DigestCast #5.5 – Thor/X-Men/Black Panther

It's another special "digest-sized" episode of DIGESTCAST! Shag and Rob catch up on the last few Marvel Comics Digests, starring Thor, the X-Men, and Black Panther! Plus listener feedback!

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9 responses to “DigestCast #5.5 – Thor/X-Men/Black Panther

  1. I applaud Shag’s bravery in admitting he doesn’t like the early Lee/Kirby Work. It’s ok. Everyone has their opinion.

    Interestingly, Shag couldn’t take the fact that I don’t like the Wolfman/Peréz Teen Titans.

    That X-Men: First Class series was wonderful! Highly recommend!

  2. I want to give Shag crap for throwing off on early Lee and Kirby Avengers and X-Men…but yeah, honestly, the stories don’t QUITE hold up to the legend every issue. I think Lee and Kirby were getting burned out at this time, cranking out way too many new ideas too quickly. They were doing too many books. When Kirby cuts back to just Thor and FF (with an occasional half-issue Cap story) his work takes a giant leap forward, and we get things like the Galactus saga, and that first Black Panther story. And THEN, they are in their groove that proves the legend.

    But rather than agree with him, I’ll chalk it up to another crackpot belief like “Batman phase” and “Rey is a Skywalker”.

    Chris

  3. Ah, where to start?
    First of all, nice job packing these three digests into a single episode; I really enjoyed your conversation. Of the three covered here, I only have the X-men volume (so far) and as with the previous two I have (the Spidey and first Avengers volumes) I mostly liked it – just because I’m still so in love with the idea of Marvel digests.
    I found your back-and-forth about the content interesting, i.e., Rob’s complaints that it should include more stuff from the 1980s and before, in opposition to Shag’s fondness for the newer stuff, just because I’m of two minds on this myself. As someone who loved the old DC digests for all their reprints of classical material, and also as someone who grew up in the ’70s and ’80s, I very much sympathize with Rob’s standpoint, although I see the value in Shag’s view that they should include newer and all ages material that will draw in younger readers. And I have to say, in the X-men book, my favorites were probably the two X-men: First Class stories, just because they were entirely new to me, unlike the 3 stories from the ’60s which I’d read before in reprints, and Kitty’s fairy tale, which I pulled off the spinner racks back in the day, and they are well-done take on the classical X-men. In fact, I’ve realized that I *really* like every single one of the all-ages entries in these digests written by Jeff Parker.

    Also, I find Shag’s willingness to admit he doesn’t like the early Lee/Kirby stuff refreshing. I don’t entirely agree with him (e.g., I liked pretty much all of their run on Fantastic Four, although I’m not as big a fan of their work in those initial issues of X-men, or some of the Avengers and Thor stories), but it’s interesting to hear a more critical perspective.
    By the way, Dave Cockrum had two runs on X-men – the initial one from GSX #1 and X-men #s 94 through 107, and then from #s 145 through 164 (except for #151-152 drawn by Bob McLeod and #159 drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz). Kitty’s fairy tale was, obviously, in that second run.

    And finally, (*sighing heavily*) on the pronunciation of my name: it most certainly does not rhyme with Greedo. In the future, just refer to me as Ed…

  4. Another great episode! I have to admit I am with Shag in regard to the Lee/Kirby X-Men stories presented here. While the story ideas were good, the pacing was too slow for my tastes. I have, of course, read much better stories from this creative team.

    Like Rob, I would have liked more 80’s and even 90’s material represented. It felt like a big jump in storytelling techniques.

    Rob, I don’t know you personally, but I have to say the idea of you dressed as Hank Azaria from the Birdcage is a mental image that will haunt me for a long time. *shudder*

  5. Thanks for another enjoyable show – not as enjoyable as the DC digests, mind, these Marvel digests are so formulaic that you could probably ignore them, simply acknowledge that there out there.

    I’ve never got the universal praise Kitty’s Fairy Tale – I didn’t like its twee smugness at the time, and looking at it again now, it’s unreadable.

  6. I’m a sucker for good all ages material that I can read with my daughter, so I will have to redouble my efforts to find these digests. I have to admit that I gave up after striking out at all of our local grocery stores. Now that I think of it, I don’t believe I checked our 7-Eleven. The hunt resumes!

  7. Listened to the episode yesterday, very much enjoyed it. I only have the first Avengers digest from this run of Marvel Digest, but I am going to be tracking down the rest of these issues as well. My oldest boy really enjoyed the Avengers one, and I am sure my kids will dig the ones discussed on this episode as well.

    Thanks!

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