C.O.W.L. Volume 1 – Principles of Power

Hi, this is Kyle Higgins and you're listening

to the Geek Patch Radio Network. Welcome to The

Polebags Back Issue Classics. Join us as we talk

about comics from yesteryear, from DC, Marvel

and more. So open your ears to hear our discussion.

the older continuity as the back issue classics

are also what's in the pull bag hello and welcome

to the pull bag this is yet again another back

issue classics episode I am your host TF2 on

Mike and you listeners might be wondering wait

this is November we're supposed to be punishing

stuff yeah well sadly Frank didn't rob any banks

for me so Am joined by one half of the Punisher

body count crew Dan Lamont. Hello, sir. Hey Mike

glad to be on yes, and How many just out of curiosity

because you're pretty much known for your your

Punisher podcast and your Punisher reading How

many other comics do you read besides anything

to do with Punisher? Oh, you know often what

I've been doing these past few days is just finding

comics that I've been meaning to catch up on

and Just burning through them like I currently

have a friend of mine who really wanted to get

into Constantine because of the show And so I

said like oh, I have some digital copies I can

just send those to you and then I just started

pulling out the physical copies and started reading

through them because there's like three trade

paperbacks I just never read but mostly like

every week Look through the comic shop and then

I just pick whatever it really tickles my fancy

like last time I went to the comic book shop

I got volume one of Usagi Yojimbo and That's

great. That's only 25 bucks for like a thousand

pages of material and I also got the moon night

issues that came after Warren Ellis, which are

okay and Then I got the trade paper back to J.

Michael tris strasinski's Twilight Zone, so I

normally get like three things either trade paperbacks

or comics And by the way, just for a fair warning

do not buy J. Michael Straczynski's Twilight

Zone that man is not but yeah You know what?

I want in my Twilight Zone comics an ongoing

story with almost no supernatural elements This

is fucking golden who allowed this? Who allowed

this horse shit? Because it's taken me a little

while and actually the the trade for the first

five issues just released But it's taken me a

little while here in the pullback to get to one

of my new favorite comics that has nothing to

do with DC or Marvel But it does have to do with

a DC freelance comic writer that I've been following

since his glorious days on New 52 Nightwing,

which we absolutely know that Jake absolutely

loves that stuff. Absolutely. Yes. I can't do

that. I can't do that joke. I just can't. So,

Kyle Higgins, I started reading him on Nightwing

and went to him on Batman Beyond 2 .0. Both of

those series are now dead at DC. DC is on the

verge of doing some sort of weird convergence

thing next year so they can move from New York

to LA. At this point in my comic reading, I've

been reading comics since late 2012. The Pull

Bag, we launched it in March of 2013. So for

the better part of two years, I've been reading

a lot of DC stuff, and then I gradually get into

IDW. Everybody knows this. But with Kyle, I had

seen his short film called The League. uh...

it's a really really cool twenty seven minutes

or from the i know twenty seven minutes isn't

exactly a short film but it flows very nicely

it's about a superhero labor union in nineteen

sixty chicago uh... kyle is originally from chicago

that's his hometown and everything else so i

knew that it was going to be something really

good in his influences are you know stuff like

the sixty six batman and stuff like that and

what that was what that short film was introduced

us to jeffrey warner the blaze God I'm blanking

on the other the night the Dick Grayson like

character in that I can't remember off top my

head talking about the guy that later teams up

with Catherine No, no, no, no, that's completely

different. Okay. Um Completely that's Carl. Yeah.

Yeah. No, no, no, no, not not not Carl Reginald

No, no Reginald is the blaze in the short film.

He wears a nightwing like costume. You have to

give me that well, it's it's a Amalgamation of

Nightwing and Green Lantern because he has sort

of like Green Lantern powers The league let me

see here if I can get this website up here league

film Please don't tell me you're thinking of

Tom Hayden. No, no, no, no, no, okay. I'm gonna

tell you here in a second Uh, trailer, filmmakers,

cast. Oh, you were thinking of the movie? Yeah.

Oh, alright. The Wrath, that's what it is. In

the movie, the character known as the Wrath is

pretty much the character that... You know is

is the Nightwing Dick Grayson type of character

I Believe I could be wrong. I don't know anyway

So basically what we're talking about ladies

and gentlemen is image comics newest series called

cowl Chicago organized Workers League and as

I said earlier, this is a comic about a what

if there was a superhero labor union in 1960

Chicago. And volume one has just released collects

the first five issues. It's by Kyle Higgins,

Alex Siegel and Rod Rice. Welcome to the Chicago

Organized Workers League, the world's first superhero

labor union after World War Two, Jeffrey Warner,

the Gray Raven, Reginald Davis, the Blaze and

Paul Braddock Sparrow. speared a campaign to

bring heroes together in Chicago, striking a

contract with the city and giving birth to the

first organization of its kind. Now in 1962,

Warner and Cowell face their fiercest foe yet,

a disillusioned public. In taking down the last

of the great villains, members of Cowell must

prove their value to the world and to each other

while staving off new threats from both inside

and outside their offices. Love this first of

all I I watched the league and I was like this

is awesome This is like what this is it what

what a serious Batman 66 would have been like

You know I Just thought it was great. When did

you? Was me telling you about this the first

time you'd heard about it. Honestly. Yeah, and

I'm glad you did like I'm always a little bit

wary of it's a superhero story with a twist like

that That's always a good way of getting me to

like at least turn my head 90 degrees So is there

anything else I can be looking at we're talking

to right now, but this one really does sell its

premise and I think what it boils down to is

the Like first off. This is a big labor union

and they explain it's a lot like They're not

mercenaries, but they're like a side version

of the police but not the police like a side

protection agency that leases out their services

to Chicago and like what's great is they really

do treat it like a labor union because at one

point where Jeffrey the man who that's in charge

of Cal he used to be a well not a superhero he

was never like powered in any type of way, but

he was in he was in WW2 and He got it and he's

a marksman and did some vigilante ing in his

own time. There is one point where the mayor

is getting tired of this contract they've had

since the 40s and wants to basically hire out

private heroes to deal with any super powered

threats that may deal with Chicago. One of the

problems in the story that I really like is Jeffrey

is actually losing leverage in these union talks

because there aren't that many villains like

after issue one the real supervillain counts

are rather low unless they're working for the

mob or what have you this is not like a villain

of the week type deal oh no not at all yeah and

That's the thing. And even during the union talks,

it's like, hey, we go through special workshops.

We make sure everyone goes through a rigorous

initiation process. We do background checks.

It's like, you can't just hire off these. You

can't go private with this. Where's the regulations?

I just thought the language they used in the

talks, the union talks, was so realistic. You

could have easily replaced that with a teacher's

union. Or you could have replaced that with the

iron workers guild and it would have been the

same thing. Absolutely. And I just want to let

everybody know who is listening. This book is

not for children. This book is for adult readers.

This book is for people, you know, like us who,

you know, may, I don't want to necessarily say

are tired of the old trick ponies that the big

two usually trot out, but If you want a fresh

comic if you want a comic that is gonna twist

your brain in Every single panel like there are

several panels in here where I never saw what

what I never saw what was coming seriously So

We open the trade here. You didn't have a chance

to pick up the trade. Did you what I did was

uh, this is this Appearance of me has been a

long time coming. So what happened was I got

did you Know I got the first three issues in

physical format and then when I realized oh,

man I skipped out on the last two four and five

and my closest comic shops like an hour away

so so on the day yesterday what I did was I went

to the image website and Let's just really give

major props to image and how they sell their

digital content because often they'll make it

50 cents to a dollar less than what the Than

what the comic on sale would be and then they

give you your choice of formats You want it as

a PDF you want as a CBR? EPUB it take your pick

man. Enjoy. No dear. No DRM I've never been a

dissatisfied customer and you know what like

I You you know what Cal has this one good thing

going for it, and it feels even bad to say because

I checked You can't torrent this comic because

it's not that big and that's good because then

you go to image And it's good enough that I wouldn't

want to do that. I wouldn't want to pirate it

Oh, absolutely. And I'll say right now, thank

God Image and IDW have joined Comixology, because

Comixology announced, Comixology is the online

digital, it's the main digital hub that I use,

and I'm sure a lot of other people use Comixology

as well, but Image and ID, Image Comics and IDW

Comics have teamed up with... Comics ology to

do the exact thing you're talking about so I

don't even necessarily have to go to the image

comics website I just went to comics ology hit

subscribe on cowl and Immediately, I have a backup.

