The 123rd episode of THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST is now available for your listening pleasure! THE FIRE AND WATER PODCAST is the official podcast of FIRESTORM FAN and THE AQUAMAN SHRINE.
This week Shag and Rob discuss the latest news concerning the Aquaman movie and Firestorm TV show, the new STAR WARS trailer, followed by a huge helping of Listener Feedback!
You can find the 123rd 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 play the podcast using the player below or by right-clicking “download”, choosing “Save Target/Link As”, and selecting a location on your computer to save the file (134 MB).
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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!
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Thanks for listening! Support Firestorm and Aquaman! Fan the Flame and Ride the Wave!
Thanks for another OK episode, you were both on acceptable form.
Kidding, it was great, but rather than Feedback shows, why not call them ‘We Also Heard From Our Buddy…’?
As regards letterhacks being misleadingly edited for publication, it never happened to me with UK titles such as Warrior, The Daredevils and DC: The Superheroes Monthly. Nor did it happen with the likes of Amethyst, Impulse or Next Wave (surprisingly, they put the lettercols in the trade, so I’m there a couple of times for posterity).
And when I was on the other side of the fence, putting together lettercols while editing UK DC reprints, it never occurred to me to add whole sentences. Yeah, you chop for brevity, tweak the odd misused word and clean up any dodgy grammar (we had very bright, engaged readers, so usually it was simply a matter of tightening things up and ordering the letters to make the most logical, entertaining read), but changing someone’s meaning? That’s bad form.
Great episode fellers.
With regards to the Letters being printed and edited in comic books, I’ve had a couple letters printed, 2-3 or in the earlier issues of the current IDW Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle series, and one letter in DC’s Adventure Comics I think it was either #525 or #526 starring the Legion of Super-Heroes. This was the brief time in 2011 where DC brought back the letter columns, only to ditch them again in September 2011 after they launched the New 52. Obviously with the New 52 launch DC made a big push for digital comics, and I heard the reason DC dropped the letter columns was due to the letter page it not being viewer friendly in a digital format. (This was coming from a Comic Retailer that said he was told this in a retailer summit).
Anywho, my letter to DC in Adventure was edited quite a bit. I sent in a fairly lengthy letter talking about how much I was enjoying the current story arc, which was alternating chapter between Adventure and the latest volume of Legion of Super-Heroes. At that time Mon-El, my favorite Legion character, had just given up the mantle of leader of the Legion to serve as the last Green Lantern in the 30th Century, and man did he have a sweet costume! I wrote in saying I’d be all over a DC Direct figure of that costume design. Well DC chopped up my letter, removed any mention I made to the Legion of Super-Heroes series itself, and simply replied to my letter in print by saying something to the effect of “If you are liking the Legion in Adventure, be sure to read more of their adventures every month in the Legion of Super-Heroes title.” And then they failed to address anything in my actual letter. I felt like Ralphie in a Christmas Story when he finally gets his Little Orphan Annie decoder in the mail, and his top secret message is “Drink More Ovaltine.”
I wrote a few letters in as a kid in the 90’s, but my picking up new comics for sale at that time was so dicey and sporadic, I have no idea if any of those ever made it into print or not.
Fan the Flame and Ride the Wave!
Great show covering a lot of topics. I have a few thoughts.
1) Firestorm – I think it will be the Jason Rusch Firestorm on the spin-off show. My guess is somehow Ronnie self-immolates from his own power. In an attempt to save him, Caitlyn uses some untested cryogenic thingamajig. He still dies. She becomes Killer Frost. She blames Flash for making Firestorm join a fight that wasn’t his. Villainy ensues.
2) Facebook – Others have told me I ‘need’ to join Facebook Shag. This is my favorite story about that. Friend calls me up. “Anj you need to join Facebook! Oh, by the way, did I tell you your psychotic ex-girlfriend tried to friend me last week?” Not the best way to sell it.
