It's time once again for the monthly roundtable episode of ComicsAlliance's War Rocket Ajax podcast, and this week, CA Editor-In-Chief Laura Hudson and contributor Bethany Fong join us to discuss the biggest story of the month: DC's New 52! And you can listen to the entire show, right here!War Rocket Ajax v.2, #16: I'm Not a Monster with Laura Hudson and Bethany Fong

(WARNING: Contains NSFW language)


NOTE: The old iTunes feed is gone. A new feed is being set up right now, and should be approved within the next few days. Until then, please stream the episodes using the player above, or visit WarRocketAjax.com to download as an mp3! Thanks for your patience while we get it sorted out, and listen to the show for more information.

This week, catch up with Chris as he suffers through the hellish nightmare world of computer troubles and hear about Matt's trip to see if Mos Def & Talib Kweli are indeed Black Star! Then, the monthly roundtable returns as Laura and Bethany join us to discuss September in the world of comics.

The topic on the table is DC's New 52, and and Laura gives her evaluation of the whole experiment so far:



Obviously, the highest profile thing I've had to say about this was some of my criticisms about the female characters, but I think that's really just part of a larger issue that became even more apparent to me when I had to read literally all of the books... and also giving them to my friends who weren't as familiar with them.

Some of the things that started popping out at me in terms of the way women were presented... I think comes back to what Chris was saying: I don't know who they're going for. The problem with the stuff like Starfire in Red Hood and Voodoo... it's what you go in there expecting. They told me it was going to be a reboot; it was going to be accessible, but you go into some books and you get Animal Man and you go into some books and you get Voodoo.

It's just a weird thing to have. If they wanted to do some sort of MAX thing, honestly, if they wanted to have a softcore line, it's not like publishers like Fantagraphics haven't done stuff like that... It's just really weird. It makes me think that they either haven't thought about who their audience is, or they have, and it's not me, and it's not most... people [outside comics], I guess.


Bethany adds her thoughts as well:

What I have read, I mean, it's just pretty average overall. It's a little under average. I haven't been ecstatic to read my comics as soon as I get home, or even to go on Wednesday and pick them up. I don't know, there's some that I kind of liked. Wonder Woman, I really liked, and Aquaman this week I liked. There's nothing that I would say I come home and I'm really excited to read.

But I do think that what they did accomplish was get people talking about it, but I'm not sure if it's positive press. What I'm wondering though is how New York Comic-Con will come out in terms of panel questions, because I know that one of their big concerns was that whole Batgirl situation, with that Batgirl cosplayer. I can only imagine that a fair amount of those concerns will rise up within the coming month.


Plus, Bethany talks cosplay, Laura identifies DC's stance on haters, and you find out just what Chris Sims would get as a full-size back tattoo.

Show Notes:

Laura and Bethany are both on Twitter!

Bethany's Best Cosplay Ever series, right here at CA.

Chris's review of Flash #1.

MegaForce is "the lost Hal Needham classic."

The good guys always win. Even in the '80s.

Chris's Rec: Utterly shameless self-promotion Dracula the Unconquered:


Matt's Rec: The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon:


Comics Reviewed:


Blackhawks #1: "This comic is Megaforce. It is the movie Megaforce, loosely adapted into a comic, with all that entails... It's so bad, but I kind of love it for being that bad."

Aquaman #1: "To believe that people in the DC New Universe would think the way they think about Aquaman, you would have to believe one of three things: One, that Aquaman used to be totally and completely lame, and somehow became bulletproof and awesome and is proving everyone wrong now. Two, that this universe has old Aquaman comics or a Super Friends TV show with which to build a sense of Aquaman. Or, there's been some huge propaganda machine against Aquaman, because everybody thinks he's super-lame."

Superman #1: "There's a ton of different narrators, and none of them are particularly good or informative. One of them is an article that Clark Kent writes." "It doesn't even come close to resembling newspaper writing." "It barely comes close to resembling comics writing!"

Plus Amazing Spider-Man, All Star Western, Justice League Dark, Savage Hawkman, Voodoo and more!

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