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DC Comics Presents… Podcast Crossover w/ Views from the Longbox, Part 1 – FIRE & WATER #73

The 73rd episode of THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST is now available for your listening pleasure! Welcome to VIEWS FROM THE FIERY AND WATERY LONGBOX Part 1! In the grand tradition of comic book crossovers, this episode Rob and Shag from THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST are joined by Michael Bailey from VIEWS FROM THE LONGBOX PODCAST.

DC Comics Presents with Firestorm, Aquaman, and Superman: Fire and Water Podcast and Views from the Longbox Podcast

Together this titanic team of geekdom covers DC Comics Presents #5 featuring Superman and Aquaman! On Tuesday, head over to VIEWS FROM THE LONGBOX for Part 2 of this podcast crossover event where they cover a Superman and Firestorm issue of DC Comics Presents!

You can find the 73rd episode of THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST on iTunes. While you’re there, please drop us a review on the iTunes page. Every comment helps! Alternatively, you may download the podcast by right-clicking here, choosing “Save Target/Link As”, and selecting a location on your computer to save the file (25 MB).

As always, thanks to my co-host Rob Kelly, Sea King of THE AQUAMAN SHRINE, for doing all the post-production on these episodes! Opening theme, “That Time is Now,” by Michael Kohler. Special thanks to Daniel Adams and Ashton Burge with their band The Bad Mamma Jammas for our fantastic original closing theme! This episode brought to you in part by InStockTrades.com!

Have a question or comment? Looking for more great content?

Below you’ll find the cover to DC Comics Presents #5 by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano! Plot by Len Wein, dialogue by Paul Levitz, and interior art by Murphy Anderson! Click to enlarge!

DC Comics Presents #5 featuring Superman and Aquaman, cover by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano

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14 Comments

  1. Frank says:

    1) I can’t figure out if my running nuisance theme of this commentary should be how much I hate Superman, or how much better Superman is than Aquaman, Firestorm, and Composite Aquaman/Firestorm. I might have to just break down and be a decent human being that is accepting and encouraging of the lot of you. We’ll see how the mood strikes.

    2) I hope Rob didn’t run his fingers under Shag’s Views seat. No winning with stale gum or boogers.

    3) An Aquaman appearance would have made about as much sense as Thor’s in “Mutant Massacre,” but it would have been so much cooler! He could have swum through the sewers commanding albino alligators.

    4) I commend Shag for his attempts to wrangle the Redbox account as a secondary sponsor. Lucky Strike can’t make up too much of your billings, or else you’ll end up in bed with Ted Chaough.

    …wait, what’s a Redtube? Is that like how you milk a dog?

    5) That second volume of Showcase Presents DC Comics Presents collects most of Jim Starlin’s run as artist, including every major appearance by Mongul prior to “For The Man Who Has Everything.” I think Mongul was the greatest Superman villain of the Bronze Age, and was sorry to see him ruined Post-Crisis. Anj and I did a crossover devoted to that first arc:
    http://idol-head.blogspot.com/2011/01/martian-manhunter-and-supergirl-vs.html
    http://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/2011/11/review-dc-comics-presents-28.html

    Speaking of “Whatever Happened To… The Crimson Avenger?”
    http://nurgh.blogspot.com/2010/01/whatever-happened-to-crimson-avenger.html

    I don’t think I’ve ever read “Must There Be A Superman?”

    6) I have to back up Michael Bailey’s feeling about Curt Swan as an “Aquaman artist,” not only because The Legend of Aquaman was a favorite, but because I think Swan (with Shanower and Al Vey) drew a better Aquaman than Superman. Inkers invisibly but obviously have had a huge influence on how we perceive comic art. I don’t think Jim Lee would have happened without Carl Potts and Scott Williams teaching him how to be Jim Lee instead of a lukewarm Kevin Nowlan clone. No one can ink Perez as well as Perez, but anyone can ink John Byrne better than Byrne himself (possibly excepting early Next Men.) I personally favor Kesel over Austin, though. Jim Aparo never drew Superman worth a damn, regardless of inker. Good thing he had Batman all sewn up.

    7) Artie Joe was a tool.

    8) Onward to the Longbox…

  2. Tim Wallace says:

    I started listening while running errands this morning…and yes, the He-Man/Superman story “From Eternia…with Death!” is included in the “Showcase Presents: DC Comics Presents Superman Team-Ups V.2″ Between errands and work I stopped home and checked my copy just to be sure!

