everybody.

Yep. And then we end with, oh, glowy night. Speaking

of characters I've never heard of, there's this

Superman guy. Mark Bent? Yeah, he busts Toy Man.

This is, by the way, the animated Toy Man who's

more of an actual toy. Yep. Which was interesting

after we saw the human form that he's usually

drawn in in the first story. Anywho. He blesses

Toy Man and discovers that he's glowing. And

the rest of the book is him visiting. Well, I

mean, first guess is pretty good. Let's be honest,

Luther, but so he visits, you know, enemies.

He visits friends. He visits someone who is,

uh, gosh, I can't remember the name now. The

character who basically like devours light. Anyway,

he's looking for a cure. Thank you. Jeez. I don't

know why it's based on that. He even visits Parasite

who's locked up and like, nobody can take this

away. And of course he discovers the source of

it is Mr. Oh boy. Yeah, he just calls him Miz,

which is fine with me. Yeah, this was fun. I

liked the resolution which was funny, which is

he can turn it off, but he has to clap But it

also means anytime anybody claps it just turns

on again and pretty much blinds everybody the

solution is kind of sweet from mixie though that

he tries to you know, he's trying to brighten

things up for the humans and Deliver sunlight

in the dreariness of winter which anyone who

lives up here knows about Yes Absolutely. Only

89 more days to go because Clark always has to

keep the counter on for when Izzy's pitlick stops

by again. Yep, three months. Yep, yep, yep. And

then at the end of this, I have an advertisement

for an upcoming Valentine's issue. No more Mrs.

Nice Harley. Harley Quinn written by Elliot.

Klan and artist Mindy Lee team up to make Gotham

City safer for crime again So apparently that's

Apparently that's a new monthly title or I I

don't know. I just saw Valentine's on it. So

I assumed it was Just a Valentine's one -shot.

It seems like it's gonna be an ongoing. I don't

know I haven't even looked at information on

this but Wasn't in the one I read so don't look

at me Apparently you got eight and a half stories

not six. I just got eight and apparently Yeah,

I like this I think this is fun. It's fun. It's

good little like Christmas issue. I don't know

how I Wouldn't I think it's it's for longtime

DC fans I Don't think it's great for kids. The

Superman story maybe, but like, man, some of

it. So I mean - No, no, no, this is not a kid's

book. I mentioned the Dr. Midnight. I know I'm

just saying like a lot of the time though, you

associate sort of holiday specials and that kind

of thing with kids. You've got that, the Dr.

Midnight story, the Joker story, obviously, Bane

relating his time in prison and everything else.

And just Constantine in general. Yeah. Yeah,

I don't know what they were thinking with this

Like I say, I think it's just sort of a fun thing

for the DC Hardcore Yeah, absolutely. And I think

that's who it's for. I don't yeah, absolutely

I think if they wanted to do something like a

deep Batman smells Robin layed an egg kids version

they could and they should if they wanted to

but yeah I think it'd be more the animated style

like the final Superman short story here was

Yeah, absolutely think about this though is if

you have a comic You got a comic that the title

of it is Batman smells And there's no Batman

in it Like I would have taken out no disrespect

to any of the creative team. No disrespect to

mr. Wolf To be fair, he does appear in Vixen's

story And he does briefly appear in Jokers as

well while Bruce Wayne for one tiny panel, but

yeah Yeah, tiny panel. So here's what I would

have done with this you take what we just discussed

Have Batman be the Jim not Jimmy Stewart Jiminy

Cricket you have Batman be the narrator you have

Batman be the gonzo you have Batman Have you

know like giving us little like Thought bubbles

between each story like a little like bullet

point at the beginning and end of each story

with what Batman thought of the story or something

I'm sure is that that's that much fun Batman's

famously not exactly a barrel of laughs. I don't

know. I think it's fine That man doesn't have

to be in every DC book. He's already in way too

many What are we up to now? How many are we up

to? Oh, really? Oh, interesting. I have no idea

either. During this, I thought it was a fun little

thing for especially for me for a lot of characters

that I've never read or just don't read in general.

Mm hmm. Yeah. It was nice to have a little like.

Again, this is my this probably everybody's biggest

complaint 90 plus years of comics especially

in DC's case You know, where do you start? What

kind of continuity yada yada yada yada yada?