3) Highlander – I like the movie. But my friends all LOOOOOVVVVVEEEE it. When Highlander 2 came out, they all went to see the midnight show on the first night. I think I was working so didn’t go. The ire they retold about that movie when I saw them the next day was epic. I think it is the most hated movie ever.
4) Jericho – please continue to pile on the hate. He deserves it.
5) I did write a lot of letters in the day. A couple were shortened but never to the point that the message was changed. Unfortunately, it was rare for the actual letter being printed. Most of the time I was a one-line name drop in the Legion ‘readers outpost’ section of the letter column.
Wow, that was a long one! Going back and forth from my desk and in meetings, lunch, etc, it took me to nearly 3:00!
Good call on Jason Rusch being the mystery hero on the spin-off show. I kept thinking maybe Cyborg, because the movie arm is using the Flash, so it’s fair game.
I am a fan of Star Wars, but by no means a rabid fan. Having said that, the new trailer pushed ALL the right buttons for me, and left me very excited. I know you guys will get into this next week, but the Batman V Superman trailer did not give me these warm fuzzies. I feel like the refreshment combo for that film should come with a large popcorn, large drink and a large Zoloft. So depressing. I expected dark, but this is downright bleak. I hope there is more to it than that, but it honestly turned me off more than on…and I’m a HUGE DC guy, as you two know.
As for letter writing, I actually got my first letter to a comic published in…Who’s Who! Yes, that’s right, I wrote a letter to the loose-leaf version, and editor Michael Eury ran it. I can’t remember the issue number, but you guys will get around to it. Oddly enough, I now write the occasional article for Back Issue, of which Michael Eury is the editor! Small world.
The only other letter I remember was printed in the original version of The Batman Adventures comic, based on Batman: The Animated series. That comic had a contest, where every issue alucky letter writer was picked to win a piece of original art by the series awesome artist, Mike Parobeck! Unfortunately, I never received the art, and I was too dense back then to pursue it with DC, so I never got it. And of course, Parobeck tragically died at a very young age a short time later. Sigh.
Fun show guys. I enjoy these random topic episodes.
Chris
Y’know what my problem is? A short commute to work! It takes days to listen to an episode of the old FWPodcast when you only get 15-20min clips at a time. I always find myself thinking, “Oh! I want to comment on that!” or “I have something to add”, but by the time I get through the whole episode either a) someone else already has or b) I forgot what it was I was going to contribute. It’s a sad existence, isn’t it?
That said, I really enjoyed Highlander in all its varied incarnations (movies, TV and yes, even the animated series), and do a pretty good Christopher Lambert impression. That actually began as a way to annoy one of my friends, who puts the movie WAY too high on a pedestal, into taking it a little less seriously. One day I’ll find a way to share it with you all. And like Father Guido Sarducci once said, “I hope you enjoy it, as much as I enjoy doin’ it to you”
“The Tim Wallace”…I like the sound of that!
Thanks, all, for the feedback on when your letters were printed, and whether or not there were edits that changed the meaning (FYI, for the full version of the letter that Shag read on the podcast, you can find it here: http://firestormfan.com/2015/02/23/fire-water-117/. Unlike Marvel, Shag’s edits did NOT misinterpret the meaning behind my post. Thanks!).
Regarding Brandon Routh’s appearance on The Flash a couple of weeks ago, I’m mildly surprised no one mentioned the shout-out to his Superman role as he appeared flying through the sky (hardly a traditional Atom power) at the beginning of the episode. Like Rob, I think that Superman Returns gets a bad rap. It was actually a very successful movie, both in terms of its critical reviews (Roger Ebert notwithstanding) and its box office returns. Yet all people seem to remember is that Warner decided to go in a different direction (one which I, personally, don’t care much for) with Man of Steel.
Finally, thanks to Shag for the shout-out for my blog. I have indeed returned to a regular posting schedule now, but with a new URL, reflected here.
Good call on Top 10, Shag. The high concept is “Hill Street Blues with super-heroes”, and it is chock full of references, cameos, and sight gags. You should have mentioned Zander Cannon as the other half of the art team though.
