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The Major Spoilers Podcast covers news, reviews, and of course, spoilers, and goes into details about the topics discussed.So, if you haven't read, listened, or watched the items we talk about, you might want to come back later.
I'm Matthew.I'm Rodrigo.And I'm Steven, and you're listening to The Major Spoilers Podcast, the podcast for pop culture and comic fans.
In this issue, a new show team, an old bat girl, future robots, great old ones in the season of giving thanks.We got the book, they call it Steeple.The MSP crew will enlighten you people.Burma shave.Pop culture is like a box of chocolates.
It's a cold perfunctory gift that makes both the giver and the receiver feel just a little bit absurd.But be that as it may, the intrepid MSP crew is here to help you navigate the waters, even though we're on the air.
Welcome to issue 1101.Thank you so much for downloading and checking us out this week.Hey, listen, I want to give you something free right off the top right here at the start of the show.It's our Discord server.Get over there and join it for free.
There's a lot of really cool people over there and some really interesting conversations that are popping up in all the different channels that we have on our Discord server.Wonderful, wonderful people.Go over there.Meet some cool people today.
You're looking for community no place better than the Major Spoilers Discord server.All right, we are going to do some reviews and comic book reviews.Actually, we had a really good VIP chat this month for our patrons.
I'll talk about that a little bit later, but. We're going right into reviews because that makes the show last a little longer, makes it stay on the shelf a little bit more, kind of like a trade paperback that we'll talk about in a little bit.
But first up, last week from DC Comics, it is Batgirl number one.This is a Cassandra Cain story in which her mother, Lady Shiva, shows up and says, Cassandra, you and I must team up.
to take down these bad guys because the bad guys want to hurt you and I'm your mother and I love you.And of course, Cassandra Cain being the master of the body language knows when her mother is telling the truth and when her mother is lying.
Hint, Shiva always lies.But they are attacked by some masked ninja group that keep coming after them and after them throughout the whole issue.And they keep having to fight these bad guys off all the while.
Lady Shiva coming and saying to Cassandra, you must join me.You must stick with your real family.Forget about your bat family or whatever.And Cassandra is just like, no, I'm back, girl.I I fight for what I believe in.
And that's basically the entire issue is like three major fight sequences and then bickering back and forth between mother and daughter. And it's interesting, but this kind of feels like... the opening sequence before your title sequence appears.
This is almost like when Mark Waid did the Black Widow series a few years ago when she's trying to escape off the S.H.I.E.L.D.
helicarrier and she rides that motorcycle off the helicarrier with a big explosion and then you've got Black Widow and then that's the end of the issue.That's kind of how this felt.Now this is a miniseries.
I want to say it's like four issues, maybe it's six issues, but I'm pretty sure it's a four issue miniseries.And so I don't know what the end goal is.
If you certainly are just reading the solicitation for issue one, it's a Cassandra Cain and her mother must team up to fight bad guys.I mean, you certainly get that in this story.
I did feel like there was some repetition in the argument between the mother and the daughter.And again, that's almost like real life for those of you who don't have parents or have kids.Everybody probably has a parent in some way, shape or form.
But if you have kids, you know what it's like to tell your kid 13 different times, hey, you need to do this or hey, you need to do this or this is the better way to do this or hey, do this.
And they don't listen to you until a bunch of ninjas break into your home and try to kill you.And then you two have to team up and work together.It's what what happens when you have kids, ladies and gentlemen, and you're just trying to tell you that.
And of course, that's reflected in the pages of this book.So from that aspect, even though it's repetitious.There is some truth in that in that style of writing.
The fight scenes are pretty straightforward fight scenes, there's nothing that really jumps out at me as far as, oh this is a cool panel or oh look at how the fist cracked that guy in the face and we got the neck snapping back and the tooth flying out at you.
There's some of that but nothing that is really spectacular. in there.Is the art solid?Yes, the art is solid.
I'm not sure I like Takeshi Miyazawa's take on Cassandra Cain's cowl, where he kind of rounds off the ears to where they look more like little kitten ears as opposed to bat ears.But, you know, it's fine.You've got all the things in the right place.
the bottom half of the cowl covered up and all that stuff.Um, so it's, it's solid.It's well done art.It's a solid story.It feels like I needed five or six more pages to feel complete in the story. But it's still an enjoyable read.