    And was I the only one who heard Shag say “angry angry salty sea man” and thought he was talking about a title of one of those Red Tube videos?

    Oh well, back to listening…i mean work…ugh…Mondays…

  3. Luke says:

    Fun episode, and sounds like a fun issue. I have long considered picking up these DCCP and TB&TB team up phonebooks, but the overwelming stacks of comic phonebooks already in my bonus room have deterred me. But these still sound like a blast to read… hrrn…

  4. Siskoid says:

    Damn it. I didn’t bring the issue in to work with me. Needed the visual aid!!! (Not that it wasn’t well described, it’s just, you know, the fuel my comments.)

    On the larger question of B&B vs. DCCP, I’ve always found that B&B was superior because it was almost always crazy (thank you Bob Haney), while Superman’s team-up book alternated between very traditional ordinary stories and completely crazy, but I’d rather read a crazy DCCP than a crazy B&B.

    Marvel had the same kind of thing going with Two-in-One (feat. the Thing) as the B&B stand-in, and Marvel Team-Up (feat. Spider-Man) as the DCCP-type book. Neither were quite as good as their DC counterparts though.

  5. Kyle Benning says:

    Yay!!! I love this issue!!!

    And speaking of DC Presents and Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, I have those first 4 issues all signed by Jose.

    I enjoy the Murphy Anderson art in this issue, but I agree it is a drop off in the art dynamic from Jose’s work in the previous 4 issues, but then again you could say that about pretty much everyone who had to try to follow up Jose’s art on a book. Jose is one of the 10 greatest Superhero comic book artists of all time in my opinion, that’s a tough act to follow by anyone.

    I’m glad you guys decided to do the DC Presents issues, and really like that you brought in Mr. Bailey for a special Podcast 2 part crossover, I can’t wait for part 2 tomorrow. Great episode guys, I’m glad to see you finally giving my all time favorite character, Superman, some much deserved love and audio time 😛

    Fan the Flame & Ride the wave!

    PS. Sorry for your loss Russell.

  6. Kyle Benning says:

    @Siskoid, while I believe with your broad statement that for the most part DC Presents and Brave and the Bold beat their Marvel counterparts, I have to throw in Marvel Two-In-One #50 as one of the greatest one-shot books of the era. Byrne gave the Thing a lot of character development in that issue that would carry over into his FF run, and who doesn’t love seeing two Things battle it out. That was a great issue that I would put up against the best of the B&B and DC Presents issues anyday.

  7. […] crossover was a real blast! If you missed part one, click here. In Part 2 it’s Firestorm, Superman, Killer Frost, the 200th episode of Views from the […]

  8. Anj says:

    I am so glad these podcasts were done as I have a great affinity for DCCP. Expect some links to my site here – sorry!

    I have a couple of comments on the intro and instock trade ad before I even get to the subject matter. Like Michael, I am sort of sick to death of Maggin’s ‘Must there be a Superman’. It is one of the first issues that tries to make Superman feel guilty for helping people. Nothing like having Superman yell at mistreated and devastated croppers that they should help themselves! And Superman #233 is the famous ‘Kryptonite Nevermore’ storyline which briefly de-powered Superman and introduced the Sand Superman (my avatar)!

    The Phantom Zone mini-series is a wild trip of a comic, veering on the psychedelic. I cover it briefly here where I talk about Gene Colan: http://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/2011/06/rip-gene-colan.html Expect some Night Force love in the next Who’s Who!

    And DCCP #97 with the Phantom Zone villains is absolutely bizarre. A possessed Mxyzptlk drops the dead Argo City onto Metropolis, levelling part of the city, flooding the place with Kryptonite and littering it with green-tinged Kryptonians corpses. Want a peek? http://comicboxcommentary.blogspot.com/2012/03/argo-city-silver-age-part-2.html

    While I never read the Aquaman issue, the Firestorm issue was my introduction to the character! From that issue, I actually tried to find the original series at yard sales, bought the ‘join the JLA’ storyline and beyond in Justice League, and then Fury of Firestorm. The villain in the JLA-join story is a succubus who enslaves suitors at discos and Studio 54 nightclubs! It was simpler times!

    As for DCCP #17, I also never knew just how a brain freeze enslaved Superman. Don’t let the Man of Steel drink a slurpee too fast!! But as you guys say, this is just a wonderful issue and exactly what a team-up comic should be. The art by JLGL (Praise be his name) is just perfect.

