Pick of the Week Podcast Episode #77: Nightwing Annual #2

[ConorKilpatrick]

It's our 77th episode!

We discuss Conor's Pick of the Week for April 18, 2007:

http://www.ifanboy.com/images/pickoftheweek041806-thumb.jpg
Nightwing Annual #2
by Marc Andreyko & Joe Bennett

Running Time: 00:58:15

Click here for download info and show notes! (http://www.ifanboy.com/archive/weblog/here_comes_the.html)

Click here to discuss the show! (http://www.ifanboy.com/archive/pickoftheweek/04182007_nightw.html)

[fred]

It looks from the notes to be a very international podcast. congrats on the worldwide listeners.

[Six Gun]

I was hoping for an uber long show due to the mega ton that was this week, but I mean, the longer the show is the more time yall have to spend on it, and since it's not like we pay for it or anything, wanting you guys to give up more time's a bit selfish.

Anyway, I can't wait for tommorow mornuing to listen!

[kwok_talk]

I thought Jimski's question was really profound.

[Labor_Days]

Power Girl is absolutely a Kryptonian. Her powers were originally a result of her Kryptonian physiology, just like Earth-2 Supes. Granted, she's now powered by the yellow sun. But still Kryptonian.


Kryptonian Physiology: Power Girl's cellular structure is more dense, resilient and biologically more effective than human tissue. Strangely enough, she does not seem to possess superhuman strength levels despite her enhanced cellular ability. Unlike Kal-L the Earth 2 Superman whose powers were explained as natural to his physiology and NOT needing yellow sun energy to continue at his superhuman levels in red sun systems, without constant exposure to solar energy, Kara's strength seems on par for a human of her height and weight who engages in regular physical activity thus making her more like the current Superman than her cousin Kal-L. She does possess several additional organs, the function of which are not yet disclosed or understood but are believed to be part of and perhaps even the source of her biomatrix force field and reclamation aura. Power Girl has manifested a wide range of metahuman abilities and is considered to be one of the most powerful metahumans alive. Power Girl's body also actively stores energy within her bio-cellular matrix as an energy pattern that is linked to her body's electromagnetic field. This energy powers most of Power Girl's electromagnetic capabilities such as flight and heat vision. It also supplements her physical strength roughly by a factor of 12,000.

Solar Energy Absorption: Over the years this basis has changed with Kara originally being a Kryptonian of the Classic Earth-Two dimension her powers originally were based on her own body generated energies as Kryptonians native to the original Earth-Two dimension possessed powers on their red sun planet. Later Kara's powers were changed to reflect the current incarnation of Superman whereby her powers are supposedly the result of yellow sun radiation charging. This is a point of contention currently for Power Girl's powers are supposed to reflect that of her cousin Kal-L whose superpowers operate regardless of yellow sun radiation rather than that of the current primary Superman, though it seems that her powers do reflect that of the current Superman as her powers do seem to fluctuate under red sun as recently shown in her time in the New Kandor where she was operating without her superpowers.

[paper]

Extra organs? Seriously?

[Labor_Days]

I think when Dr. Midnite was examining PG in JSA:Classified he made some reference to her extra "organs". Yup, Kryptonians are some f-ed up aliens.

[BenjaminSimpson]

I loved the guys' enthusiasm over the Cup Noodle nomination. Now I smile whenever I eat one.

[paper]

If you guys ever got in a really big fight during the week, would you still record the show together?

I have no idea where this question comes from.

[fred]

good show guys

[AlexG]

Thanks for another great show. This really makes sunday nights less depressing since this takes my mind off the upcomming week...

[Jimski]

In the span of a few months, I went from "Seriously? 'Cup Noodle'?" to "WOOO, CUP NOODLE! ALL THE WAY TO THE EISNERS, BABY!" Behold the power of iFanboy. Just yesterday, I dragged a friend of mine into Star Clipper just to show her the panel, "...and our salaries will increase!!!"

I thought Jimski's question was really profound.

Yeah, I raised the bar. Just how I roll.

Seriously, though, I thought the answers were all thoughtful and top-notch. And I think many of the negatives that came up were just as prevalent in, say, baseball card collecting, which has all the OCD but instead of a story full of vocabulary words gives you a sheet of statistics about running around in a circle.

[sK0pe]

I don't know too much about the DC universe but it sounds like Black Adam is more powerful than even a determined or crazy Superman.

I just thought of Powergirl (as a pair of jugs), no, as a Kryptonian from an alternate universe that has crossed over.

Finally you guys are seeing that Ultimate X-men is sucky. I was a big fan of the X-men's original run including the Age of Apocalypse, up to Onslaught, after which I dropped it, then Ultimate X-men came out, I bought the first few arcs of that series and it was quite entertaining but then there was a creator change and the stories just started copying 616 and relying too much upon the lore from the 616 X-men stories which was annoying because when it originally began, I thought it was as fresh as Ultimate Spiderman and the Ultimates.