If you are a fan of Batgirl, if you're a fan of Lady Shiva, you'll definitely want to pick this up.If not, I'm not sure that this is going to be a huge turning point in the Cassandra Cain saga.
I'm not sure that this is going to be the big shake-up miniseries that is going to rock Gotham to its core again.But it's an enjoyable read for Batgirl fans.I'm giving it three slices of meatloaf out of five.
It's Batgirl number one out last week from DC Comics. Out this week from Skybound Entertainment is a brand new G.I.Joe series, which everybody should be aware that there are now two G.I.Joe series going on, one by Skybound with Larry Hama.
So that series continues.That's from the Marvel series and all the other companies that have had the property over the years.That's the continuation of that series. This G.I.Joe series by Joshua Williamson and Jordy Belair is like the ultimate G.I.
Joe universe.So you're getting like twice the pleasure, twice the fun, G.I.Joe number one from Skybound Entertainment.So Matthew, you had a, you took a crack at this.
Crackity.Um, and I always have a sweet spot, you know, a soft spot in my head. for G.I.Joe because G.I.Joe is pretty much the reason that I started reading comics regularly.I had read other books before, but G.I.
Joe number one in 82 is really the book that got me into the concept of I'm going to follow this book month over month.So seeing the new energon universe G.I.Joe. gave me some mixed feelings.We've seen relaunches before.
Devil's Due Productions did a G.I.Joe relaunch.There was, I believe, another one that had come somewhere in between from Dark Horse that lasted about 12 seconds. But I've been seeing the buildup to G.I.
Joe, number one, and probably the closest thing that you can really compare it to is kind of the way the Avengers movie built out of other things in the Marvel universe.We've seen a limited series for Duke.We've seen Cobra Commander.
We've seen Scarlet in a solo book.We've seen many of these characters interacting.But this issue gives us the first actual mission of the G.I.Joe team.And the G.I.
Joe team, for those of you who are paying attention, you may remember back in 82, there were 13 founding G.I.Joes. Duke was not one of them, by the way, but there were 13 founding G.I.Joe's.The good news is two of those founders are still here.
So if you're like me and you're a guy who has to remember, oh, man, back in 82, this happened.Rock and roll is here.Stalker is here.Covergirl is here.Scarlet is not.Clutch, who I guess is a third founder, is here.Duke is here.
And of course, the team's sneaky, sneaky stabber, the Baroness.That's kind of the big reveal.And it's not even a surprise because she's literally on the cover of the issue.
But what this issue really shows us is that moment right before the first big mission.So Hawk, the leader of the G.I.Joe team, has told Duke it's time to assemble his forces.It's time to actually take the fight to
whatever terrorist organization is taking over the city of Springfield.And we do get a tiny bit of Cobra Commander.It's horrifying.I have not been reading everything with Cobra Commander, but I know that many series is fantastic.Good.
One of the the big plot points here is that he has collected energon. And they now have energon to power their weapons.And Destro has created the zap guns that we all remember from the G.I.Joe cartoon.
With an important twist, because as the issue goes on, we see, you know, the Joes in the midst of their first battle back and forth, it's almost a record scratch.I bet you're wondering how we got here moment.
Thankfully, Williamson is a very skilled writer, very skilled plotter. So while we do see the battles start and then we see a bunch of stuff go on, and then we come back to the point at the end, we do also have a very measured approach to it.
So it doesn't feel, it doesn't feel like the cliche that I just described essentially.Uh, there is however, an important moment where they're talking about a major incident.One of the formative moments that has brought GI Joe together.
massive robots that disguise themselves as vehicles.And we see a blurry shot of what is clearly Optimus Prime.So throughout the issue, there are a lot of familiar pieces in some unexpected places.
And as we get to the end of the issue, the Joes are in fact attacked.They're being ambushed by Cobra troops.And we get to the last couple of pages,
And remember what I said about those frap guns that we all remember from the GI Joe cartoon, pew, pew, pew, and then somebody parachutes down.That's no longer the case.Um, that is a really shocking ending.
I don't know if it is what it seems to be, but if it is, oh my, uh, almost a holy crap moment.
