@Frank – Thank you for the thoughtful analysis on sales figures. You make a lot of valid points (never thought you’d hear me say that, huh?). I hope Firestorm is able to survive long enough to grow the fan base. In regard to Ragman, I finally read the original Ragman series from the 70s. Ummm… sorry, not much of a fan. Conceptually he was great. The actual comics, not so much. I’m more of a 1990s/2000s Ragman kinda guy. Those podcast fan names are just plain gross, you sicko. National Comics is a great idea; they just need to solicit an issue that looks interesting. And yes, I’m totally a Nerd Bully.

@Luke – I’m thrilled Hawkman is generating so much buzz (color me jealous). As you mentioned Rob Liefeld certainly has his legion of fans. He’s a super-nice guy, just his art and writing aren’t for me. Sorry. Great points about the middle-of-the-pack comics, and that people are just buying more Batman! Yes, the Aquaman twist ending was cool. However, that was Shin’s version. The truth might be very different. “Fall In, a Prisoner of War Podcast!” Awesome!

@Martin Stein RIP – Sounds like we’re on the same page with the new Firehawk. While super-cuteness will go far, we’ll eventually need to learn about her back story. Booster and Skeets? Maybe! In regard to Blue Devil, I’ve always seen the quality-split being between issue #9 and #10. Either way, I don’t think Kid Devil was out of line with anything else in the series. The first six issues are pure gold. They should really be collected.

@Keith – You’ve found my Kryptonite… Conduit! I also would love to see Ronnie and Jason being typical teenagers struggling with secret identities. Conway knew his stuff! Finally caught a couple episodes of Young Justice.. .good stuff!

Thanks again guys! We’ll be sure to mention each of you on the next regular episode of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST!

Shag, I appreciate your enthusiasm for Prisoner of War because I also thought he had a fantastic showcase in this issue. I’d really like to see more of this character in the future, either in new adventures or in “untold tales” from the history of this universe. (Shag and Luke Present: “Fall In, a Prisoner of War Podcast,” perhaps?)

Rob, I had to grin at your name-drop of Suspiria. I am a huge fan of Dario Argento’s work and Suspiria is one of his best. To me, his masterpiece will always be Profondo Rosso — “Deep Red” — but Suspiria is one of the best horror films ever, and in the running for the best supernatural horror movie of all time. On one of my podcasts, the Vault Of Startling Monster Horror Tales of Terror, we are going to be doing a series on Argento along with some other Italian Horror masters in the next few months; I will be sure to hit you with a link.

I too love the Saturday Morning Cartoon ad! I esepcially like the inclusion of Inch High Private Eye!

I have not picked up Fury of Firestorm #9 yet, but for the promise of Yildiray Cinar drawing OMAC I may have to do just that. The JLI doesn’t hold much interest for me as a team beyond OMAC, but I like OMAC enough to warrant the purchase, especially when he is rendered by an artist as talented as Cinar.

I did think that the names of the merged Firestorms — Fury and Wrath — were cool. They reminded me of WCW in the late 1990s. In fact they did have a wrestler named Wrath (Bryan Clark), who, oddly enough, had earlier worked under the name Adam Bomb in WWF. So it all comes full circle on that front!

Great to hear all the listener feedback! I envy you guys amount of feedback because as every podcaster knows, getting comments back makes all of the excruciatingly hard work worthwhile!

Keep up the good work, dudes!

Also let me add, that yes Shagg, Young Justice is one AWESOME show. By far one of the shows around, and not just in animation! They have introduced alot of characters with some interesting twists to their origins or personalities. And I keep hoping that either Ronnie, Jason and/or Prof. Stein show… Even for just a cameo!

Fan the Wave!

Lorraine and Booster were an item, were they not? If Lorraine’s been wiped out of continuity, then I wonder what Booster’s romantic history consists of now. (The answer that pops into my mind— “Skeets!”— strikes me as very, very wrong.)

Also, Shaggggggggggggg, I too loved Blue Devil when I was a kid. There seemed to be a split among the BD fanbase (such as it was) when they turned Gopher into Kid Devil. How did you feel about pairing BD reluctantly with a sidekick? (I thought it was genius. BD was already a reluctant superhero and giving him a sidekick *he didn’t want* seemed to me to be the next logical step. But other BD fans, as I recall, thought it was pushing the book too much over the line into ordinary superhero fare.)

Hey Robbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb, can you explain exactly what an embellisher does for the uninitiated? Thanks.

Quoted for truth.

And just for good measure:

‘The ironic thing about all this? For all the fanboys and comics “journalists” (a-hem!) rant and rave about how they want something “new” and “different” from the New 52, they all just buy a dozen Batman titles and ignore the offbeat books. Oy!’

Quoted for truth again.