PTG Episode 35 is brought to you by SomaCow’s Cure for the Run. As a part of the SomaCow Media Network, Prime Time Geek will be taking part in this event with supreme geekly gusto! If you’re local to Orlando and you wish to be a part of the event, come down to Wall Street at 4PM to register for the run on Saturday, August 22nd. A form for recording sponsors/donations can be found in the message thread linked above, or you can donate directly, probably the best option for the out of town listeners. All donations will benefit Rock for Hunger. And if you’re worried about actually “running”, not to worry–you run, jog, trot, skip, walk, or crawl the .05k distance (that’s about 164 ft!)

In this episode, I fume for a bit about DC Comics‘ replacing current Batman scribe Judd Winick and artist Mark Bagley with Battle For the Cowl writer Tony Daniel after just four issues, the latest in a seemingly-interminable string of blunders in regards to restarting mainstay titles, while also professing complete and utter mea culpa over “Wednesday Comics“, which is turning out to be lots of fun and worth the $3.99 each week. Funny thing, though–not sure what to do with 16 pages of newspaper-quality paper once I’m done reading it. Bagging it won’t protect it from turning yellow, but throwing it away or recycling it like regular newspaper just seems … wrong. Current favorite strips running in Wednesday Comics: Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner’s “Supergirl”, Brian Azzarello’s “Batman”, and Kurt Busiek’s “Green Lantern.” I want to like the “Superman” strip from John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo, but so far I’m digging Arcudi’s characterization of Clark, and Bermejo’s art and colors, while pitch perfect for stories like Lex Luthor: Man of Steel and Joker, is a bit too subdued for a Superman story. Watch for more reviews of “Wednesday Comics” in the weeks to come–I have a feeling it’s going to end up in PTG’s Top 3 more often than not.

Oh, and special guest co-hosts Loubowski (Lou Ornstein) and Glakk (Howard Herbst) help me break down Domino’s new line of “American Legends” pizzas in the “Eat More Geek” segment. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say we imagine how tasty they might be if someone ELSE besides Domino’s made them. It’s a fun segment, definitely–we enjoyed recording it, so I hope you enjoy listening.

Prime Time Geek Episode 26 is brought to you by Tate’s Comics in Lauderhill, Florida. Well, not exactly brought to you by Tate’s, since they’re not a sponsor, but they are REALLY cool. We here at PTG wholeheartedly recommend you check out their website, and if you’re in South Florida and love comics, toys, anime, gaming, or just about anything pop-culture related and you haven’t been up to Tate’s, shame on you. Get in your car, Google the directions, and go. Right now. Put the podcast on your iPod and take us with you, ’cause we’d love a return trip over there.

[NOTE: The correct address of Tate's Comics is 4566 N. University Dr. Lauderhill, FL 33351--during the podcast I erroneously located the store at 4555 N. University. I apologize for any confusion.]

Now, if you live in and around where Tate’s is located down there in the Lauderhill/Sunrise/Plantation area of Broward County, Florida, the name “Past, Present, and Future” might also be familiar to you, and might seem a strange choice of title for an episode of PTG during which much time is spent going ga-ga over Tate’s. But aside from being a store name held at one time by a store quite close to Tate’s, Crossroad Comics and Games, “past, present, and future” is very much a theme running throughout this entire hour of PTG. In the literal sense, it relates to both of the comics we spotlight in this episode: Batman #687, which ushers in a new era for the Caped Crusader as Dick Grayson takes on the mantle of the Bat; and Buck Rogers #1, which shows the beginning of an exciting new envisioning of one of sci-fi’s most venerable time-traveling heroes. In their own ways, Batman and Buck Rogers are characters whose appeal defies the passage of time, and no consideration of their new adventures can escape some form of comparison or contemplation of what has come before.

