Episode Summary

On this episode of The Corner Box, hosts Ultimate John Barber and Absolute David Hedgecock get into the Ultimate and Absolute comic lines at DC and Marvel, the differences between Marvel and DC characters, how the new launches compare to the originals, and what does and doesn’t work in each new line, and John says something interesting.

Timestamp Segments

• [00:46] The Big Two’s new lines.
• [02:48] John’s inside knowledge on the Ultimate line.
• [04:03] DC characters vs Marvel characters.
• [09:05] Mark Bagley retires.
• [13:09] John says something interesting.
• [13:19] John joins the Ultimates line.
• [15:05] Why the Ultimate line was successful.
• [18:37] The conceits of the Ultimate line.
• [25:00] DC’s iconic miniseries.
• [26:01] Marvel’s miniseries.
• [28:42] The coherency of the Marvel and DC universes.
• [30:35] Marvel’s new Ultimates line.
• [33:53] Old vs New Ultimate Universe.
• [35:22] Spider-Man is like Shakespeare.

Notable Quotes

• “Accidents happened.”
• “There’s an iconic version of Batman. There’s not an iconic version of Spider-Man in the same way.”
• “This is like Shakespeare.”

Relevant Links

David's Fun Stuff!
Did Someone Say Fun Time? Let's GO!

John is at PugW!
Pug Worldwide

For transcripts and show notes!
www.thecornerbox.club

Books Mentioned

• Absolute DC, All-Star Comics, Ultimate Comics.
• Absolute Batman (2024- ), by Scott Snyder & Nick Dragotta.
• Ultimate Black Panther (2024- ), by Bryan Hill & Stefano Caselli.
• Ultimate Spider-Man (2024- ), by Jonathan Hickman & Marco Checchetto.
• Ultimate X-Men (2024- ), by Peach Momoko.

---------------------

• All-Star Superman, by Grant Morrison & Frank Quietly.
• Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dark Knight Returns, Gotham by Gaslight, No Man’s Land, The Cult, The Killing Joke, Year One.
• Astonishing X-Men.
• Daredevil, by Frank Miller.

Episode Summary

On this episode of The Corner Box, hosts John Barber and David Hedgecock talk about the genius of Dav Pilkey, life lessons from Captain Underpants, the true main character in Dog Man, the limitless possibilities of comics, and the promising future of comic book readers, and John gets a puppy, and David goes down an Avengers rabbit hole.

Timestamp Segments

• [00:35] Everything that has happened since the last episode.
• [01:52] David’s Avengers rabbit hole.
• [06:09] Getting into Dog Man.
• [09:02] Dav Pilkey’s origin story.
• [13:12] Introducing Captain Underpants.
• [16:06] The wild success of Captain Underpants.
• [17:11] Captain Underpants Fun Facts.
• [18:05] Captain Underpants life lessons.
• [20:12] John’s theories of what comics are.
• [21:37] The brilliance of Pilkey.
• [25:23] The Adventures of Ook and Gluk.
• [28:58] The origin of Dog Man.
• [32:47] What makes kids’ jokes work?
• [34:43] The Golden Age of Dog Man.
• [41:15] The Tale of Two Kitties.
• [49:29] Cat Kid Comic Club.
• [51:50] Influencing and encouraging youth.
• [54:02] Dog Man’s impossible success.
• [57:15] The future of comic book readers.

Notable Quotes

• “She’s a squishy little puppy.”
• “If Pilkey did nothing else, that Captain Underpants is a true masterwork.”
• “It’s okay to try things and fail.”
• “The possibilities of comics are limitless.”
• “If we could just get North American comics out of the superhero space for half a second and do anything else…”

Relevant Links

David's Fun Stuff!
Did Someone Say Fun Time? Let's GO!

John is at PugW!
Pug Worldwide

Dave Pilkey is Awesome!
pilkey.com

For scary transcripts and spooky show notes!
www.thecornerbox.club

Books Mentioned

• Captain Underpants, Cat Kid Club, Dog Man, Dragon, The Dumb Bunnies, The Paperboy, Super Diaper Baby, World War Won, by Dav Pilkey.
• Action Comics #1.
• Axe Cop, by Malachai and Ethan Nicolle.
• Crisis on Infinite Earths, by Marv Wolfman and George Perez.
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney.
• Doctor Fate.
• G.I. Joe, by Larry Hama.
• JetCat Clubhouse, Tutenstein, by Jay Stephens.
• Justice League of America #87.
• Justice League,

You got your JLA in my Avengers! John & David regroup to talk about David’s adventures into the Avengers, the true difficulty of comic book collecting, Marvel’s legacy numbering solution, and how you too could own Mark Gruenwald’s ashes. Also, joy-of-joys! The podcast gets a new listener, John renumbers all future episodes, and David makes a shocking confession.

Timestamp Segments

• [01:11] A new listener.
• [02:16] John gets a new dog.
• [03:15] David dives into Avengers.
• [05:13] 2 fun facts about John.
• [07:26] Squadron Sinister.
• [12:50] Squadron Supreme.
• [15:05] A classic Marvel villain.
• [16:45] The Squadron Supreme maxiseries.
• [18:29] The influence of Squadron Supreme on future comics.
• [23:23] Mark Gruenwald’s ashes.
• [24:02] Who is the new listener?
• [24:30] David’s Avengers collection.
• [25:29] Legacy numbering.
• [34:38] David’s shocking confession.

Notable Quotes

• “I’m a Whizzer!”
• “It becomes more and more obvious … how influential the Squadron Supreme is, without ever, themselves, being truly recognized, in any meaningful way, by fandom.”
• “We’re back down to 2 listeners.”

Relevant Links

David's Fun Stuff!
Did Someone Say Fun Time? Let's GO!

John is at PugW!
Pug Worldwide

For scary transcripts and spooky show notes!
www.thecornerbox.club

Books Mentioned

• Squadron Supreme.
• Avengers '63-'96 (#69, #85, #86).
• Avengers ’18-‘23.
• Avengers: No Road Home.
• Batman: Dark Knight Returns, by Frank Miller.
• Captain Britain, Marvelman, Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, Watchmen, by Alan Moore.
• Daredevil, by Roger McKenzie & Frank Miller.
• Detective Comics (#27).
• G.O.D.S., by Jonathan Hickman.
• Hot Stuff, Richie Rich, by Jerry Beck.
• New Avengers, by Brian Michael Bendis.
• Quasar, by Mark Gruenwald.
• Savage Dragon, by Erik Larsen.