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Milestone Book Club #37 - Blood Syndicate #24-27 · 22 Panels - A Comic Book Podcast

0:02
Tad Eggleston: Good evening, everybody. Welcome back to 22 Panels.
0:06
Tad Eggleston: as I've been saying a ton, my heart and my brain
0:11
Tad Eggleston: are in Minneapolis, as is Ted! So, so, so, like, send all support, whether, whether it's emotional, monetary, anything you can do to Minneapolis right now.
0:23
Tad Eggleston: I've gotten into all the details too many times, and today, I'm just tired.
0:29
Ted: StandWithMinnesota.com, we'll give.
0:32
Tad Eggleston: Right, well, and also, what I did do today is I wrote to…
0:38
Tad Eggleston: my governor, my representative, and both of my senators. My senators, I said, stay in Washington long enough to shut the government down. And everybody else, I said, get the Minneapolis.
0:50
Ted: It's time to not have…
0:54
Tad Eggleston: Minnesotans stand alone. So if you've got the time, if you've got the energy to go yourself, do so. I understand that most of us work for a living. Your elected officials, however, part of their work
1:06
Tad Eggleston: could be doing things like going and standing, up for tyranny in Minneapolis, so, like, write those letters, make those phone calls. But, it's time to talk blood syndicate, which is…
1:17
Tad Eggleston: Something I desperately need today, and Ted.
1:21
Tad Eggleston: desperately needs it today, and Marcus just always desperately needs it, because he loves his milestone. So, I mean, we love our milestone, too, but I know that Marcus would be drawing right now if it weren't Milestone. That's just the way he rolls. He likes.
1:37
Marcus: to me.
1:37
Tad Eggleston: But, you know.
1:40
Marcus: Also, sorry I'm late, it was because I lost… lost the track time drawing, but…
1:44
Ted: Hey, no.
1:45
Tad Eggleston: Doing work for a living?
1:49
Ted: Ugh…
1:50
Tad Eggleston: You don't have a bell that rings at the end of the day, you have to keep drawing.
1:54
Ted: You got the…
1:54
Tad Eggleston: Oh, wait a minute, no, you work another job, and then you come home and draw, and don't have a bell that rings at the end of the day.
2:01
Ted: God.
2:02
Marcus: Yeah. We're here to talk about the syndicate, but also, but seriously, though, just briefly, yeah, Ted, I definitely, definitely thought of you, man. I meant to check in, but… I appreciate it.
2:11
Ted: that. I mean, I pers… I personally, I am… I'm in the suburbs, but, like, every person I know… everybody I know has been affected by it, and…
2:20
Ted: Yeah, it's, you know, seeing… seeing people getting frog marched out of my local childhood library, and hey, you can maybe hear the helicopter that just started up over my house. I literally just… good lord. Yeah, so it's.
2:33
Tad Eggleston: The 22 Panels Instagram has definitely been highlighting some stuff. The Minnesota Cartoonists…
2:39
Tad Eggleston: Yes. Have been, have been.
2:42
Ted: Trung Legion.
2:43
Ted: They've all been doing, like, four-page Instagram cartoons in blue. Yes, Catherine would… I always forget her name.
2:51
Ted: Wood, woodwork…
2:52
Marcus: Maynard would mean that you.
2:53
Ted: Yeah. I love you, Catherine, I always forget your last name. Yeah, no, Blue Delta Quanti's been doing some good stuff. Like, everybody here I know, we have all been doing incredible things. Archie Boniovanni put out a great one just the other day or two ago. Yep. It's… yeah, I mean, we are… they're Minnesotans here, we are… we are…
3:11
Ted: we are doing as much as possible we can. I did not think we had this in a… well, no, I did… you know, it's one of those things…
3:16
Tad Eggleston: I knew you did.
3:17
Ted: I, like, looking at it now, I'm like, oh yeah, I do realize… I read somewhere some factoid that, like, Minnesota has the second highest level of, like, social trust among residents, after, like, Utah. So, yeah, man, we know each other.
3:32
Tad Eggleston: So, the ways to do it are to be Mormon or be Minnesotan. That makes sense to me.
3:39
Ted: And Minnesota nice means we are nice to those who deserve niceness, and everybody else… I mean, I'm not gonna say it, because, you know, I don't want to get.
3:46
Tad Eggleston: I have to say, there have been some really, really nice, blooper reels of… of…
3:53
Tad Eggleston: of federal agents who don't understand how snow and ice work?
3:58
Ted: on the pavement. Ugh, that angle, I watched that a dozen times. Anyway, yeah, no. The Nazi getting sprayed at the Super Soaker when it's, like, two below? Oh, yeah, anyway. We can… yeah, I mean, go on your blue sky, go on your Instagram, you will see all this, you know what's going on.
4:13
Ted: Keep us in your thoughts, but also, like, be inspired by us, because…
4:17
Tad Eggleston: Yep.
4:18
Ted: it's, you know, you maybe… part of it is also, as other people have also said, hey, guess what? There have been a whole lot of other horrible high-profile things happening in Minnesota. There's George Floyd, Filona Castile, there have been other really horrible, awful incidents.
4:32
Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, earlier this year, you had two state… Lawmakers targeted.
4:39
Ted: God, I… the… oh my god.
4:40
Marcus: I mean…
4:41
Ted: victims.
4:41
Marcus: Just briefly, because I… I know, I know we're trying to move on to…
4:45
Ted: Sorry, Sam, sorry.
4:46
Marcus: No, no, no, but briefly, briefly, it's double-triggering in the sense that…
4:53
Marcus: it's like the shit that they're doing, you know, whether it's, you know, Renee Goode or,
4:59
Marcus: or, Alex Axe Pretty, it's like… it's the type of shit that's been happening to Black people forever, and so, it's like, I don't want to see it happen to anybody,
5:12
Marcus: But it's kind of like, I know this all too well, you know? It was actually…
5:16
Tad Eggleston: They.
5:17
Marcus: And I know it's not… they're certainly not done happening to us, you know, because this is as old as America, so…
5:26
Marcus: I don't have a lot of loles about this.
5:28
Ted: Yeah, we can… I think we've said enough, but it's…
5:32
Tad Eggleston: Well, I was gonna say that there was a Saturday Night Live sketch this weekend that touched on…
5:38
Ted: Cool guy, yeah.
5:39
Tad Eggleston: Specifically, and is worth doing.
5:42
Marcus: I suppose.
5:44
Tad Eggleston: They did a PBS NewsHour where the white talking heads were trying to do their whole thing, and the two black people on the panel just kept going.
5:56
Tad Eggleston: Mmm…
5:59
Tad Eggleston: And throwing them away.
6:00
Marcus: Hmm…
6:01
Tad Eggleston: As they tried to… to rework. Well, no, I mean, It's not… well.
6:10
Marcus: It's cool. No, no, it's all good.
6:14
Marcus: It's all good, it's all good, it's all good.
6:16
Ted: I just, you know, yeah.
6:19
Marcus: Yeah, yeah, we, yeah, we can move on. It says, I, I.
6:22
Tad Eggleston: I think they're.
6:23
Marcus: what I was in the middle of saying, is that just kinda…
6:26
Marcus: Humor… humor… I'm having trouble finding much humor in any of it.
6:30
Tad Eggleston: No, I get it.
6:31
Marcus: It's dark. It's really dark, and it's like, and I'm far from the first person that says this, but when…
6:36
Marcus: photogenic white, ICU workers who everybody reportedly loves are getting popped and executed in the street. It's like, it just…
6:50
Marcus: when Black America… when white America has a cold, we have the flu. So it's kind of like…
6:55
Tad Eggleston: Right.
6:55
Marcus: when I see this danger, you know, descending upon, you know, people like the latest, shooting victim, I'm just like, yo, it's…
7:04
Marcus: the danger for us is just even gonna be higher, ultimately. But let's talk about Blood Syndicate.
7:11
Ted: Let's talk about Blood Syndicate. We were reading… we read Blood Syndicate issues 24 through 27, someone check that.
7:17
Tad Eggleston: 7, yeah.
7:18
Ted: Yep. Four issues in a row. I… this… this is the first Blood Syndicate in the book, so I was like, oh my god, what's been happening? Because I had to go back and just, like, double-check, because it's… as much as I love Blood Syndicate, I do feel like it has the most threads going of any…
7:35
Ted: Like, of any of the milestone books.
7:37
Ted: It seems like. I mean, because, you know, Static had different things going on, and Icon and Rocket both have their stories, and Hardware, of course, has multiple characters showing up, but, like, Blood Syndicate has mo- there is no single main character of Blood Syndicate.
7:50
Ted: And that's a strength, but it also makes it tough to remember, like, oh yeah, what was Doc up to? What was happening? I mean, they kind of had a boogeyman arc recently, because they had the thing where they found out he was white. Kwai is…
8:02
Ted: Was she leaving at the start of this arc, or did she leave during this arc?
8:06
Marcus: Yeah, the start, the start of the article.
8:08
Tad Eggleston: Okay, spoilers! Well, not spoilers, we're talking about it.
8:10
Ted: But yeah.
8:11
Marcus: It's all good.
8:12
Tad Eggleston: Well, and also, you know, it did… did release 30 years ago. Okay, yeah, wow, 30… almost 30 years ago, good lord.
8:19
Ted: Actually, just about 30 years, good lord.
8:22
Tad Eggleston: 30 years ago. Yeah, I looked up…
8:24
Ted: Because I was trying to remember. So, this also, by the way, this sees the return of a couple characters, that we hadn't seen in a while, including Templo, who died back in
8:34
Ted: And, like, chronologically, even before that, because that was, like, a flashback issue to the start of the Blood Syndicate.