That's DRM free. Yeah, I love that. That's amazing

DC and Marvel you need to take advantage Which

they probably never will I think they will they're

just slower to act on it like no one I really

do think in DC This especially was true when

they did the new 52 a lot of people were afraid

of screwing up their jobs and so they were like

Given the choice to do something experimental

or crazy that wasn't already written out The

answer was no and that's the that's especially

the thing with digital distribution with DC and

Marvel They will do digital but they don't want

to go even though clearly and every economical

study is if you give people like steam Steam

is just once again video games. You could pirate

video games But I buy shit from Steam all the

time because the price is right and it's super

convenient You do that and I'll pay for your

stuff. That's how most consumers are like Well,

you know Marvel does I'll give Marvel an edge

because at least if you go into a shop you buy

a single issue, let's say Amazing Spider -Man,

New Amazing Spider, whatever the New Amazing

Spider, I think it's just called Amazing Spider

-Man, or Iron Man, or whatever, Deadpool, or

Death of Wolverine, whatever, Spider -Verse,

whatever. Even if you buy a physical copy, somewhere

in that physical copy Marvel is going to allow

you to have a digital code that you can then

go to their website, redeem a digital copy, And

I found out that you can also sync your Marvel

account to Comixology. So even if I was still

buying print comics from Marvel, I would still

get a digital copy for free once buying the print

version. That's really where I want DC to go.

I also really like the Marvel, what's it called?

The Marvel, I don't know, digital catalog where

they just have a whole, they pretty much turn.

What was it called? It's Marvel and limited.

It's there. It's their version of Netflix for

comics. Yeah, exactly 9 .99 a month. Yeah. Yeah

Alright, so cow volume one principles of power

I love how they pretty much lay out for us the

the districts and the patrol divisions and the

map of Chicago I love that, you know, that is

so awesome Mike you might get this reference

because of your night wing and Batman background

You know what that immediately reminded me of?

What Gotham when there was that earthquake remember

and it was no man's land That was one of my favorite

parts of Batman is that they actually laid out?

The geography of the town and they showed here's

what part of Gotham's under whose control I love

that extra mile and I loved that they actually

Marked out all the districts and all the regions

of Chicago Like that so when someone actually

and they it's fun because in the little caption

boxes They'll even say central o2 the loop and

you can actually go to the map and check that

out now Is it like as fun as like a post apocalyptic

Gotham? No, but it still makes the city more

real to me other than hey, it's Chicago Like

that helps absolutely and you know looking at

this map now in the physical trade copy it reminds

me of the mall maps you are here you want to

get over to here it really does reminds me of

all those old mall maps when you know looking

at them all a massive union protest is taking

place in section f2 trying to make a detour around

downtown today yeah Alright, so the main characters

in these first five issues. We already mentioned

Jeffrey Warner, the Grey Raven. He is the Cowl

Chief. He is a sharpshooter and master strategist.

He is unpowered, as you said. Reginald Davis,

aka The Blaze, Deputy Cowl Chief, Head of Tactical

Division. He has zero point energy gauntlets.

Catherine Mitchell, Radia, Tactical Division,

Telekinesis. So, she would be the Jean Grey of

the group. Tom Hayden, Arclight, Tactical Division,

Flight, Focused Energy Bursts. John Pierce, Investigations,

Detective, Unpowered. Grant Marlowe, Patrol Division,

West Side, Sharpshooter, Unpowered. And we have

Carl Samoski, Eclipse, Patrol Vision, West Side,

Antikinetics, and Power Disruption. I will say

that Catherine Mitchell, who's Tactical Division.

You said that Jean created the group. Just by

the way she looks, come on. That is like Mrs.

Fantastic. That's Sue Storm. Okay, but what I'm

saying is telekinesis. Jean has the telekinesis.

So does Sue Storm. Well, kinda. She puts a little

floaty disc under it. It'll float. So the first

issue opens with Blaze. Going after the last

of the super villains. What do you think of Rod

Rice's art in this book? I Really appreciated

Rob's race Is this Rob Rice or Rob Reese? It's

Rod. It's Rod Rice. I think I don't know it might

might be Reese I know it's Rod something. Yeah.

Well, I really like the the artists work here

because he does two things that I Really appreciate

in my comics one is there's a real purposeful

use of color Like the color isn't just there

to show like here's what this guy is wearing

and this is the table they're at It's often there

to establish a really good mood and you can go

overboard on that Like I've actually turned my

opinions around on the rekelling for the killing

joke because I know it goes all the original

killing was so great I go no the original coloring

looks like Jerry Garcia threw up on it. It's

not that great You need to tone it down here

Things are toned down, but when things are in

a sepia tone they're often or just black and

or in a gray scale Most people are having a meeting

most people are talking about the events that

went down before Especially in the in issue one

since we're talking about that Katherine stands

out in the In the meeting she's having with Jeffrey

with her red dress. Everything else is very The

contrast is very low in that That scene all the

colors are muted But then here's and I'm sure

you've noticed this when they actually go into

any type of real fight scene The line work gets

sketchier. The the artwork gets more frenetic.

It gets more frantic and It gets just rougher

and often they'll break out of the panels as

well during these fights once again, that's something

that can get abused pretty hard, but Most of

the times the panels are pretty well contained,

you know, just a collection of rectangles and

panels in general But fighting when it goes down

it really means something and they really try

and get you emotionally invested in the fight

Through how bad the panels can break down Mm

-hmm Yeah, I mean I just I just love this book

because it opens with them going after one of

the last supervillains because that's the point

of the book. They're opening with defeating the

last of the supervillains and that's where we

set up with what you were saying earlier about

now that the supervillains are gone, we now have

to get into a political argument about is Cowell

still relevant to the city of Chicago and helping

the city. I love the art. It's some of the best

art I've ever seen. It really is. And I mean

that outside of regular superhero or heroic type.

There's so many different ways to draw and color

Batman. You know what I mean? It's like, just

pick your favorite and that's fine. But I mean

for what this story is telling, what Kyle Higgins

is writing here, the art just matches it so well.

I really agree with that because the colors like

I said, they never truly go Insane and it's never

really I don't I think a poor way to describe

this story would be a bright and vibrant story

about the world of superheroes in Chicago It's

very much as you said we're in Cold War, Chicago.

The unions are still really strong. There's corruption

at every bridge There's corruption in every Italian

restaurant, but there is It's mostly sticks to

a noir route for the most part. Yeah, but like

But one thing I really like about the mood of

this story is the characters like it's whenever

you try and make superheroes be realistic and

gritty It's very tempting to make everyone an

asshole and let's not kid ourselves. There's

a fair amount of assholes here But but there

are people that are genuinely good or people

that are just like hey, man I'm in this because

of my family or I just I and a lot of these people

earnestly wanted to do a good job because I don't

know how much this story want to Break here,

but Jeffrey is a rather the guy that's running

Cal is a rather suspect figure from fairly early

on When there's shenanigans going on in this

story, like how far do you want to go with that?

Oh no, yeah, we can spoil the hell out of it.

I mean, these five issues have been out already.

The trade just came out. If people are not reading

this series, you're doing yourself a disservice

for not reading it. Yeah, especially when you

look at these issues that are like 350. Some

people even say like, I heard one guy doing a

review saying it cost him four bucks for his...

at one point, but maybe that's just him rounding

up, but the trade is like 10 bucks right now.

Image is very smart with how they're doing trade

paperbacks to get people into a series. It really

feels like most of these days, it's like people

are just putting out the issues just to get it

over with, just to bring in that trade back audience.

Well, see, here's the interesting thing about

Kyle is that they put out the first five issues.

Let me see if I can pull it up here. Issue five

came out in September. Okay. Yeah. Issue six

isn't coming out until the end of this month

in November. So they put issue five out in September.