But Episode 26 is also very much about memories and change. After all, a trip to South Florida for me is a trip down “Memory Lane”, an opportunity to drive along the streets that my friends and I back in the day cruised upon as we quested for gaming books, for new anime, for Battletech miniatures, for rare toys, and just about anything else that we might have fixed our sights on back in the day. Trips into that area require that I reconcile those memories of past experiences with present circumstances, such as the fact that the store my friends and I referred to as “The Shrine” (the aforementioned Crossroad Comics) due to its sheer size and its vast selection of geekly distractions has since changed ownership twice and is now most certainly the second option for geek shopping in the area. “Going home” means recalling the past, reconciling it with changes in the present, and contemplating the future–it’s simply unavoidable, especially if you have someone with you who is seeing it all with fresh eyes. More often than not, those places that are so special in our memories as childhood haunts and playgrounds lose some of their lustre once they are stripped of the veil of nostalgia and seen under the present’s harsher light. Time is often unkind … often but not always.

Yes, the store in North Miami Beach where I bought my comics all through high school, the store I knew as “Super Heroes Unlimited,” is now known as “Villains” and is a fundamentally different store than it was 20 years ago, before the advent of Collectible Card Games. And yes, “The Shrine” may have been eclipsed in greatness by the awesomeness that is Tate’s Comics. But the very landscape of Geekdom in South Florida is changed beyond belief, simply because it is visible and vibrant, whereas in my day one could argue it was non-existent. This is very good thing in my mind, and though I might look back fondly on the way things were when I was younger, I certainly can’t argue that its a very good time to be a geek in South Florida, and I can’t imagine it changing for anything but the better in the future.

Amazing how things change.

Hour 1 of Prime Time Geek Episode 21 is brought to you by the opening scene of Weird Science. Why Weird Science, you ask? Well, admittedly, it doesn’t work nearly as well for Hour 1 as it does for Hour 2, which features an ‘Eat More Geek’ segment and is led off by the infamous ‘greasy pork sandwich’ line. For Hour 1, well, okay, I admit it: I couldn’t think of a better clip to use, so in it went.

First and foremost, allow me to apologize to those who came to the live show and didn’t get to see a whole lot due to technical difficulties. I certainly appreciate everyone’s patience for those who stuck around in the chat in the hopes that we’d get back on the air, which we did sporadically throughout the evening. There were some folks who stopped by who were baffled and highly amused by the fact that I kept on going with what I was talking about despite not being able to be seen or heard, as though I was unaware of what was happening. To those folks I say, “Well, if I had stopped, then you wouldn’t have this podcast to listen to, now would you?” Rule number one of performance: no matter what happens, keep going.

Hour 1 features the usual segments: DC Comics Spotlight focused on Secret Six #9 (pictured above) and Green Lantern Corps. #36; Summer Movie Review focused on Angels and Demons, and the Smallville Smackdown featuring thoughts on the Eighth Season finale, “Doomsday”. But what might get the MOST attention in the Hour were the digs I took at some of other shows currently on the SomaCow Media Network, so I feel the need to preface your listening to the episode with a few small caveats:

1) Though PTG remains “the new kid on the block” as far as programs on the SomaCow Media Network, we’ve been around long enough to know that stirring the pot a bit sometimes is good for generating a little bit of dramatic interest. This is by no means done out of disrespect for the great entertainment both JPP and SomaCow put out on a weekly basis–it’s all in good fun, and I hope it is taken as such; and

2) I fully expect reprisal in the form of some sort of “proportional response.” You don’t swat at the wasp’s nest without expecting to get stung, and by no means is PTG safe from ridicule–in fact, sometimes it seems to me there’s more to make fun of on PTG than anything else.

So Geoff, Mickey, J, Gary, Nova, CR, Tits, or whoever chooses first to step into the batter’s box and take a good cut, do me one favor: Tell EVERYONE on Twitter or Facebook or whatever that you’re doing it, and tell others to download this hour, follow suit, and THEN go to justpushplay.org or somacow.com and comment that you hath avenged the honor of your beloved show by slapping back at the upstarts over at PTG, or better yet, go to their live shows (Monday night 8-10PM EST for JPP, Friday night from 7-10PM for SomaCow) and TELL them you did it.

They’ll love for it, and believe it or not, so will I.

Hour 2 of PTG Episode 10 kicks off with the funnier of the two clips from Chasing Amy set in the midst of a comic convention, but honestly, in my opinion its only funnier due to Jason Lee’s unique delivery of the f-bomb. Yeah, juvenile, I know–the f-bomb still cracks me up sometimes.

