It's manga time!

Until now, we've only covered manga adaptations of video games, but we're jumping into our first long-form manga with the wildly popular One Piece by Eichiro Oda. 

We read the first volume to figure out just who this straw hat kid is and why this book has spawned a whole media empire.

Then we get into the meat of Earth X with issue #1, in which we try to determine if Spider-Man is a cop now.

Next Time: Harrow County, Vol. 2: Twice Told

Swamp Thing! Do you still make our heart sing?

We return to Alan Moore's classic series with Volume 4: A Murder of Crows, which collects issues #43-50 where we get some nice redesigns of Swamp Thing's flora.

We also tie into the Crisis and meet lots of other heroes, plus we get some more insight into what John Constantine is like.

Then we move onto our next long read with Earth X #0, which is set in the future... we think. It's hard to tell after this introductory issue.

It's a time travel story!

This week on the show, we're reading some Fantastic Four from the early 90s in issues #350 & 352, written and drawn by the great Walt Simonson (don't worry about issue #351).

We dip our toe into the FF status quo from this era to see a new Thing?

And then another new Thing?!?!

Then we move onto the finale of Knightfall in Batman #500 where our new replacement Batman has his final fight against Bane.

The Eisner Awards have come again, so we thought we'd dip our toe into some modern comics with the winner of the best ongoing series, Nightwing by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo.

They're a few arcs into the book at this point, so we're starting with their first volume, Leaping into the Light, when the new creative team took over with issues #78-83.

In this episode, we will also reveal the secret to creating the perfect Eisner-award winning comic.

Then we near the end of Knightfall with chapter 18 in Detective Comics #666, in which we get a pretty great batprank on some goons.

Next Time: Fantastic Four #350-352 by Walt Simonson

Bongo Comics has been publishing Simpsons and Futurama comics for decades. With the release of the new season of Futurama, we take our first look at this corner of the comic book universe with the Simpsons/Futurama Crossover Crisis collection, compiling two different 2-issue crossover events from 2002 and 2005.

But how do these gag comics compare with some of the others that we've read? And will we be the next voice cast for the Groening-verse?  Kia or Chris?

The answers lie within.

And of course, we continue our long read of Knightfall with Chapter 17 in Batman #499, in which nobody bothers to tell Robin anything at all.

Next Time: The Eisner Award-winning Nightwing: Leaping Into the Light by Tom Taylor & Bruce Redondo!

It's been a long time, but we're finally getting back to some of Ed Brubaker's run on Captain America. We've been building up to the big death scene... it's gonna happen soon! We swear!

Just not in this episode. 

We read issues #18-24 where Cap takes a trip to the UK and fights a giant robot with Bucky, and then the Civil War event breaks out and we spend some time with the ensemble cast.

After that, it's back to some more of Knightfall with Chapter 16 in Detective Comics 665, where Bruce Wayne learns he can't fight thugs quite as well while he's in a wheelchair.

It's time to enter the Spider-Verse once again, as we revisit a world where Gwen Stacy became Spider-Woman. It's Spider-Gwen!

We already read the introductory issue back when we covered Edge of Spider-Verse, but now we dive into the first 5 issues of the ongoing series from 2015 (before it got relaunched with a new #1 later in 2015).

Then, we get back into the main story of Knightfall with Chapter 15 in Batman #498, where Bane takes over the city while Robin & Alfred tell lies and beat up cars.

This show's been going for over 200 episodes and somehow we've never covered Days of Future Past? It's only two issues too, a nice little self-contained story by Chris Claremont and John Byrne in Uncanny X-Men #141-142 (but we talked about the whole trade which contains #138-143).

Then we continue our long read of Knightfall with Chapter 14 in Showcase'93 #8, in which Two-Face holds a legally accurate mock trial.

Next Time: Spider-Gwen (2015) #1-5

It's noir time again as we revisit some Ed Brubaker! This time, we're covering his Catwoman run with artists Darwyn Cooke and Mike Allred which starts in The Dark End of the Street, a collection that contains two whole stories!

The first is Slam Bradley on the hunt for Catwoman which originally ran as backups in Detective Comics 759-762, and then we jump into Catwoman #1-4 from 2002.

And then it's more Batman as we continue Knightfall Chapter 13 with a strange Two-Face tie-in from Showcase '93 #7.

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Don't forget, Chris & Nick will be doing a live recording of the Your Stupid Minds podcast at Comicpalooza in Houston, TX on Friday, May 26 at 4:30 PM central.  They'll be covering the 2004 Catwoman movie!

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Next Time: X-Men - Days of Future Past (Uncanny X-Men 138-143)

Aliens! Predators! Robots! Androids! Monkeys! Asshole Businessmen! Nerds! Marines! They're all here as we revisit Dark Horse's AvP crossover universe with 1995's Aliens vs Predator: War by Randy Stradley.