They put the trade out in, in late October the

29th. And now we're getting issue six coming

up at the end of this month. And then the end

of descent while close to the end, pretty much

Christmas Eve, cowl number seven comes out. So

image is doing an amazing job with this series

on how. to space the story arcs, because issue

six starts a whole new story. I mean, it continues

on with what has already happened, but we'll

talk about that at the end of the show. I love

the opening scene. You kind of already mentioned

the meeting when Catherine was in a red dress,

but I love the scene before that when... the

kid on the street says the gray raven yes i am

would you like an autograph no that's okay are

you sure yeah my dad says you're a self -centered

asshole you don't see children in comics cursing

you really don't and this is why i said earlier

this is pretty much in a comic for adult readers

only um especially with a few of the scenes that

we'll get to a little bit later there's a scene

i think it's issued Might be issue one. I don't

know. There's a scene where um a gun goes off

and The panel is just amazing Is that in issue

two with yeah, I think so. Yeah, it's an issue,

too. I Yeah So we get to this this meeting here

in issue one after the hero has died and we see

that You know in the meantime we see that John

is is doing his investigative job and asking

who's on patrol into West and We see all that

we then get to Jeffrey's office where they're

having the meeting that you mentioned earlier

And you can clearly tell that because this is

60 Chicago they Let's just say the men don't

respect the women like they should I'm I'm really

glad you're bringing this up, especially with

the Katherine character and there was also I'm

trying to I want Reginald Davis is a black man

who's the head of he's the deputy cal chief and

head of tactical like people are represented,

but they also are living in the 60s But one thing

I really liked about Katherine is yes. She does

get harassed she has uh, you know the madman

treatment at her Basically at the office and

she is basically put out almost as a mascot for

this whole union like she goes and does photo

shoots uh asks is asked a lot of softball questions

but one thing i really like is that it's very

easy to make a character be tortured and like

ah don't you feel bad for this person and then

also like not have any real personality beyond

that a lot of no there's a lot of writers that

i've seen that just go like look you see there

was bad stuff happening i'd go yeah but what's

this person's story what's their what do they

want out of life And we get we definitely get

to see Catherine evolve through that as she becomes

a little bit more proactive outside of the Cal

Union and she working with Carl who actually

like it's like she's in a relationship with someone

and then she eventually starts having a slow

burn affair with Carl who wants to kind of do

well freelance vigilante basically pro bono work

outside of Cal and Just the way that relationship

evolves. It's he manages to get in her good graces

simply by you know Not calling her toots and

actually saying I want you around me because

I respect that you are a powerhouse Like that's

it was just a very good treatment Catherine who's

really like if they screw up Catherine They pretty

much script the entire female cast in this story

and that's fine. You don't need a 50 -50 ratio

for this especially for the setting But I was

very impressed with how Kyle handled handled

this Kyle and Alec absolutely absolutely so as

the first issue goes on and on we get someone

who apparently has Sky Lancer was the final one

of if not the final villain that they had to

basically kill I mean it's not pulling any punches

here yeah he was part like this group called

the six I believe yeah yeah, I think the big

thing is that all they were commies they even

call them that and time sends you back to risk

you buddy and You know you get that feel -good

tone of good old -fashioned Cold War hysteria

and They take him out and they even show like

okay like man They really lay out the tone for

this story even in the first five issues. I mean

five pages of issue one absolutely So we get

to John and his you know his part of his investigation

and We find out that someone some you know random

guy got a hold of some Skylancer tech through

somebody And you know, so that's that and the

issue kind of ends with It ends with Jeffrey

confronting Oh God, what's this? Are you talking

about grant? Yeah, yeah grant that's I'm sorry

I couldn't forget so grant shows up and it you

know and ends up with a confrontation between

grant and Jeffrey When Jeffrey says the kid things

kids say, huh? It's like I just I love that whole

thing. I think that's absolutely amazing. Oh,

yeah for people that don't know what Mike's bringing

up here. That kid that told Jeffrey that he's

a self -centered asshole turned out to be one

of Grant's kids and Grant works for him. It's

basically like, what if your kid told your boss

he was an asshole? That's what happens in this

guy's life and it ain't great. I love that. I

mean, that's just a very believable and awkward

moment in the series. absolutely and also at

the end of the last page we have a you know a

newscast going on and I love how Rice did the

did the art for the newscast where it's a TV

bubble but it doesn't actually look like a tell

it looks like a tello you know what I mean it's

like it's an outline with the newscaster inside

of it and it has the the writing absolutely love

that and he one of his last questions is will

cowl become irrelevant Don't hold your breath

says Jeffrey and that's how we end the first

issue Overall, I think it was an impressive first

issue Yeah, yeah, like that's where I really

started liking this where I started going. Alright,

so They're basically gonna create what I thought

was gonna happen was alright Jeffrey is going

to create a fault basically a false flag attack

where There he's going to stage an attack on

the people of Chicago to give more leverage to

his union But and I'm guessing you think the

same thing, right? Yeah, but here's what bugs

me is I feel like the timeline for this makes

that a little bit suspect and I was saying Jeffrey's

completely innocent but what we see from John

Pierce's investigation And I really like John

Pierce because it basically answers the question

of like what if Stephen Strange was not powered

and was just a cop on the edge Because that's

what John Pierce looks like and it's great and

he's one of the one of the guys that they That

actually is trying to do his job even past all

the political bullshit. He's trying to do his

job and The thing is okay that That one villains

stuff goes missing then at the end of issue 3

he goes to that archive site outside of Chicago

and all their stuff is missing and Where'd all

the when all the weapons go or whatever? But

you see this was a lot but then in the last issue

where Jeffrey said talking to one of the mob

bosses. It still has a few Low powered supervillains

on his side. He says like listen man. The villains

need to come back I kind of feel like there's

stuff going on behind Jeffrey's back that even

Jeffrey's not aware of That's what I'm feeling.

Anyway, like I'm certain that he's got You know,

he's gonna do what he's gonna do for the Union

man But I really do feel that Kyle and Alec are

kind of setting this up for some curveballs here

So issue two the main cover is Arco light With

some nice women to sitting us beside him on either

end. Oh, yeah, you're talking about the front

issue Yeah, man, that actually kind of surprised

me because you could say, okay, they're wearing

tassels But I'm like, no, that's a silhouetted

nip and I'm sorry, but they don't even do that

in Bond movies Not most of them. Not yeah, not

most of them. So it issued to open to you edgy

Hey, if they can have a series which we will

actually be not you and I but my buddy Jeremy

Fine and I are gonna be talking about next week

here inside the pullback if Image Comics could

have a series called sex criminals and everything

that that that goes on with that sexually. Oh,

that series is great This this is day. This cover

is tame compared to what the hell happens in

sex criminals But they always have that circle

that logo in the middle of the sexual act of

the... Well, right. Yeah. No, I know that. They're

very stiff about it. Yeah, yeah. So the second

issue opens with Grant and Eclipse and Grant's

kid in the car. And this is your standard kid

doesn't want to talk to his dad. Hey dad, can

I get out here? Which is here is like a block

and a half away from the school because he doesn't

want to be embarrassed and Well, why doesn't

want to be embarrassed because this really adds

to the to the flavor this because grant is unpowered

and grant works for cowl and According to the

kid only super powered being should work for

cowl Yeah, I had the same issue with my dad when

I was six. I was like, God, dad, why don't you

have superpowers? This is so goddamn embarrassing.

Well, you own two businesses? Well, whatever.

Right, Crimea River. Yeah, I love what he says.

I love the exchange between them. Hey, your dad's

in Cal. All those kids are just jealous their

dads aren't. At least you have powers. All he

has are guns with rubber bullets. Definitely.

You know, being a quote -unquote hero is kind

of hard raising children, no matter what situation

you're in. Yeah, it is kind of interesting I

think this is one of the few superhero comics

that I've read recently that really use family

as something more than a hostage Or something

to get shot at to make you feel bad Yeah, it

kind of reflects like they're these guys his

own psyche because that eventually does Bite

Grant in the ass later on where grant really

does try and be a hero and he pays for it. You

know And I love the bottom of the next panel

after the kids gotten out of the car. Clips says,

Grant, don't take this the wrong way, but your

kid's kind of an asshole. That you see only friends

can tell friends their kids are assholes. Absolutely.