8:41
Ted: And that was… was that, I think, the only issue that Templo appeared in, physically?
8:47
Marcus: I think he was definitely mentioned quite a bit, because, like, when they were, you know, when they would talk about the…
8:53
Marcus: what preceded the Big Bang, and, you know, like, the different factions. Yeah. Like, they definitely would speak about him alive. But you're right, I think as far as appearing.
9:03
Marcus: That might have been the only issue where he, like, really was… was on the page.
9:08
Ted: Yeah, and up until the most recent arc, of course, now we have… so yeah, so issue 24… let me actually pull out my book and start looking at what the pages are, because I…
9:18
Ted: I gotta remind myself, oh yeah, what did happen, Paige, Paige?
9:23
Marcus: While you do that, to your point… oh, go ahead, no, you go ahead, sir.
9:26
Ted: No, I got nothing else, go ahead.
9:28
Marcus: Oh, I was gonna say is, like, yeah, to your point about, like, the… The dense, like, overlapping,
9:36
Marcus: arcs with characters, I am grateful for the fact that they do a previously
9:42
Marcus: You know, title page at the beginning of each issue.
9:46
Tad Eggleston: Yeah.
9:46
Marcus: Because it just helps to situate yourself.
9:48
Tad Eggleston: Pretty good catch-up, too.
9:50
Marcus: Dude.
9:51
Ted: This is Book 2. Where did I put Book 3? Going insane. Book 5.
9:57
Tad Eggleston: Book 5, I think, was just solicited, too. Oh, God. For those reading along, Book 4 is out. Book 5 was just solicited.
10:05
Ted: We may have to cut this out. I left it on the couch in the next room. I'll be right back.
10:14
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, no, this… this hits so many characters, Marcus.
10:18
Tad Eggleston: Some of them I remembered.
10:19
Marcus: Yeah.
10:20
Tad Eggleston: I had to… To remind myself… .
10:25
Marcus: Yeah.
10:27
Tad Eggleston: And… and I don't know…
10:29
Tad Eggleston: If it's because of the way we're reading this, where it sometimes means that we're away from a title for a period of time, or if it's just they're stretched so thin.
10:42
Tad Eggleston: I, I both… Loved how much was happening, and some of the specific scenes, and…
10:50
Tad Eggleston: didn't feel like I got enough of anything.
10:54
Tad Eggleston: In these four issues.
10:56
Ted: That's fair. It is, like, it's incremental progress in all of the major plotlines, I felt like.
11:02
Tad Eggleston: Right.
11:03
Ted: Which is good, because I… again, it's like, all these plotlines are great, like, Third Rail and, and, and…
11:10
Ted: brick trying to make a life of it on the outside, you know, we've got wise son and dog getting after each other, we've got, you know, stuff inside system happening, we've got the system escapees, like, it's all really good stories, it's just that it's 4 of them, or 5, or however many, all at once happening and getting confused.
11:27
Tad Eggleston: Well, and don't forget Brick and Third Rail leaving.
11:30
Ted: Oh, yeah. Kwai leaving.
11:32
Marcus: Yeah, he mentioned that.
11:33
Tad Eggleston: And… and…
11:35
Ted: Masquerade just left.
11:37
Tad Eggleston: Well, and then comes back.
11:39
Marcus: He's been gone for a while, but they've been going for, like, years.
11:41
Tad Eggleston: gone, but Masquerade winds up coming back.
11:44
Ted: Yeah.
11:45
Ted: Oro, there… I mean, that's the thing, is, like, finally some of the other plotlines are also coming together, because, like, Oro had been in a few earlier issues, like, the last 2 or 3 issues, totally unconnected from the Blood Syndicate stuff.
11:58
Ted: But now, finally coming back… anyway. So, no, so we start off, yeah, did we… sorry, while I was out, did you guys start talking about the issues or anything?
12:06
Marcus: We didn't get too deep into it.
12:08
Tad Eggleston: I think you caught the essence. I filled the gap by saying that… that I both…
12:14
Tad Eggleston: Loved and hated how much and how little was going on.
12:19
Ted: Yeah. And also, this first issue, by the way, has a different penciler than usual. It's John Higgins? John Higgins.
12:26
Ted: It's looking at Michelle Wrightson doing the color, but it's not criss-cross as usual. And I think that's significant, because I don't know if it was just me, but I felt like the three issues that came after this, 25, 26, and 27, where it goes back to criss-cross, the anchor whose name I'm forgetting, I feel really bad, and then Michelle Wrightson on colors, like, I feel like those are, like…
12:46
Ted: even better than they have been. Like, criss-cross has been good. I mean, spoiler, shocker, shocking thing to say, I know.
12:52
Tad Eggleston: That's rope.
12:53
Tad Eggleston: Robert Keanu.
12:55
Ted: Thank you, thank you I'm sorry, Marcus, what would you say?
12:58
Marcus: No, I was gonna… I was just agreeing with you. I think one of the things about Criss Cross… I like Criss Cross's art a lot. I've been a… I was, well, a fan since the 90s, but…
13:07
Marcus: Like, yeah, he just… he steadily, like, gets better, you know? And you definitely see it throughout the run of Blood Syndicate.
13:15
Ted: Yeah, I kind of went through previous issues and was looking, and I was like, wait, okay, were there different inkers? Were there different colorists? And, like, yeah, there's a couple other inkers, and of course there was a fill-in issue or two, but, like, it's pretty solidly been that team on art for most of the run, and, like, it's always been good, but something… I don't know, man, it's like, it's leveled up somehow.
13:33
Tad Eggleston: I was about to say, we saw John Paul Leon…
13:36
Tad Eggleston: That's weird. Level up a while ago, and I.
13:38
Ted: I feel…
13:39
Tad Eggleston: I feel like… I feel like this is kind of the arc that we see criss-cross-loving Lep, and I think that's in part because he's gotta organize pages with so much going on, and tell so much, well.
13:54
Ted: That's fair.
13:54
Tad Eggleston: While at the same time, not letting it become…
13:57
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, he's gotta get really creative with some of the ways that he…
14:03
Tad Eggleston: lays out these pages, tells these stories. This is both…
14:08
Tad Eggleston: and I mean this as the highest possible con… Complement. These are both…
14:15
Tad Eggleston: Books that you can read super fast, because they flow, and they don't use more words than they need, etc, and that you can spend a ton of time with, because even though they flow, if you're really digging in.
14:30
Tad Eggleston: They're cramming a crap ton.
14:33
Ted: Yeah…
14:34
Tad Eggleston: Panel to panel.
14:35
Marcus: Yeah.
14:35
Ted: Yes. Yeah. And also…
14:37
Marcus: Yeah, I wanted to say that, like, you know, I always…
14:40
Marcus: shout out, when I can, shout out,
14:43
Marcus: Ivan Velez, you know, because I love his writing, and also… and you know, at this point that we're at, like, he's currently writing Blood Syndicate and, Static.
14:53
Marcus: But, like, yeah, like, I'd say this arc is ambitious, which I think speaks to maybe what you were talking about.
15:00
Marcus: Yeah, like, your reading of it, Tad, in the sense that there is so much going on. I'm grateful that the… like, we'll get into it, but the,
15:11
Marcus: the… the super-powered individuals whose system had been experimenting on, I'm grateful that they…
15:19
Marcus: captioned them a lot, only because they're very new to us, and they really… I mean, new in the sense, like, we mentioned Templo has been around before and everything, but as far as, like, really being on the page.
15:33
Marcus: You know, they're all new, so it was very easy to be like, wait, who's this now? Like, you know, and you also aren't familiar with people's power set, so I guess that's my point…
15:46
Tad Eggleston: a lot, too. Er, not Bloodshot, Blood Syndicate a lot, too, which I think…
15:50
Tad Eggleston: Was helpful for the story in general.
15:53
Tad Eggleston: Right.
15:54
Marcus: But obviously, like, at this point, yeah, you're right, they were doing that for the team, but at this point, we're so familiar with the team, we're familiar with their powers.
16:02
Tad Eggleston: No, I just happened to come across the page where they were all in bed, and it was Fade, Wise Sun, Flashback, Pearl.
16:09
Marcus: Yup. Yeah.
16:11
Marcus: But, I guess… Oh, go ahead, sir.
16:14
Ted: No, no.
16:18
Marcus: No, I was, I was just saying… yeah, sorry, you go, Tim.
16:21
Ted: No, I was gonna agree with you about the power specifically. I was trying to look up here, because I was wondering, like, yeah, I was like, one person can maybe do, like, hallucinations, and then one other person could do, like, poison or something? I couldn't tell, like…
16:33
Ted: Everybody, like, Templo's got telekinesis, there's one person turns into a dragon, or, like, a beast weirdo dude. I guess the dragon… no, the dragon is Masquerade, because that's the other thing, is, like, a lot of their powers have been upgraded. So, like, Oro's powers are a lot more powerful, and Templo has… Templo has… and this is another, like.
16:48
Ted: This is… this is some really visible art upgrade, is, like, he's got this, like, crackling energy around him at all times.
16:55
Marcus: Yeah, yeah. I like how they run into that.
16:57
Ted: Yeah, it's, like, half-shadowed, and it's just really.
17:00
Marcus: clean.
17:00
Ted: Man, oh, I love it, it's so good.
17:03
Marcus: Yeah, like, he uses both shadow and that, like, like you said, crackling light energy together really effectively.
17:11
Ted: Yeah, those scenes with, like, the system escapees are really good, because they're all kind of weird and moody and, like, mad-science-y, and… yeah, I don't know. But yeah, I mean, that's sort of the main-esque thrust of this set of issues, then, is the… is systems' internal problems, because part of it is spurred by Agent Rose, who…
17:31
Ted: I had to go back and reread all this stuff, because I've forgotten. He has a daughter, but he also has terminal cancer, so he decides he's gonna mess up system stuff.
