Make Mine Manga!

This week, we take a look into the deep back catalog for some stories that completely passed us by.  Is the 2004 Starjammer’s series secretly one of the best stories ever written?  What about 2017’s Nick Fury miniseries?  We gambled - did we strike gold?

It’s time for the sequel nobody asked for except for some branding genius at Disney: Civil War II! 

In reviewing the first Civil War event, the boys decided that the best stuff in this massive crossover occurred in the tie-in issues.  Will the same hold true here?  Is Civil War II: Kingpin somehow better than the main event?  And is the main event itself any good?  Let’s find out together!

Lots of folks are curious about Black Knight after his appearance in the MCU (spoilers: Stephen hasn’t seen it yet), so the boys at the podcast decided to visit the character’s very early origins. 

We also dip our toes back into the waters of early 2000s Fantastic Four comics and the work of creative wizard Grant Morrison. Is 1 2 3 4 as rough a read as we’ve heard?

Out there, there are infinite universes, and yet in all of them, Tony Stark is a jerk. We head back to the Ultimates universe for a second stint with that world’s premier superhero team. It’s Ultimates 2! The first one!

The podcast’s trend to track down stories about under-the-radar characters continues this week with a double feature, starring the most obscure X-Man, Wolverine!

[checks notes]

The boys read the Gambit team-up sorry, Victims, and follow that up with a Jason Aaron-penned team up with that other most underrated character, Spider-Man!

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Yeah, I’ve never heard of any of these folks.

We’re getting a real two-for-one this week, as the boys read Aero, an adaptation of a Chinese manhua which introduces Stephen to his favorite Marvel Snap card. As a treat, this series also has a backup featuring Wave, a Marvel Snap character Stephen has yet to unlock. A single twelve-issue series that gives us BOTH our stories to rank? What a bargain!

The folks at the Superhuman Registration Podcast appear to be mining Marvel Snap for their story ideas, as they are reading primarily stories focused on their favorite cards from the game. In this week’s installment, they tackle a Blade-centric story in 2004’s Tomb of Dracula. After that, it’s a return to Ironheart when the character gets her own ongoing series in 2019. How does the character’s solo story hold up now that she’s out of Iron Man’s shadow? Give it a listen and find out!

We kick off the new year by visiting the Star Wars side of Marvel with a couple of weirdly Empire-specific tie-ins.

First, we look at the alternate-timeline series Star Wars Infinities, where the story of the original Empire Strikes Back plays out after Luke escapes the wampa on Hoth and… dies. Huh.

The second story is a modern take on some of the events bridging Empire and Return of the Jedi, where the worst eBay bidding war takes place over the body of Han Solo. Also, some bounty hunters fight. It’s War of the Bounty Hunters.

We’re back from sick leave with our technically holiday episode! There’s not much to celebrate when the King in Black comes around, except for maybe we like Venom now? Also, we visited the world of Marvel’s Champions, because what says Christmas more than teen heroes?

Well, the plague has come to the Superhuman Registration Podcast, and none are spared. So we’re skipping our usual episode format this week, and instead Stephen is taking a closer look at the career of letterer extraordinaire Chris Eliopoulos!