This is non continuity single stories beginning

middle end And there you go So it's fine. I like

the anthology stuff. I kind of wish they would

play with the format more often in most of the

big companies and just every once in a while

just forget the continuity and just have like

a One -off like this doesn't even even if they

were to do it just once in a while not even have

it sort of holiday themed or anything like that

It's fun. Whenever you get to kind of dump the

continuity for a bit mm -hmm yep yep so as I

am sitting here trying to Google to figure out

how many Batman books are currently running one

of the results was how many DC Batman comics

are there Batman has currently over eight thousand

four hundred and thirty six so are we gonna get

an issue ten thousand at some point probably

That was my first thought. Ryan, what are you

currently reading for your comic book enjoyment?

So stuff I enjoy? Oh, man. I can think of one

I'm leaving off. No, anyway. Transformers. It's

okay. I don't know. Anyway. Don't know I wasn't

really prepped for this one. I mean, I'm still

reading monstrous every month. It comes out it

continues to be fantastic Obviously like the

heavy hitters like saga stuff like that for individual

ones. I don't know. It's been a really good year

for Indie comment comics. I've read stuff like

in utero and singularity and stuff like that.

I recently started reading something is killing

the children which I'm for trades into now. Getting

caught up on that. Been enjoying it from James

Tynan. Absolute Batman is quite good and different.

Been enjoying that from DC, obviously. Marvel

stuff, I don't know. Fall of X was not great.

That was the end of the Krakoa era. The relaunch

stuff has been okay. But I don't know not in

love with it so far Well, that's good. If you're

not in love with it, we're not covering it we

covered house and power of X but if you're telling

me that it's not good then Well, I mean, this

is the post Krakow era. This is from the ashes

Yeah, the new sort of relaunch of it and I mean,

it's fine. It's just I don't know they It's hurt

by the fact that fall just sort of happened very

rapidly and they kind of Skipped over stuff anyway

It's fine though There's other stuff. I'm sure

of not thinking of oh the ultimate series. Oh

god. How could I leave that out? all of the ultimate

books surprisingly have been fantastic unlike

their predecessors except for The old Ultimate

Spider -Man was really, really good. The current

Ultimate Spider -Man is somehow actually better.

And then the rest of the stuff like Ultimates

and Ultimate X -Men is a fair amount better,

although partially because the old books have

not aged well. Ugh, Mark Millar. Why? Anyway.

The Mark Millar challenge write one book without

either incest or Terribly dated gay jokes. Oh,

no Which he cannot do. No, I mean like the old

ultimate books. They were filled with that anyway.

Oh boy What would you rate Batman smells Robin

Lin and eggs air to five? All right, I was gonna

do it out of ten what doesn't work give it a

four 3 .75 or four. Yeah, I'm ready to 3 .5 pretty

much. I like that I enjoyed it. I hope that they

do something like it like. i don't know if this

is the start of a new anthology series that they're

going to do once a year every year for christmas

i don't know if they're going to start this and

thought like they can't call it batman smells

robin laid an egg for valentine's day or april

fools or flag day or anything but here's hoping

they do something with this next year because

i would be interested to see other store other

holiday stories with various dc characters like

i said even then i Don't mind the idea of like

a short anthology or short story compilation

of four or five, you know, pages. Just jumping

continuity or something like that. Just kind

of like give some of your writers free rein.

It's one of the negatives you always talk about

that you like to read series from their beginning

and jump into them at that point. The problem.

is obviously like that's not possible with some

of these books like Batman, for example, now

has 8 ,000 some odd issues if you want the full

quote unquote Batman story of everything that's

happened to him. Yeah. But I mean, imagine being

a writer and a you've got to try to come up with

something different that somebody hasn't done

before. And B, you have to try to keep in mind

at least the major events. That he is experienced.

Like if you in your book, you write that he broke

his back or something like that, and you forget

to mention like, gee, this happened to me before

or something like that. People are going to get

real mad. So I just think the idea of giving

writers a chance to play with these characters

that are iconic without the burden of 50 or 60

years of continuity is kind of nice. To do once

in a while i mean that's why stuff like the ultimate

universe. Happens or the absolute stuff from

dc right now is. Some writers just want a chance

to play with the characters but it's just not

possible to tweak them that much in the main.

