Latest / 22 Panels - A Comic Book Podcast / Milestone Book Club #35 - Static #21-25

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Milestone Book Club #35 - Static #21-25 · 22 Panels - A Comic Book Podcast

• 0:02
  Tad Eggleston: Good evening, everybody. Welcome back to the Milestone Book Club on 22 panels. Joining me tonight are the brothers Anderson, no relation, and we're gonna talk some static.
• 0:16
  Tad Eggleston: Including the… the…
• 0:18
  Ted: Infamous.
• 0:21
  Tad Eggleston: Static number 25, with the cover that DC wasn't willing to show.
• 0:27
  Ted: Too hot for DC! And honestly, like… It's…
• 0:30
  Marcus: You know what? I was with, like…
• 0:33
  Ted: Just, I was gonna say, like, as with the abortion issue of… not the abortion, I mean, that sounds like I'm… that… it sounds like I'm boiling it down to… it is, like, just this one big thing where all they do is talk about it. It's… it's part of a longer series, it's part of a bigger conversation, it's handled well, like, I…
• 0:48
  Tad Eggleston: Right.
• 0:49
  Ted: I… it was both less…
• 0:51
  Ted: like, controversial than I was expecting, and I was also like, oh, that's… okay, alright, sure, yeah, and then I was like, oh, they took… they didn't publish this cover because there was a single condom on it, and I had to, like… I was, like, searching for the condoms, I'm like, what? Where… oh, okay.
• 1:06
  Tad Eggleston: You're like.
• 1:06
  Ted: I guess.
• 1:07
  Marcus: Can I… alright, alright, can I jump in? Because, alright, so…
• 1:11
  Marcus: I… and I remember very specifically throughout my childhood, you know, I read more Marvel, but I definitely read some DC, and DC…
• 1:21
  Marcus: would… they seemed to, despite the fact that they were both under the Comics Code, DC would take it a little farther. DC would, like, put the word damn in there, which when you're, like, you know, 9 or 10 years old, you're like, wow, this is… this is hardcore comics, you know? But beyond that, they would do a lot of other stuff,
• 1:40
  Marcus: As a matter of fact, it was, the infamous, you know, fridging, the whole, origin of that idea.
• 1:45
  Ted: God, yeah.
• 1:45
  Marcus: comes from a DC comic, you know? So, it's like there's so many ways, like, violence and… and honestly.
• 1:52
  Marcus: even, like, some gendered crimes that… where DC would take it further, but then it's like, all of a sudden, Virgil Hawkins, like, you know what I mean? Like, on the cover of this one issue, it's… it's this thing… well, you know, we'll get to it. We'll get to it. We'll get to it. Hearing Tad say it was too hot for DC,
• 2:13
  Marcus: Clicked in my…
• 2:14
  Tad Eggleston: No, that was Ted. That was Ted, that was not me.
• 2:17
  Tad Eggleston: I'm not…
• 2:19
  Marcus: I'm not blaming… I'm not blaming. I actually think whoever said it, it's… it's just, you know? And I already thought there was a lot of nonsense afoot with it when it comes to the double standards, but just hearing it put that way just really…
• 2:32
  Marcus: You know, really brings to life.
• 2:34
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, I gotta, I gotta tell you, it reminds me of the… the… when EC ran the astronaut…
• 2:42
  Tad Eggleston: re-ran the astronaut story, and they didn't want him to be black for it to be the code, and Gaines stormed into the office and said, you're a racist, and said, fine, you can leave him black, but he can't have sweat on his brow.
• 2:57
  Ted: God, the sweat thing, yeah, Jesus. But yeah, no, it's… there's always…
• 3:02
  Ted: Tommy's gotta push the boundaries right now.
• 3:04
  Tad Eggleston: It would have been a very special afternoon edition of Spider-Man if Spider-Man had had a condom on his couch.
• 3:12
  Ted: God, yeah, I can imagine.
• 3:15
  Marcus: I grew up reading Spider-Man comics. All kinds of things happen in Spider-Man comics.
• 3:19
  Tad Eggleston: Exactly, that's my point.
• 3:20
  Ted: Point.
• 3:21
  Tad Eggleston: Everything happening is…
• 3:23
  Ted: There's one issue in, like, the 70s, I want to say, where, like, the cover is, like, some hippie on the edge of a building, like, oh man, I'm flying! And, like, you know, the story is like, oh man, this hippie took so much drugs that now he's flying, and Spider-Man has to save him. And, like, that one issue, which of course had, like, the most anti-drug…
• 3:41
  Ted: message they couldn't get Comics Code approval for, so they just published it without the Comics Code seal. Like, that
• 3:47
  Ted: One issue. And nobody noticed, because, like, already nobody cared about this comics code, but anyway, yeah.
• 3:52
  Ted: That was, yeah, late 60s at the earliest, but I think it was 70s. But, anyway.
• 3:57
  Marcus: Yeah.
• 3:58
  Tad Eggleston: No, the way I understand it, that was actually done…
• 4:03
  Tad Eggleston: because he heard that DC was going to say, screw the comic code for… Hard Travelin' Heroes.
• 4:13
  Ted: Okay. And he didn't want DC to do it first.
• 4:17
  Ted: Okay, yeah, well, yeah.
• 4:18
  Marcus: Okay. Alright.
• 4:19
  Tad Eggleston: Because, Stan, if somebody's gonna do it, it's gotta be me! Hey, man.
• 4:23
  Ted: you gotta do it first, yeah. But yeah, anyway, so we are getting up onto five issues of Static, 21 through 25, which are not actually all together in the book, but, like, it kind of made the most sense to him.
• 4:35
  Tad Eggleston: 25 years.
• 4:36
  Ted: Yeah. But yeah, and it's… it's an odd little chunk of issues.
• 4:43
  Ted: I don't know, I mean, especially after, like, it has been a while since I recorded, I had to kind of go back and be like, what happened in the last few? And it's… it was the big hot street confrontation, it was Ricky shooting him, er, wait, yeah, Ricky, right? No.
• 4:56
  Ted: Who shot…
• 4:57
  Marcus: Ricky, yeah, Ricky, Ricky.
• 4:58
  Ted: Okay. And was he calling himself Holocaust? No, the Holocaust, the other guy, sorry.
• 5:03
  Marcus: God, I'm really off my… off my milestone game. Hot streak, hot streak, yeah. Hot streak, yeah.
• 5:07
  Ted: So, like, kind of a big emotional issue. It's also Ricky had just recently come out as gay, or that had been… it had been revealed for him, or everything. So, like.
• 5:15
  Ted: This is a weird little structure of issues, because first off, we get 21, which is almost a joke issue. And… and then 21… 22 through 24 is…
• 5:27
  Ted: Both nothing and also, like, kind of monumental, like…
• 5:32
  Ted: It's weird, we'll get into it. And then 25 is… it's sort of its own separate thing, although it very much connects to what's been happening, but…
• 5:40
  Ted: Yeah, this is a… this is an odd little chunk of issues. Not necessarily in a bad way, but in a way where I'm like, oh, okay, I guess we're just kind of doing everything right now.
• 5:50
  Ted: Oh.
• 5:52
  Ted: Yeah, did anyone else, I mean, did anyone else have any thoughts on this particular block of issues?
• 5:57
  Marcus: Yeah, I think You know, look.
• 5:59
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, go.
• 5:59
  Marcus: Hold on, you go, you go.
• 6:01
  Tad Eggleston: Wait, am I off time?
• 6:03
  Marcus: I feel like I'm off time.
• 6:05
  Ted: Oh, what, delayed? No, you're…
• 6:07
  Marcus: Yeah, you, you, you go, Ted, and then I'm…
• 6:10
  Tad Eggleston: No, because I don't have full thoughts. I was about to think out loud. So if you have thoughts, you should go.
• 6:18
  Marcus: Okay, alright, I'll go. Apologies to the audience if I got a delay. So anyway, so for me.
• 6:26
  Marcus: Like, I mean, I'm honestly…
• 6:27
  Marcus: I'm always… always into, static, old static issues, even if they… even when they get a little weird.
• 6:35
  Marcus: it kind of reminds me, and we talked about this with Milestone Returns, I do like New Static quite a bit, but it's a real adjustment. It's almost like…
• 6:43
  Marcus: Well, whatever, that's a whole other topic. But, like, my point is, like, this, this type of weird static issue, and, like, the first issue… first two, really,
• 6:53
  Marcus: They kind of start out with a storyline with these, these killer chihuahuas.
• 6:59
  Ted: Chihuahuas, yeah.
• 7:00
  Marcus: Yeah, I feel like 22 we can kind of move through pretty quickly, but, like, some of the… but there is other cool stuff happening. There's character stuff happening with, Virgil's friends, which they always do. There's always the, like, teen drama part of it.
• 7:15
  Ted: And also his family, like, that's the really big part. Like, the friend stuff, yeah, but, like, the.
• 7:19
  Marcus: Yeah, family and friends. Yeah, yeah. Usually, usually…
• 7:23
  Marcus: No, no, no, I didn't. You added family, and you're right.
• 7:28
  Marcus: So yeah, like, like, that stuff is really cool. It's interesting because…
• 7:32
  Marcus: I think this is the first time we've seen, Virgil's dad at work, you know… I think so. Virgil's dad, who is, like…
• 7:41
  Marcus: kind of a… kind of a McDuffie stand-in.
• 7:45
  Marcus: But he… yeah, we see him at his job, and he happens to work with a boogeyman from Blood Syndicate's mom.
• 7:54
  Marcus: Who we met, like, briefly when Boogeyman was introduced. So that's pretty cool, because you see him, because we usually see him only in the context of, like, you know, being a loving father and, the head of the house.
• 8:05
  Marcus: But then, like, you know, we see him at work, and we see him being supportive in the same way to his, coworker.
• 8:12
  Marcus: And he doesn't realize that she's distressed because her son is a, you know, 6-foot rat.
• 8:18
  Marcus: But.
• 8:18
  Ted: Although he can change back, but yeah.
• 8:20
  Marcus: That also changes.
• 8:21
  Ted: I had to rewind and be like, okay, did they do the thing where they kicked Boogeyman out for 5 minutes and then brought him back in? And, like, yeah, that was… I don't know if that was the last issue of Shadow Cabinet, but it was recent, was, like, the revelation that Boogeyman's a white guy.
• 8:35
  Ted: was like…
• 8:36
  Marcus: Yeah, they didn't… they didn't drop him, though, I don't think. I think they just, like…
• 8:41
  Ted: For, like, 5 minutes, it was, I mean, it was in the same issue, like, why's son kicks him out, and then, I think maybe 3rd Rail or Brick House says something like, hey, you shouldn't do that, and he's like, yeah, okay. And he goes back and says, like, okay, you know how you felt? That's how, like, that's a small taste of a little bit of how racism feels, you know, that kind of stuff.
• 8:58
  Marcus: I got you, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 9:00
  Ted: It was, like, two pages, but yeah. No, Boogeyman's… I think Boogeyman was revealed to be a white guy in, like, the most recent, or a couple issues ago at Shadowcat, er.