If you can guess exactly where a book is going, you're probably wasting money unless you're buying it for the art's sake.

I had a similar experience to you guys after your college experience and being able to deconstruct TV shows except I got mine from my English Literature classes where we basically critically reviewed Ancient Greek plays, famous poems, Shakespeare and other litereary works.

I can't watch most movies, TV shows or even read some pop books anymore because I know exactly what's going to happen or the basic storyline already. I just guess what's going to happen out loud and everyone in the room watching will complain that I've looked up the story on the internet! I just keep my mouth shut these days.

[Mikegraham6]

Another awesome show guys! great questions this week! keep up the good work

[mister s]

Another good show guys. Thanks.

[acomicbookgirl]

You guys rock! Great show guys! :)

[AlexG]

Ron's analysis of Ultimate X-men was dead on...and I'm glad you guys were able to discuss it without the now standard X-criticisims...those are such tropes now anyway.

What I think is interesting is how we as fans of the Ultimate line are really holding the promise Marvel made about this line, as we should.

[JAFlanagan]

If you guys ever got in a really big fight during the week, would you still record the show together?

I have no idea where this question comes from.

77 audio shows (plus extras), 14 video shows, and 3 guys who almost never agree on anything.

You think this hasn't happened?

:D

[Ekval]

Another awesome show guys. I do wish you could have covered more stuff, but I also respect your keeping the show at a consistent length.

And hey, the best is to have a fight on the show. We have that all the time it seems. Must be the ten year age gap between me and my co-hosts. What is tough is that the two of them agree on everything, so I get doubled up on. Of course, since I'm twice as smart as them, it's only fair!

[JGG0610]

77 audio shows (plus extras), 14 video shows, and 3 guys who almost never agree on anything.

You think this hasn't happened?

:D
I always assumed that's what happened when Ron was kicked off the show a few weeks back for punching Conor.

[JGG0610]

Another awesome show guys. I do wish you could have covered more stuff, but I also respect your keeping the show at a consistent length.

And hey, the best is to have a fight on the show. We have that all the time it seems. Must be the ten year age gap between me and my co-hosts. What is tough is that the two of them agree on everything, so I get doubled up on. Of course, since I'm twice as smart as them, it's only fair!
Have you guys ever considered going longer than an hour on the really heavy weeks like this past one?

[iSteve]

Have you guys ever considered going longer than an hour on the really heavy weeks like this past one?

I wondered the same thing. Too many good books didn't make it into this week's podcast. Could cut back on the e-mails/voice-mails if time is a factor. The main reason I listen to the podcast is to hear you guys discuss this week's comics.

[Mikegraham6]

I wondered the same thing. Too many good books didn't make it into this week's podcast. Could cut back on the e-mails/voice-mails if time is a factor. The main reason I listen to the podcast is to hear you guys discuss this week's comics.

I agree, im more excited about the reviews, i find the e-mail discussions to be more of a bonus then anything else.
I'll also throw down my vote for an extended podcast, but i do understand the difficulty behind it. im sure that there are some weeks when doing the podcast/pick of the week is the last thing you want to do, but damn do i enjoy them:D

[AlexG]

I wondered the same thing. Too many good books didn't make it into this week's podcast. Could cut back on the e-mails/voice-mails if time is a factor. The main reason I listen to the podcast is to hear you guys discuss this week's comics.

I agree--you guys riffin on comics is the most interesting part, although I feel bad asking for anything different in the show, especially since you guys are doing this for free.

[JAFlanagan]

I always assumed that's what happened when Ron was kicked off the show a few weeks back for punching Conor.

We've never not done a show because of a fight. Oddly enough, those are usually better shows, but I couldn't tell you which ones they are.

The only thing that ever kept anyone off the show in a given week was logistics.

This is good feedback folks. We'll keep it in mind. But remember this too. Sometimes, even when there are a lot of books, there's not necessarily a lot to talk about. That's part of what goes into deciding which books we talk about. Because if a book doesn't have any discussion to it, we don't do it.

[horatio616]

I think when Dr. Midnite was examining PG in JSA:Classified he made some reference to her extra "organs".

That's so obvious I'm not even gonna touch that one...

[R0BLAW]

Great show as always guys. I'm all for the longer podcast too. Keep up the great work. Looking forward to the video show on Wednesday.

[JGG0610]

Have you guys ever considered teasing the subject for the following Wednesday show on the Sunday show? Just a thought.

[richardnilsson]

Great show guys! (God you spoil us.)