17:39
Ted: to…
17:41
Ted: I don't know, just messed them up for the sake of it? I never quite got a reason for it beyond, like, he had nothing left to lose, but…
17:47
Ted: I… whatever.
17:49
Marcus: Yeah, I think it's, like, change of heart. Yeah, I know what you mean, I don't remember his exact…
17:54
Marcus: What the cause, but he definitely… it definitely comes across. He's… he's done with them.
17:59
Ted: Yeah, he's done with them. He smashes up all their systems, which allows all the people to escape, but doesn't, like…
18:05
Ted: fully stopped system, and of course, they kill Rose pretty quickly, too, I think. Who kills him?
18:11
Ted: Actually, how does he die? Hold on. I know he gets killed.
18:14
Marcus: Well, he's not, he's not dead dead. Yeah. He's, he's, like, messed up, but he's, like, he, he does survive.
18:22
Ted: Okay.
18:23
Marcus: Cause, what's her name? Helps him escape.
18:26
Ted: Oh, one of the… one of the escapees, one of the… the people with power.
18:31
Marcus: Yeah, her name is…
18:33
Ted: So there's Mistress Music I'm having to look this up.
18:37
Marcus: Yeah, it's her, Mistress Mercy, I think.
18:39
Ted: Okay, she's the one who kind of transformed into, like, a horned… demon-looking character thing, I think.
18:46
Marcus: Yeah.
18:47
Ted: Yeah, I mean, that is, like, again, there's… they're covering a lot of, like, who are the different new characters, because, yeah, Oro, Masquerade, and Templo you've seen before, but everyone else is new, and it's… we don't know what their powers are, I don't know. Oh, yeah, Caress with a K.
19:01
Ted: Whatever her thing is. And then Bubbasaur… Bubbasaurus, I guess you've seen, is the… is the big dinosaur guy. Yeah. Anyway, but,
19:11
Ted: But yeah, it's… Mother has been using all the various people who escaped from, or who were, you know, taken in over the last few issues. They captured Oro, they captured Masquerade after Masquerade escaped with all the money.
19:23
Ted: And now they've been experimenting, and now they break out. And so part of it is about, like, the internal complications of the system, because, of course, this looks bad for Mother, and her whole station is ruined.
19:32
Ted: And then it's about Masquerade back on the streets, and kind of back in the same position he already was, which is, I betrayed my whole gang for $5,000, and they're gonna try to kill me as soon as I show up again, what can I possibly do?
19:48
Ted: It's just that now his powers have been upgraded, so, like, when he turns into a dragon, he can actually breathe fire, I guess? It's never… it's never kind of spelled out, but that was the impression I got, anyway.
19:56
Marcus: Good.
19:57
Ted: But also then, yeah, I mean, it's the internal conflicts of the Blood Syndicate, where, like, the conflict between Dog and Wise Son is really kind of heating up, and I like that a lot, too, in that both of them are very… I mean, as with all the Blood Syndicate characters, they're very human, ironically, in the case of Dog.
20:13
Marcus: Yeah.
20:14
Ted: And so… Good.
20:17
Marcus: Oh, just briefly, just briefly, I would say, like, Dog, in a lot of ways… I mean, obviously, there's definitely other Blessing characters
20:24
Marcus: who display conscience, but I would say dog seems to be, like, the conscience of…
20:31
Marcus: the team in a lot of ways. It doesn't always get listened to, but Doug oftentimes will, like, really speak up and advocate, for doing the right thing or doing right by somebody.
20:43
Ted: but also the one who's kind of the keeper of the rules, because, like, when Masquerade steals the money, dog is the first one to say, like, oh no, he's on a death sentence now, that's it, like…
20:50
Marcus: Yeah, yeah, that's a good point, that's a good point, yeah, yeah.
20:52
Ted: And it's an interesting contrast, then, of course, with Wisand, who's got sort of the force of authority, the willingness to be the person in charge, but also kind of rubs a lot of people the wrong way, and doesn't know what he's doing sometimes either, has his own sort of… I wouldn't say weak points, but, like, you know, he doesn't know what to do with his…
21:12
Marcus: Well, no, I mean, briefly, briefly, I just want to say, I think you're on to… you're definitely on to something, and first of all, it's like, I feel like I've definitely…
21:20
Marcus: known… Y's fun reminds me of people I've known in real life, and it's, like, the type of person who's been through a lot.
21:27
Marcus: And, like, is like, yo, kind of like only the strongest survive type mentality, but…
21:36
Marcus: with it, it's almost like, like, like everything is a nail. Like, you know, like a hammer to a nail, the way they approach every situation. Yeah. And, you know, YSUN has admitted
21:45
Marcus: you know, I don't think necessarily to others, but always, but to himself, that he doesn't necessarily know what he's doing. And he does recognize he's messing up, but he also doesn't want to show doubt or weakness, you know? And he's alienating.
22:01
Marcus: Like, a lot of people. This is… that's, like, the recurring theme
22:04
Marcus: Between all the characters in one way or another, you know?
22:07
Ted: Yeah. But then at the same time, I like that there's, you know, sort of interesting side bits of other characters coming together. I mean, Third Rail and Brickhouse, obviously, but then also, like, Fade and Kwai having a nice little quiet moment when she decides to leave, or Aquamaria, DMZ, like, just looking silently at each other.
22:24
Ted: Like, I love… I love the little bits that remind you that, like, yeah, some of these char- some of these characters still get along.
22:30
Marcus: Like, it… it's…
22:32
Ted: it's a really rich, dense cast that I really…
22:36
Ted: God, yeah, I love them all bouncing off each other, even if a lot of them are frequently wrong, or sort of focusing on the wrong thing, or whatever. Yeah, it's… it's…
22:46
Ted: It's such a good cast, it's such a good cast, and…
22:49
Ted: unfortunately, that means that we have to keep adding people to it, like, now that Oro's coming back, we have to figure out what to do with him, and Templo is back, and I don't even know what's gonna happen with him, because we haven't seen it yet, but anyway.
22:58
Ted: But yeah, essentially, all the system escapees escape,
23:03
Ted: Masquerade is on the run, and is realizing, crap, I have nowhere else to go, I can't go back to… did he used to work at a… was it a strip club, or…
23:11
Ted: I mean, was it a strip club that was basically also a…
23:14
Marcus: That I don't remember, maybe.
23:16
Ted: it's… I had to go back through earlier issues, because there's a thing where it's… it's… he's… well, and it's also referenced in that one of the other escapees
23:24
Ted: It's not the dinosaur guy, it's kind of the blue demon-y looking guy. I say guy, I actually don't know if they… anyway. That… that person was, like…
23:33
Ted: They go back to someone at the same club, I think, who, like, they used to.
23:38
Marcus: Oh, babe? Yeah.
23:39
Ted: Babe, Yeah, of course, the ox, yeah, exactly. God, you think I know my own states? Anyway…
23:44
Ted: But yeah, like, he goes back to the club, because apparently he knows someone there, like, he used to be either the bodyguard or the, like, the bouncer or something, I don't quite know. Anyway. But yeah, so, Masquerade has nowhere really left to go, he's alienated, everybody he knows. And then cut to a page later, we've got these kind of…
24:01
Ted: quiet moments where everyone's sleeping, and Fades having nightmares, and dog wakes up and kind of goes out in the middle of this rain and is… thinks he smells something. Something attacks him, and he…
24:12
Ted: Disappears, and then suddenly, Tech 9 shows up from the dead.
24:18
Ted: And that's the big reveal thing, and that's the big, you know, cliffhanger ending, and like…
24:23
Ted: it's one of those things where I admire that they're doing it, I forgot that this happened after my reread, and I kind of forgot about it because it was obvious, like, immediately what they're doing. I was like, oh, this is Masquerade pretending to be Tech-9, which is…
24:36
Ted: It's not, like, super telegraphed, but it's pretty obvious.
24:40
Marcus: Wait a second, oh…
24:42
Marcus: Oh! Is it? You're blowing my mind. Wait, I didn't catch that, if that's the case.
24:48
Marcus: So… Wait, is that what it ends up being?
24:50
Ted: I'm pretty sure it is. Like, I think I might have read ahead and just remembered that also. But it also is like, you know, the page after.
24:57
Marcus: That wasn't obvious to me.
24:59
Ted: Okay, alright.
24:59
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, no, I didn't think that was the case.
25:01
Ted: maybe I'm remembering too much, and also now I'm sorry I spoiled it, because we don't actually get the next few issues until Volume 4, so we're not even.
25:09
Marcus: Oh, man.
25:10
Ted: until, like, June. Oh, sorry, guys! But… but it is one of those things where it's just, like, the pieces… I mean, I think it was… I had read it, you know, years ago. I did my reread, my own reread a few years ago, and then I just must have remembered it. But it's also, like, the timing is so…
25:28
Ted: I mean, it's clear what's happening, you know, that Tech9 appears, like, two pages after Masquerade is like, oh crap, there's only one place left I can go. And also, Dog disappears.
25:39
Ted: Or, not.
25:39
Marcus: Right.
25:40
Ted: The dog is attacked, and, like, we find out he washes up on the shore, having been, like, almost.
25:45
Marcus: Yeah…
25:46
Ted: And Dog is the one who's always closest to Tech9, and presumably could probably tell that Tech 9 wasn't…
25:51
Marcus: Oh, man.
25:53
Ted: Yeah, and also that, like, Masquerade… Tech 9 as…
25:56
Ted: Tech Nine, as masquerade as Tech-9, was, like, concerned about whether or not he could still use the guns that he had, and that's, like, oh, because he had some, you know, his powers were all about, like, summoning guns, and then they had infinite ammo.