So we open. The the the second chapter here after

this this opening act with Let's see With some

some guys and go it's it's blaze going up against

some guys and guns and military and all this

and all that and He's actually talking about

Believe he's talking about World War two, isn't

he? Well, yeah, they were cowl. They're a gray

raven and blaze help They helped win though.

Yeah, so this is a flashback to the war. I Like

that I'm like seeing the origins a little bit

sprinkled throughout. Well, I really like that

because they pretty much say there was a lot

of sketch like I believe Jeffrey had almost a

sidekick or partner character, and he used the

media, like they show this very early on in the

series where he used the media to cover up what

happened to that guy, because it used to be like

a trio. Yes, it was Sparrow, Blaze, and Grey

Raven. Yeah, Sparrow was the quote -unquote Robin

of the group. Yeah, Sparrow is the guy that just

gets blacked out in the X -Files copy. It's just,

no, you don't need to know who this guy is. Even

though he clearly was there, the guy does everything

in his power to make Chicago forget about him,

even during Cal's anniversary. I love unresolved

flashbacks. It's one of my favorite tropes. And

like, hey, Mike, do you know how long this series

will last or does it have an end date in mind?

As far as I know, from what I've heard from Kyle

is that it's it's ongoing. It obviously it's

going to depend on sales and stuff like that.

But as far as I know, they're they're planning

to stay around for a few years. Wow that that

really impresses me because the way that this

story is working it really to me. Screams like

a 12 X issue maxi series i mean but what's nice

is because it's such you're basically the characters

are just the heads of their divisions. It's a

union. It's more than just five guys and and

the girl they brought along it's A union there's

a lot of people here and sometimes you see them

at the protests Sometimes you see them in the

background, but there's obviously more going

on in this town and in the union So I think I

guess they could continue it but part of the

thing is with all the consequences of the story

some major characters that probably would have

a pretty like I watch entire series just based

on John Pierce. I love that detective. But uh,

that ain't gonna really happen in this series.

No, that ain't gonna have, you know, poor, poor

Grant and poor John. They, um, I forgot about

Grant until five minutes ago and we started talking

about him. So speak too well to his character.

But a lot of these people could definitely have

their own side series and I'd be interested in

them. But man, to have this being ongoing, I

can't say I was expecting that. But then again,

what I love about these first five issues is

that they set up like if you're reading it in

single issues, it's pretty much character by

character. The five member, the five core members

of Cowell and there that there's like issue three

is all about radio. And we're going to get to

issue three here in a few minutes. But, you know,

whereas This here in issue two is all about Eclipse

and Grant and you know, Grant's kid. And I mean,

sure, you know, the contract stuff is in the

background with Jeffrey and everything else.

But the core of this second issue is Grant and

Eclipse, which is really, really cool. Oh, definitely.

Definitely. You're talking about the conflict

towards the end there. Hmm. Yeah the Grant tries

to be as such a damn hero. Yes See like actually

if we want to come back to the art for that toward

absolutely most of the panels before are pretty

well controlled and muted, but then they immediately

start and medium -sized By the time they get

to this confrontation with one of the guys they've

been tracking And trying to start a fight with

at one point They actually the guy tracks grant

the guy actually knows grants following him brings

him into an alleyway grant pulls a gun loses

the gun and They get into a big fight about it.

But unfortunately this guy is no pushover. He

is He's got one of those Danny Trejo mustaches

and can kick just as much ass and but They break

they actually do something that Frank Miller

does especially in um But one of the last scenes

of Dark Knight strikes again I keep using Batman

references around you Mike and I apologize I

go but they're literally the first thing that

keeps popping in my head, but it's the All the

panels get very small. They're very close up.

We get a four by three grid of panels just very

tall thin panels Just focusing on the violence

itself the punch to the jaw A guy's torso getting

smashed Just the gun in the pants. Yeah. Oh,

yeah, and This is what I was talking about earlier.

This is what On their guided view technology,

they take each panel. They don't blow it up to

where it's out of proportion or wrongly sized,

but they fit it to like you would go and read

through a storyboard. And when I saw the panel

with the gun in the guy's pants, I'm like, oh

no, this can't be good. This is not going to

work out well for this guy. No, it certainly

doesn't. and uh but what's amazing is like wow

this guy really must be invulnerable because

he's one of the gang bangers that has like you

know gun at the front of his pants and as we

and as grant clearly shows how bad of an idea

that is with with that move um he gets away that

gets away god damn uh that man is eating his

spinach and But once again, like that whole scene

where it gets very small, very violent. We only

see colors of black, red and yellow. But when

Carl catches up with them and this eventually

fuels Carl for the next few issues of what he

wants to do outside of Cal, Carl meets up with

him and immediately goes back to blue. The red

draining from Grant's body in the rain and it

becomes very somber again. god i love the color

scheme in this comic the colors are just simply

amazing they really really are um and what is

so interesting to me about the colors and the

art is sometimes the complete lack of color yeah

yeah very very muted very uh Very depressing

colors if any especially and once again most

of those happen when business is being done or

Where someone's getting assigned something very

like what do you call it business casual or business

professional even? Yeah, so Sadly grant does

not survive We move to in kind of the end of

this issue we move to What looks to be a club

and this is where we meet Ark -a -lite Tom Hayden

And he is your classic Older gentleman businessman

type looking person and He you know he's basically

Yeah, hmm in in the club scene when he's got

the girl on his lap He reminds me of Let's say

for example big boy Caprice from Dick Tracy Al

Pacino. Oh when he's got Madonna on his lap that

that kind of I don't mean old man is in like

old man What the hell's his name vulture Adrian

Tombs, I don't mean that old that old of a man.

No, no, no like, you know Late 40s mid 50s something

like that. Well arc light is really put up like

he's almost the male equivalent of Katherine

and they even say that in the last issue like

the guy actually has some real regrets about

that because he's one of the faces of cowl and

he is like the the mom Liberty and apple pie

version of America like blonde hair blue eyes

not here Stalin like that type of deal and one

of the One of the classic ironies about this

guy is like now I hang around strippers all the

time But I buy sex I party and I'm kind of an

asshole, you know, I'm the Michael Jordan of

this team go deal with it. I Think that should

be one of the taglines for the series every every

character is kind of an asshole That's what I

no no see if they did that I would lose respect

for some of the states cuz let me cuz Grant was

an okay guy Carl was okay Yeah, Catherine. It's

like, well, I at least understand why you're

being kind of an asshole You never lose. You

never really had a chance and I did 60s Chicago

and Even John like even even when John was like,

okay, I'm gonna line up a job cuz cows over Everyone

has been in that job where it's like, okay this

shits coming to an end. I gotta have a backup

plan Absolutely So the second issue ends with

John and Arclight talking about, you know, how

cowl is slowly getting to be in need of reform,

pretty much. And the final lines are, but be

careful with this John, the narrative needs to

fit the facts, not the other way around. And

the coolest thing about the trade, I haven't

mentioned this yet because I know you have the

singles, but the coolest thing about the physical

trade, I'm sure it's in the digital trade as

well, as each issue has progressed, we're two

issues in, we're getting ready to get up to issue

three, on the pages, like the page right after

the end panel, the next page, is the cowl logo

shattered. So every time we pass an issue, the

lat - the logo gets more broken every single

time. I think that's a nice little addition for

the trade. Oh, that's a nice page break. But

yeah, I don't have that. That's really nice that

they kind of add that that extra piece of design

to the trades. That's really that's admirable.

And one thing I do like and I'm a sucker for

this is they always because you've mentioned

the page breaks. They also have They also have

these dossiers in the back that focus on just

essentially what a government worker would write

about, you know, keeping tabs on the Cal members

and you get to see their skills, their, their,

you know, their basic stats and even their biography

written in a very formal context. And you can

kind of, and it adds to their, it helps you to

understand their viewpoints on what's going on

through the story. absolutely the biographies

are in the trade but they're more so in the very

back of the trade where you see a couple of variant

covers and stuff like that so but they are here

I absolutely love the biographies I thought that

was a great way also like after reading the comic

in the images and the words along with the images

and then you you have like you said these dosses

I thought that was a really cool way to do that.