Well, I will say that, uh, up until this morning, uh, Skybound had not released the final two pages of this issue. So it is supposed to be a pretty shocking.
It is a very shocking reveal, and most importantly, a very effective reveal, a reveal that lands this issue probably almost another full star. Because I love the characterizations.I love the changes.I love seeing, you know, Clutch in action.
Clutch being the quintessential Jersey nerd who loves Bruce Springsteen, but he's also in the army somehow.There's a new player or two that I still don't know who they are, but they did the right thing in that they brought in Stalker. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
to me is like the heart of the team.You'll notice I have not said anything about Snake Eyes.I haven't said anything about Scarlet.Clearly, this is still in motion.
And I feel like we are going to see at the end of a six or more likely a 12 issue arc, we're going to see some changes that bring in additional characters, maybe some familiar people that you're wondering, hey, what happened to X, Y and Z?
I'm sure that's going to come around, but I will tell you this.I was very impressed with G.I.Joe number one, four slices of meatloaf.It is not a perfect comic book, but it is a very, very good comic book.It is visually stunning.
I am a little bit, you know, 50,000 years of comics reading.I am a little bit still annoyed when the cover art is beautiful and the interiors look entirely different.Thankfully, the interiors still look beautiful.
They just look very, very different, entirely different from the exteriors.So, you know, that is a thing.
And most importantly, if you're an old school nerd and you're sitting there going, well, I truly visited all of the things that I want to know about the mythos.It's not Larry Hama, but it's good G.I.Joe.
I would really encourage people to read the four miniseries that Skybound put out.Cobra Commander I found very, very fascinating just from how does crazy evil ascend to the top of the chain.Destro is cool because it looks at how does a
basically an arms dealer get wrapped up in all of this I never read the Duke series and I think I only read one issue of Scarlet and it may have been the third issue of that but I was pleased with that so if people are wanting to see what the big buildup is and all the brouhaha is for G.I.
Joe number one I've really enjoyed the and I think I don't know if it's this week to coincide with GI Joe number one, but I think all of those series that I mentioned are in trade paperback, uh, starting this week.If, if not, they will be very soon.
So there you go.All right, Rodrigo, what's going on in the future?
The future out November 27.I'm reading SNAP number one. S-Y-N-A-P number one.Chris Moses writing Andrea Giannini drawing it.It's a story about. a family.
And in this family, there's a dad and the dad is making the kids go through grueling training to become drivers.
Oh, okay.That doesn't sound so nice.
Yeah.Now what is a driver you may ask in this fictional world?Uh, well, you might have to read this and, and not spoil yourself, or you could just look at the solicitation, which probably, uh, spoils the whole of the first three issues at least.
Right.Um, so multiple characters are referred to as drivers and the drivers are given a number. Um, and it eventually becomes clear that there is an age, uh, like window to, to be a driver that is actually doing stuff that is actually driving.And.
previous drivers age out, but there's at least one other driver in the company.So the current active driver is the son of the main guy in the company.
The previous driver, I think the immediately previous driver is his older sister who is now doing different things for the company.It's just basically doing one.
Very important retrieval mission, ongoing retrieval mission for the company that is tied to the drivers.Um, there's also a UFO that shows up a couple of times and they're like, Hey, what's up with that UFO?
And they're like, we don't, um, the first time the UFO shows up, I was a little confused because the, the way that they show you. that the UFO moves like a UFO, that is to say, unlike a normal aircraft.
They tell you that it's very fast and that it just like zooms in and out and like stops dead without any problems, right?It doesn't accelerate or decelerate.It just flies in and then flies back out in whatever direction.
So the way that they show you this happening is they show you a wide shot either a wide shot, then a wide shot with the UFO and then another wide shot without the UFO or just a wide shot with the UFO.And then I wide shot without the UFO.Right.
So that you want to, what I figured out is like, okay, the UFO, they're showing me moment to moment.And the UFO is like immediately gone.It's only there for like a little bit and it's too fast to show it flying in or whatever.
Um, so if you're, if you like me read this and the first time the UFO shows up, you're like, I don't understand what's happening.That's what's happening.That doesn't feel like a big spoiler because, um, we don't know what the UFO is yet.
