Spotlight: Superf*ckers by James Kochalka – buy it here!

Show notes:

Honeydew And Magic Kickstarter by Nikki Stu: link.
Instant Prezi for Education How-to by Domi Sinclair: link.
The sad story of Batman’s real creator, Bill Finger: link.
Oh Joy Sex Toy by Erika Moen (NSFW): link.

Show timings:

00:06:30 Our weeks
00:24:30 This week’s comics
00:24:30 2000AD #1833
00:25:30 X-Men Legacy #11
00:30:30 Superior Spider-Man #10 by Dan Slott & Ryan Stegman
00:34:30 Sex #3 by Joe Casey & Piotr Kowalski
00:37:30 Daredevil #26 by Mark Waid & Chris Samnee
00:40:30 Bounce #1 by Joe Casey & David Messina
00:44:30 Solid State Tank Girl #1 by Alan Martin & Warwick Johnson Cadwell
00:45:30 Batman Incorporated #11 by Chris Burnham & Jorge Lucas

00:50:30 Awkward Middle Bit: Nikki Stu kickstarter/Domi’s book/Anniversary thoughts/Bill Finger

00:59:30 Spotlight: Superf*ckers by James Kochalka

01:15:30 Our coming weeks
01:20:00 Oh Joy Sex Toy

The sequel to JJ Abrams 2009 reboot hits the ground running. It kicks off with a noisy flashy action sequence where the Enterprise crew break the Prime Directive in order to save a primitive species from a planet-devastating volcano. Anyone familiar with classic Trek would know that the Prime directive is a non-interference policy which would have them stand-by and watch the pre-warp civilization perish, rather than interfere in their culture in anyway. The sequence is reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark, in which Kirk and McCoy are chased by spear-throwing tribesmen through a lavish red jungle. The 3D looks spectacular and almost makes you feel like you should duck, as each spear appears to lurch from the screen into the gripped audience.

The action then moves to Starfleet HQ, and I should warn that beyond this point, there be spoilers!

Kirk receives a grilling from Pike and a demotion to First Officer for not letting a whole world die a scorching hot death, following Spock’s liberal grassing-up of Kirk in his report. Spock is reassigned to the USS Bradbury. Meanwhile, a terrorist named John Harrison bombs a library in Central London. Admirals and Captains convene to discuss the attack, and then Harrison takes them out in an aerial assault of the meeting room. The action comes this thick and fast. There is not a moment’s pause.

From here John Harrison flees to the Klingon Homeworld via Scotty’s enhanced transporter from the 2009 film (negating the need for Starships), and the Enterprise crew are ordered to the edge of Klingon space with 72 new torpedos to fire at the unhabited area of the Klingon Homeworld where Harrison is hiding, executing him without a trial.

None of this seems particularly Starfleet, yet there is a good reason for this. The shadowy Section 31 (from the excellent Deep Space Nine episodes) are behind John Harrison, and are prepared do anything to preserve the Federation way of life. They have a warship, the Dreadnought Class USS Vengeance at their disposal, which is 3 times the size of the Enterprise and armed to the teeth.

The John Harrison reveal is handled well. He is a character from the original series, who was discovered in the first season episode “Space Seed”. A genetically engineered tyrant, who posed as Kirk’s friend only to betray him and attempt to take over the ship. He was then marooned on Ceti Alpha 5 and returned with a vengeance in 1982′s The Wrath of Khan. This new take on Khan keeps the character calm, viscious and superior. Benedict Cumberbatch plays it well, keeping him centred, cold, and calculating. He speaks slow and over-articulates every word. He remains devoted to his crew, who remain in deep freeze.

The film has many nods to the classics. There is a reversal of the classic Spock death from Wrath of Khan, which even repeats key phrases, such as “the ship?” “out of danger”. There is also a welcome cameo from an original series cast member, and references to Christine Chapel (the nurse played by the late Mrs. Roddenberry, Majel Barret in the original series). The Millenium Falcon-esque ship they fly to the Klingon Homeworld is revealed to have been confiscated from Harry Mudd (a name familiar to old school Trekkers like myself form the episodes “Mudd’s Women” and “I, Mudd”). We also see Sulu in the Captain’s chair, as a nod to his future from The Undiscovered Country.