26:09
Marcus: And so I assumed it was a thing where it's like, oh, Mask didn't know if his powers would work to let him use those guns, or…
26:14
Ted: etc. So, yeah, sorry for exploding on you guys, I guess.
26:18
Marcus: No, no, that's interesting, because I will say, yes, the thing that really makes… brings the mystery
26:25
Marcus: Element of, like, wait, what…
26:27
Marcus: what is happening is the fact that Dog had been attacked and was injured. Yeah, and it's also…
26:34
Ted: credit, like, I.
26:34
Marcus: But I didn't connect it to Masquerade.
26:36
Ted: Yeah, and I mean, again, to Velez's credits, everybody's credit, it's not like it's… it's not super telegraphed, it really isn't. I kind of was overstating it, but it's just… it's one of those things where the timing…
26:46
Ted: is, once you… once you see it for what it is, it's like, oh, okay, that makes a lot of sense. And then also, yeah, of course Dog would be the one attacked, but they're never, like…
26:55
Ted: in the rest… in the remaining issues of this run, Tech Night appears at the end of 25, so in 26 and 27,
27:03
Ted: you know, there's no really obvious hints that Masquerade isn't… or Tech9 is Masquerade. It's still left pretty… pretty,
27:13
Ted: I wouldn't say ambiguous, it's… it's… there's no obvious thing of, like, Masquerade shifts back at the end of the issue, it's like, haha, I fooled them! You know.
27:20
Marcus: There's no reveal.
27:21
Ted: Reveal, yeah.
27:23
Ted: But it is, like, if you read between the lines enough, it seems to all make sense. And also.
27:29
Marcus: The only thing that throws me off with that theory… I'm sorry to interrupt, but the only thing that throws me off with that theory
27:35
Marcus: is we do see, you know, quote-unquote, Tech 9
27:39
Marcus: At the end of the issue, after…
27:42
Marcus: Masquerade has seemingly gotten away.
27:47
Marcus: You know… Yeah.
27:48
Marcus: And Masquerade was, like, basically trying to make an escape with the money. So, to me, it actually… would…
27:58
Marcus: I guess, and you know what, that's, like, great 4D chess, if that is the case, that it's Masquerade, because…
28:06
Marcus: it seems like, motivation-wise, it would not be in his best interest. And Masquerade, the last we saw him when he was being pursued by the team, he was basically, like, I know what the deal is, like, it's a death sentence for me to be here. So he'd really be playing with fire to, like, be hanging around his Tech 9. And so by the.
28:26
Ted: But also…
28:26
Marcus: that at the end of the issue, we see him around, and he's, you know, he's, getting into a power struggle with Y's son. I just feel like that wouldn't be playing… keeping a very low profile, you know?
28:39
Ted: No, but also, I think that's consistent with Masquerade being a…
28:43
Ted: Not a super long-term planner. I think, I mean.
28:46
Marcus: That's one of the things…
28:47
Ted: Yeah, that's… so…
28:49
Ted: I know I've said this on previous episodes, my experience with Milestone started because I got a handful of random issues, like, when they came out in 95, 96, and so I had one issue of Icon, one issue of hardware, that kind of stuff, and I had the issue of…
29:03
Ted: Blood Syndicate, where Masquerade betrays the team by grabbing the bag and then just swooping off. And it's really…
29:10
Tad Eggleston: so I read that issue compulsively, because it was the only issue I had of it.
29:15
Ted: Gazutide.
29:16
Tad Eggleston: That was just…
29:17
Ted: It's still pretty cold in Minneapolis, guys. And, like, the way that that moment happens, and the way that it gets presented is so… it's so obvious that Masquerade is, like, at the end of his rope, he has no idea what he's doing, he's just gonna try the…
29:32
Ted: like, the one thing that comes to mind is like, alright, I'm just gonna grab the bag and run for it. And he does, he just grabs it and runs in, like, the middle of a conversation, like, they're walking down the sidewalk, and Masquerade's like, alright, screw it, and just grabs the money, turns into a hawk, and flies off. And then, you know, the people who can fly try to chase him, but they can't, they can't catch him, and he gets away, and they're like…
29:48
Ted: alright, well, I guess you gotta kill him, and then also, Masquerade is counting the money later, and he's like, oh, this is $5,000, that's, like, nothing. I thought it was, like, $50,000, and is also suddenly aware of how badly he screwed up. So, I think it's very consistent for Masquerade to be…
30:04
Ted: impulsive, and kind of stupid. I don't want to say stupid, but, you know, doesn't really consider long-term implications. And also, like, his final internal monologue, so it's… Masquerade is flying as a hawk back sort of across the city. He's thinking to himself, and he's thinking, like, you know, where do I go?
30:20
Ted: I can't go back to my mom, I can't go to the, you know, I can't be homeless, I can't do this. I could never,
30:28
Ted: he tries to go back to the other escapees and think, like, oh, I could be a leader… well, I could never be a leader. Or, no, I could be a leader, but I could never be a leader in the syndicate. Of course, the other escapees have already gone, and so he's like, damn.
30:38
Marcus: Oh, I could never be a leader in the syndicate. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
30:43
Ted: Maybe another proof.
30:43
Marcus: Okay, I see it now, I see it. Yeah, it is, like…
30:47
Ted: I feel bad now for kind of spoiling it.
30:49
Tad Eggleston: But…
30:50
Marcus: No, it's… it's…
30:51
Tad Eggleston: Like, I'm kinda glad that you did, because, like.
30:55
Tad Eggleston: Almost everything I had to say was about Tech Nine coming.
30:59
Ted: Well, and it is… it is one of the…
31:01
Tad Eggleston: Now I won't sound stupid.
31:03
Ted: I do love Tech-9 as a character, and I do wish that he does… like, I do wish we had more time with him, because I liked him as so much as a character. He was also… he was also out of his depth in the same way that Wisend is, but…
31:17
Ted: was more willing to be open to reason, and, like, despite the fact that he had these incredibly aggressive powers, where he could just, like, teleport infinite ammo guns into his hands, was… wasn't, like.
31:28
Ted: you know, as gung-ho, shoot first, ask questions later, is why.
31:33
Ted: out to be. So, like, I liked him a lot as a character.
31:36
Ted: And I always kind of felt bad that he… he disappeared, you know, he died after, like, 8ish… day, 10 issues, whatever it was. Right. And… and I wanted to see him back, but…
31:47
Ted: Yeah, it… this was… this was a cool shift, and I like what this storyline does, because then it forces all these characters… and again, the mask never breaks. Like, Masquerade never reveals that he's acting as Tech-9 in here in these two issues, and everyone else really believes it's him, and nobody sort of seriously questions that he's back.
32:06
Ted: I mean, people are kind of shown squinting at him in a panel or whatever, but, like.
32:10
Ted: nobody ever, like, grills him on, you know, past stuff he should know, or stuff like that. They dig up his grave. I love… like, this was… God, that was great and awful and a wonderful little bit where they, you know, Fade goes into the grave, because you can sink into the box, and, like, they look around and try to figure it out.
32:27
Ted: And they're like, well, okay, I guess there's nothing in there, maybe it really is mask… maybe it really is Tech-9, and…
32:32
Marcus: Oh, wow. And if it is Masquerade, that's extra messed… the desecrated Technone's grave.
32:37
Ted: Yeah.
32:38
Marcus: for his point. Emo Masquerade is like that, like, is… You know…
32:44
Ted: It's smart enough to do it, but… Dumb enough to think.
32:47
Marcus: But I even mean… Yeah, just kinda… Masquerade is definitely, like, that type of person that's, like…
32:56
Marcus: I have nobody I can count on, blah blah blah, but they also kinda… it's like they don't have… they don't have a code? You know, because they feel like maybe the world has dumped on them so much, and so when it comes to dealing with the world and others, like, they don't have… he doesn't have a code.
33:16
Ted: Yeah, they'll switch on whoever they… he'll switch on whoever he needs to in order to get where he wants to be.
33:20
Ted: and…
33:21
Marcus: You know…
33:21
Ted: maybe that means treating people nice sometimes, but also he will just completely screw you over if he has to. And, like, I… I…
33:29
Ted: Yeah, I like… I like Masquerade as a character, not as, like, a person, obviously. That's always one of those distinctions you gotta make, where it's like, they're an asshole, but I love them as a character in a book like this. Because none of these characters are really good, you know? Like, well, that's not fair to say. All these characters have…
33:47
Marcus: Yeah.
33:47
Ted: And also negative elements, and they're balanced really well.
33:52
Ted: Yeah. But yeah, we also get more of, like, the system in, infighting. I love the… I do have to… I did say I love… this is so comic book-y, and it's absolutely perfect that we find out, oh, mother's in trouble for, you know, leading her sister Cell into getting all their stuff smashed up. She's gonna have to report to her superior, who is, of course, Grandmother, which…
34:11
Marcus: Grandmother.
34:12
Ted: That's so good! And she's just a different old lady who hands people cookies afterwards. That's so… like, oh god, I love comics.
34:22
Marcus: But also is, of course, a ruthless killer who just pops off.
34:26
Ted: Or, not… who kills, the other sci- two of the other three scientists that Mother brought with her, and, you know, gives the last one a cookie, because that's what she's like.
34:38
Marcus: And he faints, right? He's not… he doesn't die in that vantage.
34:41
Ted: You can tell he just faints, I think, from having that.
34:43
Marcus: Because at first, I was like, oh, did she poison the cookie? But he hasn't opened the cookie, so I think he's just…
34:48
Ted: bless you.