Um, it's interesting.Uh, it's. Let's say, uh, I feel that is very much playing homage to like some very classic anime, like Evangelion.
That's what I was going to ask.I was going to say Rodrigo, please, from where you described this, this sounds exactly like that series.How is it different then?
Uh, we, okay.So.Uh, if you didn't want it, the first issue spoiled and too bad, cause I get in the solicitation totally spoiled.So here it goes.Um,
What the sister is doing, what the older sister is doing is retrieving pieces of a giant robot, which the younger brother is training to pilot.And so, yes, this is like an overbearing dad forcing his son to be a pilot.
You know, he says that he wants to, but presumably so that Shinji at some point it's. Like, to me, I look at this and I'm like, this is an homage, right?This is somebody like, um, this is kind of finding forest during it.
You know, if you ever saw that, like he gives this kid a writing exercise, which is start writing this exact same thing.And then when you feel like moving away from it, move away from it.
Um, and I feel like giving themselves this premise of overbearing dad, training mech pilot son, and then going hopefully somewhere else with it is where we're going, but I don't know yet.We haven't moved far enough forward right now.
It looks very, very similar, right?Other than it looks, obviously it looks very different.Um, the technology looks different. There are a lot of dark-skinned characters in it, which is nice.Not very many dark-skinned characters in Evangelion.
Even if you assume that obviously everybody there is Japanese, like there are dark-skinned Japanese people, right?Anyway.So it's, it's okay.Three and a half slices of meatloaf.The art is very good.
But definitely curious to see it pull away and be its own thing.Because. Um, yeah, because there's so many things about it that are so similar.Um, it's like, like in Pacific Rim, right?
Like Pacific Rim clearly also has things about it that are very Evangelion-y.Yeah. But has enough stuff, like for example, you having having to have two people pilot a Mac and whatever, but like a lot of stuff is still very similar, right?The like.
Monsters that show up for some reason, right?That's very Evangelion.The fact that there's like some sort of neural interface is very Evangelion, but there's enough stuff thrown in.
And for Synapse, we still haven't seen enough new stuff thrown in, in my opinion, but we'll see.I, I have faith that this is an adaptation.I have faith that this is a, an homage rather than, you know, just somebody.
Redoing something that's already popular, so we'll see.
Yeah, no, I mean it makes sense that you would that that would be kind of your basis for humans interacting with giant robot kind of concept.You know the high concept humans interact with robots to fight whatever.Well, what kind of humans?
Well, as you said in Pacific Rim is the humans have to have their minds synced up together in order to do work together there.Make the robot run in Evangelion it is. the person has to have their mind fluid enough to sync with the robot.
And so there's that symbiotic relationship.
And it's not just that, but there has to be a genetic sort of acceptance to the robot as well.
Like pilots are extremely special because first off, they have to have some sort of like cellular likeness, which as at least the original series of Evangelion goes on, that aspect gets creepier in, uh, in regards to at least two of the pilots, right?
And then but then if you think about it, it's like, well, who would then be able to best meld with a with a giant Mac?Well, someone who's younger because their minds, their minds are still developing and flexing.
So their their synapse, maybe which is where the name of the comes from.Maybe you have to be a younger person to do that.So it's not that hard. to go from a premise of humans piloting mechs to something that feels very similar to Evangelion.
And not be able to move away from that.
Yeah, I wrote a book about a girl who falls down a hole chasing a rabbit.Yeah. And it's never happened before.Yeah, it's you can do that.You can start in the same place as some other work and then go somewhere else with it.It's it's illegal.Yeah.
Hey, speaking of robots and humans connecting with one another, we have a Patreon exclusive pre show. that is kind of the prelude or the lead in to this episode.And if you want to listen to it, you can.It's very easy to access.
All you have to do is head over to patreon.com slash major spoilers and you can listen to the show, providing that you are a silver member level or higher.
Or, you know, if you really want to just buy this one episode, you can also buy the episode outright.But trust me, if you become a silver level member, you get four episodes per month that are exclusive to the Patreon feed.
You get your own RSS feed that you can subscribe to with your podcast player of choice.And when there's a new episode that appears, boom, it's right there in your podcast player waiting for you to listen.And because of the way I release these,
The pre-show comes out just before the main show, so depending on how you have your podcast feeds structured, unless another show comes out within the 10 minutes between releases, it's like one long, continuous two-hour show.
