Episode Eighty-One - A Pox on Both Your Houses

Charles Xavier in House of X #1. (C) 2019 Marvel Comics

Charles Xavier in House of X #1. (C) 2019 Marvel Comics

It’s an old school Beat reunion as we welcome the other half of the House to Astonish podcast, Paul O’Brien (@ifdestroyed), to discuss the relaunch/reboot of the X-Men with the recently concluded House of X and Powers of X. As a long-time chronicler of the mutant corner on the Marvel Universe with his X-Axis column, who better to examine what Jonathan Hickman has done and might do with the new era of X-books. We chat about the events of HOX and POX, the portrayal of various characters in the book and the new line of books, some of which will written by Hickman.

Leaving the X-books aside, there’s also talk about noteworthy books that Paul and HTA co-host (and our first pod guest) Al Kennedy (@housetoastonish) have discussed on their show, including Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen by (former pod guest) Matt Fraction and Steve Lieber, Strange Skies Over East Berlin, Steeple and more.

We end the show with some quick wrestling chat, with the first shots of the new Wednesday Night Wars having just been fired a few weeks ago. There’s talk about the inaugural AEW shows, what worked and what didn’t, the booking so far, the new NWA Power show on Youtube, the greatness of Eddie Kingston and a few other things.

Episode Fifty-Two - In Like Quinn

From Casanova Avarita by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba.(c) 2017 Milkfed Criminial Masterminds, Inc.

From Casanova Avarita by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba.

(c) 2017 Milkfed Criminial Masterminds, Inc.

Writer Matt Fraction joins the podcast to talk baseball and comics. We discuss the Cubs World Series win, growing up a Cubs fan, the future of Cubs fandom, becoming a soccer fan in Portland, and the 1985 Bears. Turning to comics, we discuss Casanova, his long-running Image book. We talk about the 1960s spy influences, Howard Chaykin and American Flagg, metatextual references in the series, working on the series with Gabriel Ba (@gabirel_ba) and Fabio Moon (@fabiomoon) and more.  Then we talk about ODY-C, his gender-flipping space opera retelling of the Odyssey. We discuss its creation, working with artist Christian Ward (@cjwardart) and more.  We end with discussing potential upcoming TV work for Matt and Kelly Sue DeConnick (@kellysue), pitfalls of comics adaptations on the big/small screen, Iron Fist, Hawkeye, the gone-but-not-forgotten Fantastic Four twitter and being off social media. You can get the Mllkfed Criminal Masterminds newletter at milkfed.us.  Special thanks to Kit Cox for all her help in arranging the interview.