On this week’s comic book review podcast, we’ve got:

Beta Ray Bill #1

Marvel

Written and art by Daniel Warren Johnson

Shadecraft #1

Image Comics

Written by Joe Henderson

Art by Lee Garbett

The Other History of the DC Universe #3

DC Comics

Written by John Ridley

Art by Giuseppe Camuncoli

Silk #1

Marvel

Written by Maurene Goo

Art by Takeshi Miyazawa

Crossover #5

Image Comics

Written by Donny Cates

Art by Geoff Shaw

Strange Adventures #9

DC Comics

Written by Tom King

Art by Mitch Gerards and Evan Shaner

Avengers: Curse of the Man-Thing #1

Marvel

Written by Steve Orlando

Art by Francesco Mobili

The Department of Truth #7

Image Comics

Written by James Tynion IV

Art by Tyler Boss

The Flash #768

DC Comics

Written by Jeremy Adams

Art by Brandon Peterson, Marco Santucci, David Lafuente

Ghost Rider: King in Black #1

Marvel

Written by Ed Brisson

Art by Juan Frigeri

Two Moons #2

Image Comics

Written by John Arcudi

Art by Valerio Giangiordano

Future State: Superman vs Imperious Lex #3

DC Comics

Written by Mark Russell

Art by Steve Pugh

Decorum #7

Image Comics

Written by Jonathan Hickman

Art by Mike Huddleston

Batman/Catwoman #4

DC Comics

Written by Tom King

Art by Clay Mann

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Full Episode Transcript:

Alex:                 What is up y’all? Welcome to The Stack. I’m Alex.

Pete:                I’m Pete.

Alex:                 And on The Stack we talk about a bunch of books that have come out this week. Kicking it off with one I know that Pete is very excited about. Beta Ray Bill number one from Marvel comics, written and art by Daniel Warren Johnson. Now, D.W.J., As I like to call him, he is the creator of Murder Falcon, which is one of your favorite books ever.

Pete:                Yeah.

Alex:                 I don’t know how you feel about Beta Ray Bill though. So how’d you feel about this book?

Pete:                Well, yeah. I’m not the hugest Beta Ray Bill fan, but this was a lot of fun. This was really awesome. Art style [google 00:00:54] gave Beta Ray Bill a grittiness that was nice. Yeah, I very much enjoyed this. This was sad. This was not just badass Beta Ray Bill.

Alex:                 You okay? Did you die there for a second?

Pete:                Yeah. There’s some real pain going on. And yeah. Also, Fin Fang Foom, one of my huge favorites in this as well. So, this was a real treat, this book. And the back matter is magical.

Alex:                 This very briefly and tangentially ties into the King in Black storyline, which has symbiotes attacking the Marvel universe here. They attack Asgard, Beta Ray Bill fights them off, kind of. And sparks up, or re-sparks up a little bit of a romance with Lady Sif. But I agree with you, as he did in Murder Falcon, he brings big action with big monsters, but also a deep well of emotion here. It’s very sad for Beta Ray Bill. Art is great, the writing is great, the emotion is great. I’m all in on this book. I am a sucker for Beta Ray Bill, and I think D.W.J. does right by him. So, I’m very excited to see this going forward. And like you said, there’s a great interview that he does with Walter Simonson in the back of the book, which is super cool as well.

Pete:                Yeah. It’s nice to see him geek out about this and hear about New York in the seventies and the different kinds of people working on stuff. It was a pretty awesome interview that they put in the back and yeah. I mean, the art, the storytelling is really unbelievable, but Beta Ray Bill… Kind of a cursed character and they’re really tugging on that and playing with that. And he’s not cool with Thor. It’s not a fun relationship right now. So I’m glad they’re getting to air that out a little bit. I’m very interested to see how that all unfolds.

Alex:                 I agree. Next up, Shadecraft number one from Image com