Universe. or else somebody's going to get upset

with you or the next writer has to somehow find

a way to change it back or like it's one of the

problems with the long, long, long term comic

characters. He can't do much to Batman. They're

not going to let you. Yeah, they're not going

to let you. and the thing is is that you have

you're right i mean overall the character of

batman has almost 8 500 issues of comics in 85

years because this year is the 85th anniversary

of batman but here's the thing as long as you

keep the genesis as long as you keep the The

building blocks sort of similar and you have

an interesting story or whatever. We've seen

a lot of stories and honestly, after 12 and a

half, almost 12, 12 and a half years of this

podcast, I know everyone was all up in arms about

the new 52, erasing the continuity of the last

75 years at the time or 70 years of the time,

whatever it was back in 2011. And it's like,

at this point in 2024, I'm like, Every piece,

like every story, it's sectionalized for me personally.

Like New 52 is its own thing. The DC Rebirth,

I don't know if they're still doing the DC Rebirth

or if they did with Dawn of DC, if they changed

it other than Rebirth or whatever, but we've

seen DC reboot their universe three or four different

times since New 52. I think the issue was New

52, though, took over. The existing universe

at least that was the concept before they eventually

they eventually kind of went back and that's

fine, but I think that's why something like Absolute

or ultimate is probably going to be a little

more accepted because it doesn't change the main

universe if people want to keep reading the X

-Men with Cyclops and Logan and stuff like that

it still exists, but if you Want a different

story or different origin to them. Here's this

other series that exists and now there's two

sets of ultimate X -Men and there's been you

know other like alternate universe ones but.

Yeah I think I think that's the issue is that

if you have one just sort of overwrite the other

that's why it can be really hard to do legacy

characters. Which is a whole other can of worms,

but it is it can be done, you know, like Nobody

cared about the original Captain Marvel. So Years

after he dies, you know, Miss Marvel rises to

Carol Danvers and then you get a new Miss Marvel

and the two characters exist you had the opportunity

for Carol to become different and change, which

by the way was one of my issues with new 52.

Cause I was ecstatic to see Dick Grayson be bad.

I thought that was an interesting series of stories

was Dick Grayson as Batman at stepping out of

the shadow. And then they immediately tried to

course correct and one to bring it back, which

I mean, to be fair, I loved new 52 from Scott

Snyder, which was. Probably like Snyder's new

52 stuff was probably the best out of all the

Series and it's the one that's had the most lasting

impact because I mean you mentioned court of

owls. Well, that's where they came from but I

will argue Gale Simone's Batgirl and Kyle Higgins's

Nightwing, but they are all three of them between

Scott Snyder, Gale Simone and Kyle Higgins. All

three of those series for New 52 are top tier.

Yeah, those are fair. And that's, yeah, good

mentions too. No, that's true. But yeah, I think

it was just the overriding, which I mean, it

annoyed me, but I mean, when I finally sat down

and stopped being a whiny jackass. And read Snyder's

Batman. I was like, Oh, it's really good. So

yeah, it was very, very good and very, very fun.

And we have, I think covered all of Snyder's

Batman, at least all of the original run on the

podcast. I think we have, I think you did that

with me. I forget who did that with me. It was

probably you. We did some of it. I remember that.

Yeah. I know Steve started it with me because

the whole reason why I even started the pull

bag was Steve showed me the cover to issue 13

but the Joker's face on it because that was the

sort of death of the family and I'm like I hear

Mark Hamlin that picture let me go to the comic

shop now and then you know started the pull bag

and all that I have 13 years later here we are

All right, anything else you want to say about

Batman smells Robin laid an egg or anything else

before I send it to a quick No, we kind of went

off topic. But yeah, it's okay. It's solid and

enjoyable. I'll be quiet now It's not what oh

my god Don't have to be I was asking if you had

anything else I was I think we I think we I think

we covered it and like I said it went off so

it's fine all right folks we're gonna go to a

quick ad break and here's some ads and some other

stuff like the fine ad I received from some sort

of Canadian network called up nerd podcasts so

you'll hear that and some other stuff right after

this 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 find new 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 gonna make it more

than eight episodes. Are you missing entertainment

in your life? Welcome to Captain Ruggles Gaming.