• 9:09
  Ted: Yeah. But yeah, so this issue is a weird little… not weird, not in a bad way, but just sort of, it's kind of checking in on a lot of things, because we also see the other girl superhero who keeps showing up occasionally, Dusk, I guess?
• 9:24
  Ted: Who showed up, like, two issues previously, just kind of popping in.
• 9:27
  Marcus: Very, very, very 90s vigilante character. Oh, absolutely 90s vigilante, because she also doesn't seem to have powers, she's just, like.
• 9:34
  Ted: A girl in, like, gymnastics outfit with…
• 9:37
  Marcus: Well, I mean, it's the 90s. She flips off of the roof and kicks the bag out. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. I drew… this is… I was heavily influenced by this kind of character in the 90s myself.
• 9:47
  Ted: Oh, yeah.
• 9:48
  Ted: She's not… yeah, she's not, like, a bad character, but I did have to look her up, and, like, spoilers, unfortunately.
• 9:54
  Ted: we don't really get anything about her, like, nothing. Like, in the DC.
• 9:58
  Tad Eggleston: Okay, cause I was gonna ask.
• 10:00
  Ted: No!
• 10:00
  Tad Eggleston: she… Is she, virgil's… other.
• 10:09
  Ted: Oh, damn.
• 10:11
  Tad Eggleston: not daily.
• 10:11
  Marcus: No, Frida? No, no, no, no, no. It's not Frida. They're just both redheads.
• 10:15
  Ted: Yeah, and it's also, like, she apparently has…
• 10:17
  Tad Eggleston: The way they both act.
• 10:19
  Ted: Yeah.
• 10:20
  Tad Eggleston: feel like…
• 10:22
  Ted: They could be, or should she, should.
• 10:23
  Tad Eggleston: Right.
• 10:24
  Ted: Yeah. But, and also, like, yeah, she knows, she has the look, and also, like, she apparently has enough money to have some gadgets, and also, like, has a sense of justice and all this other stuff, but it's… she, like, never gets anything. Like, it's never sort of explained who she's supposed to be, or…
• 10:39
  Ted: where she's from or anything, like, she's a fun little character, and I can see them doing more storylines with her, but I think we're kind of starting to get into the era of…
• 10:47
  Ted: stuff that's not gonna see a proper resolution by the end of the Milestone universe. I think.
• 10:53
  Marcus: Yeah, also, writers are kind of moving around, because at this… at this point, Ivan Velez had jumped on the book.
• 11:00
  Ted: Right. And… I don't know how long he stayed after the controversial issue.
• 11:05
  Marcus: So…
• 11:06
  Ted: Yeah, that's a good point, I don't know either.
• 11:08
  Ted: But yeah, it's, it's… it's a… it's a…
• 11:14
  Ted: this is sort of a one-off-ish. I mean, it's almost… it's almost kind of a joke in the sense that it's, like, the whole punch… the whole build-up is like, oh, we've got guest starring the Shadow Cabinet, or the… I keep saying Shadow Cabinet, guest starring the Blood Syndicate, oh no, they're both going to the same movie theater, there's gonna be a big fight, all sorts of stuff's gonna happen, and then…
• 11:32
  Ted: literally nothing happens. Like, that's sort of the joke of it.
• 11:35
  Tad Eggleston: There was a big fight on screen that they all laughed at.
• 11:37
  Ted: Yeah, well, yes, yeah. But yeah, like, none of these…
• 11:40
  Tad Eggleston: They ate popcorn together.
• 11:42
  Ted: Yes. No, I…
• 11:43
  Tad Eggleston: That's kinda cool.
• 11:44
  Ted: Yeah, no, to be fair, I actually think it's really funny that, like, the whole conflict is… there is no conflict, like, they just go to see the same movie, and the movie kind of sucks, and only Virgil likes it. Like, I kind of think that's hilarious, but it is.
• 11:56
  Marcus: I also like how, how, over-the-top amped Virgil is about it.
• 12:00
  Ted: Oh. Yeah. No, that's, that's, like… I do love that Virgil has always been a complete nerd in a way that, like.
• 12:06
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I almost felt like it was supposed to be a Star Wars movie.
• 12:09
  Ted: Yeah, I mean, it's… cause this is sort of.
• 12:12
  Marcus: It's kind of like all the movies, yeah.
• 12:14
  Ted: Yeah, it's before, kind of, the big superhero boom movies, because this is before even, like, Spawn… er, not Spawn, well, Spawn, but… or also, like, Blade. So it's… it's still just, like, superheroes are sort of a… like, it's still sort of the era of Batman-ish, but it's also, yeah, it's also Star Wars, and it's also, like.
• 12:31
  Ted: every nerd movie, it's, you know, your RoboCops or whatever. Cause it's, yeah, Fat Man number 4 is coming out.
• 12:38
  Ted: Even after Fat Man 3 was apparently not that great. Well, and also, somebody mentions that the reason nobody in Dakota is showing it is because there were a bunch of shootings at the screenings of Fat Man 3, which I think was…
• 12:50
  Ted: an interesting sort of touch of unfortunate realism, but, like, I think it was good.
• 12:55
  Marcus: No, there's a few… yeah, well, real quick before you move on from that, like, there's a few layers to the…
• 13:01
  Marcus: The way in which it kind of, like.
• 13:03
  Marcus: preceded a lot of real-life stuff. Sadly, in that case, with the theaters, you know, violence in theaters, but also… also the fact that,
• 13:13
  Marcus: it's kind of meta, because if you think about it, like, Fat Man, like, like, to your point, the big comic movies at this point were, like, Batman, Batman Returns, and probably when this was released, maybe, like, Batman and Robin? Maybe even Batman.
• 13:29
  Ted: steel? Is this one steel?
• 13:31
  Marcus: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 13:32
  Tad Eggleston: No, I think steel was later in the 90s.
• 13:34
  Ted: Okay, yeah, that's it.
• 13:35
  Marcus: Okay, yeah, I think you're right. 96. So, but my point is…
• 13:38
  Tad Eggleston: 97 or 98?
• 13:39
  Ted: That sounds right.
• 13:40
  Marcus: Yeah.
• 13:41
  Ted: But yeah.
• 13:42
  Marcus: Those movies aren't particularly, you know, hotbeds of diversity, but then, you have.
• 13:49
  Tad Eggleston: Okay.
• 13:50
  Marcus: As Virgil's talking about… Harvey Dent, was Billy D. Williams. You know what? I literally predicted you were gonna say that. I know you were gonna say that.
• 13:59
  Ted: Show them the envelope, you wrote the name…
• 14:02
  Ted: No, I mean, you're right, they're not, they're not a hop into diversity, and yeah.
• 14:06
  Marcus: Oh, yeah, that is my point. Because you know why? What did they do when Schumacher decided to revisit, Harvey Dent?
• 14:14
  Marcus: The Billy D. Williams turned into Tommy Lee.
• 14:17
  Ted: Probably top.
• 14:17
  Tad Eggleston: Jimmy Lee Jones.
• 14:19
  Marcus: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:19
  Ted: No, no thank you.
• 14:21
  Ted: And Virgil makes a point that it's not just, hey, this is a nerdy superhero movie, it's a black film with black actors.
• 14:28
  Marcus: Yeah, that's where I was going with it. Although… Yeah, sorry, I kind of stepped on you. And then it's… no, it's all good, it's all good, but… and then it's even more meta, because…
• 14:36
  Marcus: While they do point out that it is,
• 14:40
  Marcus: you know, there's Black representation in film…
• 14:42
  Ted: Oh, yeah.
• 14:43
  Marcus: They, they point out that they really mess up Asian representation in the film.
• 14:47
  Ted: Because the one Asian guy is King Hong Kong, or Kong is.
• 14:50
  Marcus: Yeah, yeah.
• 14:51
  Ted: Yeah, oh god, yeah.
• 14:52
  Marcus: I don't know, that's just a…
• 14:54
  Marcus: Yeah, it's just… I love the layers to that, you know, and not only did they kind of predict certain things that were gonna happen in Hollywood, but they also… they also kind of touched on the fact that just…
• 15:04
  Marcus: even when Hollywood tries to quote-unquote do diversity, you know… They fed. There's…
• 15:10
  Marcus: Yeah, there's a lot of ways… well, they can fit, you know, sometimes they can.
• 15:14
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, it's almost like Hollywood doesn't want to do diversity as much as they want to make a profit.
• 15:21
  Ted: Yeah…
• 15:22
  Marcus: Well, the reason I say do diversity in air quotes is because, like, the whole idea.
• 15:27
  Tad Eggleston: I was just emphi- I was trying to emphasize the air quotes for those listening, since we don't have viewers.
• 15:33
  Ted: Yeah, listeners, please note the, the air quotes are being done with the fingers.
• 15:38
  Marcus: The video version of 22 Panza's coming next month, so yeah, you know…
• 15:43
  Tad Eggleston: Possibly, actually.
• 15:45
  Marcus: I'm joking.
• 15:46
  Tad Eggleston: It's something that I'm starting to look at.
• 15:50
  Tad Eggleston: Okay. I need to at least get audio up on YouTube. Too many people listen to their podcasts via YouTube. We need to be on YouTube. Whether I will put up video is still in the air.
• 16:03
  Tad Eggleston: But I need to get the audio up on YouTube.
• 16:06
  Tad Eggleston: I just haven't had the time to figure it out.
• 16:09
  Ted: Anyway, but yeah, like, like you're saying, I mean, there's layers to this, because it's not just, oh, this is a popular superhero movie, it's also, well, they're only showing it at one theater in Dakota, and it's the one.
• 16:19
  Ted: Harris Island, which is, like, the really, really terrible part of Dakota, and, like.
• 16:24
  Tad Eggleston: But is it…
• 16:25
  Marcus: Well, I mean, yes, you know, but I mean, you know what it is, it's like… Well, no, I mean, it's neglected in the way that so many of our, you know, communities in real life are.
• 16:33
  Ted: Yeah, oh, no, I mean.
• 16:34
  Marcus: And it's actually woven… yeah, it's woven into the fabric of the Blood Syndicate lore.
• 16:40
  Marcus: Is that, like, you know, essentially.
• 16:43
  Ted: They're the.
• 16:43
  Marcus: Yeah, like.
• 16:44
  Ted: It's Island, yeah.
• 16:45
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, and like, everybody has turned their back on…
• 16:48
  Marcus: on Paris Island.
• 16:50
  Marcus: So it's, like, even worse than just regular white flight.
• 16:53
  Tad Eggleston: It's neglected. I was just saying that it's not…
• 16:57
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, particularly post-Blood Syndicate, it seems that it's not, like, the hellhole that the people who don't live there want to make it out to be.
• 17:06
  Ted: That's true, yeah.
• 17:08
  Marcus: But then in turn, because…
• 17:10
  Tad Eggleston: Portland is not on fire. Neither is Chicago or Washington, D.C.
• 17:16
  Tad Eggleston: I don't know how he gets away with saying that Washington, D.C. is on fire, because he lives there, and you'd think that… but… whatever.
• 17:25
  Marcus: I don't know who this he you are speaking of is.
• 17:27
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I don't either.
• 17:27
  Ted: I'm choosing.
• 17:28
  Tad Eggleston: Put my fingers.
