First Strike: The Invasion! Podcast Ep.31: New Guardians #7

Siskoid and Bass have returned to the New Guardians and are determined to have fun with it. Plus, discussion on the team books that DIDN’T tie into Invasion, like Legion of Super-Heroes, New Titans and Young All-Stars, among others.

Listen to Episode 31 below (the usual filthy filthy language warnings may apply), or subscribe to First Strike: The Invasion! Podcast on iTunes!

Relevant images and further credits at: First Strike ep.31 Supplemental

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16 responses to “First Strike: The Invasion! Podcast Ep.31: New Guardians #7

  1. Still listening, but I’m required by law to inform you that New Teen Titans #1-50 and the first arc of the Baxter series ARE that good, and ARE worthy of the characters they introduce. I will readily admit the book stumbled after Perez left, but while he was on the book it was on of the best comics on the stands and still holds up today. Read those and forget the rest. That is all…for now.

    Chris

    1. I did read that first Baxter arc (indeed much – too much – of the Baxter series), with Trigon and all that. Like I said, it’s not bad, it’ll just never be among my favorite comics. In fact, while I respect Wolfman’s long career and many of his creations, I can’t say I’m a fan of anything he’s actually written for any length of time, and that includes Tomb of Dracula, Crisis, Adventures of Superman, as well as Titans. And I really really wanted to. They nevertheless left me cold more than half the time.

      1. Fair enough. I would give the first NTT series a try through Judas Contract. Yes, the Slade/Terra thing is very icky, but it is there to reinforce how irredeemable Terra really was. She was a nasty, nasty little sociopath.

        Chris

  2. Couple of things:

    1. Nice coverage on what sounds like an otherwise drab issue. Sometimes I wonder how New Guardians managed to make it to print. While it is important in its role in diversity and inclusivity, it’s unfortunate the series never rose above mediocre. And it’s also sad the characters created in Millennium for this series are afterthoughts at best, jokes at their worst.
    2. The Titans and Teen Titans – I have mixed feelings about the Wolfman/Perez era. I think it’s tightly plotted and beautiful to see, but the characterizations and dialogue left me cold – particularly with Changeling and Cyborg. I can respect its canonization for so many readers of my generation, but it never hit that point for me. And you’re right, I think Wolfman should have cut and run long before he did, long before Team Titans.
    3. Let me get this straight – the way to get Siskoid to try a comic is to break into his house? Got it.

  3. Legit Lol over the joke comment on Ryan Daly’s current podcast output. but seriously, Secret Origins was the golden age of podcasting, though I do find the Night Force episodes of Midnight the Podcasting Hour to be magnificent listening.

    Another fine episode. I remember eagerly tracking down Invasion! tie ins for more alien fighting goodness and this one was easily the worst of them, exemplifying a red (or negative) skies crossover. I even picked up the entire run around it, because compulsions, but discarded them happily in the late 90’s.

    I was really into the Titans when it was baxtering along, but every time I’ve gone back to it I find it ages more and more poorly. Dated pop culture references abound, the fashions look terrible probably because they’re so lovingly rendered, Terry Long as Marv’s avatar, characters are quite shallow once you get past the pseudo-depth of the personalities, and the wordiness overwhelms me and makes me feel like I’m studying for an actuarial exam.

    Legion on the other hand is the concept that keeps on giving and I find myself going back to it in almost all iterations more and more as I steam into my twilight years.

    As a post Crisis immigrant with no exposure to the All Star Squadron, Young All Stars never appealed to me as. None of the characters seemed relevant and my impression was very much ‘their time is done, when will they realise’.

    Happy for all 3 to sit out the Invasion!

    Thanks for playing the DCOCD promo. Mike is a thespian genius who makes me laugh every time in that one.

    Next episode, Doom Patrol you say?

  4. I’ve never read a single issue of New Guardians, and glad I haven’t missed anything. Hats off to you guys for trudging through it.

    I enjoyed NTT, but kept buying it way too long. I figured Titans was exempt from crossovers because it was too successful, and if Marv didn’t want to participate, that was that. It wasn’t just Millenium, the Titans comic didn’t cross over with Legends, even though Flash and Changeling were part of the mini-series. But after Invasion!, Titans was crossing over with the following events, so I guess Marv wasn’t the 800-lb gorilla of DC any more.