Well, though I swear no one is more surprised by it than I am, I was actually able to keep my promise to you, my listeners, that if Dan Didio, Senior VP-Executive Editor of DC Comics, truly was at MegaCon this year I’d have a few questions for him and I’d corner if I had to in order to get answers. I got him in a corner all right, but as it turned out, he picked out the corner of the convention center, not me. The head honcho of DC’s publishing end was gracious, humorous, and a pleasure to talk to on a range of subjects, including but limited to more DC visits to MegaCon, the work of Geoff Johns, Final Crisis, Green Arrow/Black Canary writer Andrew Kreisberg going on to becoming a writer and producer on FOX’s Fringe, done-in-one stories in comics, and electronic delivery of print products in the future. If you’re a DC reader I hope you enjoy listening to the interview as much as I did giving it. And to my listeners who aren’t comic book readers, you shouldn’t skip over this segment, because I asked Dan to recommend a comic book from DC for fans of sci-fi and fantasy, fans of the genre who aren’t comic book readers right now, to get them hooked, and he in fact gave me TWO recommendations that I wholeheartedly agree with.

In the “b” block of Hour 2, Sports Buzz Ryan calls in to share his thoughts about Street Fighter IV, the latest entry in Capcom’s legendary fighting series and one that seems worthy of all the pre-release hype and anticipation. All you Ken and Ryu fans, you Chun-Li lovers and Bison fanatics, if you don’t have this game yet, GET it. It’s everything you ever loved about Street Fighter II, given the next-gen console treatment with all the trimmings.

No BSG After-Action report in the “c” block, but instead a quick review of Marvel’s New Avengers #50 and some final thoughts on this year’s MegaCon. Hope you enjoy!

The DC Universe Panel at MegaCon 2009

Prime Time Geek’s coverage of MegaCon 2009 continues with this recording of the DC Universe Panel, hosted by Senior VP and Executive Editor Dan Didio and featuring panelists Tony Bedard (R.E.B.E.L.S), Dan Jurgens (Booster Gold), Jimmy Palmiotti (Power Girl, Jonah Hex), George Pérez (Legion of 3 Worlds, Brave and the Bold), Ethan Van Sciver (Green Lantern: Rebirth, The Flash: Rebirth), and Billy Tucci (Sgt. Rock). Listed below are some highlights of the panel and the time index during the audio file when they occur. Enjoy!

3:00 – Dan Didio reads the official Orange County, Florida proclamation, signed by Orange County Mayor Richard Crotty, declaring Saturday, March 28th as George Pérez Day.

6:00 – Didio discusses DC’s plan to follow up on the momentum of Final Crisis, with Battle for the Cowl, Superman: World of New Krypton, Flash: Rebirth, and “Rise of the Olympian” in Wonder Woman.

7:30 – Tony Bedard talks R.E.B.E.L.S. and why Brainiac 2 (Vril Dox) is such a fun character to work with.

8:50 – Dan Jurgens talks about what’s to come in the pages of Booster Gold

10:00 – Jimmy Palmiotti talks about what’s in store for Power Girl in her new solo title and also his work on Jonah Hex.

12:54 – George Pérez discusses Legion of 3 Worlds and tries to be vague about his next “epic” project.

15:10 – Ethan Van Sciver talks about his work with Geoff Johns on The Flash: Rebirth and what the newly-resurrected Barry Allen encounters in the first issue, as well as teasing a momentous meeting in issue #3.

16:20 – Billy Tucci touches on his work on Sgt. Rock and also gets to tell a great story about a particular gift he gave to Didio one year recently.

20:40 – Floor opens for questions

21:00 – Didio fields a question about “done-in-one” issues and about the fun of characters like Jonah Hex, Sgt. Rock, and the soon-to-return Warlord, who work and play outside current continuity.

23:08 – Question about the possibility of “letters pages” returning and also an “explanation book” to help readers out with the end of Final Crisis.

26:00 – J. Michael Straczynski still writing an arc in Brave and the Bold?

29:00 – Will Bruce Wayne’s current status be addressed in “Blackest Night”?

30:18 – MY question to Didio, regarding the decision to divulge the identity of certain Black Lanterns LONG before “Blackest Night” begins through DC Direct solicitations for Blackest Night action figures (if you’ve been listening to PTG, you’ll recall that particular spoiler got under my skin REAL bad. Apparently, I was the only one bothered by it in that room.)