• 17:29
  Ted: in my ears. No, it… it is a thing where it's… yeah, Paris Island is still, like, the bad part of Dakota in… again, you can't see the air quotes, but, like, it's meant to be the worst part of Dakota, and, like, the Blood Syndicate is there, which is why then we suddenly get the Blood Syndicate, and Y's son, who's still kind of struggling with
• 17:44
  Ted: being the leader of the group, especially after Masquerade left a couple issues ago, and his kids showed up, and they're all like, oh, man, let's go see a movie. And he's like, yeah, okay, fine. So the whole group…
• 17:53
  Ted: Basically, the whole crew goes out to see, Fat Man, along with everybody else, and Dog, like…
• 18:00
  Ted: Okay, I couldn't, I couldn't quite remember this, like, there's, there's a cat, or, so.
• 18:05
  Marcus: Yeah, I think that's, what's her name's cut? Yeah, quite.
• 18:08
  Ted: Why has a cat that… did she show… did the cat show up before? I don't know what the… anyway.
• 18:14
  Marcus: Can't remember what… Yeah… I don't think so.
• 18:17
  Ted: Particularly important, but…
• 18:19
  Marcus: Yeah.
• 18:20
  Ted: But also… We understand now that the catch…
• 18:23
  Ted: Yeah. Well, and also, like, this again, this is why Milestone benefits from having this really tight continuity, because, yeah, we've been having this stuff with, like, Qui and the Blood Syndicate, and, you know, all their storylines are continuing in this issue in a way that's, like.
• 18:37
  Ted: it's harder to do at a much bigger company. Like, this… this level of, oh yeah, everybody's just kind of hanging out in the bullpen, presumably, able to, like, kind of coordinate this stuff means that you have really good… I kind of forgot that this was a static issue for a while. I'm like, oh yeah, this is the latest blood syndicate. Oh, wait, no, it's not. Yeah.
• 18:54
  Marcus: No, they do a good job with that. And well, and then it's cool, because Ivan Velez is literally created this, so he's, like, immersed in the lore.
• 19:00
  Ted: Yeah, it's all… it's all super intertwined, I did like that, yeah. But yeah, I mean, eventually they get to the… they get to the, theater, it turns out that Virgil bought, like, 6 tickets to start with.
• 19:11
  Ted: So they can get in, and, like, there's a heavy police presence, because, of course, there's the shootings. And then the Blood Syndicate just shows up, and of course, everyone just lets them walk in, because it's the Blood Syndicate. And then everyone else gives up their tickets, because, like, hey, I'm not sitting next to the Blood Syndicate.
• 19:25
  Ted: And then, of course, we get some funny bits with, like, the Bloodsy coming in, and Brickhouse, like, shattering a bunch of the seats when she tries to sit down, and dog and Boogeyman are just, like, devouring their popcorn.
• 19:37
  Ted: Yeah, it's, like… the movie itself doesn't even really matter, it's just the fun fact that, like, they sit there, they watch it, Virgil's the only person who likes it, and then the blood syndicate leaves and that's it. Like…
• 19:49
  Tad Eggleston: Well, it's like… it's like Police Academy 6.
• 19:52
  Ted: Yeah.
• 19:52
  Tad Eggleston: the Nerds 4.
• 19:53
  Ted: God, you're right, it is!
• 19:55
  Tad Eggleston: Look at this!
• 19:56
  Ted: Depths of sequelitis of the 90s, where it's just like, yeah, they'll shit out a thousand of these things. Yeah, no, it's…
• 20:03
  Marcus: He's on patrol, right?
• 20:05
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I think so.
• 20:07
  Marcus: Was that, was that the one? Was it also, was there…
• 20:09
  Ted: Nerds in Paradise, was that 3, or… yeah.
• 20:12
  Ted: I guess.
• 20:13
  Marcus: I never got to… even before, you know, everybody grew up in…
• 20:18
  Tad Eggleston: I haven't actually seen all of these movies, I just know that.
• 20:21
  Marcus: So even before we all grew up and realized exactly how messed up
• 20:25
  Marcus: Revenge of the Nerds was… I just not… I never really was a…
• 20:29
  Marcus: I was a big Revenge of the Nerds person. I never… I mean, I guess I was too young.
• 20:34
  Marcus: To see it, but even when I was old enough to see it, I never was like, oh, I want to see that.
• 20:38
  Tad Eggleston: I think I've seen the first one.
• 20:41
  Ted: I remember seeing, like, a commercial or something, and I'm like, Jesus, James Cromwell is in this? As, like, the main character's dad? It's like, good God, that poor man, get him out of there!
• 20:51
  Marcus: Mmm.
• 20:52
  Ted: I got a lot of fondness for that guy after Babe. Anyway, but yeah, like, I love that this issue is, you know, your classic super… like, they're commenting on superhero cliches and everything, too, and the whole thing is ripe for a buildup of, like, oh no, Static and the blood's sitting at getting a fight, or there's a problem, or whatever, and now it's just like, no, they just sit and watch a movie, and the movie kind of sucks, and then it's over. Like, I…
• 21:11
  Ted: I love that it's… it's… it's just nothing. I mean, that's…
• 21:14
  Ted: that's weird for a superhero book, but it's… it's what I want out of a book like this, which is… it isn't just the superhero fights, it's… yeah, everyone has these relationships, everyone has these really interesting stories going on. You know, there's a bit where they're on the subway, and like…
• 21:28
  Tad Eggleston: Hmm.
• 21:29
  Ted: Ricky's thinking to himself about what happened with Holocaust, like, that's eating away at him in a way that's really… I like that. I like that it's very… it's an ongoing thing with him, and it's gonna continue to be a thing with him, and…
• 21:40
  Ted: Yeah, it's a…
• 21:41
  Tad Eggleston: For the record, Citizens on Patrol was Police Academy 4. Oh, okay. Academy 6 was City Under Siege. And Mission to Moscow was the 7th Police Academy movie, but it didn't get a 7.
• 21:57
  Marcus: I appreciate your… your, thoroughness.
• 22:01
  Marcus: I, I genuinely didn't need that answered. I just, I just, you know, I just… it was a one-off joke.
• 22:07
  Marcus: Yeah, yeah, okay. Well, and it's also, like… I did see most of it.
• 22:11
  Ted: Flag, yeah.
• 22:13
  Marcus: Yeah. Okay, yeah, I never saw any of them.
• 22:16
  Marcus: Oh, really? You're… you're fine.
• 22:18
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I don't think he's missed anything.
• 22:20
  Ted: I… yeah, I don't feel like my life has been affected by not seeing the police academy.
• 22:27
  Ted: Who was it? Was it Steady Cooper? Whatever. Anyway.
• 22:30
  Marcus: I mean, I hate a Steve Burke.
• 22:32
  Tad Eggleston: I did like the guy that made the sounds effects.
• 22:35
  Tad Eggleston: Winslow?
• 22:37
  Marcus: Yeah, but you can go.
• 22:38
  Marcus: You're showing the cultural divide. Say that man's name, that's Michael Winslow.
• 22:42
  Tad Eggleston: But you can… but you can see him in space balls.
• 22:47
  Ted: I was about to say, now I'm thinking of, like, oh, but was that the dude in his faceballs who does the… yeah.
• 22:54
  Ted: Hello? What?
• 22:56
  Marcus: True.
• 22:57
  Ted: Yeah.
• 22:57
  Marcus: Nope.
• 22:58
  Ted: What?
• 23:00
  Marcus: Yeah, he's…
• 23:02
  Tad Eggleston: The dude in space balls.
• 23:03
  Ted: Oh, I thought, I thought someone else, I thought someone had dropped.
• 23:05
  Marcus: I think we do have a delay. Yeah, we're here.
• 23:08
  Marcus: Wait, do you hear me, Ted?
• 23:10
  Tad Eggleston: I do.
• 23:10
  Ted: Yeah, I'm hearing it.
• 23:11
  Marcus: Okay, okay, just making sure.
• 23:14
  Ted: We're just doing…
• 23:16
  Tad Eggleston: comedy here on the Milestone Book.
• 23:18
  Ted: Yeah, we're just improviting this whole thing.
• 23:21
  Marcus: Ted, you mentioned the, you mentioned, Rick, Ricky and… or is it Rich? I always forget, but, I think, I think they use both.
• 23:28
  Marcus: But he… like, well, obviously his character's been through a lot with this…
• 23:32
  Ted: Yeah.
• 23:33
  Marcus: Forced outing, in a previous arc, and then…
• 23:37
  Marcus: Then, but it's cool because it seems like the…
• 23:40
  Marcus: core crew, they've all come to terms, you know what I mean? And made peace.
• 23:45
  Marcus: Him and Virgil have a… have an awkward conversation, but you know what I appreciate about it?
• 23:51
  Marcus: It was… both?
• 23:53
  Marcus: Virgil being like, look, I messed up, you're my friend, and…
• 23:58
  Marcus: you know, and I love you, but he did it in the most awkward, teen boy way possible, but Rich was also like, yeah, man, we're good. Like, you know, because… and it was realistic, in the sense that, like, it wasn't like they wrote,
• 24:15
  Marcus: Virgil apologizing in a way that was way too adult. Like, you know, with an adult's level of, like, introspection. It was, like, very much like what a 16-year-old boy would, would say when he was awkwardly trying to make peace.
• 24:30
  Ted: Oh, yeah.
• 24:30
  Marcus: I haven't messed up like that.
• 24:32
  Ted: Yeah, as always, like, Virgil remains, like, one of the best protagonists in a Milestone, one of the best characters in a Milestone book. He's so…
• 24:39
  Ted: God, I love him as a character. He's great. But yeah, I mean, that's that issue… that's issue 21. It's kind of its own little weird one-off. It's fun. It's… I like it a lot. It's a little…
• 24:49
  Ted: it's a little bit of fun wackiness that doesn't have a whole lot to do with anything else, but, like, it furthers other storylines, and I think it's hilarious that, yeah, we just end with, like, yeah, okay, that movie sucked, and then we just walk away, and there's no fight. Like, I think that's… generally, I think that's hilarious.
• 25:03
  Ted: But yeah, so then 22, 23, and 24 is its own little mini-arc that…
• 25:11
  Ted: It takes me a while to kind of get what it's doing.
• 25:14
  Ted: And I still don't totally get what it's doing, because I can't remember… .
• 25:20
  Marcus: I could take a stab at what I think it's doing.
• 25:22
  Ted: Yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead.
• 25:24
  Marcus: Well, I think they're… they're… they're, introducing stakes in the sense that, Virgil's, dad is, like, seriously injured, and, you know, the family kind of surrounds around that, and then you get a little, like.
• 25:40
  Marcus: No sooner do you get a little peek at his, world at work
• 25:44
  Marcus: You know, then before you see him, imp…
• 25:49
  Marcus: Basically, trying to be a… being a hero.
• 25:52
  Ted: you know, without superpowers like Virgil.
• 25:54
  Marcus: But, being grievously injured in the process. They also…
• 25:59
  Marcus: this rest of this arc, like, really kind of, like, continues what you were talking about with Rich.
• 26:03
  Marcus: And his concerns about,
• 26:07
  Marcus: having… having killed Hotstreak in self-defense.