    The comics not set in present day always feel hokey participating in a crossover, Crisis being the rare exception, so it’s fine they opted out of Invasion! Although, a Legion story told by the invading races’ point of view in a thousand years? Maybe.

    Millennium had a nice hook to include the Legion, but I’ll never forgive it for ruining Laurel Kent. Sigh…

    But they seriously dropped the ball not having a Secret Origins tie-in. Adam Strange or Silver Age Hawkman/Hawkwoman. (Sorry, Bass.)

    Wait. Is Doom Patrol the last issue before Invasion! #3? This podcast is almost done? Sob!

    1. Not quite… there’s another comic you’re not thinking of because it doesn’t have an Aftermath banner…

      And there’s stuff afterwards. First Strike is designed to be a 40-episode maxi-series. We’ve only just entered the fourth quarter.

  5. It would seem to me that with the cover they are doing the normal alluding to Hamlet. I’m guessing that they incorrectly think the cover makes reference to Act III scene 1.

    Act III scene 1 being:
    Hamlet:
    To be, or not to be- that is the question:
    Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
    The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
    Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
    And by opposing end them. TO DIE-TO SLEEP-
    NO MORE; and by a SLEEP TO SAY WE END
    THE HEARTACHE, and the thousand natural shocks
    That flesh is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation
    Devoutly to be wish’d. To die- to sleep.
    To sleep- PERCHANCE TO DREAM: ay, there’s the rub!
    FOR IN THAT SLEEP OF DEATH WHAT DREAMS MAY COME
    When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
    Must give us pause. There’s the respect
    That makes calamity of so long life.
    For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
    Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
    The pangs of despis’d love, the law’s delay,
    The insolence of office, and the spurns
    That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes,
    When he himself might his quietus make
    With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear,
    To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
    But that the dread of something after death-
    The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn
    No traveller returns- puzzles the will,
    And makes us rather bear those ills we have
    Than fly to others that we know not of?
    Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
    And thus the native hue of resolution
    Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
    And enterprises of great pith and moment
    With this regard their currents turn awry
    And lose the name of action.

    (All caps done by me to highlight some points)
    Most people tend to forget that a) Hamlet is contemplating suicide in this scene and b) no skull.

    The skull scene is Act V scene 1:

    Hamlet:
    Let me see. (takes the skull) Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times, and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. —Where be your gibes now? Your gambols? Your songs? Your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now to mock your own grinning? Quite chapfallen? Now get you to my lady’s chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come. Make her laugh at that….

    This scene of course being about how in the end we all die and turn to dirt and ash and who knows where that could end up. Also there is that bit where it says Hamlet takes the skull…

    1. I see this allows some coding in the text as I had put an open “light Shakespeare rant” and the beginning and a closed “light Shakespeare rant”at the end that can’t be seen.

  6. I’m just here to chime in about Ryan’s Secret Origin podcast. It was Siskoid, I’m sure. He put up a link on Legion of Superbloggers. The link brought me to the episode with the Origin of The Legion of Substitute Heroes. After enjoying that one, I decided to listen to some episodes of my favorite Secret Origins (Golden Age Batman, Crimson Avenger) and I was hooked. How hooked? I bought Invasion, but I don’t recall ever buying any of the crossovers, yet I listen to this podcast! Why, I’ve even subscribed to podcasts that have nothing to do with comics!
    Keep up the great work, fellas!

  7. I’ve never read a single New Guardians because they looked terrible, and I hated the idea of Jason Woodrue getting a free pass to be a good guy. This issue sounds like the balloon issue of Teen Titans, #38, in which Dick, Donna and Mal confronted their greatest fears. Except that actually had resolutions to the individual strands. It’s a Haney hoot, Donna’s greatest fear is… surprising. Hub discussed it on Teen Titans Wasteland, have a listen. Another podcast I miss:
    https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/titan-up-the-defense/id1024210268?mt=2&i=1000366779700

    I’m glad the Legion wasn’t forced into this crossover, they work best away from the ‘present’ 20th century. The occasional trip to Smallville was enough. Contrivances like forcing LSH into Millennium damaged the event, and the Legion as a series.

    Never tried Young All Stars. I just couldn’t summon up any interest after all that magical A-SS.

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