By now you’ve heard that the current working title of the DC team show is “Legends of Tomorrow”, although “Legends of Justice” makes more sense to me.
Constantine would make a good fit on the CW, considering that Supernatural is finally ending, and it was a Hellblazer ripoff to start with. Adding a supernatural leg to the DCW-verse isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are characters (Zatanna!) that can slide between all three shows, and the Atlanta setting of Constantine means it can hide in its own corner of the world, until you need a crossover of course.
It’s not “Episode 4″, it’s not “A New Hope”, it’s just Star Wars.
Hearing Rob call our twins Zan and Jayna made me break out in a huge smile! Because we and our friends call them the Wonder Twins all the time! But as someone who listens to and loves the FW podcast was there really ever any doubt I’d call my twins that? Um, nope.
As always, great show guys. I enjoyed hearing everyone’s feedback and the Star Wars trailer talk was welcome too. I must admit I found Ford’s line reading a bit cheesy too but that was such a fan service moment I think it had to come off a wee bit cheesy, no way around that. It did get me excited, that I must admit.
I’m near up to date on listening to this here podcast, but still well behind in commenting on it. It’s tough to type replies during long stints of drive time, and when I’ve had my hands free, I usually give Ryan Daly’s Black Canary podcast Flowers & Fishnets the attention (HE does weekly feedback, you know.) I actually own a copy of Fury of Firestorm #20, and figured I should read it before listening to Shag’s portion of episode 121. I’m still drafting my thoughts on the Alien episode, which is shaping up to be something of an essay, and need to listen to it at least a third time to be comprehensive. I’ll probably have to comment on the Kubert School one soon while I still recall what I wanted to say, but I’m not sure I have much to contribute to Batman’s Gorilla City/Fauxlock Holmes audio adventure. Wait– now there’s a Barbara Gordon Podcast, and Shag guests on it? But I haven’t even touched on most of the Ultraverse CD-ROMix or trading cards! Man, feels like work once I have to establish a timeline on this stuff.
I listened to an interview with the actor that plays Harrison Zolomon or whatever, and he said he passed on the role of mentor/professor until he was told in confidence that he would actually be Zoom. Doubt he’d be interested in walking that back.
Rob missed the obvious pun of saying Constantine was in renewal purgatory, but limbo’s good too, I guess. He also called the Suicidal Squad “Expendables,” even though as a classic movie buff, “Dirty Dozen” duh. Besides, virtually none of the Expendables have been whacked across three movies of reappearances, and that’s only if you count Liam Hemsworth’s created to die member.
There was a time I saw great potential in Aquaman being reworked into dark fantasy/horror, but feel it best the window for such a revision closed after Darkest Night. Better suits Namor, anyway. Having seen Furious 7, my condolences if James Wan does direct the NotQuaman movie. He ruined that franchise, and I hope we see a swap reversal to the vastly superior Justin Lin.
I’ll back up Rob on Woozy Winks being far more W.C. Fields than Lou Costello, and it’s telling how far afield DC has gone from Jack Cole that there’s any confusion on that front. Speaking of Plastic Man, Shag should be made aware that he also had two books running simultaneously in the Golden Age (Police Comics and his eponymous series,) as did Blackhawk (Military Comics,) Wonder Woman (Sensation Comics) and Captain Marvel (TNTL.)
It’s weird and unintentional that #FWPodcast and #MarvelSHP both had lengthy episodes this week peppered with direct, indirect, and passive/aggressive references to one another. Ours is nigh-unlistenable though, so you probably shouldn’t even try to stir your fingers around in our fecund guts this time around…
Re: Woozy Winks.
After reading Frank’s comment above, I decided to check out the Woozy Winks article Wikipedia, which I’m sorry to say only muddies the waters:
“His personality was based on the comedy of Lou Costello while his appearance was based on Hugh Herbert.”
Note, however, that this comment is unsourced, and should not be taken without a healthy grain of salt. That said, it’s intriguing that the article places the Costello-sourcing on the *personality,* and gives the appearance to someone else we haven’t previously discussed.
Take it all for what it’s worth.