There are space battles, and stunning set-pieces. Some feel like an audition tape for Star Wars, but each remain fun and exciting enough to entertain the masses.

The film has its flaws of course. A huge starship crashes into a heavly populated Starfleet Command, and yet the death toll is n0t even mentioned. There didn’t even appear to be an attempt to beam people away from the crashing ship. Also there is Scotty flying a shuttlecraft to Jupiter to investigate sinister happenings. He flies by a massive spacestation housing the USS Vengeance, and yet he remains undetected by their scanners, and simply joins a fleet of other shuttle craft. Security in sinister shadowy sectors of Starfleet is really lapse. It was similar to Obi-Wan in Attack of the Clones flying over a fleet of landed Trade Federation ships on Geonosis without so much as an alarm triggered. Indeed both scenes were very similar.

All the characters are well performed. They recall the original performances from the original series. Simon Pegg’s Scotty in particular, has some great comedic moments that prevent the film from being too heavy.

It’s a fun film in the Star Trek canon. Sure it is still missing something, but these new Trek films are akin to new Battlestar Galactica, in that they are removed from the originals and not the same entity, they just have a similar starting point. The Summer crowd will be pleased at a fun and engaging film, which whilst full of holes, still makes for an entertaining 2 plus hours. There is also enough for old school Trekkers like myself to enjoy. This is not the Star Trek I grew up with, but it is a fun and entertaining sci-fi blockbuster, and is great to see some space-set action once more.

Spotlight: Smoke And Guns by Kirsten Baldock & Fabio Moon – buy it here!

Show Notes:

Star Wars and Doctor Who fans clash at Norwich convention – link.
Pandemic board game – link.
Go to Google Images, search for Atari Breakout, enjoy!

Show Timings:

00:05:30 – Our weeks

00:26:30 – This Week’s Comics
00:26:30 – The Legend Of Luther Strode #5 by Justin Jordan & Tradd Moore
00:32:30 – Jennifer Blood #27 by Mike Carroll & Eman Casallos
00:34:00 - Battlestar Galactica #1 by Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning & Cezar Razek
00:38:30 – FF#7 by Matt Fraction & Mike Allred
00:40:00 – Conan The Barbarian #16  by Brian Wood & Davide Gianfelice
00:41:00 – Solid State Tank Girl #1 by Alan Martin & Warwick Johnson Cadwell
00:51:00 – 2000AD
00:55:00 – Dream Thief #1 by Jai Nitz & Greg Smallwood

01:01:00 – Awkward Middle Bit – Warring fandoms and competition winners!

01:09:30 – Spotlight: Smoke And Guns by Kirsten Baldock & Fabio Moon

01:23:00 – Our coming weeks

MOMB by Martin Eden!

Spotlight: Asterix In Switzerland by Goscinny & Uderzo – buy it here!

Show Notes:

West & The Whale House available at the Angry Candy store – link.
MOMBcast FCBD special – link.
Stephen Lacey – link.
The Man Who Laughs by David Hine & Mark Stafford - buy it here!

Show Timings:

00:02:30 Our weeks

00:21:30 This Week’s Comics
00:21:30 Avenging Spider-Man #20 by Chris Yost & Marco Checchetto
00:23:30 Avengers #11 by Jonathan Hickman & Mike Deodato Jr
00:26:00 Star Wars #5 by Brian Wood & Carlos D’Anda
00:30:00 Batman #20 by Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo
00:37:00 Prophet #35 by Brandon Graham/Simon Roy & Giannis Milonogiannis
00:38:00 Avengers Arena #9 by Dennis Hopeless & Kev Walker
00:39:30 X #0/1 by Duane Swierczynski & Eric Nguyen
00:46:30 West Dusk part 1 by Andrew Cheverton & Tim Keable/The Whale House #2 by Andrew Cheverton & Chris Doherty

00:51:00 Stephen Lacey on The Man Who Laughs by David Hine & Mark Stafford

00:56:00 Spotlight: Asterix in Switzerland by Goscinny & Uderzo

We talk about a few comics, but to be honest this year reading and recording was secondary to talking to people who came to the table – we met a lot of awesome people, including a few fellow podcasters we didn’t know about, a cosplay costume-making couple, a man who buys comics for our city library, and at least one new friend who stuck around with us all day.

