THE FANTASTIC POUR
Brett welcomes John Steib to the Fantasti-Lounge for a new edition of the Fantastic Pour! We talk The Beast, whip up a blue cocktail and mocktail, and read Avengers #167. Join us in the Fantasti-Lounge as we discuss if Hank is best with the Avengers or the X-Men; Waterski stunt shows; George Perez’s mastery, and much, much more!
Secret Pour-igins: Blue cocktails
Cocktail: The Blue Beast
Blue Beast Syrup recipe
- Add 2 cups water to pot and heat on low
- Stir in 1 cup sugar
- Squeeze 1 lemon and 1 orange into pot and stir
- Remove from heat and let cool
- Add 3 drops of blue food coloring and stir
- Place in container or cup and set aside
COCKTAIL
Ingredients (per drink):
- 1½ oz. Vodka
- ½ oz triple sec
- 1 oz. Blue Beast syrup
- 1 oz. Fresh lemon juice
- 2 sprig of mint
- Seltzer or Sprite
Instructions (per drink)
- Add mint sprig and lemon juice to shaker
- Muddle mint lightly
- Add vodka, triple sec, Blue Beast Syrup, and ice to shaker
- Shake and strain into Collins glass filled with ice
- Top with seltzer or sprite
- Garnish with mint
MOCKTAIL
Ingredients (per drink):
- 1 oz. Blue Beast syrup
- 1 oz. Fresh lemon juice
- 2 sprig of mint
- Seltzer or Sprite
Instructions (per drink)
- Add mint sprig and lemon juice to shaker
- Muddle mint lightly
- Add Blue Beast Syrup, and ice to shaker
- Shake and strain into Collins glass filled with ice
- Fill with seltzer or sprite
- Garnish with mint
Comic: The Mighty Avengers vol.1 #167, Marvel Comics, 1977
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“I was hoping we could get through a whole podcast without mentioning Shag’s feet.” Oh John, you sweet summer child.
Is the Beast the ultimate (sports ref coming in) utility player? He was a member of the X-Men, the Avengers, the Defenders, AND the Champions! A lot of other heroes have three of those teams on their CV, but not four. Related, it’s interesting that, AFAIK, the Beast was the only X-Man that Marvel deemed worthy of solo feature outside the one X-Men title.
Those Avengers pages make me head hurt (in a good way), they are so detailed. Perez must have had enormous concentration, to just hunker down and draw all those people and all that detail when he didn’t always have to.
Great episode, as always!
This run has recently been reprinted in an omnibus. That splash page for 167 stuck right in my head. Lots of great art in the omnibus, in addition to Perez, but he’s my favorite of the bunch.
I can think of a couple of occasions where Wasp wore clothes that didn’t shrink and cheesecake ensued. The Aladdin Effect and Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man 105 come to mind. Thanks to Mike’s Amazing World since I didn’t remember that issue number right off my head.
Kind of off subject, but I bought a Wonder Woman adult coloring book a few years ago. I don’t color myself. I just got it for the artwork. There were several Perez pieces in the coloring book. I don’t think coloring something as detailed as Perez’s art would be relaxing. I think it would be stressful. I can’t imagine having a pencil or crayon small enough to color in some of the details at the size of a standard coloring book.
I was more of a DC kid so the few Marvel comics I got as a kid really imprinted. One of them is Captain Marvel #50 in which Cap and all the Avengers fight the Super-Adaptoid. That was definitely the first comic I read with the Scarlet Witch, the Vision, and the Beast. He was bouncing and funny in that book and I immediately loved him. Since then, I have almost always enjoyed his appearances. He is smart and funny and agile and strong. He is a sort of cool POV character for nerds.
I am a Grant Morrison apologist but his take on the Beast never really landed for me either. His ‘de-evolution’ to feline didn’t make sense to me. The Beast having a litter box was stupid. And then, remember he announced he was gay in that comic and then later said ‘nah … just kidding’. Not a good take.
Love the chat and love the drink!
He had a litter box?? Glad to have missed that.