    I found these team-up books to be a sort of primer for the extended DCU. It was here that I learned about so many of the lesser known heroes and villains. I miss this sort of comic.

    And just one more link. Frank and I did cover the DCCP three parter. He neglected to include the link to our ‘team-up’ reviewing DCCP #29 Superman/Spectre story over on the DC Bloodlines blog: http://dcbloodlines.blogspot.com/2011/11/review-dc-comics-presents-29.html

  9. Martin Gray says:

    Fun podcast, and yes, DCCP WAS meant to be a JL Garcia Lopez book, that’s what the pre-publicity said.

    I disagree with Rob that one of the points of team-up titles was to have inventory to drop into Batman or Superman titles if the Dreaded Deadline Doom hit – does anyone have a single example of that happening over the couple of decades B&B and DCCP existed? They were their own thing.

  10. Kyle Benning says:

    Martin,

    We wouldn’t know if that happened, as the story would’ve appeared in a Superman/Action or Batman/Detective book instead. There are a lot of one-off artists/writer stories that appeared in Action and Superman during this era. Rich Buckler for example provided the art for DC Presents #33 & 34 (cover dates May & June 1981) and Superman #363 & 364 (Sept & Oct 81 cover dates). It’s conceivable that they had Buckler just crank out 4 or 5 Superman stories and dropped them in whenever needed, whether that was for their originally intentioned DC Presents or in the pages of Superman, that’s something really only the creators involved could shed light on. This was the age of the one-shot story, especially in the B&B and DC Presents books, making them the perfect drop in story in a pinch. With a revolving door of creators they could drop in a fill in issue whenever. Especially when DC Presents had team-up issues featuring very regular Superman family cast members like Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, or the Legion, which all could’ve happened in any issue of Action or Superman without us readers being any of the wiser that they were originally planned for DC Presents.

    At this time DC Presents as well as Action and Superman were at times running multiple stories in each issue, any of these back-up or shorter stories could’ve been interchangeable between the 3 titles, as each usually featured Superman pairing up with another member of the DCU.

  11. Martin Gray says:

    Hello Kyle, I’m pretty familiar with the concept of fill-ins, having been reading comics since the early Seventies – including those cited here – and worked in the industry. The DC Comics Presents issues you cite are definite Shazam team-ups obviously intended for DCCP. The Superman Buckler stories don’t feature guest stars and one is only an eight-pager; sure, they could be dropped into Superman or Action, and the eight-pager would easily fit Superman Family, but created to be repurposed as necessary in Superman/Action OR DCCP? I can’t see it.

    Besides, the point I’m arguing against was Rob’s ‘most of the time team-up books were always done as inventory stories you could drop into a book at a moment’s notice in case somebody blew a deadline’. So DCCP was a run of 97 fill-ins? Brave and Bold 150? Nope, they were their own books with dedicated editors ‘programming’ for them. Yes, Superman, Action and DCCP were all Julius Schwartz titles, but they weren’t interchangeable.

  12. Sean Koury says:

    Hey, guys. Yet another great episode. Yes, I am behind again, but I’m just now on my way over to Views to listen to Part 2. Always a treat to hear Mr. Bailey on the show. [Reminds me, I have to go check over at From Crisis to Crisis and see if they’ve covered the World’s Collide issues yet.]

    Anyway, just writing to thank you for making me add yet MORE back issues to my back issue search. lol I really need to stop listening before you guys put me in the poor house. The issues in question, strangely enough, are not the ones you covered, but are ones you mentioned. I’m referring to the DCP issues where Superman teamed up with He-man. I’m on a bit of a MoTU kick right now. Loving the DCU vs MoTU mini that’s out right now. Roll on the Moss-man vs Swamp Thing battle! At least, DC better not screw it up and NOT have them fight. The other issue is the one where Superman goes back in time and teams up with Sgt. Rock. These are two issues that, to this day, stand out in my memory as particularly fond comic book experiences, kind of like Rob’s ‘mountain comics’.

    So seriously, thanks for bringing them up on the show. I will definitely be tracking those down for my next online purchase, and probably a few other of the DCP stories as well.

    PS I feel bad for Michael. What’s he gonna do now that Superman has met his demise at the hands of He-man over in DCU vs MoTU #2? RIP Superman. :]

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