• 26:11
  Ted: So that gets a really realistic follow-up, in that it then is about, like, the cops coming and trying to get the statements, but also the cops being like.
• 26:19
  Ted: you didn't see anything untoward, am I right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I like that that was, like, Rich gets off the hook, but also, like, oh yeah, cops also… like, cops are also horribly corrupt.
• 26:31
  Marcus: Not only that, you're right, but not only that, the only thing I want to add to that is, I don't think…
• 26:37
  Marcus: I don't know if Rick's gonna be like, oh, la-di-da, all's well to ends well, you know what I mean? Because he was really,
• 26:45
  Marcus: I don't know, he was carrying the guilt, and I don't see… just because the state is like, yeah, you're good, man, doesn't necessarily mean he's internally. So I think that's interesting. I'm sure they… yeah.
• 26:57
  Ted: Yeah, no, I think that what they're doing with Rick is really good. I like that he's not just the gay character having, like, issues at school. I like that there's also this level of guilt that he killed a guy, or he… did he kill Hotstrick, or did he just chewed him? I forget.
• 27:09
  Marcus: I gotta go back, yeah, I forget. I think he killed him, though.
• 27:14
  Marcus: Oh, he probably is comic books.
• 27:16
  Ted: It's comic books, yeah. But yeah, no, I do like that a lot. I do like that that's the ongoing thread that we have for him. More than him being gay, which is also important, but, like, I like that he's not just… that's his only issue, you know?
• 27:28
  Marcus: It's not one-dimensional.
• 27:29
  Ted: Exact, yeah, exactly. Like all the characters in Milestone, like, they're never just the one thing.
• 27:36
  Ted: But yeah, so we get that, we get, Virgil's dad at work. I'm sorry, I'm stepping on you, you were gonna do the rest of the…
• 27:43
  Marcus: No, it's all good. I think I was just saying that we get the Chihuahua stuff, but I feel like that's kind of.
• 27:49
  Ted: Yes.
• 27:49
  Marcus: Secondary to the…
• 27:51
  Marcus: the most important thing is that it's a vehicle to kind of have, yes, this battle, and silliness, but also to, you know, have big stuff happen with Virgil's dad, the family coming together around him at the hospital, you know.
• 28:06
  Ted: Yeah, and this, by the way, I forgot about this. This… I was looking for that conversation you mentioned between Virgil and Rick, and it said this issue. And yeah, it's so awkward, but also, like, they both mean well, and they kind of get it. Like, I love the… I love how real.
• 28:18
  Marcus: Yeah.
• 28:18
  Ted: that is. But yeah, then we get, like, this zombie-ish outbreak thing with the Chihuahuas. It took me a minute to get, like, the fact that we were seeing, like, the Chihuahua's perspective on these kids' terrible home life.
• 28:31
  Marcus: Yeah, that was interesting.
• 28:33
  Ted: It was… it was interesting, it was also a little bit like, why do we have… are they trying to say, like, the kids don't understand what language they're speaking, or…
• 28:39
  Marcus: Yeah, it took me… it did take me a minute, too, but it was.
• 28:41
  Ted: Yeah.
• 28:43
  Ted: But yeah, I mean, it's a neat little thing to show that, like, yeah, this is a pet, he's trying to protect his owners, we don't really know why he's turning people into zombies, and do we even get an answer? I kinda don't…
• 28:55
  Marcus: Well, let's see, as it goes on later…
• 28:59
  Marcus: They take over the police officers, right?
• 29:02
  Ted: Yeah.
• 29:02
  Marcus: then… I don't say, like, explain it.
• 29:06
  Ted: It's… yeah.
• 29:07
  Ted: I don't know, it's… whatever.
• 29:10
  Ted: But yeah, so both Virgil's dad and what… the woman who turns out to be Boogeyman's mom get trapped in a room in the hospital,
• 29:19
  Ted: As the police officers who have been bitten by the dog belonging to these two kids in a terrible home situation are, like.
• 29:25
  Ted: being cared for by the officers. But in the process, Virgil's dad apparently has either a heart attack or something else. I think it's a heart attack. So he's in bad shape.
• 29:36
  Marcus: Hmm.
• 29:37
  Ted: So then we move on.
• 29:38
  Marcus: Well, that's right.
• 29:39
  Ted: Yeah, and nothing else, like, there's no other superhero stuff until we hit 23, which is when, yeah, the police officers are trying to break in and kill them, because they've got, like, weird zombie rabies. We've got the kids and their Chihuahua trying to kind of figure out what's going on, we've got Boogeyman's mom trying to escape,
• 29:57
  Ted: And, yeah, everything's kind of going to shit, but eventually they manage to cure the… I think they cure the dog… either they cure the dog or kill the dog, and that essentially, like, reverses the rabies and everyone else, because…
• 30:11
  Ted: sure, comic books, whatever. But then we get to see, Virgil and friends playing D&D.
• 30:18
  Ted: Until he gets a call suddenly that, like, oh yeah, his dad's in trouble, so he goes out and has to… and has to leave.
• 30:24
  Ted: And he feels really bad about abandoning his friends. And also, at the same time, Boogeyman gets a call from his mom on his beeper. Oh my god, I forgot that he had a beeper.
• 30:34
  Ted: And I was trying to remember this, too. Had we already had the issues about Boogeyman and his relationships with the rats?
• 30:41
  Ted: Because I remember that from when.
• 30:42
  Marcus: It's been woven throughout, yeah, yeah.
• 30:45
  Ted: Okay, because, yeah, I was doing a re… I was… I mean, I did my own reread of Milestone a while back, and I was trying to remember that… because he had this… yeah, there's, like, a big war between different rat, like, clans, I guess? I don't… anyway.
• 30:55
  Marcus: Sure. But…
• 30:56
  Ted: Yeah.
• 30:57
  Marcus: Oh, yeah, with the roaches, the roaches and the reds.
• 30:59
  Ted: Yeah, that's right, the road… okay, so yeah, we did get that, I couldn't remember. But yeah, Boogeyman, pops out, finds his mom, and then, of course, Static is also at the hospital, and his dad's recovering, and…
• 31:11
  Ted: Oh, then the chihuahuas come back when it's like a giant monster chihuahua? I forgot how this…
• 31:16
  Ted: Yeah, it doesn't…
• 31:18
  Ted: I don't know what the… and then it, like, teleports away? I have no idea what the…
• 31:23
  Marcus: I will say this. I will say this. I think this is why, in my summation, I was saying that…
• 31:29
  Marcus: I feel like the Chihuahua part was… I don't even think, Ivan Velez meant for the Chihuahuas to be significant.
• 31:36
  Marcus: You know what I mean? I feel like they were a vehicle…
• 31:38
  Ted: Oh, yeah.
• 31:39
  Marcus: the large… I feel like there was larger themes that he wanted to explore, and the Chihuahuas just happened to be stand-in bad guys. So I don't think we need to break down the… how they work.
• 31:49
  Ted: Exactly, because, like, 24 is then this whole issue about, like, oh yeah, the follow-up on, like, oh yeah, your dad had a heart attack, and the family's dealing with it, and, like, it's incredibly realistic and minutely observed, like, Virgil's calling his friends, he's, you know, trying to sort of keep things normal at home, which is… yeah, no, it's so…
• 32:07
  Ted: it's really realistically handled. I also do love the little one-off gag of, like, some random mug… mugger tries to get him on the subway train, and he just zaps him to the ceiling.
• 32:16
  Ted: train car, and then just, like, that's the punchline, is that his sister doesn't even wake up. Yeah. But, like, then he, in order to work off some frustration, goes out and ends up running into dusk as she makes a, attack on some drug… er, no, gunrunners.
• 32:29
  Ted: And the two of them start hanging out and have a… your kind of classic superhero team-up sexual tension, bantering type thing. And they have a kiss, and…
• 32:39
  Ted: Yeah, wow. Boy, we got some spicy tension going. We got a love triangle, baby! We got your classic comic book love triangle. Your Spider-Man, Black Cat, Mary Jane…
• 32:48
  Ted: Style classics.
• 32:51
  Marcus: Well, I think that's the other reason that I wondered if it was his…
• 32:54
  Tad Eggleston: Other school friend.
• 32:56
  Ted: Yeah, that would make a lot of sense. You know, one thing I appreciate… one thing I appreciate to that point is…
• 33:02
  Marcus: even though, canonically, Frida and Virgil, at least in this version of Milestone, do end up together in the future, they… I don't think they ever end up together
• 33:12
  Marcus: in, like, this old milestone. It was just when…
• 33:14
  Ted: Yeah.
• 33:15
  Marcus: Dwayne McDuffie did, Milestone Forever, I think, in, like, 2010?
• 33:20
  Ted: Was it reboot.
• 33:21
  Marcus: It was like, it was like.
• 33:21
  Ted: Oh, no, you're right, it was, yeah.
• 33:23
  Marcus: No, no, no, no, Rebirth of the Cool, I know what you're talking about. That was, like, the first arc that was, collected. No, but in, like, 2010, there was, like, two books that I believe were called Milestone Forever, and they, in that, they're married and they have kids in the future, but back in the day.
• 33:40
  Marcus: they resisted, at least as far as I've read, they resisted the temptation to, like, have Frida come in between Virgil and,
• 33:49
  Marcus: oh my god, Virgil and.
• 33:53
  Ted: Also, I'm blanking on her name.
• 33:54
  Marcus: His girlfriend.
• 33:55
  Ted: Yeah, I also feel bad that I can't remember her name.
• 33:58
  Marcus: Yeah, but either way, like, you know what I mean? Like, because it was like, initially, you know, Virgil was best friends with Frida, and they,
• 34:06
  Marcus: very much had it, like, you know, this kind of unrequited thing, was he ever gonna be able to tell her? And then, you know, he was jealous of her, and
• 34:15
  Marcus: And his friend, and then…
• 34:17
  Marcus: initially, and then he, you know, he kind of got over it, and… which is really, I…
• 34:22
  Marcus: If there's one thing men need to do is learn how to take an L, you know, when a woman does not return your feelings. So I was actually very healthy that they showed Virgil taking the L and being like, okay, and they're still friends, you know, so…
• 34:36
  Marcus: it's very healthy, you know what I mean? Like, they were very… able to have… it's not like they're friends, but Virgil's, like, waiting for his opportunity.
• 34:43
  Marcus: to be together with her. So…
• 34:46
  Marcus: Yeah, so anyway, I say all that to say that they… they actually… I give them a lot of credit for resisting the temptation of having… trying to do a triangle with those three, is all I'm saying.
• 34:54
  Ted: Yeah, no, I get your point, though. And it's Daisy, by the way, I was totally blank, I was like, Daisy.
• 34:58
  Marcus: Easy.
• 34:59
  Ted: Yeah. Yeah, anyway, so that's 24. I mean, 24 is notable for, like, the Chihuahua stuff just has wrapped up, and now it is suddenly, oh shit, my dad had a heart attack, how do we deal with this? In the most realistic, like, grounded way to do it, you know? Like…
• 35:15
  Ted: I love that shift, like, it's a weird shift, and it's kind of a hard shift, but, like, it's great.