So we get to issue number three with radio on

the front cover and the rest of cowl in the background

and She has an eye on her belt and I don't mean

a capital I either I mean like as an eye image

It's a little interesting Little bit of an interesting

design. Yeah For all the all the issue covers

are done in a silhouette style Like you know

and the calling and it's very good at calling

attention to whatever Other items they want you

to call attention to like often with the characters

the only things that are not in black are Key

items so what you focus on or otherwise it's

white of their their symbols or Whatever else

like arc light the a is white Yeah, just like

with but What blaze his his blue symbol is white.

Yeah, exactly and with With Katherine here, we

see her hair and we see her belt and she's up

front, but she's also isolated from the group

I feel that's that's a really good symbolism

for what's going on in this story. Where really

is the Katherine show? Yeah, they like you said

it kind of has a a rotating System of who they

focus on in the story, right? Absolutely. So

this one opens up with Katherine and her boyfriend,

I guess, at a club. Well, they're not going if

you're talking about issue three, they're going

to Comiskey Park. That's a very well known baseball

stadium in. Oh, yeah, that's right. They're at

the baseball stadium. That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Comiskey Park. You know, and this Guess

this boyfriend of hers David. He's Very typical

male what what is his like? What job does he

have? I couldn't remember I don't I think he's

just there Honestly, I think he's just you know

someone to put in as as a love interest for her

And the reason why he is put there is because

she just wants to be invisible She doesn't want

to draw attention to herself and this guy is

like, you know, I mean you see it on these first

three pages, you know You know, you know David

says you guys want an autograph. She's like David.

It'll only take a second. That would be great

And she signs the baseball Like, I'm not knocking

Kyle's story writing or Alec's story writing

or Rod's art, but a superhero signing a baseball,

like... Well, why not? It's what you have on

hand. People have baseballs. I know, I know,

but it just doesn't... I don't know. It just

doesn't add up for me. So then we go on further

and you know the guy asked so can we get a picture

in there? Basically, it's showing how David wants

to basically exploit Katherine as a woman which

kind of sucks honestly Yeah, and that's pretty

much the setup to the story. We also have in

this story This is where the the contract talks

start Yeah, this is where it's so weird that

something as dry as union contract negotiations

They're actually one of my favorite parts of

this of these five issues Absolutely, and it

really did start with issue three here when they

do enter negotiations and it's day 28 of all

of it and We see Jeffrey and they're in the mayor

and all the mayor's staff there and it's great

because at one point they actually have Is it

Pierce reading it? That's what John the Yeah,

Reginald. Oh, I'm sorry. No, Reginald's there

Is there and he's reading the part that eventually?

Really starts the shit in Chicago, which is there's

a section in the contract called Article 6 and

The mayor even says like how we approach you

don't want to focus on that and Jeffrey focuses

on it and through all this legalese It's basically

saying we can hire people outside of the Union

We want if there's a emergency situation, but

they never defined what emergency situation is

so it would be any time Mm -hmm Yeah, that's

how it starts slippery slope Yeah, exactly and

this whole scene You know you mentioned You know

Reginald's asks is anyone gonna talk to talk

about article 6 and and Warner says, go ahead

and read it, Reginald, and he does, and the mayor

says, oh, it's new language, and Jeffrey's like,

it's bullshit. And then we have a nice pinup

shot of radio. Yeah, I honestly didn't know what

to make of that, but that actually... Is one

of those times where comics and real life actually

comes together really well because she's at a

photo shoot. I literally thought, oh, did they

put in extra artwork? No. Fill up them page counts.

No. But yeah, yeah, this is her photo shoot.

And it's going pretty well. you know until we

get to the interview part of this and and You

know they say If you're in a hurry, we can start

without with you. Mr. Hayden It'll mostly be

about Skylancer fight and radius like I can weigh

in on that and the guys like no, that's okay,

honey We'll just stick with the simple topics

play to your strengths and this is like the last

straw for radius. She is Ready to go off on somebody

Yeah, and once again like the her it's great

that they include her dossier toward the back

here because you actually realize like because

it's very easy I literally in the beginning I

was thinking because they In the in the first

issue they kind of want you to feel a certain

way about radio because they strongly had that

she slept with Jeffrey At one point maybe to

get something she wants and you go, okay. She's

a bimbo she's in on the team and she's just gonna

be at the whim of other people and Regardless

of that like you read have our Backstory and

you actually go like no she actually came from

a her mother was a very creative person she got

when she was seven years old her telekinesis

started showing up for whatever reason and she

went to College to Seattle University for political

science like she had hopes and dreams at one

point and None of it worked out and this is the

only thing that could work out for her in her

situation Just don't becoming a superhero And

becoming part of Cal you have telekinesis and

and you're not very good at hiding it. So this

is what's gonna happen so she she's Even though

she doesn't show it necessarily or talk about

it You can definitely tell from what happens

after the photo shoot that she has been putting

quietly Having a stiff upper lip and dealing

with it like the old British way, but she's getting

tired of that. Oh Absolutely, like I said, she

looks like she's ready to just punch a guy So

there's that and so after this, you know She

goes back to... She goes to some place. I think

this is the scene of the crime. Or Skylancer's

loft or something like that. She goes there and

we see Carl. It eclipses there as well. And they

have a scene. I think that's her studio and that

is... Yeah, that's... It can't be Grant. No,

it's Carl. Yeah, that's eclipse. Yeah, this is

what we were talking about earlier about how

she and Carl eventually do extracurricular work

outside of Cal and that So we get one of our

running subplots from this and once again, I

really like their dialogue I really like how

because at this point you get the men are animals

like you get that idea From oh and this is how

people are gonna talk to Katherine and I keep

going but just because This guy just treats her

like a human being She's well, he could say like

hey you want to just murder one of the one of

the neighborhoods of Chicago She'd probably do

it just because he didn't say like hey nice cans

or whatever. Yeah, exactly So we head back to

You know near central 01 near the north side

cowl headquarters And we see John Pierce and

his investigation going on and we see him talking

with uh... one of the professors i believe let's

see uh... uh... one of the uh... so many heroes

so many specific needs tell me about this This

week alone, I worked on three new costumes to

retrofit one of the patrol cars, and I still

have to tune Blaze's gauntlets. So if you need

something, John, no, no, I wouldn't want to burden

you. I'm just trying to get a feel for how things

work in other departments. So John is like really

going the undercover method here. Yeah, trying

to figure out where the supervillains old equipment

went This is just him going through and getting

some exposition and we're finding out that if

anything gets moved around it's moved on Jeffrey's

orders And then we go back to Carl and radio

and they go into this They're at South oh eight

Washington Park Sorry, sir, but we're closed

great so we can sit anywhere I just I love this.

Well, I think what you're highlighting here is

how. I guess this goes back to that noir angle

we were talking about, and this really isn't

like a hard boiled noir like Sin City. Oh, not

at all. No, no, like no one's getting impaled

and still walking around talking about broads

or whatever. But what we do get is very snappy

dialogue. That doesn't sound that doesn't sound

unnatural like Sometimes I read certain comments

ago. No one's that quick wittish unless that's

your whole thing but with Carl being a smartass

and just be just being raised in the tough part

of Chicago it makes sense that his own language

is aggressive and He's able to you know, hit

back verbally as well as physically a lot of

people Everyone's speech feels like real Middle

America Chicago people and that just adds to

the realism of the story Absolutely So we go

on and on and on and the boss We we see this

happening again the boss says sorry about the

language, sweetie Why don't I have my boys deal

with your friend here and you and I can talk

in private? What do you say? Why does everyone

think they can touch me? Oh man. And then Radia

just pretty much goes off. Like this is her,

she's past her boiling point at this point. And

they basically go on to say you're done running

free. Every extortion ring, every racket, every

super powered jackass with a bad mustache is

now a target. And I just love that It just I

love that she is to the point now where she has

been treated so badly that she just can't help

herself She has to lash out at somebody and thankfully

it was a criminal Yeah, and what's great is that

why does everyone think they could touch me looking

back on previous issues Almost everyone is putting

their hand on their show on her shoulder. Yeah

and doing that and I got think like Like someone

did my, I was taking a nap. My father's couch

and he touched my shoulder to wake me up saying

hey families here. We're going for dinner I said,

why are you touching my shoulder? Like I just

my own father trying to wake me up. I felt fucking

violated This one puts up with that every day

like that's I don't know It's just it's really

good as showing instead of just saying I'll look

at this tortured woman Look at the sexism she

deals with they they play it on a slower angle

and I really appreciate that absolutely, so After

this, she says, this isn't a warning Camden,

it's a threat. Get the fuck out of Chicago. The

two of them go back to the car, they sit in the

car, and for two panels, they just stare straight

ahead. And then Carl says, just a little push

outside the strike zone. There's no way he hits

the home run, that's all I'm saying. And she

just smiles at him and they drive off. We go

back to the contract negotiations, which are

not going well at all Yeah, they're not going

well dude, yep that is true I don't think like

are we gonna go through um every scene not every

scene though. No. Yeah, cuz That's a real breakdown.