34:49
Marcus: Dude.
34:50
Ted: And then we get that great shot of Agent Scar, who… I don't know if that's a… I guess that's a character you've seen before, but I can't really tell. But he's got that great, like, twisted black metal armor thing, that's really good.
35:01
Ted: Yeah, all these… and, like, the colors are really interesting on these pages.
35:06
Ted: God, yeah, I don't know, man, it's… this is some… this is some…
35:10
Ted: None of these issues are moving… Really fast, but, like…
35:16
Ted: they're exploring all these storylines really well, and I like them bouncing around. I mean, just before that sequence with Grandmother.
35:24
Ted: Templo and one of the other escapees, and then, yeah, that other… the system agent, Rose.
35:30
Ted: They took with them, actually. They go to the father, the priest, father Francisco.
35:41
Ted: And, like, basically force him to give them sanctuary in a nice little tense moment, and, like, just the act… the facial acting in that sequence is really good.
35:50
Tad Eggleston: Did you tell, were they using some sort of power on him, or just guilting him?
35:53
Ted: I think they were just guilting him, yeah. Yes.
35:56
Marcus: Oop.
35:57
Ted: And it… yeah, because it went back to that issue where Templo first appeared, issue 10, and Francis… Father Francisco shows up there, too. It's like Templo was…
36:03
Ted: From what I remember, I do need to reread it another time, but, like…
36:08
Ted: Templo, like, used to work at the, at the church.
36:12
Ted: I was, like, a, I don't know.
36:13
Marcus: You did, yeah.
36:14
Ted: Yeah, and he was much more of, like, a pacifist, and, like, really kind of frightened by his powers, and didn't want to do all this, you know, anything violent, but…
36:22
Ted: Now he comes in, and he's all got this… I love the sinister, like, underlighting, and the… the… you know, the shine… the glinting eyes that he's got, and his head's all shaved because he's got brain… brain implants or whatever, and, like, there's a… there's a really… there's a really great darkness to him that shows that he's changed, and I…
36:40
Ted: Ugh, I love it. No, it's… it's…
36:43
Ted: It's a great little bit of acting, these few pages here, where it's just them, yeah, guilting and…
36:49
Ted: not threatening exactly, but like, hey man, just let us stay here, if you know what's good for you. Like…
36:57
Ted: It's… It's… again, like…
37:00
Ted: criss-cross really feels like he's leveled up on every level. There's this great panel on… if you've got the book, it's on page 794.
37:07
Ted: the last panel, where it's the priest, like, looking up at Templo in fear, and it's like, his face is all shadowed, except for his eyes.
37:14
Ted: huge, and white, and he's terrified, and…
37:16
Ted: God, it's just the little bits of shading and lighting.
37:20
Ted: are so good.
37:21
Ted: Yeah.
37:23
Ted: No, I… I… I like it a lot, man. I… I…
37:26
Ted: Hey, guess what? We like these comics we read.
37:29
Tad Eggleston: What!
37:30
Ted: Who knew? I thought…
37:32
Tad Eggleston: We were supposed to be reading the comics that we hated.
37:34
Ted: Yeah, oh man, we could do that.
37:36
Marcus: Now, that's the rest of comic book podcasting.
37:39
Tad Eggleston: Oh, okay, that's right, that's right, I wanted to be different, I forgot!
37:43
Ted: You heard about that Hush 2 storyline they got going now? Man, that sounds bad.
37:48
Tad Eggleston: I actually haven't. I haven't actually read it at all.
37:50
Marcus: Is it… is it disappointing? I kind of plan to read it when it finishes, but… Yeah, that, yeah.
37:57
Ted: 2020.
37:58
Tad Eggleston: When will it finish?
38:00
Ted: It's so… it's like…
38:02
Marcus: That's exactly why I'm not picking it up in single issues, because I know it'll take forever. The first hush took forever.
38:09
Tad Eggleston: You gotta love that they actually managed to, set up a situation, though, that they have two Batman… just normal Batmans coming out at the same time, with different numbering.
38:21
Ted: Batman 2020… 2016, and then Batman 20… I guess 25?
38:25
Tad Eggleston: Right. It's so…
38:26
Marcus: But you're talking about not two separate books, but you're talking about the main series has two…
38:30
Ted: Yeah, there's two separate.
38:32
Tad Eggleston: A new volume of Batman has started already, because…
38:36
Ted: That's a fraction run, yeah. It's number one, but now.
38:39
Marcus: Now, we've also got…
38:40
Ted: Batman number 160… whatever.
38:43
Tad Eggleston: They were supposed to finish all of the hush before they moved into it, but it didn't work out.
38:49
Marcus: This is exactly… this is exactly why…
38:53
Marcus: Because I would… Batman was still on my pull list, but I… I told Bob at my comic shop, I'm like, I'm just gonna read these in trades. This is… keeping up with monthly… and then…
39:03
Tad Eggleston: Alright.
39:05
Tad Eggleston: I actually had taken it off for the hush, and then I put it back on for the fraction.
39:12
Marcus: I know, that's the thing, is like, I do want to read Fraction, but, like, I… as a publisher, I find it so… it's just kind of like, we get that he's your…
39:19
Marcus: biggest character, but come on, like, stop flooding us with a million Batman books.
39:25
Ted: And they're both titles. I like Batman, but it's… It's just… Sorry.
39:30
Marcus: Yeah. No, no, no, that's all. It's just… it's just cynical. It's cynical.
39:36
Ted: Back to Blood Syndicate, a good comic.
39:39
Ted: Why aren't there a million Blood Syndicate books? Where's my blood?
39:42
Tad Eggleston: It'll be the new X-Men.
39:44
Marcus: You don't want me to answer that.
39:46
Tad Eggleston: That's, you know, fair.
39:48
Tad Eggleston: Just because I don't want you to be upset right now.
39:51
Ted: Yeah.
39:51
Tad Eggleston: Not because it's not fun when you answer that.
39:53
Ted: So yeah, issue 27 starts up, and this is the other part, like, this is the other reason I expected Masquerade to be unmasked, or Tech Night to be unscrewed…
40:02
Ted: Tech 9 to be revealed to be Masquerade in this issue is because the cover shows Masquerade in midair, somehow? Fighting Flashback, Fade, and, DMZ. So like, oh, he's gonna be revealed in this issue, and then he doesn't, although he, like, Masquerade. So Masquerade does show up separately as himself.
40:22
Ted: Presumably to sort of sell me a.
40:24
Tad Eggleston: The other reason that I was really confused, I guess I never realized that Masquerade and Tech 9 weren't ever in the same place at the same time.
40:33
Ted: Yeah, and then…
40:34
Marcus: Yeah, I'm looking back, that's exactly what I'm looking at now.
40:37
Ted: Yeah, Masquerade shows up in the middle of the night, and, like, Flashback sees him. I think Flashback? Yeah, Flashback. And then he just runs away, but Tech 9 is never visible during that sequence, so, yeah.
40:49
Marcus: Well, and they're… they're… it's clever from a writing perspective, because it's mostly because Masquerade flies away, it's really just the flying characters who pursue him, you know what I mean? Like, so… they… they… it kind of gives,
41:03
Marcus: gives cover to, like, wait, where is Tech-9? Because, you know, he's not a flying character, so… you don't necessarily think right away, like, why isn't he chasing him?
41:12
Ted: Yeah. But yeah, this issue opens with Tech-9, I guess, finally back in uniform and everything, and, like, again, just these two… just, like, two, three pages here where it's him, kind of.
41:22
Ted: you know, supposedly wondering whether he's got his powers back and so forth, and everyone is also questioning that. There's just a lot of really good, subtle facial acting, just, you know, the back and forth of characters, you know, acting suspicious, or acting, like, uncertain, or suddenly realizing where they're at. Like, it's really…
41:39
Ted: It's very small, very good, very well handled, I don't know. And then, of course, we get Aquamaria coming in, assuming Technite is back from the dead, and going nuts, and, like, slamming him against the wall, and then being like, oh, no, no, no, that's okay.
41:51
Ted: more shadowy stuff with the system escapees, Agent Rose flees, and then this is the part, yeah, where Babe shows up at this…
42:01
Ted: Yeah, the House of Lemur. I had to look that up. I think that's the place where Masquerade… worked.
42:08
Ted: I guess shortly after they transformed, or before they transformed, or whatever, but, like…
42:12
Ted: I think Masquerade has some connection to this place, I guess it's a strip club? I don't…
42:17
Ted: Anyway, but Babe has a conversation with… This woman who is his…
42:24
Ted: I guess… I don't know, girlfriend, lover, wife, whatever, but…
42:28
Ted: you know, they're… he's, like, transformed now, and doesn't know if she's still gonna love him, and of course she does, because it's, yeah.
42:36
Ted: We get Oro and Caress. Oro goes back into his apartment, only to be found by two cops, because it turns out they framed Oro for the murder of his partner.
42:45
Ted: So he has to escape, he meets with Bad Betty, he gets back on the run. It's kind of just checking in on all those characters. And again, like what you were saying, Tad, the weakness of these four issues is that it's just sort of…
42:56
Ted: It's checking in on a lot of stuff, but it's not doing any big, major shifts.
43:01
Ted: Except for the return of Tech Nine, but again, like, if you look back on it, I think that, yeah.
43:06
Ted: Yeah, Matt.
43:09
Marcus: I do have to say, Cause I… cause I think you mentioned it, that you have…
43:15
Marcus: that you, you know, maybe had already read ahead, and I think I mentioned last month that we've actually, with, like, this…
43:23
Marcus: this arc, like, we've kind of passed where I read in the original run. So, like, this is all new to me.