• 35:22
  Marcus: Well, and they… yeah, and they definitely threaded it in the sense that they kept talking about how he had really been pushing himself so hard. And it's very interesting because, he… I forget who Virgil's dad is speaking to, but he's speaking to somebody about…
• 35:37
  Marcus: how wild it is out in Paris Island, and he mentions, like, you know, oh yeah, no, we used to live in Paris Island, but, like, I… he basically is like, I had to bus my home to get us out. And you see that it's not even a straight line.
• 35:52
  Marcus: Like, oh, you just got mobility, and you can kind of move to any community you want. It's like…
• 36:00
  Marcus: You know, in order to do it, he's working himself into the ground, as so many people do, you know?
• 36:04
  Ted: Yeah.
• 36:05
  Marcus: Yeah, because he still works on Paris. Earning a living wage is not, yeah, is not something that America, you know, affords to everybody.
• 36:13
  Ted: Yeah. Well, it's, it's, like…
• 36:16
  Ted: That is the thing that I think Milestone does really well, and this is just maybe the most…
• 36:21
  Ted: extreme example? I don't even mean extreme, but, like, the most…
• 36:25
  Ted: It's where you have both the superhero stuff and the realistically observed, really, really well-founded examinations of, like, the system.
• 36:35
  Ted: in bulk.
• 36:36
  Marcus: Yeah.
• 36:36
  Ted: And, like, this is an example where the superhero stuff is sillier than usual, with the zombie chihuahuas that teleport.
• 36:43
  Ted: Sure. But, like, it's still, you know, it's fun superhero stuff. You get to see Milestone and Boogeyman fight a giant chihuahua. Sure. Yeah, I'm here for it. But yeah,
• 36:54
  Ted: It's a… it's a… it's a weird little arc, but it's not a… it's not a bad arc, and I do… I always love… again, I mentioned that interconnectedness, where you've got, you know, the Blood City Kit stuff showing up in the same arc with all… there's all the static stuff, I love that. But then we get to the infamous, famous, great, excellent.
• 37:12
  Ted: interesting little issue 25, which is… Yeah, I don't know. I…
• 37:22
  Ted: There's bits of this I'm more…
• 37:25
  Ted: There's bits of this I find more effective than other bits.
• 37:29
  Ted: But also, it's been a while since I've read a lot of static, so, like, I don't remember how much of this has been set up. Like, for example, the stuff with Daisy's…
• 37:37
  Ted: Grandma. Like, I don't remember how well that was established.
• 37:42
  Marcus: It hadn't been. Like, I don't think we had really gotten into her home life. I think it was kind of… I think they…
• 37:50
  Marcus: the way I read it was, it was almost like, in order to…
• 37:56
  Marcus: you know, bring together the thread of, like, him supporting Daisy and their closeness. Like, you know, they… they were trying to give us more of a peek into her life, you know?
• 38:05
  Ted: Yeah.
• 38:07
  Marcus: Yeah, but they hadn't really established that before.
• 38:09
  Ted: Yeah, because what we get is, it starts off, Virgil's had kind of a good date with Daisy, she pecks him on the cheek, it's very cute, there's snow on the ground, but then she immediately, she comes inside, and her grandma has quietly passed away while sitting in her favorite armchair, and…
• 38:24
  Ted: it's sad. I think it's very well drawn, but it is… it did also feel kind of out of left field that, like.
• 38:30
  Ted: Had this been established that she had a sick grandma, that she lived with her grandma? I couldn't remember. And, like, as good as I think the art is in this issue, I think this issue has some really nice art, frankly, but, like, I was… I was just thinking, like.
• 38:42
  Ted: How much… had we seen her before? I couldn't remember, but anyway.
• 38:46
  Ted: There's…
• 38:47
  Marcus: Yeah.
• 38:50
  Ted: But yeah, I think it's very well done, and then of course the fact that, you know, Virgil doesn't know what happened, so he's all, like, skipping around and singing it like a complete dork.
• 38:58
  Ted: He figures out he can make an electric bicycle that flies, which is dope and stupid and great. And then he hangs out with Dusk for a while, and they go fight some system, system addicts.
• 39:11
  Ted: And things go sideways, and the only thing that saves them from accidentally killing some bystanders is when hardware shows up and says, what the hell do you think you're doing? And…
• 39:20
  Ted: Like, cause that's another thing, hardware is now at the point where he's working for Elva, so, like, yeah, sure, he's gonna do that.
• 39:30
  Ted: Yeah, it's… I don't know, there's even the little joke of, like.
• 39:34
  Ted: dusk stuck to the wall with Static's powers, and some dude inside opens the window, and he's like, hey, you doing okay? She's like, mind your business.
• 39:41
  Ted: Yeah, and then… like…
• 39:46
  Ted: it's this balance where it's… static is… I mean, as with a lot of the best static stuff, it's reminding us that he's at this precarious teenage…
• 39:56
  Ted: age. He's, you know, he's not quite ready for the responsibilities of manhood, but he's getting there, he's, you know, being reminded that there are bigger things than himself out there, he's got power, but also responsibility. Boy, is that a theme ever, you know. But, like, it's…
• 40:15
  Ted: I don't quite know where I'm going with this.
• 40:17
  Ted: Anyone else want to jump in?
• 40:21
  Tad Eggleston: Also.
• 40:21
  Marcus: Yeah, I mean, I think…
• 40:22
  Ted: Huh, yeah.
• 40:23
  Marcus: Yeah.
• 40:24
  Marcus: Yeah, which is, you know, yeah, I think that's just it, and I think it's.
• 40:29
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, that's… that's… static… Consistently is, like… the best Spider-Man, where…
• 40:39
  Tad Eggleston: He is actually the age that he's supposed to be.
• 40:43
  Ted: Yeah.
• 40:44
  Tad Eggleston: you know, where Spider-Man would always fall off track, and I haven't seen Static fall off track yet, is when they're like, oh, he's a superhero, he's gotta act like a Captain America superhero, and it's like, yeah, no, he doesn't have that level of experience.
• 41:00
  Ted: Yeah, he… he…
• 41:01
  Tad Eggleston: He's fooling the shit out. Yeah.
• 41:03
  Ted: He screws up all the time, or at least he's just realistically dumb, you know? Like, I love what he's such a… I love when he's an incredible dork like that. Like, I've said it before, but really, him, like, doing his little dance when he's getting back into the date with Daisy, it's really… it's so sweet. I love that dude.
• 41:18
  Ted: But yeah, like, he… he… you know, he and Daisy have the… well, I mean, then he hears about Daisy's, grandma, so then there's this big heartfelt thing where she has to go move into… move in with her mom, so she's…
• 41:30
  Ted: gotta move away from all the other gang, and she's gotta leave, and as they're talking about this, she whispers something to Static, and it's like, oh, she wants to give him something.
• 41:38
  Ted: That's very important to them both, and he doesn't… and Virgil doesn't get it at first, and everybody's like, you idiot, she wants to have sex with you.
• 41:47
  Ted: And that's where we get what this issue is kind of really about, which is…
• 41:53
  Ted: Yeah, it's about losing your virginity, it's about being a teenager, having sex for the first time.
• 41:58
  Ted: In a way. Like, it's… that's really the thrust of this issue, and I like that it's not…
• 42:06
  Ted: It's not just…
• 42:08
  Ted: them having sex, it's like, what does this mean for their relationship that is in the process of changing so much? Because, yeah, her grandma just died! She just had a massive traumatic event. His dad just had a heart attack! He's still recovering, like…
• 42:20
  Ted: It's not just, oh boy, we're horny teenagers, we should talk about having sex. It's like, we're in the middle of an important relationship where everything else is also changing around us.
• 42:32
  Ted: are we prepared for how that changes our relationship? Are we prepared for how that changes everything else? And…
• 42:39
  Ted: I mean, this is… this… I honestly don't remember what happens after this, but, like, this is showing a level of maturity in answering that question, in that it's about the question. Yeah, like…
• 42:53
  Ted: Yeah, I'm… I'm… I forget what happens next in static. I'm sorry, I'm stepping on people.
• 42:58
  Marcus: Yeah, no, no, no, no, everything you're saying is on point. I think the only thing I was going to say is that,
• 43:04
  Marcus: It's… thankfully, also, they don't… they don't show anything.
• 43:09
  Marcus: and everything, you know, like, they don't… because there's just something about, I think there's very much a balance involved when, you know, adults tell stories about these things.
• 43:20
  Marcus: And this is the balance. It's like, deal with it realistically, deal with the questions that come around it. Thankfully, you know, deal with, like, responsibility.
• 43:30
  Marcus: honor… honesty and all that, you know. Yeah. But then…
• 43:34
  Marcus: all you get at the end is a closed door, and you understand. Yes. Like, you know what I mean? And that's… that's all you need, so… It's so cool. To me, that's great storytelling, yeah.
• 43:43
  Ted: Yeah, because we get, like, the long sequences are, like, his conversation with his dad, which is great! I love how… how realistic and…
• 43:50
  Ted: and thoughtful that is, and then there's this long build-up to him, like, heading out to Daisy's, and then the door closes, and that's it. There's… that's everything. We're not… we're not showing anything after that, believe me.
• 44:03
  Ted: like, you… you don't have to imagine it, you just kind of know what's happened in a way that is… I mean, I mentioned something, I said something where I compared it earlier to the, the abortion issue of ICON, and I mean that, obviously, in, like, the most positive way, because I think that was a really…
• 44:18
  Marcus: Yeah.
• 44:19
  Ted: incredibly well done. We all did. Like, we all agree that that was, like…
• 44:22
  Ted: the best possible way to do that issue, I think.
• 44:26
  Ted: And, similarly… Yeah.
• 44:28
  Ted: Yeah.
• 44:30
  Ted: Similarly, I think this does a really, really good job of having the conversation on the page in a way that's neither, you know, infantilizing nor,
• 44:39
  Ted: overly… Adults? I don't… yeah, it balances things very, very well.
• 44:46
  Ted: Yeah.
• 44:48
  Ted: I don't know, I'm… I'm…
• 44:49
  Ted: I'm pleasantly… I'm not even surprised that they did it well, because they've done other things this well, but, like, I'm so happy they did…
• 44:55
  Ted: Thread the needle so neatly on this issue.
• 44:58
  Marcus: Yeah.
• 44:59
  Marcus: Hmm.
• 45:00
  Ted: Yeah, it's… it's…
• 45:02
  Ted: it's an odd way… I mean, it felt odd reading it, and it still feels a little bit odd to go from, like.
• 45:08
  Ted: Two issues ago, we had the zombie teleporting Chihuahuas, and now we have the, like.
• 45:12
  Ted: you know, when are you ready to have sex issue? Like, it still feels a little bit uneven, but…
• 45:20
  Marcus: You know what I have to say? I feel like I've talked about…
• 45:23
  Marcus: Well, no, we've definitely talked about Ivan Velez, and talking about Blood Syndicate, but, I had a chance to,
• 45:30
  Marcus: to interview him, like, a couple years ago, and I will say, like, this is what he does. Like, he really is good at taking, you know, using the comic book medium to really kind of, like, explore
• 45:44
  Marcus: all these issues about being a young person, you know, and
• 45:48
  Marcus: And, I don't know, I feel like he's the perfect writer to do this, you know?