I don't know if I can squeeze analysis out of

every scene The issue ends with John continuing

his investigation and he goes to the warehouse

that the guy sent him to and There's nothing

there. It's all been moved Yeah, man, I mean

uh That's where they bring in the dead That kind

of music odd so twists and turns in Chicago in

the Windy City Where does the corruption begin?

Where does it end tune in next time to find out

will John Pierce find the hidden artifacts will?

Will grant finally come back to life not likely

his child's growing up an orphan. Maybe he'll

have better luck as Batman All this and more

Yes So the fourth issue opens up fourth issues

cover is blaze Against an orange background It's

an interesting cover. I still out of the covers

so far. I prefer issues two and three at this

point for the covers? Yeah, it is kind of weird

because that I think issues four and five is

where the artists just kind of start going. I

really want to. Oh, and by the way, the artist,

I guess we say that's Trevor McCarthy, who does

the covers. I really felt like he got bored doing

just silhouettes and they get injected with more

color. They get injected with more. Experimental

designs especially the issue five where the silhouette

is made up of puzzle pieces Mm -hmm, that's great

because that's definitely good for John's character

But yeah, you could definitely tell I think he

was just starting to get a bit bored And I you

know, I love Trevor McCarthy's covers I really

do that doesn't matter if it's this series or

anything else. He does he does Amazing covers

they these look like the covers or these these

look like they could have been Like retro movie

posters you could put up. Oh, absolutely. If

you were like a film buff and this is what you

had in your living room or whatever. And so friggin'

lutely. So issue four opens up with Cowell on

strike. Because as we said earlier, the the union

talks didn't go so well. No. Contract talks.

So we open this issue with Blaze at home, and

we see his home life. It's interesting. Like

I said, I like how each issue focuses on one

of the members of COWL, and then they branch

off into the rest of the continuing story. Yeah,

but Blaze's home life, Reginald's home life.

very interesting Well, it's basically the guys

living with his brother's sister like the brother's

dead, right? Mm -hmm. Yeah, and he's watching

after his brother's son as well. Like I guess

it's the situation where I'm just making a guess

because man, I didn't live in the 60s of the

early 60s I guess it felt like it would have

been more proper for a man to be living in the

house and It's even better for the man just to

protect the woman and to provide for the wife.

For the man to be looking after his brother like

that, because, man, there are movies like that

where it's if I die in this war, man, you got

to go take it. I'm going to let you have sex

with my wife. You go take care of her. Like,

I don't know if they did that between brothers,

though. I don't want to put that out there. And

I only think like, by the way, he's not married

to her. Right. I didn't get that vibe. I don't

think so. No. Yeah, but he's living there. He's

trying to provide the he's trying to be a provider

He's trying to give a fatherly influence to To

his nephew. It's all good and the kids got past

like how do powers work in? Fucking cowl. I don't

Like that's always the real stick in the craw

for a lot of these. It's a superhero story But

like because sometimes it's some people have

tech some people it seemed like they got this

stuff from the from ww2 and other people are

just like i was just born that way but let's

not say the word mutant we don't want to get

marvel mad like i because this kid shows up in

the morning and they do like a zoom effect to

show a blur effect to show that this kid's really

fast and he's got his father's powers so they're

passed genetically it's freak accident Maybe

like they just came out with microwaves and they

were fucking up the wombs of housewives. I don't

know I don't know I don't know how much I want

this explained, but it is kind of bugging me.

I don't want to explain it at all So we get to

central oh to the loop City Hall strike day seven.

So there's seven days into this strike Love the

juxtaposition of art because the art on the first

couple of pages with with Reginald and his home

life Is very light and bright in the backgrounds

and this is all dark Every last bit of that that

outside scene with the strike going on is all

dark Yeah, it's it's raining. It's gloomy. Everyone's

wearing coats and You know, it's you've never

seen superheroes so unhappy So they go on and

talk about you know Carl talks about you know

this is the this is about showing the city that

we stand together We're good at what we do and

these people are better with us than without

I'm not standing out here because I'm somebody's

puppet We go inside to Wait. Oh, no, this is

this isn't Warner's office. This is um, where

are we? Okay, that's what bothered me It's when

Pierce comes and he Pierce gets a call and says

you're needed. Oh, that's that's right. We're

at Tom's Yeah, yeah, and he says like this holy

hell Tom like this felt this scene was weird

to me because Tom runs into arc light He runs

into it. What was his name? John Hayden? What

was his first name? Oh Tom Hayden is Tom. That's

right. I thought his name was John. Sorry John

Pierce is the investigator guy So he walks into

Tom's bachelor pad and like any hard partying

male He has a stripper tied up to a chair and

a pimp bleeding. I mean who hasn't had that kind

of Friday night, but uh Pierce is kind of sent

to take care of it. So wait, I'm guessing Jeffrey

was aware of this and he sent He sent Pierce

to clean it up. Is that what happened? I assumed

so yes. Yeah, and This is a common thing and

Pierce's I guess the the reluctant clean -up

man for this type of deal because they they were

running the strip club was running us was Realizing

they could probably squeeze money from Arclight

Given the situation like blackmail I'm not even

sure how that got resolved. I don't think they

really show up beyond Pierce just beating the

shit out of Tom mm -hmm yeah not really um so

we go back to to Jeffrey and John and and and

and Jeffrey says off -camera he says you know

we're on strike right heard the rumor I'm surprised

you're in here I just had a few things to file

before I head down the line so they talk back

and forth Jeffrey mentions that someone has been

selling off cowl designs. Skylancer wasn't trying

to kill Alderman Lowe that night, it was a meat.

So they talk about that and we see the blackmail

that he has and this goes back and forth for

a while. We then get down to, where are we here,

South 07 Kenwood. So we're down there They're

looking for Macaulay Always looking for Kevin

McAllister Don't they know he's home alone? That's

right. I'm playing Richie Rich past his age range

Remember that movie? Yes, I remember that fucking

movie. Yeah, like that's so weird. Like that

movie would never get made because that's literally

rich kid first world problems. Like that's cool.

Like, do they still make Richie Rich comics?

I would think so. Like alongside Casper and everything.

What happened? I don't know that. That'd be amazing

if he did. But let's see. Yeah, they're going

after the guy that killed grant in issue 2 and

they actually go get their sweet sweet justice

and holy shit They just decided Like let's we

got to go undercover. We can't dress up as superheroes.

Let's just go as gimps Let's just go full black

spandex cover some holes and our open up some

holes in her eyes and mouth. It's just Like shit

that doesn't make where they get that They look

like they look like what if bullseye stop giving

a shit about his own design He just like goes,

you know, I don't want to pay for the extra color

all black Yep, absolutely So, yeah, so we have

that going on and we have We have this guy saying

you think you can hurt me. Nothing gets through

this. Hey, is that an energy power? That's an

energy power, right? I Just I love that whole

move. I just just amazing Because it's basically

radio going undercover in a ski mask of all things.

She basically looks like a damn criminal Yeah,

yeah, it's just You know, they just had trash

bags half off in the Windy City And so that's

what they that's what they may do do with and

they break up and they actually finally vindicate

Grant's death going after the guy Beating the

shit out of them, which is kind of funny because

they beat the shit out of them Then just kind

of walk away like what what happened? They basically

say like leave like you this man murdered someone.

I mean she Catherine wrecks them pretty hard.