Me neither? I know Tigra had a litter box…
Fantastic episode. John is a great addition to our community – another great set of insights.
I agree I prefer the happy go lucky Avengers Beast to the scientist in the X-Men. And don’t get me started on the cat like Beast – yuk. Also on board with you guys that the Korvac Saga rules. I had started reading Avengers only a few issues earlier than this so this is right in my sweet spot.
I would love to be able to hold a book with my feet!
And that is so cool that John saw the water ski show. Wow.
I might have to try the Blue Beast – sounds delicious!
I’ve only read the what if issue with the beast as avenger : what if the avengers formed in the 50’s .
I’ve read a lot of stuff with Hank as x-men both classic and my favorite story arc the one where he brings the original x-men into the present .
So to me Hank is x-men
I’m also a Hank McCoy fan and, while I like him in the X-Men, he always seems like an Avenger to me too since that is where I first saw him. The less said about his feline “evolution”, the better. And I feel the same way about his recent heel turn.
Beast is good example of my favorite character type, the “looks inhuman, but is the most humane”. He looks, well, bestial, but he’s actually an intellectual, fun-loving guy. See also Nightcrawler.
I was also a fan of the early X-Factor despite recognizing the problems that came with bringing Jean Grey back into the picture. There was even an X-Factor special entitled “Prisoner of Love” from Jim Starlin and Jackson Guice which focused on Hank. It was quite good.
Great show, Bret and John!
Listened to the podcast while I was cleaning . Here’s a random fact about the beast that ties in to pro wrestling the beast was for at least for short time in his ape form a pro wrestler I believe the foe was Uranus the untouchable. I may have mentioned this before if have for give me I’ve bin cleaning and how do you get to mention that the beast from marvel comics and pro wrestler abyss
Shared a pro wrestling gimmick sadly the the beast never got tag team with Robocop who would wrestle in wcw even though marvel did comics for all three .
Oh, man – love the Beast! Specifically the bouncing, blue-furred version. Yeah, he was cool in his non-furry form as an original X-man, but to me he was never better than when he was a member of the Avengers during this period. So great choice of character, John.
And I love the Korvac saga and that whole run of the Avengers in the late ’70s up to but not necessarily including issue #200. So great choice of an issue: it’s works so well on its own, because so much happens and so many characters appear, but also as basically the first chapter in said Korvac saga – after reading it, you know something cool is on the horizon.
And yes, I agree with both of you that the Korvac saga is better than Avengers Forever (in fact, so are the Celestial Madonna saga, the Serpent Crown saga and the Nights of Wundagore arc). Otherwise, I have many thoughts on Avengers Forever. Many, many thoughts. (For those who may not want to follow that link or did and found it TL;DR, the most important point is that while I liked it well enough, I think it ultimately failed in its mission to sort of smooth out all of the continuity conundrums that had arose in the Avengers up to that point; and I thought some of the character choices were a bit off.)
Also, I have to correct something John said: the Squadron Sinister predate the Squadron Supreme. They first appeared in Avengers #69 (heh, nice; published in 1969, double nice), while the Squadron Supreme were introduced about a year and half later in 1971.
Another great show, gentlemen!
The Beast is just more fun as an Avenger. Though he was pretty good during the first X Factor stories and Joss Whedon’s X men run. The less said about the Krakoa villian thing the better.
Impressive podcast most impressive. The cover is brilliant. But it’s Perez so no surprise there. Great story telling and it draws your eyes from the typography on down. It’s very well done. I met Perez at a Conic con once he was a cool guy. And a major talent. Now this was done before he did Logan’s run so it’s not at his pinnacle of his artistic abilities.
It was leagues above most. But, once he references he blew most artists out the water. Save a hand full of masters. Also onto the splash page, another great drawing.
And good story telling and composition. Yeqh the Witches out fit was never my favorite. The one Perez gave her one his second run was my favorite. Or the movie outfit. Cap looks cool.
Yeah beast being lifted that way is funny. I am beginning to understand why they gave him the cat look later on. I love the GOTG’s we got in the movie. But, I was hoping to see Charlie. I always liked him.