• 45:55
  Ted: So, it makes sense, like, you know, cause… yeah, cause he had.
• 45:59
  Marcus: like, he had another… did we… did we talk about that? He had, another series way back in the day called Tales of the Closet, and this is, like, way before our modern era, where, you know, there's now kids… young people have a myriad of comics.
• 46:14
  Marcus: dealing with LGBTQIA issues, but, like, this was, like, in the early 90s? You know? And it's kind of like a Loving Rockets…
• 46:25
  Marcus: Type book in a high school.
• 46:28
  Marcus: But, like, yeah, the protagonists are all queer kids, of different ethnicities, and… Yeah, it's just really well done. So my point is, like, Ivan Velez is, like, really good at,
• 46:41
  Marcus: Just… yeah, just exploring, like, all different facets of Life as a young person.
• 46:46
  Ted: Yeah, that balance is so… is really important. And also, I realized, I had to go back and check, this isn't Ivan Velez, but even in, like, issue 5 is with the,
• 46:56
  Ted: Commando X storyline.
• 46:59
  Ted: Like, that's another thing where it's, you know, he is both a superhero and also out of his depth.
• 47:03
  Ted: by being… by trying to stop, like, a race riot, essentially. And, like, it's… I just… I really remember the opening to that issue, because I think it's a really strong story. And it also, like, yeah, like we've been talking about, it's… it's this balance of him being
• 47:17
  Ted: kind of a dumb teenager, but not dumb, but, you know, he's a teenager. And then also having the superhero responsibility, and, like, I…
• 47:25
  Ted: Yeah, no, static is, like…
• 47:27
  Marcus: Yeah!
• 47:29
  Marcus: So I was gonna say, just to Tad's point, because Tad brought up, like, the idea of him being the best version of Spider-Man, and I love Spider-Man, so there's no insult to Spider-Man. But in the sense that, like, Peter Parker
• 47:41
  Marcus: It was almost like, especially back in the day, it was almost like there was times where they were like, oh yeah, he's a teenager, we should throw in some teenage stuff, you know what I mean? Like, because he was just… he would oftentimes, even though his age was, like, a teenager when it started, and for the early years,
• 47:58
  Marcus: I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I don't know, they would have all this stuff at school with, like, Flash and the other kids, but he largely still felt like he was, like, a little man. Like, you know what I mean? Like, and .
• 48:11
  Ted: Yeah.
• 48:11
  Marcus: I just think… I just think static, it's like, they're consistent with the fact that these are kids.
• 48:17
  Ted: Yes.
• 48:17
  Marcus: Even when he's.
• 48:18
  Ted: Yeah.
• 48:18
  Marcus: You know?
• 48:19
  Ted: Yeah, that is a good way to put it, that, like, I think Spider-Man…
• 48:24
  Ted: Well, I mean, Spider-Man is also, it's the 60s, it's sort of right when we're inventing what the teenager is. Like, they're still kind of figuring it out. But yeah, like, static benefits from those years of experience, those decades of experience in, like, yeah, here's what teenagers really are like, here's what it's like to be in a high school, here's, you know, beyond just jokes about, like, crappy cafeteria food, it's also, yeah, you're dealing with some of the most…
• 48:45
  Ted: incredibly, massively wild, you know, adult responsibilities at the same time you're trying to play Dungeons & Dragons with your friends, like…
• 48:53
  Ted: Yeah, it's all… ugh, yeah.
• 48:55
  Marcus: Well, yeah, the teen… the fact that he's a kid is just baked… I mean, I just said that anyway, but it's like, yeah, it's interesting, because
• 49:02
  Marcus: And then, you know, even… even just, like, cultural specificity, like, I love that… Most of the…
• 49:09
  Marcus: you know, serious… not all, but a lot of the serious conversations between Virgil and his friends happen either on the subway or playing Dungeons & Dragons, which is, like, that's such a young people thing, like, a bunch of kids taking public transportation, you know what I mean, and just having these moments, or just, yeah, playing D&D and just being total nerds. And…
• 49:29
  Marcus: Yeah, so it's, it's, it's, it's interesting. I just think it's,
• 49:34
  Marcus: It's very well done. Like, his… his… being a kid is very… Woven into the story.
• 49:40
  Ted: Yeah, it's… I mean…
• 49:43
  Ted: I was gonna say something about how, like, all the milestone books do this well, and it's like, yeah, big shocker, all the milestone books are good, that's why I've devoted an entire podcast to them, but it is, like.
• 49:51
  Marcus: Right.
• 49:52
  Ted: it's… I'm… I'm on doing this… this is, like, I think my third full reread of everything at this point, and I just… every time, I kind of have to relearn, yeah, there's parts that are cheesy that I kind of forget… that I kind of remember. It's like, oh yeah, there's the…
• 50:05
  Ted: I didn't specifically remember the giant chihuahuas, but, like, I was prepared for stuff like giant chihuahuas. But then it's also like, oh yeah, there's also this incredible discussion of abortion, or when do you have sex for the first time, and how do you talk to your dad about that, like…
• 50:18
  Ted: Yeah, no, there's some unbeat stuff. Yeah, that was… that was kinda…
• 50:22
  Tad Eggleston: that snuck up on me, and… and I appreciated it.
• 50:26
  Ted: And especially…
• 50:27
  Tad Eggleston: So… I mean, it's…
• 50:35
  Tad Eggleston: It's just not the conversation you expect to have, and you expect to have it in…
• 50:39
  Tad Eggleston: Like, a comic book even less.
• 50:41
  Ted: And also, I think it's important, it's also that his dad has had… is recovering from a heart attack, you know? Right. Just a page or two before, he's complaining about having to be served, like, unseasoned soup, because he's recovering from a heart attack, and then he has to also give his son the talk about having sex. Like, that's… and also, I do love that, like, they make it clear that the dad's also like, oh god, man, I gotta make… I gotta give him the talk now? Like, he's also kind of freaking
• 51:05
  Ted: Like, I love… I love every bit of that. Like, I don't think Virgil's dad has gotten a lot to do until now, but he does get some really good moments in these… in these issues.
• 51:15
  Ted: He's a realistically…
• 51:17
  Marcus: everyone.
• 51:17
  Ted: good man, you know? He's doing his best to save everyone at the hospital, but then he's, you know, he's suffering for it, he's trying to make jokes about it, but he's, you know, obviously having problems.
• 51:28
  Ted: Yeah, I… I… I really appreciate these issues, like.
• 51:32
  Ted: on so many levels. They are… it's… the Chihuahua… I know I'm fixing in on the Chihuahua stuff, but really, like, the Chihuahua stuff was just so weird and wacky, but like…
• 51:42
  Ted: It's… you gotta have the giant zombie chihuahuas every now and then.
• 51:46
  Ted: I was… I was actually talking with a friend of mine about horror movies, and like.
• 51:51
  Ted: how every horror movie these days, when they talk about, like, being elevated horror, you know, which is like, oh yeah, the elevated horror, that's when your mom… that's when… that's when the Dracula is that your mom died.
• 52:00
  Ted: And we were joking about that, and the fact that, like, in Alien, yeah, Alien is a movie about capitalism, and about how we're all fundamentally replaceable tools for the machine, and they don't care if we live or die.
• 52:11
  Marcus: But also, there's a monster alien that kills you. Like, there's… there is also, like, an actual literal monster that eats your face, like, that bursts out of your chest. And in the same way, yeah, superhero books can be really good things about adolescence, and about responsibility, and understanding our place in the community, and… and trying to build ourselves into a version of ourselves that we're proud of. And also, there's occasionally zombie chihuahuas. Like, you gotta have the zombie chihuahuas every day. Right.
• 52:34
  Ted: They're not exactly zombies, either, they just, like, turn people into monsters, I don't know, whatever they are.
• 52:40
  Ted: Yeah, I don't know if Ivan Delez… like you said, like, I don't know if Ivan Delez knew what they were.
• 52:45
  Ted: No shade on it, but really, they're just there. It's chihuahuas, yeah.
• 52:50
  Ted: Yeah, I don't know, these… I… the more we talk about these issues, the more I like them.
• 52:56
  Ted: And I kind of was not expecting to like him this much, I guess.
• 53:00
  Ted: I don't know.
• 53:01
  Marcus: Yeah.
• 53:04
  Marcus: Yeah. Well, it's interesting, too, because, I mean, we've… I'm sure we've talked about this, but this is before…
• 53:10
  Marcus: you know, monthly books for really writing for the trade. So you do… oftentimes, there are, like, very solid arcs, but not, like, as a rule, you know? Yeah. And so I think these three issues… there is… there's an arc in there, but they're also…
• 53:26
  Marcus: Not, which is why I think 25 was, like, placed on its own in here.
• 53:31
  Ted: Yeah, they are an arc, but they're also just sort of like… the Fat Man issue is just kind of continuing things. It's a one-off in terms of it being an issue of where he goes to see a movie, but it's also, you know, it's continuing Ricky's story, and it's continuing the story of…
• 53:49
  Ted: The flood syndicate stuff, too, yeah. It's… yeah, this is definitely, like, before writing for the trade was a thing.
• 53:55
  Ted: Because, yeah, then we also have the arcs, like, yeah, the Hot Streak arc, for sure, is, like, that's a solid arc about the Hot, you know, Hot Streak coming back and everything, with the… what was it, the Sons of…
• 54:05
  Ted: the Sons… not the Sons of Thor.
• 54:07
  Ted: What was the, like, racist group he was…
• 54:09
  Marcus: Oh, Odin, I believe. I think it's Odin.
• 54:12
  Ted: Yeah. But yeah, no, I… you're right, I kind of hadn't thought of it from that perspective, of, like, the way the publishing industry hadn't… or the comics industry hadn't quite yet…
• 54:22
  Ted: Adapted to being… collections.
• 54:26
  Ted: They didn't…
• 54:27
  Ted: They didn't collect any of the milestone stuff at the time, did they? I feel like they did.
• 54:30
  Marcus: Oh, no. I think, I'm sure if you… if you go back to the early issues of this.
• 54:36
  Marcus: milestone series we do, it was… there was a definitely… I'm sure you heard me lamenting, because…
• 54:43
  Marcus: I think you mentioned Rebirth of the Cool. For a while, there was only a few. There was, like, it was hard to get your hands on. They did, like, two…
• 54:52
  Marcus: Trades of, of hardware, and then you could get 2 trades of hardware, 1 trade of static.
• 55:00
  Marcus: Oh, no, no, there was the icon… there was an icon trade, at least one. But, like, that was it, and they weren't… they weren't in production for… it wasn't like there was multiple printings. So if you had them, you had them. Like, I think I got the…
• 55:14
  Marcus: hardware ones when they were still on the shelf, but then Icon and Static, I had to chase down, like, later, just, like, through eBay or something.
• 55:22
  Marcus: Sure, yeah. So yeah, it was very hard. It was very hard to find Milestone 4. And then I think part of why you couldn't find him afterwards is because there was all the legal…
• 55:31
  Tad Eggleston: I mean, I…
• 55:32
  Marcus: That it was part of them.
• 55:34
  Tad Eggleston: I, I, I have…
• 55:36
  Tad Eggleston: I have talked about, how I came to Milestone later. I didn't know of its existence at the beginning, but I guess I should really point out that my… the first time I heard of Milestone at all.