43:29
Ted: So I have to say, like, reading this with fresh eyes and not having the benefit.
43:34
Marcus: of, Issue 26.
43:37
Marcus: Of, you know, of not having the next issue to… or not 26, 28.
43:41
Marcus: I do think that, like…
43:44
Marcus: This is a good job of hiding…
43:48
Marcus: It, like, right in front of your face?
43:50
Marcus: You know? Yeah, yeah. Because now that you've mentioned it, I'm looking back, and I'm like, okay, yeah, yeah, this does add up.
43:56
Ted: Yes, I must have just remembered that it was happening, and I… it wasn't.
44:00
Tad Eggleston: Or it'll turn out you're wrong, and we'll all laugh at you in 5 months.
44:05
Ted: pesto.
44:06
Tad Eggleston: We get back to… Let's addicted.
44:09
Ted: July, and you're all gonna be like, ha!
44:12
Tad Eggleston: Ha ha ha!
44:13
Ted: Anyway, but yeah, no, I…
44:16
Tad Eggleston: I worked on that issue before July.
44:18
Ted: Yeah, yeah, yeah
44:19
Ted: But yeah, I do, I mean, I like that, assuming I'm right, it is… it's never pointed out to you, but, like, if you read it with that in mind, you're like, oh, that makes absolutely perfect sense.
44:33
Tad Eggleston: It very briefly crossed my mind as a possibility, and I forget why I ruled it out, though it's entirely possible that it was just because I wanted to.
44:43
Ted: he asks where Dog is, and he refers to him as that crazy mutt, which, like, could kind of be something he says, but it's a little bit out of character for him. That was, like, his best friend, you know, and…
44:54
Tad Eggleston: Right.
44:54
Ted: Yeah, and then, of course, at the end of issue 27, Dog gets found by a couple of people on the shore, and he's still alive, and it's a big thing. It's like, oh god, he, you know, what's gonna happen next? And, yeah.
45:05
Marcus: That's the most damning thing, is the fact that…
45:08
Marcus: like, I was like, okay, something…
45:11
Marcus: is wrong, you know, because of what was going on with Dog. I just… I don't know why I didn't put it on Masquerade, though. Well, I think because… because Tech 9 is still there. Like, I can see if Tech 9 just totally disappeared after Masquerade disappeared, but the fact that…
45:28
Marcus: he had the temerity to come back, and you know what I mean? He'd still be chillin' there.
45:34
Tad Eggleston: British.
45:34
Ted: Yeah.
45:35
Marcus: Yeah, yeah, so that's, it's interesting.
45:38
Ted: Yeah, it's… and it is, like… it's never… It's… it's…
45:44
Ted: Yeah, it's… it's not… it's not hiding too much, it's not showing you too much, it's there if you… if you kind of read. And it's also, like, you never quite question it. I always think of… I can't think of them off the top of my head, but I always think of movies that have…
45:56
Ted: you know, mysteries or thrillers or whatever, where, like, someone says something that at the time reveals exactly what's going on, but you just kind of… it just kind of glides off. The example I always think of, which isn't even a great example, but, like, in Dark Knight Rises…
46:11
Ted: Oh, you all…
46:13
Ted: There's a lot of that stuff. But Dark Knight Rises, like, in the fight between Bane and Batman, which is, you know, kind of the big climactic second act set piece, Bane says something like, you know.
46:22
Ted: I didn't see the light until I was already a man, and by that point it was blinding. And it's like, if you actually think about it, you're like, wait a minute. Right. But the kid we saw was a kid when they came out, that can't… so that wasn't Bane? Wait a minute, but it's… it's in the middle of everything else, and you just kind of… it just slides off.
46:35
Marcus: Yeah, it's hidden in there, yeah.
46:37
Ted: Yeah, but so I feel like this is a similar thing, and again, like.
46:41
Ted: I'm pretty sure I'm right, but, like, it is… assuming… assuming I'm right, it's handled in such a way.
46:47
Marcus: I think you are.
46:48
Ted: It's very… yeah, I mean, extreme, extreme… well, I have a list of this, because it's really well done, where it's… none of it is being handed to you, but if you look for it, you're like, oh, no, that does make sense. Yeah, of course Masquerade and Tech9 ever appear on the same page together.
47:02
Marcus: Well, that's the best stuff to me, where you're like, oh, damn it, how did I not see that? Because now that you mention it, I'm like, okay, that was right there, yeah.
47:09
Ted: It's… yeah, no, so this is… again, like, these four issues…
47:13
Ted: And again, like, these four issues are kind of just shuffling pieces around, but they're all pieces I want to see moving, and, like, it's… that's a weird way to put it. They're all storylines I like seeing progress. You know, then we have, you know, there's a check-in with Third Rail and Brick, and they're, like, going into…
47:29
Ted: Brick's old dad's store, and, like, there's this nice little sweet moving moment between them. It's… it's so sweet, it's…
47:35
Ted: There's a lot of little things along the way that just continue this book
47:39
Ted: as, yeah, the better version of the X-Men. Let's not call it that, but, like, it kind of is.
47:46
Tad Eggleston: I mean, particularly at the time.
47:49
Ted: Yeah, it's the, it's the.
47:50
Marcus: Look!
47:50
Ted: functional. Let's do… yeah.
47:53
Marcus: Yeah, that's definitely fair. For 95, yes, I will say. And I love X-Men. X-Men is one of my old ties, but yeah, I would say for 95 X-Men was not my favorite, so… What's that?
48:05
Ted: Right? That was, like, right around age 5.
48:06
Marcus: I'm gonna… I'm gonna… I'm gonna get this digitally, because I have to know what happens next.
48:10
Ted: Me too, man, I'm gonna look this up, because, crap, I can't… I don't know if I'm right or not.
48:15
Ted: No, I, I…
48:18
Tad Eggleston: I mean, like I said, the number… 4 is already, er… or Compendium.
48:25
Marcus: Yeah, I'm too…
48:26
Tad Eggleston: out, I have…
48:27
Marcus: I know, I'm too broke to pick up the companion right now. I'm just gonna get the issue.
48:34
Ted: Write it off on your taxes, though, yeah. But yeah, like, It's…
48:39
Ted: All these issues are kind of just keeping things moving.
48:44
Ted: Even if none of it is really big plot developments, like, oh, those scientists in system were killed, and then…
48:52
Ted: Agent Rose escaped, and mother was, you know, superseded by grandmother, because that's how it works. Like, sure, that, you know, kind of continues the behind-the-scenes drama of the system. That's… yeah, perfect.
49:04
Ted: All the stuff with, yeah, 33rd Rail and, and Brick making it their own way, and also Kwai leaving, because Kwai's whole deal is mysterious and unfathomable.
49:14
Ted: Sure, like, it's…
49:17
Ted: There's… there's nothing particularly pressing for the group right now, because they… that was the other thing, is, like, they were down a lot of money in order to refurbish the headquarters.
49:28
Ted: And they got it? Somehow? No, that was when they… no, they robbed the crack house, but then they lost all that money because
49:34
Ted: Masquerade took a… what was…
49:36
Marcus: Yeah, no, that's definitely… they've been… it's been a plot point for a while that the money was dwindling. Also, they all had differing opinions on whether… I think Wise Sun was really the only one that was like, yeah, we need to, you know, we need to keep, getting paid this way. And so…
49:54
Marcus: I think it's been an aspect of the story for a while that they have not been getting their funding that way, and they had kind of run through that money.
50:03
Ted: Yeah, and the one last one that they did, which I think is the one where Masquerade took the take.
50:09
Ted: I… Guess that was…
50:12
Ted: That was the one they… I don't remember. But yeah, they're kind of, at the moment, there's nothing else major happening. It's like the Demon Fox isn't threatening them, they don't have the money thing pressing super hard, apparently.
50:25
Ted: Flashback, he's back doing crack, apparently. That was… I didn't mean to make that a poem, but, like, you know, it's just shown that, yeah, she's still doing drugs every now and she got the pipe every now and then.
50:35
Marcus: He's been struggling, yeah.
50:37
Tad Eggleston: I mean, she does run out during this period and say that she's going to quit.
50:43
Ted: Yeah, that's right.
50:44
Marcus: Fingers are crossed for her.
50:47
Marcus: Well, and I do think that that, I mean, sadly, as a realistic aspect of the story, is that, like, obviously addiction, you know, a lot of people have every intention, and it's… it's really… and I mean, crack in particular, you know, which was literally engineered to be extra addictive and cheating.
51:04
Tad Eggleston: Yes.
51:04
Marcus: And also…
51:06
Marcus: dropped in the Black community intentionally. But, you know, so it's like, yeah, but… and it's interesting with Flashback, because it's… it's not just random, it's like, I… it's definitely…
51:18
Marcus: I think understood that she has a terrible power, and a terrible… I think she feels a terrible weight on her, you know, with that, and she's like…
51:28
Marcus: Wrestling with the times that she wasn't able to save somebody, or… and then also, simultaneously, with just kind of being expected to be the one to always do that, even if your powers don't necessarily, cooperate with you.
51:42
Marcus: In the situation.
51:44
Ted: what issue was it where it was, like, the first 5 or 6 issues was just her continually, like, trying to save everybody, failing, going back, doing it again, doing it again, doing… like, that was… God, that was so good.
51:55
Marcus: And then Wyze… Wise Sun did a very Wise Son thing, and, like, really got…
52:00
Marcus: got on her about, like, yo, why didn't you save, whoever it was at the time? Like, which is literally the worst thing he could have said.