That's what you get when you become a patron at patreon.com slash major spoilers. What are you waiting for?Get over there.Join it today.In fact, there's some new feature.I need to look at it.
And dear listeners, if you are already a patron, look and see if you have the ability to gift a subscription to someone else or if that's something that I have to turn on on my end because they're making a big deal right now that we can gift subscriptions.
Maybe I want to create three free gift subscriptions to people for like two months or so where you can taste all the wonderfulness that we have over at the Major Spoilers Patreon page.
And then maybe you'll become a real member or you just want to be nice because you know your best friend at this holiday time, you know, they they gave up their pocket watch to get a podcast feed and the other person gave away their their iPod so that they could get a, you know, a pocket watch chain.
Uh, and so now nobody's going to have a happy holiday unless you gift it for them.So, uh, if you would go over there and check and see if you can gift it to someone else.Uh, if not, I will turn it on, on my end.
And maybe by the holidays, you can gift a Patreon a month or two to someone in your life.Find out more patreon.com slash major spoilers.
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Alright, peoples, we are going to be talking about steeples, because Megatron Stew demanded that we talk about steeple this week on the show.I went into this really not expecting what I got.
And I don't know why that is, Rodrigo.
I know why it wasn't what I was expecting.Um, I actually reviewed the first issue on the show, or if I didn't, I read the first issue and then got sick and wasn't able to do it on the show.Um, which is something that happens.
Uh, so when I, like, if you read just the first issue, you're like, ah, I know what this is going to be about.It's going to be about the main character of this issue doing this thing.And it's really, really not.It's not in any way about that guy.
It's about. Um, this other character who comes in to help him and does not help him in the way that you would expect if this was like an action adventure, uh, you know, mentor mentee situation.It's, it's really not that at all.
Um, I don't, I wouldn't say that it's misleading because it provides valuable background for what's happening afterwards, but it's, it's like a very risky way to start the, the book because it kind of starts in a different genre of what it actually is.
So we're introduced switch.Yeah.
We're introduced to a, um, community in where are these guys at North, Northumberland.
and uh they're in Cornwall they're in Cornwall Cornwall and uh we are introduced to a priest who fights demons at night and he's got all these things but then everything switches to a young woman who happens to be a um
Initiate or I don't know what it is and in the priesthood that she is in but she is kind of like a Acolyte for the church and she's been sent up there to help the priest along the way She meets up with a wild-haired woman who just so happens to be a member of the Church of Satan and these two hit it off kind of and
I think I was with you, Rodrigo, in that I was led to believe that this was going to be a monster hunting, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, almost like that one we reviewed, gosh, was it this year?Maybe it was last year, about the...
the Christian group that was teaming up with all the other religions to fight back the devil.You guys remember that episode?
I can't remember the name of the book.
Yeah.And so it started to feel very much like that as we got into it.And then it went into a whole different direction where we have both the young Acolyte and the Church of Satan Acolyte both questioning their purpose in the world.
And I found that fascinating on a couple of different levels.Matthew, did you also find that, that kind of switch an interesting way to go or no?
I thought it was great, but I'm also the person who, I love it when something gets deconstructed or if you kind of faint a certain direction and then go somewhere else.Like I'm a big fan of.It's called the weave.Yeah, shut up.
I, uh, I love a season of particular super sentai season where you spend 45 episodes fighting the big bad, you defeat the big bad, but then you find out that he's actually working for his even more evil dad, which could feel like, why did I just spend 45 episodes?
But it actually works.It feels like, oh. you know, you've built something, you've leveled up to something.
And I'm a huge fan of, I think of it as like a Zoomer trend, honestly, of stories that are as much about people living their lives and having conversations and, you know, questioning, oh, we're going to do these things.
What are we going to do with our lives?I don't know.You know, my kid always used to say that she wanted more episodes of things where Two cool characters are just hanging out and being best friends.And I feel like there's a little bit of that here.
And of course, they sold me with, wow, Satan's a very beefy boy. But there's also that question of when I get to the end of this collection.First off, is there more?Oh yeah, there's like four volumes, I think, of this series.