• 55:51
  Tad Eggleston: was somebody talking about Icon?
• 55:56
  Tad Eggleston: And going, looking for it.
• 55:58
  Tad Eggleston: And it was almost the stuff of legend when I was…
• 56:02
  Tad Eggleston: looking for it, you know? Finding it was…
• 56:06
  Tad Eggleston: You know, I was so happy when they announced.
• 56:10
  Tad Eggleston: the… the… the milestone initiative, because I'm like, oh, does this mean we're… we're actually gonna be able to find this stuff that I've heard about, but not, like…
• 56:19
  Ted: Known about? Yeah. No, it is, like, it's one of those things where I'm so glad that at least somebody at DC had the sense to do all the reprints and everything, because it is… yeah, imagine trying to collect all this stuff as issues, like, oof.
• 56:34
  Tad Eggleston: Right.
• 56:35
  Ted: Yeah.
• 56:35
  Marcus: I'm not gonna say anything about DC that'll burn a professional bridge. What I will say that might burn a professional bridge is that they…
• 56:44
  Marcus: DC is not heroes in this. They literally had to be dragged.
• 56:46
  Tad Eggleston: Oh, no.
• 56:47
  Ted: Oh, I'm not…
• 56:48
  Tad Eggleston: Hell yeah.
• 56:49
  Marcus: Oh, no, no, I'm not saying you're saying that, I'm saying that.
• 56:51
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, I get…
• 56:53
  Ted: It did take them an awfully long time to pull their thumbs out of their butts and do this. And especially because, like, you know, Static was the one thing that survived, because they had the show, and they still didn't do collections of Static. Like, you figure they would have, even when it was.
• 57:07
  Marcus: It's so… Look, I… it is fascinating, because we all know that hardware grew out of
• 57:17
  Marcus: Dwayne McDuffie's actual smashing his head against the glass ceiling in industry.
• 57:23
  Ted: Yeah. And so much of what DC…
• 57:26
  Marcus: did, when you look at his story, is, like, have it play out, even post-Static, you know what I mean? Like, Static the comic, you know, I think Milestone was…
• 57:37
  Marcus: was done, in the books by the time the TV show came out, and it was a huge… Oh, yeah. Like, when you talk to kids of a certain age, you know, and crazy enough, as huge of a Static fan as I was, I missed it because the show came out when I was in college, and…
• 57:51
  Ted: Sure.
• 57:52
  Marcus: And kids, this is back in the days when you did not have streaming. So, like, if you didn't see something when it was on TV… so my TV viewing in college was, like.
• 58:02
  Tad Eggleston: pretty, pretty low, you know what I mean? Because I just.
• 58:06
  Marcus: you would just catch stuff if you happened to be in your room when it was on. So, like, I didn't even… I don't think I realized until after I was done with college there was a show, but then you talk to, like, a lot of kids that are, like, maybe, like, 10 years…
• 58:18
  Marcus: younger than me or so, and they're all like, oh yeah, I grew up on static. And kids of, like, all different ethnicities, not just, like, Black kids, you know? Oh, yeah.
• 58:28
  Marcus: So it was like, that show was big, and yeah, DC didn't really… Warner Bros. didn't do anything with it.
• 58:35
  Ted: Well, and also, as I said that, I realized, like, it's because it really doesn't have a lot to do with the comics. Like, it's… as much as it has the same basic premise, and, you know, Rick is there, although they tweak his character a bit, and, you know, some of the other characters show up, it is very much separate from the comics.
• 58:53
  Ted: In a way that…
• 58:56
  Marcus: It is, but it's cool that they do manage to weave in as much Dakota as they do.
• 59:01
  Ted: Sure, that's.
• 59:01
  Marcus: Like, there's a good amount, yeah.
• 59:03
  Ted: And they do bring in a lot of the other cast members that… yeah.
• 59:07
  Marcus: True.
• 59:08
  Ted: Yeah, I don't know, I,
• 59:10
  Ted: We are eventually going to have to watch some of those static episodes, because…
• 59:13
  Marcus: Oh, most definitely.
• 59:15
  Ted: Yeah, I wanna… I wanna see him, because I never actually saw him at all. Like, it was never a… I was… I was even more of a outside of the… all the various age ranges for it to actually watch it, so…
• 59:27
  Marcus: Yeah, I'm looking to see, because they had… when freakin' Zaslov came in and really started ruining, HBO…
• 59:37
  Tad Eggleston: Oh, but he'll be gone.
• 59:38
  Marcus: soon.
• 59:39
  Tad Eggleston: June.
• 59:40
  Marcus: Oh, is he?
• 59:41
  Ted: Sir.
• 59:42
  Marcus: Oh, it won't. Oh, yeah, oh, that's right, because… The merger.
• 59:46
  Marcus: God. I mean…
• 59:48
  Tad Eggleston: Who they merged with is still in the air, but…
• 59:52
  Marcus: You know what? No matter what, it'll be good for us as consumers. I can tell you that much.
• 59:57
  Ted: Yeah, it always.
• 59:58
  Marcus: We were, totally. They're only doing it.
• 1:00:02
  Tad Eggleston: Totally amazing for us as consumers.
• 1:00:05
  Ted: We get to vote with our dollars, guys. It'll be…
• 1:00:07
  Tad Eggleston: Almost as good for us as consumers as it will be for creators.
• 1:00:13
  Marcus: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:00:14
  Tad Eggleston: It'd be amazing for creators.
• 1:00:17
  Ted: Just like A.
• 1:00:17
  Marcus: Man, you just…
• 1:00:19
  Ted: Read into that.
• 1:00:19
  Marcus: You reminded me of one of the many pieces of news that really bummed me out this past week. That's not even the worst, that's not even in the top 5, really, but it's… So I guess it's the lightest of…
• 1:00:32
  Marcus: It's been a weird week.
• 1:00:33
  Tad Eggleston: It's been a bad week.
• 1:00:35
  Marcus: Yeah, if you're listening to this in the future, if you guys can remember, if you guys can imagine the time when, Netflix, Paramount, HBO, and, Hulu and everything wasn't a big monstrosity, Voltron monster, you know, Kaiju.
• 1:00:52
  Tad Eggleston: Well, and, and…
• 1:00:53
  Marcus: That's what this is, that's.
• 1:00:54
  Tad Eggleston: Exciting.
• 1:00:55
  Tad Eggleston: Disney deciding to pay… to have their catalog used by AI.
• 1:01:04
  Ted: Oh, God.
• 1:01:05
  Marcus: Oh.
• 1:01:06
  Tad Eggleston: to be paid. To pay.
• 1:01:10
  Marcus: Yup.
• 1:01:10
  Ted: God. There's, yeah, there's just a whole lot of bad stuff going out right now.
• 1:01:13
  Tad Eggleston: And those aren't the… What's the news this week.
• 1:01:16
  Ted: Yeah.
• 1:01:17
  Tad Eggleston: Not at all! We won't get any more species than this week.
• 1:01:19
  Marcus: I don't even think it's the worst AI news of the week, because, like, you guys are… what the hell is this, this, new Google…
• 1:01:28
  Marcus: freaking AI that has fewer tells, that it's AI. You know what I'm talking about? Like, it's hyper-realistic.
• 1:01:35
  Marcus: Because before, like, there was the obvious tells of something was AI and many things. Like, the… yeah, Six Fingers, it couldn't do the writing, well.
• 1:01:44
  Marcus: But, like, this thing largely can find a way around it, so you have to… and then… so it's just… it's just bad. It just spells a lot of, bad actors can do a lot of bad things. Anyway…
• 1:01:56
  Marcus: That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the escapism of Milestone Comics.
• 1:02:00
  Tad Eggleston: The comics!
• 1:02:02
  Ted: What industry that hasn't been ruined by capital?
• 1:02:04
  Marcus: Yeah, nothing wrong… nothing's going wrong.
• 1:02:06
  Tad Eggleston: Only because there's no money to be had. You know?
• 1:02:10
  Marcus: Fair point, fair point. It's truly an industry where you're in it for the love, for the most part. There's a few people that are in it for other reasons, but like…
• 1:02:19
  Ted: There's some people in it for.
• 1:02:20
  Tad Eggleston: You know, I mean, there's a shekel here, and a penny there, and…
• 1:02:25
  Ted: Yeah,
• 1:02:27
  Marcus: Anyway, do we have anything else left to say about these issues? I mean, they're good, they were all right. No, I think we said it all.
• 1:02:33
  Ted: I think I enjoyed this run quite a bit. I was not kind of ex… I was kind of expecting it to just kind of spin its wheels, but then I got into it, and I'm like, yeah, this rules. I am still weirded out that they decided to stick the… wait, where did they put the static issue in this book? It's… yeah, they said it, like, after the…
• 1:02:49
  Tad Eggleston: It's like… it's like…
• 1:02:50
  Marcus: You could change…
• 1:02:50
  Tad Eggleston: 10 issues later, and it's a loan.
• 1:02:53
  Ted: Yeah.
• 1:02:54
  Ted: I didn't…
• 1:02:55
  Tad Eggleston: And I guess it's not…
• 1:02:55
  Marcus: I guess it may…
• 1:02:56
  Tad Eggleston: part of another arc, so… Yeah, that might have been kind of weird.
• 1:03:01
  Marcus: Because we're about.
• 1:03:02
  Ted: To get into trouble.
• 1:03:04
  Ted: Yeah, we're not about to get into Long Hot Summer, but we are going to start getting into, like, the Utopia Park stuff, which is a build-up to…
• 1:03:13
  Ted: essentially the end of the Milestone universe. Like, we are in the latter half of its existence, I think, at this point, officially.
• 1:03:21
  Ted: Yeah, sorry to say, but, but, like, I think it's setting up some of that stuff in these next few issues of other series, because, like, what we have next is, yeah, like, 3 issues… 3 issues of Shadow Cabinets, and 3… no.
• 1:03:36
  Ted: 4 issues of Shadow Cabinet? No.
• 1:03:39
  Ted: I can't count. Three issues of Sat Academy, 4 issues of Blood Syndicate. So I guess we'll split into two chunks, probably. But,
• 1:03:48
  Ted: Yeah, I forgot about those.
• 1:03:49
  Ted: We'll cut those shadow can art issues, I don't even remember what they are.
• 1:03:52
  Marcus: I'm looking forward to reading more Shadow Cabinet. I took a peek ahead, and there's a… there's a big character return in Shadow… in Blood Syndicate that I did… I don't think I knew happened.
• 1:04:01
  Marcus: I think I was.
• 1:04:04
  Ted: Yeah!
• 1:04:04
  Marcus: I wasn't reading. I don't know if you guys know what I'm talking about.