I think Jimski's question was really thought provoking. I come from a blue collar family and comics got me into reading. I'm pretty sure that I would not had gone on to higher education if it hadn't been for comic books. Plus they actually sort of served like a moral compass giving me a strong sense of justice, going the right thing and sticking up for the little guy.

And it was really cool that you answered my question. I absolutely agree with Josh that the best comics are the ones where you just get sucked in and forget to look at the strings behind the panels. However, if you go back and read those books with critical eyes you'll find that most of the time they at least use the most common elements (enter a scene late and leave early, reveals on even pages etc.)

Funny thing is that I've discovered that in a lot of the books I like the plot is rather generic, whereas the story telling is what appeals to me. Just look at Whedon's Astonishing. If you would simply look at the plots of his arc, they're pretty generic. But the way he tells those stories with great character moments and an uncanny (pun intended) sense of pacing makes his X-Men one of the truly greatest runs ever.

And if you look at Meltzer's Tornado's Path I think the story was extremely well crafted. Problem was that it was a bit too well crafted to really work getting cut up into 22 page parts. It's pretty clear that he's written this for the TPB and as a result the individual issues don't read too well. Personally I loved it (in part coz some of the first comics I read were the Satellite era JLA) but I think the story will probably work better read in a trade.

Oh, and I really don't expect you guys to know how to pronounce the letter Ö! But if you want to know it's pronounced sort of like U in front of R in English (compare to urban, murder etc). (Or you can do like local celebrities Millencollin and simply translate it to Pennybridge.) The lesson to be learned here is that the correct pronounciations of Mötley Crüe and Motörhead are slightly different than what Nikki Sixx and Lemmy intended.

Gotta love heavy metal umlauts!

[jerome]

hola richard

[fred]

welcome richard

[Ekval]

We've never not done a show because of a fight. Oddly enough, those are usually better shows, but I couldn't tell you which ones they are.

The only thing that ever kept anyone off the show in a given week was logistics.

This is good feedback folks. We'll keep it in mind. But remember this too. Sometimes, even when there are a lot of books, there's not necessarily a lot to talk about. That's part of what goes into deciding which books we talk about. Because if a book doesn't have any discussion to it, we don't do it.

I would agree, and I have always found it a little failing of some shows (mine at times), trying to hit everything instead of the high points. It just seemed that on such a heavy week you guys would have hit mroe stuff. But as others have said, you all do the most awesome job out there in any case, so I'll shut my pie hole.

Oh, and Jimski's question was awesome, one of the best I've heard in a long time, as were the responses.

[richardnilsson]

Thanks for the welcome guys! :)

[kwok_talk]

I just flipped the Nightwing annual when I was at the shop and had a quick Robin question. So is he still engaged to that one girl (Starfire?)? Or did something happen there that would allow him and Barbara to get back together later?

[ConorKilpatrick]

I just flipped the Nightwing annual when I was at the shop and had a quick Robin question. So is he still engaged to that one girl (Starfire?)? Or did something happen there that would allow him and Barbara to get back together later?

No, that engagement happened long, long ago.

She nearly married Dick Grayson, but their wedding was interrupted by Raven (who had gone evil at the time). Raven murdered the priest before he could pronounce Dick and Kory husband and wife. The relationship was already on unsteady ground, with Kory fearing that Dick was rushing into marriage and also concerned by the anti-alien sentiments that sprang up in response to the news of the impending nuptials.

[Thomas Katers]

Picked this up today.

That was really really good.

It has that resonance that you get when a writer gets a character so well that it just seems to explode out of the page.

[AlexG]

Picked this up today.

That was really really good.

It has that resonance that you get when a writer gets a character so well that it just seems to explode out of the page.

I agree. I've been ignoring the Nightwing monthly as well as Outsiders because they've struck me as not that interesting. But this Annual got me curious about the character again. I'm looking forward to the "Check Out" arc when Rucka gets to write him again, even if it's brief

[paper]

Ahhh, I couldn't find that Nightwing annual.

[DarrOn]

Y'know, paper, Ive been trying to figure out what the second quote in your signature is for a while now. And I think it finally dawned on me. Its Demetri Martin, right? That kid is brilliant. I love all his stuff, from his cd to all his Daily Show bits.

[paper]

Y'know, paper, Ive been trying to figure out what the second quote in your signature is for a while now. And I think it finally dawned on me. Its Demetri Martin, right? That kid is brilliant. I love all his stuff, from his cd to all his Daily Show bits.

Would you believe it's a *Pol Montgomery original?

I've enjoyed what little I've seen of Demetri Martin though. Wasn't aware of his CD. I'll check it out.






*yours (mostly) truly

[DarrOn]

Swing and a miss. You shoulld check him out, though. I realy think you especially will appreciate is humor. Dont ask me why.