That was the thing that I wasn't sure of because we get to the end and it doesn't feel like the end.And of course it has the Flash Gordon swerve question mark.But all in all, I liked what it became.
more than what those early feints signaled that it might have been, or more than what I thought it was going to be, which was kind of a Buffy type thing too.
I think it looks like there's only three volumes of Steeple.I find it, I guess I'm going to say that these are Protestants, I don't know if they're
Yeah, okay, so they're Anglicans and the Church of Satan.And everybody's living together in this very small town and there's a huge witch festival that comes into town.They're fighting off to keep the city from being dragged into the sea.
And it's interesting because while the Anglican Church doesn't want to really to do anything with the Church of Satan, they kind of are very pleasant to one another in a sarcastic way. That is until the evangelicals show up.
And then it's like, oh, yes, we must work together to take down the evangelicals.Yeah.In the form of in the form of Renewalist, which I found very funny as a play on words.These evangelicals have come to town to sell the town on wind energy.
And, uh, through wind energy that will make the world great, but, uh, they have a secret mission to use the wind energy to bring about the end of the world.And so that they can ascend to heaven as part of the rapture.
And, uh, the group of Satan and the Anglicans have to fight together to, to put an end to that, which again, just something about that just tickles me.I don't know what it is, but it does.
And I, I really like. the point at which this volume ends, where Billy and Maggie have almost kind of switched roles.Yeah, they totally switched roles.Yeah, they're doing, you know, another half lives thing.And I'm just like, Rodrigo wrote this.
But it's it is really effective because normally in a book like this, I would have expected like Billy.First of all, Billy wears a collar.Is that a thing?Yeah. Okay.
She has a title and I'm like, I'm trying to say it's not somewhere between acolyte and initiate or something.
Yeah.That's like, cause that part I was like, I read through it and I'm like, is that really a thing?I know nothing about the church of England except cake or death, but.
As, you know, as we go through this, my expectation would have been that Billy would be like the, the limp, weak, will smack it around girl.And then Maggie, the, the Satanist would be like the kick-ass girl who gets all the fun lines.
And it doesn't shake down like that, which, you know, is another example of kind of expecting one thing.And then having the story give us something new.
I feel like whether or not you appreciate this book is really going to come down to whether or not you appreciate a story that does that, that just, you know, says, Hey, you know what?
We're going over here now for a while, and this is what we're going to do.And you're going to either read or not read.And I, I really kind of respect that.
I didn't think we would have two religious-themed books on the show in a year, but that's what happens when you just let randos decide what we're gonna read on the show.
Megatron Stew is not a rando.He's the leader of the Decepti-Stews.
Uh-huh.You gotta look out for Stew Scream.I'm trying to think.I have Youth Group.Youth Group was the other one that we did. Um, but no, I can't, I don't have a listing of who recommended that one.
Uh, but yeah, I did not think the one with the youth group was the, uh, the, the Southern California, uh, crunchy granola Christians teaming up with the, the, the Jewish, uh, temple and the church of Satan and everybody to fight the, fight the demons to come to earth almost a little bit like this book.
It was like an Archie Spire comic with a Buffy, the vampire plot.Yeah, that was a good one.
Yeah. Um, I did not expect the, the turn where they both flip sides, but I think that that might be the reason to continue to read.I'm kind of interested to see where these characters go in their development.
I'm not necessarily really concerned about the religious beliefs of anybody in this book.Uh, I, I, I don't care.I mean, uh, I think people are supposed to say, Ooh, church of Satan bad.Um, but if you read what the church of Satan is all about, it's.
Right.It's not like we're going to make sure that everybody goes to heck or anything like that.So I don't really care about the agenda of the of the vying religions here.
What I'm interested in, as Matthew pointed out earlier, is I'm interested in the relationship between these two women where you can tell that they are both conflicted in their faith and they're willing to explore and try different things to figure out where they belong in the world.
And I find that part of the story fascinating. throw in some goopy swamp monsters and an eye tentacle thing and you kind of have me kind of more excited about the book.
I kind of by the end of this wanted more tentacle things and swampy muck monsters and less let's bring about the rapture and kumbaya together around a circle.
The eye tentacle only has that one button to activate its tentacles.