Old school Yoadu is cool, but I like the Gunn version as well. The rest of the team looks cool. And technically Star Hawk is Non binary. Huh I wonder how Staylon would feel about tbd character he played in a movie being non binary after his little wahhhwa wahha fest?
Moving on. Ah Vance Astro now better known as part of the new Warriors. I love the pod cast about it. The yard sale artist is on it. Long Box Crusade. Anyway I don’t think Vance was in the movie ah well.
Maybe in a different Marvel movie. The Valentino run was always my favorite run of the GTG, kept the o out so as not to mix it up with the HBO show. Anyway I like the Beast not happy when Marvel made him a villain. First Chuck , then Cyclops.,
Here is ware he was best used in my opinion. That or Wissie’s run on X-Factor. I liked when had the cat look. But still moved. The same. Can’t wait to see him in both versions in the Avengers movie. Thor vouching for the guardians was cool too.
So Nick’s intel was wrong? Well government efficiency at its finest. Lol. Also cool drink ya’ll made for this one. Anyway can’t wait for the next episode.
Another fantastic episode (see what I did there)! The fantastic part is mostly down to the brilliance of John Steib and so many references to feet (no credit given to Brett).
The mocktail version of the Blue Beast drink sounds delicious, and I might have to try that myself someday.
Regarding Hank McCoy as a character, for me he’ll always be an X-Men. Mostly because I’ve read very few appearances of him in Avengers. Though credit to me for picking Hank in my Avengers draft! No wasted space on cowboys there!
Loved John sharing his thoughts on X-Men. Similarly, my X-Men will always be the Claremont era (Giant Sized X-Men #1/X-Men #94 thru around Uncanny X-Men #281 when they spun off the new book).
From the feedback section, I feel terrible that I failed to comment on the fantastic coverage of the 5YL Legion with Dr Anj! That was a wonderful episode and discussion and brought a smile to my face to hear my beloved 5YL era celebrated with so much passion.
Thanks for excellent shows! Keep it up Brett, you might actually get good at this eventually!
This issue of Avengers was on my wishlist, as I’m trying to get a full run of volume 1. So this episode was a nice excuse to stop by a local comic shop and pick it up, along with about ten other issues that had nothing to do with this episode.
After reading through it I had a sense of déjà vu and had to pull out another issue of the Avengers, also drawn by George Pérez, this time from volume 3. Only a master like Pérez could give a callback to himself. Issue 14 features Hank showing up at Avengers mansion to welcome back Simon Williams to the land of the living. The bouncing down the hallway and the way Hank is lifted by his back fur, originally by Charlie-27 & later by Simon is nearly identical.
Anyone with both issues or access to Marvel Unlimited should check it out.
I also posted the images over on Bluesky under my Keen Comics account.
Thanks for another top episode, lovely to hear John again. I loved this period of Avengers too, the Korvac Saga was a great story, with loads of good action and character moments, and of course, the art.
Regarding #167 in particular, that splash page is a classic, I hate to think what view Wanda got when Beast dripped on her.
I found the fashion show much more fun than the satellite stuff, but I like my Avengers down to Earth, and classic Nighthawk is a favourite. Jan’s fashion designs were as horrible as ever… I vaguely remember that the first two models were real people; Kathy Schilling, I got nuthin’ but Denise Vladimir was also known as letterer Denise Wohl, whose credits include an issue of Amazing Adventures starring our very own blue-eyed Beast, and a few issues of this very storyline.
Jim Shooter really must have been plotting on the fly because I was never convinced, given this debut, that Carina was originally meant to be anything other than a regular Earth girl.
Also, Michael Korvac was hot.
I always loved Wonder Man, and the bouncing Beast, I wish Marvel hadn’t ruined them.
Did people really think of Simon Williams as a Superman-alike? The only thing they have in common is strength, blue hair and glasses… but very different glasses?
I’ve a couple of ideas for cocktails should the occasion arise – Drinking Violet and Tequila Mockingbird.