She literally uses telekinesis to like ram dice

through the guy's arms. Like that guy's probably

lost use of his limbs at this point. You can't

get back that kind of bone. And but she just

says, hey, man, you better leave town and start

writing with your toes. I don't know. Like, did

you call the police? Did you do anything? Yeah,

absolutely. God damn. That guy's never going

to be able to lift another deep dish pizza slice

in his mouth again. That's like fucking torture

in Chicago. Mm -hmm So we go back to Warner and

and blaze here and they they're talking about

what's going on with with John and You know Reginald

says I'm putting in the termination paperwork

tomorrow morning pay to cease immediately no

pension We've put up with this bullshit for too

long. They're talking about Arclight. Yeah, like

John Pierce Keep calling him fucking John. God

damn it. It's no it is John John Pierce. No,

god damn it I'm talking about Reginald Davis.

Sorry Reginald Davis. Yes when I was saying Pierce

I always meant for the past 10 minutes. I meant

Reginald Davis the guy that plays it plays He's

the one that's been clan cleaning up arc lights

messes and he just says like we should fire him

It's the right thing to do like really Reginald

is the moral center of this series Like he's

the guy that is trying to have his family Just

wants to work his job. Can we not be you know,

man children about this like he is trying to

just get rid of this guy and Jeffrey says no

and You know, he cares mostly about because it's

once again PR public relations plays a big role

in this series. It's a major running theme of

it's not Superheroing isn't the only part of

this job. It's making sure the public's on your

side It's making sure you have the city's resources

on your side. And if you don't you can't be much

of a superhero You know, it's public image and

of course we also have Katherine at this point

With Carl trying to show like oh no there there

possibly is another way of doing this they they

want to continue doing it They decide let's let's

just basically did you see that movie kick -ass?

I did too. It was great. Let's do that shit So

we are trying to see a break from how Cal operates

in the city yeah, and we do see a break at the

end of this issue because One of the cowl superheroes

trips up the alderman with his powers and the

police just go after him Yep, I mean it's that's

just how it happens man. All it takes is that

one shot heard around the world You push a guy

down. You just suddenly get an LA style beating.

It's no good, man Yeah, so we get to issue five

the cover as you already mentioned is basically

a puzzle for John Pierce The detective I like

this cover It's one of my favorites honestly

it kind of reminds me I Hate to say this because

John Pierce is so not this character But reminds

me if Peter Parker is stuck in a spiderweb Because

the stuff behind him looks like webbing to me

But no I so far out of these five issues issues

two three and five are my favorite covers I do

like the very first issues cover where it's just

Jeffrey you know, silhouetted with his hat and

his glasses. I do like that, but issue two and

three are probably my favorite out of them all.

I agree. I like they did a very good job on issue

number one. But I as much as I was saying, like,

oh, yeah, this artist clearly got bored or whatever.

He is improving with every issue. Oh, absolutely.

So we open up with no money, no safety. We see

somebody in handcuffs and we then go to Central

oh to the loop Where who are they putting in

there that's um, oh Oh the end of the fourth

issue a bomb went off or something went off this

this supposed planned attack by Jeffrey You see

why would Jeffrey do that because if a bomb goes

off and no one or not even a bomb of an Explosion

goes off in a building who is going to get blamed

first for that people are going to blame the

The Cal members because even they were seen using

their powers to push over that alderman Like

it doesn't make sense that Jeffrey is the one

behind that Unless Jeffrey did that without knowing

that his own men were getting rowdy. I mean,

clearly, Jeffrey is is doing some skullduggery

actions behind the scenes, clearly. But I absolutely

I don't buy that he's the mastermind behind it

all. He's very much like the guy. He's very much

Caesar's last days. Like he thinks he's king

of the mountain. But everyone's like, no, no,

this is changing. The more you try and fight

this, the worse it's going to be for you. Absolutely.

Yeah, but the police officer goes over to Jeffrey

Orlando goes over to Jeffrey and says this is

it You people are done Jeffrey You finished turning

your gun in your badge Yeah, so So we open up

to Central o1 near Northside where Where Jeffrey

is and I guess his secretary comes up and says

I still can't get through Well, the mayor is

kind of just blacklisting me right? Yeah, that

that's true. The mayor is blacklisting him You

know and you know They have more talks and more

talks. Jeffrey's lawyers come and they break

the bad news. I'm sorry. They've they've hired

the Great Lakes Avengers. They're working for

pennies on the dollar. You've been replaced.

It's all Big Bertha and Doorman from this point

on. And then for some odd reason, he brings up

the school board contracts are up next year.

Yeah. Well, that's how union federations work.

That's true like AFL CIO. They they often try

to stand I mean the big point about unions is

like if one of us suffers We all suffer we stand

together. That's what I thought was really interesting

with cowl is that they were the head of this

major Federation, because remember, what does

Cal stand for? This is kind of funny because

I kept looking for the superhero name or whatever.

This is the Chicago Organized Workers League.

So I thought like, well, wait, are these guys

really the work like that's something you would

have named for the people that are like work

in the subway or laying down some pipes. But

to me, that that's the name of the group of like

all the unions together. And Cal is just the

most exciting version of that. Like if cowl does

well all the unions do well absolutely And if

cowl suffers all the other unions are going to

suffer. It's like It's like a giant three musketeer

Organization all for one one for all yeah Until

one of them blows up a building, and it's like

geez dude. I'm not losing my pension over this

Yeah, exactly so let's see here we go to we go

back to Tom no this is Jeffrey and and his little

reporter dude his his biographer because that

was something we mentioned earlier They were

talking about the celebration of Cowell and he's

like, do we really have to mention Sparrow? Well,

he was there. He was part of it. Yeah. But why

don't we have to keep reminding people of it

and everything else? Um, so that's who these

two guys are. It's Jeffrey and his little, um,

dictator or diction taker, I guess you could

say. Um, we then go to, uh, to John. He's doing

more of his investigation. You know we we see

Jeffrey down in the in the locker rooms Wait,

no, no, it's Tim. He's arc light and he is basically

Yeah, Tom and goddamn Tom and Pierce are going

to be leaving the group. They're gonna be leaving

cow right there like the rats on the sinking

ship Mostly Pierce believes cow is gone corrupt

Jeffrey's definitely behind it and he's going

to try and make release it to the media and Hopefully

that'll give uh john pierce enough press that'll

get him to the police and arclight is still like

well maybe i'll join the military even though

i've hated that in the past uh but they both

just realize cowl's done for in its current form

yep but this is what's kind of nice because this

is one of the big twists in it because arclight

to like Many of these characters even the jerks

have layers Arclight as we've seen before is

Okay, he looks like the pretty boy leader guy,

but he's actually a jerk and He parties and is

basically live in the Charlie Sheen lifestyle

behind the scenes and people have to clean up

his messes And I guess it's not too surprising

in retrospect, but he actually turns out to be

quite the team player in issue five. Oh Yeah

quite literally because um he and John have it

out and He basically kills John Yep, all it took

was one pep talk from Jeff pep talk from Jeffrey

and John and his nice little cravat just dies

like man You know he was I bet you the way John

has that half mask on the lower part of his face.

He was supposed to represent like the shadow

like the Like a lot of these guys are homages

homages for other heroes That god damn. I can't

believe I just realized that but yeah, we get

once again things go red things go very Frenetic

things almost turn into the max comic remember

the max I love that MTV show and comic but it

turns into that and things go real bad for John

unfortunately He only had three days till retirement,

too. Damn shame. Yep, absolutely. It is a damn

shame. So John is dead. We get to... When it

was time, I'd be ready to say goodbye. I guess

I was wrong. I've spent too many years building

this thing just to have them take it away from

me now. Do you understand what I'm asking? we

turn the page and we see yes but i want to hear

you say it it's simple it's simple camden all

those powers working for you the inversors the

extortion muscle they'll need to be out in the

streets and in costumes for cowl to survive the

villains have to come back so warner is actively

working with camden stone to bring the villains

back Yep, and that's how the first arc ends You

know you mentioned earlier the dossiers they

are in the back of the trade. They are very very

cool I love that they included them also in the

trade. I didn't think that they would not do

that. So that was cool They actually I'm trying

to think of what which issue this is but they

do a in here they say at the end of At the end

of John's dossier they have a variant cover,

Amazing Fantasy Variant by Douglas Klauba. So

that's an interesting variant cover. And then

they have another variant cover that they did

for issue one, which basically features, it's

a horizontal variant that features all the members.