32:30 – Didio addresses the relaunch of the Batman family of titles in June, along with listing the new titles joining that family.

36:51 – Didio poses this question to the audience: If a new Flash regular series were to begin, what would the number of the first issue be (assuming it resumes numbering from an earlier Flash series). The answer they get from someone in the front row left even me stunned at the level of memory power displayed.

38:52 – Question to Palmiotti about Power Girl and where she fits in now in the Superman family of characters, in particular her relationship to Supergirl.

41:48 – Didio fields a question about the current Batman/Superman title and when will it start to reflect current continuity (e.g. Bruce Wayne gone). Answer: “It won’t.”)

43:00 – Recap pages possibly in DC Comics?

44:18 – Upcoming appearance by the Suicide Squad? Didio: watch for Rick Flagg and Amanda Waller in “Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape”.

45:00 – Question to Van Sciver: “Will you be drawing any more Green Lantern?” Answer: “I don’t see why not.”

48:00 – Question to the entire panel: “What is you all reading right now, which books?”

54:00 – What worked and what didn’t work in Final Crisis?

I began Hour 2 with a clip from Star Trek IV – The Voyage Home, thinking I would have a chance to talk about that film’s blu-ray release (along with the other “Original Crew” films and Season One of the Original Series) on May 12th, but alas, the time got away from me and I didn’t get to it. This clip loses a little something when you can’t SEE what’s happening, but Bones’ line about “the bureaucratic mentality” and Kirk’s “Let’s see what she’s got,” are well worth it. And even though we only got to see it for about 5 seconds, that was always my favorite Enterprise bridge–the gleaming white with blue chairs and glossy black control surfaces. One of my biggest gripes about Trek V (and I have MANY) was the Enterprise bridge redesign for that film. Bleagh.

Hour 2 features some praise for Marvel’s resident evil genius, Brian Michael Bendis, as he weaves a deliciously wicked web for the ‘real’ heroes of the Marvel U to find themselves out of, complicated mightily by Norman Osborn’s team of ‘Avengers’, currently starring in their own Avengers book, Dark Avengers. Bendis must simply be having a blast writing this, taking all the ‘wrongness’ of villains pretending to be good guys that he worked so well in Thunderbolts and kicking it up a notch with villains pretending to be our favorite good guys, good guys like Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hawkeye, and Ms. Marvel, and dressing up once-and-soon-to-be-nutcase-again Norman Osborn in Iron Man armor painted like the American flag. So, SO wrong, and yet still SO entertaining.

Due to confusion over the different time slot for Episode 9, JC did not make his planned appearance, so the second block focused on more upcoming DC fodder, with particular emphasis on Battle For the Cowl. My one fear about this book is the length of time they’re going to drag things out with Dick Grayson resisting taking on the mantle of the Bat, the mantle everyone ELSE whose opinion matters KNOWS is one only he is deserving of. Others involved in the storyline, most notably Jason Todd, will certainly disagree with that conclusion, and will no doubt step up to fill Batman’s cape and cowl before Dick can get over his reservations, or at least that’s how it would go in a very conventional, predictable, boring kind of way. Please, Tony Daniel: surprise us.

The hour wraps some talking up of MegaCon this upcoming weekend and the BSG after-action report on “Deadlock”, last Friday night’s rather lackluster entry into Season 4.5. Easily the weakest of this half-season’s episodes, it serves the purpose of moving pieces into place for the final run of four episodes, as well as showing us something surprising. Before, while Ellen Tigh (Kate Vernon) was alive and in the fleet, before her death on New Caprica, it always seemed like there was NOTHING redeeming about her character, and she just served to bring out the worst in Saul (Michael Hogan). Now we see the truth: Saul and Ellen bring out the worst in EACH OTHER–it wasn’t all Ellen after all. On the Basestar in “No Exit”, Ellen is thoughtful, intelligent, maternal, sympathetic. Get her onboard Galactica and with Saul and she’s the bitchy, spiteful, manipulative harpy we were happy to see poisoned at the start of Season 3.

