This week on ComicsAlliance's War Rocket Ajax Podcast, we're finally back from San Diego! Chris and Matt are joined by CA's own Andy Khouri and David Brothers for a roundtable discussion on the highs and lows of the biggest comic book event of the year, and you can listen to the whole show right here!War Rocket Ajax v.2, #8: Patting Critical Mass with Andy Khouri and David Brothers

(WARNING: Contains NSFW language)


As we recover from post-con exhaustion, this episode finds Chris and Matt thank all the listeners who were nice enough to say hi in San Diego, break down their thoughts on Captain America: The First Avenger, and share a few thoughts on the Grant Morrison documentary, Talking With Gods.

When Andy and David join us, talk quickly turns to Comic-Con which Andy refers to as Thunderdome for Geeks. This year, there was a big difference Andy discussed: the fact that a lot of the news to come out was actually about comics.

The biggest story remains the DC Reboot, in the sense of the volume of words being written about it. There's still so much we don't know, so every little piece of information that creeps out is either bad news, or shocking news or good news. Sometimes it can be all three.

But about movie stuff, I think the reason there wasn't so much movie stuff this year is that most of those movies came out before Comic-Con. Marvel just jumped right into Avengers hype, there was no Captain America stuff going on this year, no Green Lantern stuff going on, no Dark Knight Rises stuff, because it's all so far out. I think perhaps there's been a lesson learned from Tron, which I think was at San Diego three years in a row.

Of course, as Chris says, that doesn't mean the movie hype machine wasn't there in force:

There was a truck driving around, and they had these last year. They're just trucks circling the downtown area and the convention center that have billboards on them. And they're not, like, carrying anything other than those, they're just trucks with billboards, which seems like the most wasteful thing in the world. Especially when you consider that they're billboards for Captain America, which has a huge display on the convention floor, a plane flying overhead, and half of PetCo Field has a big Captain America banner. What's that accomplishing? Who's the guy at San Diego that that reminded him that Captain America existed?

When the conversation turns to the best and worst things about San Diego, David regales us with a bizarre tale of getting freaked out:

The worst was probably, it was like one or two in the morning, we were walking to the Hilton to get drinks after leaving three different parties, and there's this couple making out on that bridge. But there was something about the angle of where the guy was... it was really, really unsettling. When you're a little tipsy, maybe your eyes are a little blurry, and you look and there's a writhing mass of humanity with all their clothes on... That was the weirdest part. Like, if it had been a sex thing, it wouldn't have been a big deal. But he was making out with her shoulder or something? And you can't say anything to that. You can't even make a joke about it as you walk past, just because it's so awkward.


And one final thought:

Is there anything worse at Comic-Con than the Free Hugs people?

Show Notes:

David Brothers writes a lot about comics both here at CA and at 4thLetter.

Laura Hudson reacts to the DC panel that we discuss here, and after the show was recorded, Dan DiDio and Jim Lee issued an official response.

For more ComicsAlliance San Diego memories, check out our photos of the cosplay, the creators and the art.

Chris's Rec: In-N-Out Burger.


Matt's Rec: Captain America: The First Avenger.


Comics Reviewed: Chris and Matt continue their show love to Scott Snyder and Jock's Detective Comics #880, Matt stands up and salutes Captain America and Bucky #620, and Chris gives full marks to the Best of Archie paperback.

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