Yes, look at it on the other side too.Rodrigo, what are your thoughts on this? Flipperoo of the characters.Flipperdoo.
It's, it's interesting.They specifically introduced some sort of like magic aspect to push it a little bit harder.Um, which I think was good because it's a pretty sharp, like both characters do a really sharp one 80.
Um, and you know, it's like, it's earned it's in there that, you know, they feel a certain way, but we don't know why.I mean, we actually do know why.Um,
They, the satanic priestess wants to, you know, like straighten out her life, but we don't really know why, uh, the Anglican girl feel like she keeps saying that she's not a good person.Yeah.And we're never shown why.So when she switches.
And right after they switch, the book is pretty much over.We get, we get an epilogue where they're kind of hanging out and talking about it, but we don't get a lot.Um, so I, I guess I just want to know what the.
Uh, what the conditions were, why she thinks that she's not a good person.Um, and also why, if she thinks she's not a good person, she's like, well, I'm not a good person.So I'm going to become a Satanist.
And like, that's not the thing about Satanists. Like they keep saying that they're evil, but they're really not.
And like, they, that they want to corrupt people, but corruption to them, me, it seems to mean like getting people to be like open about sex and confront authority and, you know, not be, to not be sheeple basically.
And in fact, there's a pretty comical thing where the leader of the Satanist church wants something once like an ordinance passed and
He tries to to get the populace to get behind him and his one of his fellow Satanists is like, you know By not doing what you a figure of authority tell him to do they are listening to you They are questioning authority and not following what you want him to do.
Yeah Yeah, so yeah, it's interesting.
Yeah, and then the art the art style to me is very reminiscent of Again, I'm not, this is not a derogatory term, but something that you see very commonly, and that's a webcomic style.
I don't know if that is like, you know, take a Scott Kurtz and a Penny Arcade and a bunch of other famous web cartoonists and take their styles and smash them together.And this feels very much like that.Bright colors, you know, thick-ish lines.
That's what this reads like to me. Uh, I don't, and there's nothing wrong with it.I like it, but that is what it reminds me of when I, when I read it.I don't know what you guys thought about the art or not.
I actually agree with that description, but I also, and I know that, you know, that sometimes there's a stigma attached to that.Yeah.
That's why I said, I did when I said that I didn't want it to be in a derogatory way.
Yeah.And I think there are people who will definitely. come in and dig this art immediately because of that.And I think there are people who are going to find it difficult.
It reminds me of, oh gosh, Paul Grist, who does Kane and Jack Staff very much in a Paul Grist vein.And I love his work.So I'm 100% on board.And I really do love the depiction of the two main characters.
I completely disagree with the thing that Stephen repeatedly says where every character has to have their own distinct silhouette, but here it so totally works.
It really does work and everything positive that you know about that statement, if you look at, you know, Maggie the Satanist and Billy the Anglican, even, you know, standing behind a tree, you'll be able to tell who is who.
And I feel like that and the general design of every character being unique enough to follow, that's a big selling point.So yeah, I love the art in this thing.
So if there's one thing to take away from this episode, it's that Stephen's right again.There you go.Shut up.
Rodrigo, thoughts on the art, because this seems to be more of an art style that seems to be into, and again, not in a derogatory way, but into your age group, came of age with this kind of art.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Uh, who were we, who are you guys talking about before?Oh, actually, uh, Takeshi Miyazawa.It's like, it's not the same, but there's something there.Um, and it is that like kind of simplified lines, um, like.
layering of flat colors rather than like complex digital coloring.Yeah, it definitely does have that sense.I mean, I liked it.I like if you look at the character design. You always know who every character is, right?You don't.
You have to like the characters are two women.And I think we can probably think of a handful of artists where the main difference between those two women would be the color of their hair.Right.But not here.
They have like, as Matthew pointed out, very drastically different silhouettes.And it really informs who they are and as they.
potentially switch that also changes their silhouettes, only changes the way they dress and kind of gives you more information about the character.So you get a lot out of this, out of this art.
You know, there's like monsters, but then like when the monsters are like, maybe, you know.Humanoid sentient monsters, you can see the monsters emotions.So who's the artist here?
Sarah Stern and Jim Campbell.