52:08
Ted: Yeah. But also, like, that's kind of a character for Wise Sun. I… again, like, I love Wise Sun as a character for being such a…
52:18
Ted: he's got interesting issues, you know? Again, all these characters have such…
52:24
Ted: They have nuances that make them fallible, and make them human, and make them really interesting, even if they're also sometimes terrible people, or make terrible choices, or whatever, yeah, so…
52:33
Ted: No, I mean, and Fade is, of course, still worried that he's gonna fade away into nothingness, and boogeyman doesn't even show up in this, I think. He's… he's back on the team, but he just didn't…
52:44
Marcus: He shows up briefly, because at the beginning of the first issue in this arc, he's there, he's present, and
52:53
Marcus: You know, it's tense and everything, and… but the tension is mainly focused on,
53:00
Marcus: the fact that Brick and, Third Rail are leaving, you know, so, but, you know, you,
53:08
Marcus: you get, Boogeyman's thoughts, because Boogeyman is basically saying, like, that they're kind of wise to be breaking out, and that… and then he, he essentially says… when he says, like, yo, I'll see y'all, I'll be back.
53:23
Marcus: I have to see simultaneously thinking, like, maybe, but I don't know, like, you know, or something to that effect.
53:29
Ted: Yeah. And then Oro comes back, because he's also got nowhere to go, and…
53:33
Ted: My son actually lets him stay, because he really doesn't have anywhere else to go, and it's like, man…
53:37
Ted: Might as well.
53:40
Marcus: Yeah.
53:40
Ted: Yeah, I…
53:41
Tad Eggleston: The Oro thing reminded me that I had to look this up, but like… Whoa, wait a minute, was it Wy's son that said he could stay? I thought it was Tech9 saying that he could stay.
53:49
Ted: I don't think that was Tech9, because this was just after Masquerade took off, and assuming.
53:55
Marcus: No, no, it is Tech9, that's what I was saying before.
53:57
Ted: Oh, it is!
53:58
Marcus: It is TechNot. That's the thing, and that's from a writing perspective.
54:03
Marcus: It does kinda, like, hide the…
54:07
Marcus: the mystery, or the crime, you know what I mean? Like, if… because, like, you see Tech 9 after Masquerade seemingly got.
54:15
Ted: Yeah, Tech9… yeah, he just shows up out of the… out of the door. I forgot about that, yeah. Wait, and actually…
54:22
Marcus: Yeah.
54:23
Ted: it looks like… Technite even, like, floats down.
54:27
Ted: Which he couldn't.
54:28
Marcus: flirt.
54:28
Ted: In, in the, like.
54:29
Marcus: Wait, where is… where do you see that?
54:31
Ted: page 825 of the compendium, like, Oro comes in, Y-Sun slaps him, he kind of apologizes, and then, like, in the background, Tech9, his legs are in the…
54:42
Ted: background. It's unclear if you.
54:43
Marcus: I think… I think they might be bending. Oh, that's interesting, if… if that is the case, but I think…
54:50
Ted: Yeah.
54:51
Marcus: I think they're bending, because you know what it is? I don't know that Masquerade… can Masquerade fly when he's in human form? I was about to say, I don't think he did yet. Yeah, I think he has to turn into an animal that flies.
55:01
Ted: Because he can't, but he could… man, we're getting into the minutia now.
55:04
Marcus: Oh, he's on the cover.
55:05
Ted: She's on the cover, although that doesn't mean anything. But also, in the bit of… of… well, no, it's unclear.
55:12
Ted: No, that's flashback. Whatever. Anyway, doesn't matter. In any case. But yeah, I had forgot that it was Tech9, you're right.
55:19
Ted: But yeah, it's sort of like the group is coming back together. And I had to go back and refresh my memory of, like, what exactly had happened with Oro, because it was a thing where he was Shadow Cabinet, but, like, he lost his…
55:31
Marcus: communicator, the shadow… Oh, that's right, yeah, yeah.
55:34
Ted: And he finally got it back, but, like.
55:36
Ted: doing that had screwed things up enough that Dharma rescinded the offer to join the cabinet, so he was kind of out on his own.
55:43
Ted: and pissy about it, and then, after all this, is finally back with the syndicate. So, okay, yeah, wow. Oof.
55:50
Ted: messy. Like I say, it does…
55:53
Marcus: Man, this is a series that benefits from having a wiki open.
55:57
Marcus: I also found it interesting that,
55:59
Marcus: I'm forgetting her name, but the shadow cabinet character who…
56:03
Marcus: was trying to help him out, said that, like, basically…
56:06
Marcus: That, Betty, yeah, yeah, that, that, that basically, that Dharma,
56:11
Marcus: you know, that she… Dharma would, like, would basically be bugging out if he even knew that she was helping him. And I'm like… I mean, I think Dharma probably does know, you know what I mean? Like, it just… that seems like that's… I…
56:24
Marcus: maybe there's some things that Dharma doesn't know, but it seems like Dharma has a near-ommniscient, you know, knowledge of these things.
56:33
Ted: Or maybe he just doesn't care.
56:34
Tad Eggleston: Definitely feels like that's the case.
56:38
Ted: Yeah.
56:39
Ted: But yeah, I mean, it ends up on this cliffhanger, again, of dog being found by a couple people down at the shore, he's still alive, and we'll find out in next issue, presumably, what happened, and…
56:53
Ted: Etc. So… It's… yeah, it… again, a lot of, like, pieces moving on the chessboard, but…
57:01
Ted: no major changes.
57:04
Ted: But it is, like, setting up all sorts of big shifts for the cabinet. And again, like, you know, if you're doing… if you're updating the wiki issue by issue of who's on the team and who's not, because, like, Third Rail and Brickhouse are out, and Kwai's out, but now, like, Oro's back, and Techno's back, anyway. Templo's maybe gonna come back, maybe. Or maybe he's gonna be a villain, it's unclear. I don't remember what happens with Techno, so… er, Templo.
57:23
Marcus: Hmm.
57:24
Ted: Yeah.
57:26
Ted: But yeah, again, like, these issues, they stood out to me because I had to go back and check, and it…
57:32
Ted: Criss Cross and, and the, the anchor, whose name I've forgotten again, because I'm a bad person, and, Michelle Wrightson,
57:42
Ted: I know if they're related to, Bernie. Yeah, Robert Cuicano. Oh, really?
57:49
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, we looked that up last time.
57:51
Ted: But did we? Oh, alright, man, so I forgot about it. But, like, it's the same crew… That's
57:55
Ted: Oh, okay, okay, okay. It's the same crew as it's always been, and, like, it's the same sort of setup, but, like…
58:01
Ted: something about it just… it really hits in these issues. God, I just opened on this random page, it's where Dog…
58:08
Ted: It's, like, right towards the end of 24, and, like, er, 25.
58:14
Ted: And Dog has gone out in the middle of the rain because he smells something, and he's, like, looking up at the statue, and there's, like, this really cool effect of, like, the rain pattering everywhere.
58:23
Ted: It works really well, and all the shadows are super heavy. Yeah, I… I don't know what it is, because it's the same crew it's always been, but they…
58:30
Ted: somehow, they… I mean, they leveled up, man. This was… these were some really solid issues, art-wise. Again, obviously, the writing's good, too, but, like, the art really stood out to me for some reason.
58:41
Ted: I don't know.
58:42
Marcus: Yeah, yeah, no, and like I said, crisscross is continually growing. As far as the color, that is… I've talked about it before, but that's a very milestone thing. They… they were very intentional about having this
58:54
Marcus: about having painted pages, you know? Like, they… Because, like, you know, comics traditionally, especially at this point, where it's traditionally, like, the Doc Martens dies, which you could do
59:04
Marcus: really cool stuff with that, but, like, they had just a… a more painterly technique that they were using, you know? Even when… when they would use the dies for DC and Marvel.
59:14
Marcus: They basically were, like, solid blocks of colors, but…
59:18
Ted: you know, the milestone technique just allowed for a lot more nuance. Yeah. I'm thinking back on those Jean-Paul Leone issues we talked about last time, the blood, or the…
59:26
Ted: God, I'm always gonna mix up those two teams, the shadow cabinet ones, and same deal, where it's just really, really subtle, really nice painterly colors.
59:35
Ted: Yeah, no, it's got that… that look is really crucial, I think.
59:39
Ted: It's good, man. Again, as always, who knew? These conferences.
59:42
Marcus: Also, to be doing that monthly? To be putting these out, like, with that.
59:47
Ted: Every now and then, I… this explains, I'm assuming, why they had to take breaks every now and then, because the first issue in this is that one by, I just said his name, and I'm already blanking on it. Higgins.
59:58
Marcus: Yeah.
59:59
Ted: Yeah.
1:00:00
Marcus: Which definitely wasn't as… as good or as clear as crisscross, but .
1:00:05
Ted: Right, it's not the same thing, but, you know, hey, crisscross, I assume, had to take… it's gonna take, like you were saying, it's gonna take some time to do all.
1:00:12
Marcus: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:00:14
Ted: But yeah, these, these issues, it's…
1:00:17
Ted: Yeah, Tad, I mean, I get your frustration, because I kind of felt it too, because it felt like nothing happens.
1:00:23
Tad Eggleston: Well, and in some ways, I'm even more frustrated now, because… and part of it might be, it seems like they maybe should have…
1:00:31
Tad Eggleston: put one more issue with this in the queue. I agree.
1:00:35
Ted: I do wonder, like, what…
1:00:38
Tad Eggleston: If the very next issue makes this all make more sense, I'm gonna be like, come on, guys!
1:00:45
Ted: revealed! But no, the very next issue in the book, though, is the Static 25 issue, so that's… Right. That's a big shift for another reason.
1:00:53
Tad Eggleston: That's right.