Whether it's guides, roleplay content, or our

shenanigans with our collaborations with the

20 years standing strong fart clan, also known

as fast action response team, or the wrecking

crew, we have something for everyone. So join

us when we traverse the cosmos of space games,

survive the undead in zombie games, or just having

fun in first person shooters or random indie

games. Visit us now at geekcastradio .com and

youtube .com slash at symbol Captain Ruggles

or Google search Captain Ruggles gaming. It's

game time and I'll see you but on the battlefield.

You are receiving this transmission from the

rod pod upload pending. Stand by for soundtrack

transfer. I am Maggie. And I am John. And we

are trapped, hurtling through space in a ship

shaped like Rodimus's head. The ship, for reasons

we haven't been able to determine, contains the

entire run of the IDW Transformers Phase 2 comic.

Which chronicle the events following the end

of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons.

So we figure we may as well read them all in

order and report our findings to you. Stand by.

Stand by. Upload complete. Now. The Rod Pod.

Look for us at Married W Comics. dot libson dot

com at itunes at stitcher or wherever good podcasts

can be found so uh tell all or one tell all or

one all right folks we are back here inside the

570th episode of the pull bag we are 30 away

from 600 it quite literally is the longest running

podcast on the geek cast radio network as far

as overall numbered episodes and Yeah, that's

that's gonna do it for us. So you Ryan where

can the people find your podcast again? What

the heck's it called? I forget up nerd podcasts

you can find us on up nerd dot captivate FM,

but we're also on YouTube up nerd podcasts Where

we keep uploading new videos? Of the podcast

there. And yeah, we just keep chugging along.

We just did top three, bottom three that released.

The week we're recording this of transformers

generation one. Then we have got variety, whatever

Abby and I decide on this week. And then after

that we have fine you pick of the artifice girl.

As I continue on our haute couture indie film.

Chats and then top three bottom three of Cagney

and Lacey, which will be sometime in the new

year Very cool. Very cool. Check that out folks.

It's very very fun. Very very interesting and

awesome as always So thank you for joining us

here inside the pullback if you'd like to get

in contact with us to leave feedback for the

show There are several ways to do so visit the

website geocastradio .com where you can listen

to and comment on all of our content For this

holiday season you can visit shop .geekcastradio

.com. We have a brand new store where you can

order t -shirts up to 4XL, mugs, glasses, all

kinds of cool other stuff. We're adding stuff

all the time. I still gotta have Steve add that

winter beanie. He's busy though, but I'll remind

him to do that. You can send any email to feedback

at geek cast radio .com You can catch us on all

the podcasting clients. You choose to use Apple

Spotify, etc You can find us on X at geek cast

radio at the pull bag. I am at TF2 and Mike Are

you Xing out these days? Nah, mostly just on

blue sky, which is a nerd podcast B sky dot social

Awesome, awesome. You can find us on Facebook,

Geekcast Radio Network, and The Pull Bag as well.

Join us next time when we will be discussing

myself and Matrix Prime, aka Jesse Early. We

are going to be doing G .I. Joe Number One from

Skybound Entertainment. For now, I am TF2 and

Mike with Brian the Uneven Flow. As always, make

your great escape into comics, and we will catch

you next time. And the sad thing is when she

does her transformation they put her in blue

Edit point Wow dying on your own podcast. Yep.

Well, it's been 569 episodes. I might as well

die on the 570th one What is that saying that

life is what happens to you while you're busy

making other plans? I never ever planned on doing

this kind of work. You've just heard the latest

episode of The Pullback, the GCRN's first comic

review and discussion podcast. There are several

ways to get in touch with us and leave feedback

for the show. You can visit the website geekcastradio

.com where you can comment on the episode and

all of our different podcasts. you can rate and

leave a review for the show on iTunes. Be sure

to leave us feedback. Become a fan of us on Facebook,

facebook .com slash the pull bag. Send us an

email, feedback at geekcastradio .com. Follow

us on Twitter at the pull bag and at geekcastradio.

So until next time, make your great escape into

comics and unleash the geek in you. My brain's

not a nice place to be.