It features Arclight, Radia, Warner, Sky Lancer,

Pierce and Blaze. Overall, I absolutely love

Cowl. It it's one of my most favorite series

at this point I Cannot wait until they do more

with this show there with this comic I should

say I wish that they could turn it into a TV

show. That would be amazing Yeah, I would agree

it would be a great show and it's not so Fantastical

that it would be impossible even on a mid -sized

budget it would be Like this is like if Showtime

wanted to get in on the superhero craze, this

would be it for them. Oh, absolutely Alright,

we are gonna take a quick break come back with

ratings final thoughts and I will be reading

the next two solicits for issues six and seven

after this Hello pop culture connoisseurs, do

you gain a dark sense of peace when the guilty

are punished by a violent vigilante? If so, maybe

you should get some therapy, and then subscribe

to Punish Your Body Count, the Nets best podcast

concerning all things Frank Castle. I'm Dane

Lamont. My co -host Jake Williams and I cover

the good, the bad, and the hilarious. I'm the

punisher of comics, movies, and news. Do you

like chummy co -host banter? We got that. You

need to fucking pay attention to the fucking

movie. You want kick -ass guest interviews? How

about Mike Baron and Tom Jane? No, I like a little

bit of grit in my cigars. You want carefully

considered in -depth analysis? I mean, yeah,

just one best picture at the Oscars yesterday.

I mean, it's no Terminator. Good luck with that.

Punish Your Body Count, twice a month on Geekcast

Radio. Hey Geekcast listeners, do you ever listen

to Punish Your Body Count and think to yourself,

this show would be awesome if it had less toilet

humor and was not about the Punisher? If so,

join me, Emily Williams, as I class up the Punisher

Guys on Dane and Jake at Classy, or like the

Oprah Book Club of comics. You'll hear us discuss

famous works like The Dark Knight Returns and

The Grove, along with graphic novels no one else

is talking about, like Blue Monday and Blankets.

You can find us at daneandjakeatclassy .wordpress

.com or on iTunes. All right, we are back here

inside the pole bag and Dane What would you rate

the fur just overall the first storyline principles

of power for cowl zero to five stars? You know

It is one of the most solid series. I have seen

the only thing that I would warn people about

is that it's not exciting in the normal sense

of of comic books that we're kind of used to

It's not as in your face as other comics can

be, but when they throw a curveball at you or

when violence actually happens, they definitely

know how to make you feel it better. It's almost

like a horror movie and the quiet moments build

up to the tension. But I give this a five out

of five. It's honestly one of the most solid

series I've read. It is such a pleasant surprise

and I wish more people would know about it. You

know, if I had more Twitter followers or Facebook

friends, more people would know about it. But

I mean, seriously, though, for me, the first

five issues of Cowl were absolutely amazing.

There are a few little nitpicks here and there,

but overall, the story is solid. We basically

have an introductory issue for each character

they focus on. It's absolutely amazing. I also

give it a five out of five. I cannot wait for

the series to continue. I can't wait for issue

6 because in one of the letters pages, which

are called Union Deuce, very cute, but what they're

doing for issue 6, they're announcing that it's

going to be the origin of the Grey Raven who

was the vigilante persona of Jeffrey who now

runs Cal as an older man, but it's going to be...

God, the way they're describing it, it simply

says it's basically a Cal propaganda piece, and

it's written by someone hired by Jeffrey in the

story, and they brought in an artist named Joe

Bennett, who's going to illustrate it in the

Jack Kirby style. And they'll even going to have

advertisements that fit that time period. So

it's going to be very, well, it's basically going

to be a period piece comic. And I just thought,

oh, I wasn't expecting that kind of experimental

art in cowl you know they have a look and i thought

they'd stick with it but christ i i that just

makes me appreciate them more well they have

a look for the first arc and this is what i love

about kyle higgins and what he does with his

writing he sets up story arcs so as i've already

said multiple times in this podcast the first

five issues of the first story are principles

of power cowl number six which comes out uh november

26th The cover price for a print issue is $3

.50. The digital price is $2 .99. A new story

arc. Before he started Cowell, Jeffrey Warner

fought for Chicago as the city's first hero,

the Grey Raven. But what started him down the

path of crime fighting witnessed the origin of

Chicago's superheroes, the war years, and the

formation of Cowell, as told in the sellout issue

written by Cowell reporter and comic book writer

Randall Winters. I can't wait for this second

issue or this the sixth issue overall but This

next arc. I absolutely can't wait for cowl number

seven We go back to the main team Kyle Alec Rod

and Trevor McCarthy on cover Cover price 350

for print digital 299 The times they are a change

in. After the shocking murder of a cowl hero,

members of the organization must put aside their

differences in order to find the killer before

Detective Evelyn Frost and the Chicago Police

do. And that'll be out Christmas Eve, 2014. God

bless us, everyone. Yeah, I know, right? have

nothing but good things to say about this series

it is absolutely amazing um like i said i i have

a few nitpicks here and there but still you know

that everything is going to have um you know

nitpicks here and there on it so uh absolutely

love it i cannot wait until the next i'm wondering

how many issues they're going to collect for

the next story the next trade. That's really

what I'm wondering. If it's issue 6 through 10

or 6 through 11 or whatever, I don't know. I

just cannot wait. And I do read this singly.

I did write written reviews for geekcastradio

.com for the first, I think, three issues. I

don't know if I'll continue. I have not written

one for four or five. So now that we're doing

this here in the pull bag, I don't think I'll

go back and do written reviews for it. But I

absolutely love it. Cannot wait for us to do

it again. It was a fun, fun journey reading through

this first storyline. Where can the people interact

with you online, sir? Well, you can visit our

website at PunishYourBodyCount .com. That's a

great place for us to, oh, essentially it's the

archive of the show. You can also subscribe to

Punish Your Body Count through iTunes or through

various apps on your Android phone. And we're

also on Stitcher. And you can also join us on

our Facebook fan page. Just type in PunisherBot

account on Facebook. We have over 300 members

and it's always growing. We're going to be running

a... Let's see here. Let me try and run through

my plugs here. We're going to be running a contest

for Christmas It's our annual charity drive for

the American Cancer Society. We'll be giving

out more information as on that as November progresses

We're also accepting your fan fiction and fan

art for the Punisher as Jake and I go over the

good the bad and the ugly of All the fan artwork

done in the name of the Punisher. So that's gonna

be a fun Christmas episode Who was it there's

somebody on your all's On your all's Facebook

book group that's asked about something. Oh Where

is it? Ah, you're you're you're Your friend and

mine, Frank Saladay, special episode request.

I would love to hear an episode focused on the

women of The Punisher. I think you guys ought

to do that for January. Oh, we're actually planning

on that for a Valentine's Day episode. Ah, good,

good, good, good. That would be awesome. That

was a super fan, Arch Stanton, and we definitely

want to do that. We've covered... Female side

characters of before but they've kind of just

been because they were part of the story We'd

really like to show a spotlight on all the strong

independent women of the Punisher franchise.

So we're looking forward to that Absolutely.

Absolutely. All right folks coming up next time

as I said earlier Jeremy fine and I are going

to be covering another Image Comics series, the

first five issues of the award -winning series

by Matt Fraction, Sex Criminals. So be warned,

that episode is not safe for anything. It's not

safe for children, it's not safe for work, you

should listen to it in the bathroom in your own

time. In the bathroom. That's that's a good place.

Well, you know it's a book about sex ladies and

gentlemen and not all of us are Sexual extroverts,

so some people might want to You know hide the

fact that they're listening to that podcast Listen

to the podcast away from the eyes of God. That's

the only thing you can do Well since he's everywhere

it'd be a little hard to do Not if you don't

look up that's where heaven is my god. It's like

you never it's like you never went to Sunday

school No, I did. Oh boy. Alright, so that's

what's coming up next in The Pull Bag. We will

see you next week for Sex Criminals. Make your

greatest game into comics and we will catch you

next time. You've just heard the latest episode

of The Pull Bag, the GCRN's comic review and

discussion podcast. There are several ways to

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