We check in with Michiko again now that she's lived with the Predators for a year, and apparently she doesn't like it!

Then we see the fallout of Batman's broken back with Knightfall Chapter 12 in Detective Comics 664.

Next Time: Catwoman: Dark End of the Street by Ed Brubaker & Darwyn Cooke

Ok so Frank Castle (The Punisher) is imbued with the Spirit of Vengeance (Ghost Rider) and he goes back in time to kill Baby Thanos, but instead decides to kidnap and adopt him.

Also, Frank was the herald of Galactus for a bit, and THEY FIGHT SPACE SHARKS. Hell of a premise in 2018's Cosmic Ghost Rider by Donny Cates and Dylan Burnett.

After that, we finally get to the famous bat-back-breaking issue in Knightfall, when Bane scores a big victory in Batman #497.

Next Time - Alien vs Predator: War (1995)

It's time.

Time to revisit one of the worst comics we've ever read on the show... Frank Miller's All Star Batman & Robin, the famously crass and unfinished alternate universe version of "The Goddamn Batman."

Our friend Nick (from the Your Stupid Minds podcast) joined us back when we read the first 6 issues, so of course we had to invite him back to talk about issues 7-10.

We were all desperate for some classic Batman after that, so Nick also joined us as we continued our long read of Batman: Knightfall with Chapter 10 in Detective Comics #663.

Next Time: Cosmic Ghost Rider (2018) + Knightfall #11 (The Breaking of the Batman)

April is nearly upon us, and that means we're about to hit our favorite holiday, April Fools Day, when the world famously decides to all read bad comics together.

For our first bad comic this season, we're reading Secret Invasion, the 2008 Marvel event by Brian Michael Bendis and Leinil Francis Yu. Which heroes are really Skrulls? Does it matter? Is this comic as bad as we remember?

After answering those questions, we continue our long read of Knightfall with Chapter 9 in Batman #496.

Next Time: All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder Pt. 2 (Issues #7-10)

It's been a long time since we read any Alex Ross but today we decided to take a look at his newest book, Fantastic Four: Full Circle, a story exploring some of the FF's past with the Negative Zone.

Alex Ross abandons his painterly for something a little different, and he also wrote this book too!

Then we continue our long read of Batman: Knightfall with Chapter 8 in Detective Comics 662, a story that focuses on The Riddler while Batman hangs out with a monkey.

Next Time: Secret Invasion #1-8

It's our 200th episode!

And we're celebrating by reading an unfinished comic that can't be purchased anywhere, Alan Moore's 1963 -- A 6-issue Image comic from 1993 that is one big homage to the silver age of comics, with art from frequent Moore collaborators Rick Veitch, Steve Bissette, and Dave Gibbons. 

We meet a bunch of brand new heroes who miiiiight tie back into the present day somehow.

Then we move onto Chapter 7 of Knightfall with Batman #495 where Poison Ivy tries to kiss a bunch of rich people!

Next Time: Fantastic Four: Full Circle by Alex Ross

It's time for the 2nd half of our Young Avengers two-parter! We dive into issues #7-12 and learn more about Teddy's birthright while also speed-running the secret of Billy's speedster twin brother (because they gotta wrap this series up ASAP).

Then we continue Batman: Knightfall with Chapter 6 in Detective Comics #661, where we learn to NEVER mess with the firefighter's union.

We're jumping back to mid-2000s Marvel with a 2-part look at Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung's Young Avengers, a brand new teen superhero team starring Kate Bishop, Cassie Lang, and some other friends from the MCU!

We also get to spend plenty of time with Jessica Jones, Captain America, and Iron Man as they try to figure out just who the Young Avengers are and why Kang is involved.

Then the Joker hires a Scarecrow-knockoff in Chapter 5 of Knightfall in Batman #494.

Next Time: We finish Young Avengers with issues 7-12!

Can Wolverine run a school? That's the premise of Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo's "Wolverine and the X-Men" from 2011.

There's more to it than that: A new Hellfire Club is attacking. The Department of Education is inspecting. One of the students should probably be in jail.

We read the first 4 issues to see how Wolverine survives. Then we continue Knightfall with Chapter 4 in Detective Comics #660.

As one of Japan's most popular characters, of course Mario would have his own manga. It's been running for 30 years but somehow it just got its first English translation in 2020 with a greatest hits compilation called Super Mario Manga Mania.

And you can't get a digital copy anywhere. This is the comic that finally broke the show. Nevertheless we persevere.

And of course we also read the next chapter of the Knightfall saga in Batman #493 in which Zsasz threatens to slice up a bunch of people, and Batman is just plain tired.

Next Time: Wolverine and the X-Men #1-4 by Jason Aaron & Chris Bachalo

Website: allmyfriendsarerighthere.com (go check it out, Vince paid $18 for the domain)