Episode 9 of Prime Time Geek kicks off with a clip from Bryan Singer’s first X-Men [Blu-ray] movie – the clip seemed appropos considering I was expecting to have a guest from the Wolfpack Elite costuming group to call into the show during this hour to promote the Wolfpack Elite MegaCon Afterparty. That call didn’t happen, but the clip is still cool, so it stayed in the final edit.

The highlight of the hour is, of course, my interview with independent filmmaker Katharine Leis. Katharine’s short comedy film Foobie Jesus (click HERE to see it on YouTube) has been a hit at film festivals over the past year, and she has two submissions to this year’s MegaCon Indie Film Expo, Averageman (starring our friends Night of the Night Wolf) and The Foot which are sure to entertain this year’s attendees. We talked about Foobie Jesus, her submissions to MegaCon and working with the Night of the Night Wolf gang, and a bit about the business of making movies locally. A reminder: the MegaCon Indie Film Expo begins at 6:30PM at the Orange County Convention Center on Friday, Saturday 27th. See www.megaconvention.com for more details.

In comics I talked at length about what DC Comics has coming up in terms of major events, as it will be VERY busy spring and summer for Dan Didio and his boys, particularly Geoff Johns. In particular, The Flash: Rebirth and its major players dominated the comics segment, but a little Battle for the Cowl popped in there as well.

Finally, brought the hour to a close (a mite early, it seems), with a little walk down Training Montage Lane–John Cafferty’s “Hearts on Fire” is perhaps best known as the background music for the training montage in Rocky IV (the one where he fights Drago), but if you really want some absurdity, check out how the music was used in this YouTube video: Turkish Star Wars! (never get tired of this!)

Actually, the first 20 minutes aren’t “missing” – we didn’t get on the air until 8:20 due to technical hang-ups, but AT LAST, the FIRST episode of PRIME TIME GEEK aired last Saturday night, and NOW you can hear it all (well, not quite ALL–I deleted those long pauses during the breaks where I was trying to play promos) right here. In this episode I talk DC’s promotional teaser image for “Batman: Battle for the Cowl”, as well as spotlighting DC’s Batman #683 and Wonder Woman #27 and Marvel’s Ultimatum #2, The New Avengers #48, and Secret Invasion: Requiem. In movies, I cover the court ruling that could block the release of “Watchmen” next March, as well as review Frank Miller’s “The Spirit.” Also, Ryan Bonifant from “The Sports Buzz” calls in to talk about console games you SHOULD be buying now that you’ve got Christmas gift cards to spend, and we kick off PTG’s new weekly segment, “The Prognosticast” with reporter JC Martinez calling in from NYC to talk high-flying wi-fi and androids in our cell phones. It’s all here in Prime Time Geek, Episode 1!

DC Comics’ Editor-in-Chief Dan Didio released this teaser image on Christmas Eve as part of his regular feature on www.newsarama.com, giving fanboys something to go crazy over while opening their Christmas gifts.

This is the sort of thing that DC has become very proficient at in terms of stoking anticipation, the big teaser image with lots of little details that provide clues … or red herrings. So, for starters, the obvious stuff – the “Batman” on the left is Tim Drake (the current Robin)-the staff in his hands is the giveaway. Second from the left I’d wager is Dick Grayson (currently Nightwing), and the only reason I’d guess its him is the utility belt–it resembles the belt used as part of the “Red Robin” uniform first seen in Mark Waid and Alex Ross’ “Kingdom Come”, worn by an older version of Grayson, and later worn by Jason Todd during “Countdown to Infinite Crisis.” Third one over–god help us–looks like Two-Face/Harvey Dent, and the fourth I’m guessing is the villain Hush from two clues: this Batman is carrying two guns, as Hush does, and his face is completely concealed, and Hush in his villain identity had his head swathed in bandages.

Other little details, like the supporting cast members in the image (Harley Quinn, Alfred, looking very British Special Forces, Batwoman, Damian (son of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al Ghul), and someone who looks A LOT like Bruce himself, as well as the backwards J on the Joker playing card at far left, have far more inscrutable meanings. This image should go a LONG way towards undoing the apathy towards the Batman R.I.P. storyline fostered by Grant Morrison’s byzantine storytelling and get people talking … hell, I took one look and I was more interested and excited by what I saw there than I felt the whole time I was reading Batman R.I.P.!

Thoughts? Comments? Let the speculation begin!