1:00:54
Ted: But yeah, no, I,
1:00:56
Ted: I am… I am really curious now about what happens in the next issue, because, again, I had that vague inkling that, like, oh, this is Masquerade detection, but I don't actually know, and I have zero clue how any of it plays out, if it is that case, so…
1:01:09
Ted: I… yeah, I don't know what's gonna happen with Templo, or Masquerade, or any of the other characters. Again, like, this is… it's different reasons from yours, Marcus, but, like, it's… I also am sort of…
1:01:20
Ted: you know.
1:01:22
Ted: Total Babe in the woods on this part two, and I'm looking forward to being surprised by whatever comes next, because, yeah, it's…
1:01:28
Ted: It's such a good cast. They're so…
1:01:30
Marcus: Yeah.
1:01:32
Ted: They're so interesting to watch bounce off each other.
1:01:36
Marcus: Yeah, definitely.
1:01:38
Ted: I guess that kind of sums it up, man, right?
1:01:41
Marcus: I think so, I feel like we said… said it, mostly.
1:01:44
Ted: Yeah.
1:01:45
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I have run out of interesting things.
1:01:50
Ted: Hey, bro.
1:01:51
Tad Eggleston: Particularly because, like… I'm still wrapping my head around.
1:01:57
Tad Eggleston: I really thought Tech Nine was back. Everything I had to say was Tech 9 being back, and now you're telling me that it's masquerade, and I can see it! I think you're right! I do. I think you're right. I can see what you're saying!
1:02:11
Ted: But that's a…
1:02:12
Marcus: This makes sense… that makes sense, because I remember talking to…
1:02:17
Marcus: Ivan Velez, and asking about… about that moment of,
1:02:22
Marcus: of Tech9's death, you know, and… and he was like… he spoke about it, like, with finality, you know, and I didn't really, like I said, I hadn't read these issues yet.
1:02:34
Marcus: So, when I got here, I was like, oh… like, I remember, like, you know, when we talked about it, he was talking about, like, it was, like, a thing he did intentionally to create these stakes, and, like, it was, like, a done deal, you know? So this seemed at odds with that.
1:02:51
Ted: Yeah.
1:02:51
Marcus: Right, but it would make sense… In the back of his.
1:02:54
Tad Eggleston: head, he was laughing, going, this guy didn't actually read them all. He doesn't know he comes back in issue 25.
1:03:03
Ted: Yeah, no, it's really well handled, because again, assuming… I think it… I think it is, like, it's just subtle enough that, like, you put the pieces together, and it's, oh, yeah, no, that makes total sense, but it's not… none of it is…
1:03:17
Tad Eggleston: I have DC Universe, so I don't even have to take out my competitors.
1:03:21
Ted: Oh, shit.
1:03:21
Tad Eggleston: There we go. And I might.
1:03:25
Marcus: So wait, these are… so, does DC Universe have the full milestone run? Or not all of them?
1:03:30
Tad Eggleston: It doesn't have all of Milestone, it does have all of Blood Syndicate.
1:03:34
Tad Eggleston: It has all of Static, all of Blood Syndicate, all of Hardware, and all of Icon.
1:03:41
Ted: Okay, but not… okay, not…
1:03:43
Tad Eggleston: It doesn't have shadow cabinet, it doesn't have… Yeah.
1:03:48
Ted: Swish, or…
1:03:49
Tad Eggleston: Zombie or Death Wish, or what do we have next?
1:03:52
Marcus: I feel like they should at least have what they have in the compendiums.
1:03:55
Tad Eggleston: I… I do too, for that matter, particularly because I have, like, the… the Premium Edition that has many…
1:04:04
Tad Eggleston: Of the other compendiums as compendiums?
1:04:08
Tad Eggleston: I think they should have the compendiums, but if they do, I haven't managed to search for them properly.
1:04:15
Ted: Hmm.
1:04:16
Marcus: It's almost like a lack of commitment to Milestone on DC's part.
1:04:20
Tad Eggleston: Do you know…
1:04:22
Ted: Maybe…
1:04:22
Tad Eggleston: I can't argue with you. I, I can't, I can't argue with you.
1:04:27
Ted: Are you listening, Johnny DC? This is what we need to have happen. Wait, Johnny DC was a real thing, though. Wasn't, like, a mascot or something they did for him? Anyway.
1:04:34
Marcus: Was it? I didn't know about that.
1:04:35
Ted: I… I'm just… I was making a joke. Anyway, yeah, so speaking of, though, like, what you said, Ted, we got, like, 8 issues of Cobalt and 6 issues of Icon to round out this volume.
1:04:49
Ted: And I guess, should we just go in on the entire, cobalt run, the 8-issue.
1:04:54
Tad Eggleston: I think we should. Let's go for it.
1:04:56
Ted: Yeah, Cobalt is another one that feels very… I mean, it feels like it would be called a limited series nowadays, even though it's not quite that exact. I mean, it's a little bit similar to Death Wish, but in that sense, in the formatting sense.
1:05:10
Ted: Even if it didn't have quite the same thing, and it was obviously running longer, it goes up to, like, issue 20-something, I think. But yeah, let's just go through, so that's Cobalt…
1:05:18
Ted: 7 through 14, I think? Is that right?
1:05:23
Tad Eggleston: That does sound right.
1:05:25
Ted: Yeah. And then there'll be 6 more issues icon after that to get us through… volume…
1:05:31
Tad Eggleston: And that'll get us through Volume 3.
1:05:33
Ted: Hmm.
1:05:34
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, 7 to 14, and then icon 22 to 27.
1:05:42
Ted: Boy, yeah, the icon stuff, that also is going in interesting places.
1:05:46
Tad Eggleston: Damn.
1:05:46
Marcus: Yeah, definitely. Those issues I have read. I've read, like, what comes next in the icon.
1:05:53
Ted: Yeah, I remember… I remember.
1:05:55
Marcus: But it's been a while.
1:05:56
Ted: Yeah, same here. I remember the, like, kind of the big stuff, but…
1:05:59
Ted: Not the smaller back and forth, yeah.
1:06:02
Ted: But yeah, I'm looking forward to all this, obviously, as I have been, like, it's… hey man, it continues to be good.
1:06:08
Ted: Icon. Milestone. Who knew?
1:06:11
Ted: I mean, we all did.
1:06:13
Ted: I'm punchy, man.
1:06:14
Tad Eggleston: It's been a long week. I mean, I think so. I think we did. I think we did.
1:06:17
Marcus: No, I feel you.
1:06:20
Tad Eggleston: Oh, that's… Is it still only January?
1:06:24
Ted: Oh, God.
1:06:25
Tad Eggleston: I, I, I, I saw somebody, somewhere…
1:06:27
Marcus: January 2029, right?
1:06:29
Ted: Oh, God, yeah, I feel like…
1:06:30
Tad Eggleston: I saw a post that said it was the 89th day of January.
1:06:36
Ted: Oh my god.
1:06:36
Tad Eggleston: Feels right.
1:06:39
Marcus: No, for real.
1:06:41
Tad Eggleston: That is right.
1:06:42
Ted: Supposed to warm up for the rest of the week here in Minneapolis, so…
1:06:45
Marcus: Okay. Something.
1:06:47
Tad Eggleston: Good or bad thing?
1:06:48
Ted: It may lead to melting ice.
1:06:53
Ted: That's all about.
1:06:53
Tad Eggleston: Will it melt the proper ice?
1:06:56
Ted: Yeah, no.
1:06:58
Tad Eggleston: Anyway, the ice has been your friend.
1:07:02
Ted: Some of the ice.
1:07:03
Ted: Yeah, we'll, we'll see what happens next, but…
1:07:07
Tad Eggleston: I meant the actual ice.
1:07:08
Ted: No, I know, the action.
1:07:09
Tad Eggleston: Against the other.
1:07:10
Ted: No, no, no, I gotcha, I gotcha, I'm picking up what you're putting.
1:07:13
Tad Eggleston: I just… I needed to clarify for anybody listening at home.
1:07:17
Ted: Right, I think… I think the fact that we're reviewing Milestone Comics probably tells you a little bit of something about our politics.
1:07:21
Tad Eggleston: No, I will say that I recently had, like, only the second or third time that somebody that I didn't know sent an email
1:07:31
Tad Eggleston: Like, with a message, and one of the things that they, they, appreciated about the podcast is that we don't always stick to comics.
1:07:41
Ted: All right.
1:07:42
Tad Eggleston: Like, that we don't ignore.
1:07:44
Tad Eggleston: What's going on around us, even as we do our best to…
1:07:49
Tad Eggleston: Introduce them to really awesome comics.
1:07:51
Ted: Alright. So, I appreciated that.
1:07:55
Tad Eggleston: So…
1:07:56
Ted: All right, yeah, well, you know, we're always… there's… that's the thing, that's the strength of Milestone. It actually… it hit on… it hits on issues that we like talking about, so…
1:08:05
Tad Eggleston: I mean, frankly, it's the strength of a lot of comics. I have been, like, banging this drum for a long time, but everybody who's like, we need to get politics back out of comics, I'm like, what do you mean, back out of comics? There have never been comics without politics.
1:08:23
Ted: Politics and every work of art. But yeah, comedy specifically, man.
1:08:26
Tad Eggleston: Y-yeah!
1:08:27
Tad Eggleston: I agree with both statements.
1:08:33
Ted: Alright.
1:08:33
Tad Eggleston: You know what art without politics is?
1:08:36
Tad Eggleston: Boring.
1:08:37
Ted: Not art, I'd say, that's a…
1:08:40
Ted: Alright, well, but yeah, I got, I gotta get my beauty sleep, but this has been a good one.
1:08:44
Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I do as well. So, for, the Brothers Anderson, No Relation, this has been the Milestone Book Club on 22 Panels, and we will see you after the next page.