• 1:04:06
  Ted: I flipped forward a little bit, because I was looking at some other stuff, and I saw that under the cover, and it's like, oh, I forgot that that happened too. Shoot, okay, well, yeah, I know, I'm… I do not remember what the… what the upshot of that
• 1:04:19
  Ted: was, so I'm…
• 1:04:21
  Ted: definitely curious. God only knows how it all shakes out, but yeah. But yeah, I… I continue to enjoy the way in which all these people working together on these books means you have really tight continuity, a really real sense of shared universe, and…
• 1:04:41
  Ted: God, I don't know, it just feels real. It feels realistically intertwined in a fun way. You know, you get to see, Static occasionally mooning over Rocket, or you get to see, you know, hardware show up to save the day after Shadow… after Static and Ducks mess up. Like, it's…
• 1:04:58
  Ted: intertwined…
• 1:04:59
  Ted: in a way that doesn't have the size of the Marvel Universe, but at the same time, that means it can be really lean about how it makes its characters interact. So, no, I…
• 1:05:10
  Ted: Yeah, man. It's good. These comics are good, I don't know what to…
• 1:05:13
  Ted: I don't know what to tell you, if you've been listening all this time and you haven't gotten that vibe yet.
• 1:05:18
  Tad Eggleston: Okay, though I… I am looking at the cover, they were afraid to print.
• 1:05:24
  Ted: Yeah, that's… that's the other part we should.
• 1:05:25
  Tad Eggleston: And do we think it was the 5 condoms, or do we think it was the sex manual on the floor?
• 1:05:32
  Ted: I forgot about the.
• 1:05:33
  Marcus: Yeah, I will say that, I will say, alright, alright, alright, as much as I…
• 1:05:37
  Marcus: There absolutely was racism involved. There absolutely was double standards involved.
• 1:05:43
  Marcus: I will say that… I will say, when you look at…
• 1:05:46
  Marcus: the… this cover, I… the only thing I will, like, I will concede.
• 1:05:51
  Marcus: I think they should have printed this cover. I do think that this cover does not match the inside of the book. That being said, comics is rife with covers that don't match what happened on this side of the book. But, like…
• 1:06:04
  Ted: He's wearing.
• 1:06:05
  Marcus: This is what… yeah.
• 1:06:07
  Marcus: Yeah, this is way more salacious.
• 1:06:10
  Marcus: This is so much more salacious than what happened to… like, to the extent where this is actually, like, non-canonical, because when you look at the tone of…
• 1:06:20
  Marcus: Of the conversations he has.
• 1:06:23
  Ted: Yeah.
• 1:06:24
  Marcus: the way he internalizes those conversations and everything, I just don't think that this is how the scene played out.
• 1:06:30
  Marcus: in the room, in the book, you know what I mean? Like, so, I will give… I will give them that. But that… but that being said, that wasn't DC's beef. DC wasn't, like, you know, oh, because if you… and… and I think this is probably part of why you can't see the Milestone documentary.
• 1:06:47
  Marcus: On HBO Max anymore, but they really got into
• 1:06:51
  Marcus: like, the real conversation, and it was a larger power struggle, and it's like… it's almost like this cover was a convenient place to, like, you know, plant your feet in the ground, and like, you know what I mean? And, like, really square.
• 1:07:07
  Tad Eggleston: Well, I mean, it almost makes you wonder if on some level it was deliberately done slightly beyond…
• 1:07:15
  Marcus: to provoke…
• 1:07:15
  Tad Eggleston: It needed to be to provoke the final conflict.
• 1:07:20
  Marcus: Yeah.
• 1:07:22
  Marcus: Yeah, it's hard, because it's definitely, as I'm looking at this cover, it's definitely a cover made to sell books and make people be like, oh, like, what's up there? That being said, it's a little weird, because Daisy is, like, a child, you know, they're both children.
• 1:07:35
  Ted: It is…
• 1:07:35
  Marcus: Kind of like…
• 1:07:36
  Tad Eggleston: Right.
• 1:07:37
  Marcus: I literally was just commenting on the fact that I love the inside the book, you don't see anything.
• 1:07:44
  Ted: Yeah, beautiful.
• 1:07:45
  Marcus: kind of the whole point, is that, like, yeah, they're teenagers, we're not gonna show you any of this, and then this cover is, like.
• 1:07:49
  Ted: Oh, that's a little salacious for it being about two 15-year-olds. I'm not…
• 1:07:54
  Marcus: I'm sure I…
• 1:07:55
  Ted: I'm a little bit weirded out once I think about that. I don't… That being said, like, if you manage to… if you manage to get to see the documentary.
• 1:08:05
  Marcus: You see where… that's not what they were… that's not what they were worried about. This is DC, the home of fridging. Like, you know what I mean? You know how much stuff they did?
• 1:08:14
  Tad Eggleston: Yeah, no, no, no, I am not… I am not disagreeing with you one… one bit. I am saying… because, I mean, even…
• 1:08:25
  Tad Eggleston: Because here's the other thing. It's kind of like what I said, I was surprised that Batman Damned number 1 didn't get reprinted, because the Bat Dong…
• 1:08:38
  Tad Eggleston: Looked deliberately… deliberately shadowed to the point that it was… would be easy to make it go away.
• 1:08:46
  Tad Eggleston: Right? It looked like it would be easy to make an edit. This looks like a cover that was designed to be easily edited.
• 1:08:57
  Ted: 10.
• 1:08:58
  Marcus: Maybe…
• 1:08:59
  Marcus: I don't think they… I don't think you're right, I don't think they planned it that way, because they definitely… this… there was a long, hard…
• 1:09:04
  Tad Eggleston: No, I, I think it got… I think it got edited way more…
• 1:09:09
  Tad Eggleston: than the easy edit that was left there, but how hard is it to cover up the sex manual? How hard is it to cut down on the number of condoms? How hard is it to…
• 1:09:22
  Tad Eggleston: Put some leg warmers on her so that it's not quite as salacious.
• 1:09:28
  Ted: Yeah, fair, yeah.
• 1:09:29
  Marcus: Mmm.
• 1:09:30
  Tad Eggleston: You know what I mean? Even within, like, the context of the book, Y-you could… like…
• 1:09:39
  Tad Eggleston: If they were just upset about the salaciousness, there was a lot of room for…
• 1:09:47
  Tad Eggleston: Discussion and compromise, rather than just, oh, we're gonna cover up everything but the kiss.
• 1:09:54
  Marcus: Yeah.
• 1:09:56
  Marcus: Huh.
• 1:09:57
  Ted: Ugh.
• 1:09:59
  Ted: Well, regardless, we got some good John Paulion coming up for us, or at least he does the covers, I think, I don't know about everything else, but… But yeah, I continue to enjoy the heck out of these books. I think Static does a really excellent job of balancing the wackiness and the serious and everything else.
• 1:10:19
  Ted: I'm looking forward to getting back to Blood Syndicate, because I… er… well, Blood Syndicate and Shadow Cabinet, because I like both those books a lot. I mean, I like all the books, obviously, but…
• 1:10:26
  Ted: Yeah,
• 1:10:28
  Ted: Yeah, I don't know, I am… I am pumped to see what… what Milestone has for us next.
• 1:10:33
  Marcus: Yeah, me too.
• 1:10:35
  Tad Eggleston: What was the name of that milestone documentary?
• 1:10:40
  Marcus: It was… it's not Milestone Forever, I don't know,
• 1:10:44
  Marcus: It was… it was… hold on a second.
• 1:10:47
  Tad Eggleston: Was it Milestone Generations?
• 1:10:50
  Marcus: Yes, I believe so, yes.
• 1:10:53
  Marcus: Okay Yeah, losers.
• 1:10:55
  Tad Eggleston: Of course, no, it's not anywhere right now.
• 1:10:58
  Ted: Yeah, of course not.
• 1:10:59
  Marcus: No, they… that… come on! I'm so… Warner Bros.
• 1:11:03
  Tad Eggleston: No, but static is still available for purchase via Amazon, so I was just looking to see if it had been shunted somewhere, rather than…
• 1:11:15
  Marcus: But Static had been on… Static had been on HBO, because HBO.
• 1:11:19
  Tad Eggleston: I understand.
• 1:11:19
  Marcus: has all the DC stuff.
• 1:11:21
  Tad Eggleston: No, no, no, I understand that, but what I'm saying is Milestone Generations isn't even available to purchase somewhere else. It's…
• 1:11:28
  Marcus: And what you don't understand.
• 1:11:29
  Tad Eggleston: Not a…
• 1:11:29
  Marcus: Plymouth Rock landed on us.
• 1:11:32
  Tad Eggleston: I do understand that.
• 1:11:35
  Marcus: Alright, Dodge.
• 1:11:36
  Tad Eggleston: I was just crossing my fingers that it had been, like, shunted off somewhere, so we could, like, plug it.
• 1:11:43
  Marcus: No, they just… they just… They're just, being racist.
• 1:11:49
  Ted: Yep.
• 1:11:51
  Marcus: They just conveniently dropped it while we can… but, boy, don't worry.
• 1:11:55
  Marcus: I think you could still see 90 Day Fiance on HBO Max, so, you know, they really thought about the culturally relevant stuff, you know what I mean?
• 1:12:04
  Ted: Stretch it out to me.
• 1:12:05
  Marcus: You got to see people… Yeah, I don't, do they? Because they had all the discovery junk.
• 1:12:11
  Tad Eggleston: Do they have Golden Bachelor, or is that on some other channel?
• 1:12:15
  Marcus: Paramount.
• 1:12:17
  Marcus: I don't even want to know this stuff. I don't…
• 1:12:19
  Tad Eggleston: I don't actually no-no this stuff, but I did see an ad for the Vanderpump rules the other day that I was amazed when I found out it was the Vanderpump rules.
• 1:12:29
  Tad Eggleston: All I previously knew about the Vanderpump Rules was that it was reality TV, and what I saw before realizing that it was the Vanderpump Rules did not look like any version of reality I have ever seen.
• 1:12:43
  Marcus: I've only heard that name… I've only heard that name and been like, wow, that's a dumb name. But I have no… if you asked me to tell the… if you asked me at gunpoint to explain that show to you, I couldn't do it.
• 1:12:54
  Tad Eggleston: I didn't either, but just based on the ad I saw made real housewife shows look realistic.
• 1:13:04
  Ted: In case you're wondering, listeners, yes, it is very late, and yes, we are very tired.
• 1:13:07
  Marcus: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, we should wrap up.
• 1:13:09
  Tad Eggleston: We are not drinking, though.
• 1:13:10
  Ted: No, we're not, but like…
• 1:13:12
  Tad Eggleston: We're just all wasted. We're stone cold, so…
• 1:13:15
  Marcus: Yeah, no, we're sober, but exhausted. We're wasted on life and exhausted.
• 1:13:18
  Ted: Yeah, it's… yeah, we're all on the last week before winter break kicks in. Yeah, so, in any case, I think I need to go to bed and get some.
• 1:13:27
  Tad Eggleston: For the brothers, Anderson, no relationship.
• 1:13:29
  Marcus: Singly.
• 1:13:30
  Tad Eggleston: This has been the Milestone Book Club.
• 1:13:34
  Ted: The next two issues, sorry, real quick, is I believe Shadow Cabinet is.
• 1:13:37
  Tad Eggleston: Shadow Cabinet…
• 1:13:39
  Ted: Issues, what, 10? No, 11, 12, 13. 11, 12, 13, Shadow Cabinet.
• 1:13:45
  Tad Eggleston: For those of you reading along at home, for the Milestone Book Club on 22 Panels, this has been the Brothers Anderson No Relation, and we will see you after the next page.