Yeah, so they're doing a lot of work to.To convey what's going on in this comic, there's like a lot of information is conveyed through the art.And, you know, the.
The text is mostly then left open to make the talk about how the characters feel bad about what they did, what they did.
and or uh make fun of the leader of the satanists yeah yeah uh but i also so in regards to the monsters it's like the monsters are
innocence ill-defined both in their purpose in the book except we're told that they're supposed to be dragging the town back into the sea that's still ill-defined how do you how do you drag it back into the sea and also ill-defined in why are they so drastically different from one another if they're supposed to be part of the same group and leader and all of those things and then even their design is super simplistic
And I'm wondering if that isn't because kind of like the discussion that we had in the pre-show where, oh, are there horrible monsters in this town?Yes, but that's not the point of this book.So let's move on.
There's monster fighting, but again, that's not the point of the book.
move on and so if we spent more time arting up the monsters that may detract from the point of the book or the story of these two characters and you know changing yeah it just seems like that's the priority i wouldn't be surprised if they do have a solid backstory as to why the monsters do this or whatever but that's like that's not what we're here for right like eventually we might hear it just because you know just in the process of this first
volume, we found out what certain characters are there for and what their life was like.And, you know, a bunch of like characters are introduced as we go to.So it wouldn't surprise me if eventually we find out what all is going on.But.
We're going to, we're going to find out like during a break of the, like, what are these two women doing with their lives?Um, before we get back to it.
Yeah.Yeah.Yeah.So I think for me, I found this interesting.It wasn't what I was expecting.Uh, I, I kind of liked the swerve that we had because from the moment that you know, the main characters enters the town, we know that something is off.
And so I like kind of where the book ended, even though I wasn't expecting it.And I think, you know, there's only two more volumes.I think I'd probably want to check out volumes two and three.I don't think that this is a book for everybody.
I think that there may be some people that see Church of Satan and will instantly hiss and run away from from the book.
But I don't think that this is a book that is trying to push any kind of dogma, or at least for me, it's not pushing any kind of dogma.
And so I think it's using the fact that you have these religions that coexist with one another in this spooky town that makes it fascinating and how two people can go in thinking one thing and come out the end a different way.So I really enjoyed it.
I would definitely give this a check it out recommendation.I think it's worth picking up.I don't think that this for me is not a rush out in a buying frenzy must have aspect to your to your collection.But yeah, it was it was a fun read.
I agree.I think that this is definitely a check it out.But more importantly, it's a check it out with the expectation that
If a second and third volume come out, like, you know, something like Sandman, or even why the last man you talk about that first volume, maybe not the best of the series, but you get to it's two and you get into three and it builds and it builds and it builds on that.
I feel like this could be a really strong foundation. for something absolutely amazing.You know, it's good enough that I would say definitely check it out on its own merits.
But once I've seen, you know, two and three and any possible ongoing collections, this might end up being, you know, a volume one situation where you're like, you start here, and it's great, but it gets so much better than this.
Yeah, I, I enjoyed it.I wasn't too thrown off by the sort of tonal switch, uh, after the first issue.Um, I would be okay with reading more.
I think that, um, like I have some thoughts about its take on religion, some stuff that I like, some stuff that I don't like. Um, and I think I'd like to see more.
I'd like to see more to see if like, I'm actually the, if the buzz that I'm getting is actually what it is and not that, you know, it's like in the process of like telling a story, things get like bent and molded to fit the story.
Yeah.Yeah.Okay.Interesting.Uh, yeah, maybe we will have to look at that.Cause I, I'm interested in what your thoughts are on the religion side of this. So there you go.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, I think we have reached the end of our time with you this week.Thank you so much for listening.
Hey, listen, if you found some value in this discussion, very much like I always do each week when we're talking, we would love for you to come and join us over on our Patreon page where you can find even more stuff, including the pre-show, which it's a little blue this week, ladies and gentlemen.
It's the Major Spoilers Podcast pre-show.You can find it when you become a silver-level member at patreon.com slash major spoilers.Next week on the show, oh man, we're continuing into the Blue Territory, I believe, with a look at Sleeping Beauties.
Why?I don't know.Somebody recommended this, and they like comics, and we do too.And we will talk with you soon.
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