And by the way, if you’re one of the people I just mentioned, you should definitely get in touch with us somehow, like we suggested. At this event, we weren’t being insincere with anyone about that. You were all ace.

The very generous folk at Forbidden Planet Southampton also gave us a whole bunch of Free Comic Book Day comics to give away, so like last year we’re running a competition!

To enter, send us an email to MOMBcast@gmail.com with the answer to this question:

How many individual comics, NOT including graphic novels and collected editions/trade paperbacks, did Forbidden Planet Southampton sell on Free Comic Book Day 2013 (04/05/2013)?

(There are kinda little clues in the show itself, but probably nothing that gives it away.)

The closest answer wins a bundle including one copy of every FCBD comic made available to the store. Runners up will each receive smaller bundles of FCBD comics.

The competition closes at 18:00 on Thursday 16th May, GMT.

Everybody is free to enter, except for employees of Forbidden Planet or MOMB, and we’ll dispatch to anywhere in the world.

(So we’re hoping the prizes will go to someone local, but we’ll abide by whoever actually wins!)

Hosted by JaneMOMB, JamesMOMB, and Nixsight.
Special guests Michael Georgiou and David Wynne.
Forbidden Planet hosts James and Steve.

We’d like to thank all of the people at Forbidden Planet Southampton, as well as all of the people we met, for being awesome.

(The sound quality on this show is a little sketchy throughout, so sorry about that.)

Show Timings:

00:00:00 Introduction
00:06:00 A message in support of our libraries
00:09:30 First wave of comics
00:30:30 Second wave of comics
00:49:00 Third wave of comics
01:07:30 Interviews with FP James, David Wynne & Mike Georgiou
01:23:30 Competition details

Spotlight book: Beasts Of Burden – Animal Rites by Evan Dorkin & Jill Thompson – buy it here!
Contributors: Timothy Swann and David Wynne.

Show Notes:
Temporary Anesthetics by Don Hertzfeldt – link
Particle Fiction by David Wynne – link

Show Timings:

00:03:00 Our weeks

00:19:30 This week’s comics:
00:19:30 Hawkeye #10 by Matt Fraction & Francesco Francavilla
00:20:30 Snapshot #4 by Andy Diggle & Jock
00:23:00 X-Men Legacy #10 by Si Spurrier & Paul Davidson
00:28:00 Superior Spider-Man #9 by Dan Slott & Ryan Stegman
00:32:00 Dan The Unharmable # by David Lapham & Rafael Ortiz
00:34:30 The Movement #1 by Gail Simone & Freddy Williams 2
00:37:30 Batman #20 by John Layman & Jason Fayboc
00:40:00 Animal Man #20 by Jeff Lemire & John Paul Leon

00:49:00 Timothy Swann on Temporary Anesthetics – link.
00:49:00 Awkward Middle Bit – Comic Alliance Closure
01:01:00 David Wynne on FCBD

01:08:00 Spotlight: Beasts Of Burden – Animal Rites by Evan Dorkin & Jill Thompson

01:20:30 Our weeks

Show Timings:
00:03:30 Our weeks

00:19:00 This Week’s Comics
00:19:00 I, Vampire by Joshua Hale Fialkov & Fernando Blanco/Andrea Sorrentino
00:23:00 Masks #6 by Chris Roberson & Dennis Calero
00:26:00 Guardians Of The Galaxy #2 by Brian Michael Bendis & Steve McNiven/Sara Pichelli
00:30:30 Batman Incorporated #10 by Grant Morrison & Chris Burnham
00:40:00 East Of West #2 by Jonathan Hickman & Nick Dragotta
00:40:30 Manhattan Projects #11 by Jonathan Hickman & Nick Pitarra
00:41:30 Avengers Arena #8 by Dennis Hopeless & Kev Walker
00:42:00 FF #6 Matt Fraction & Joe Quinones
00:46:00 The Massive #11 by Brian Wood & Declan Shalvey
00:49:00 2000AD #1829

00:50:00 Michael Georgiou on Bob Costumes

00:51:00 Awkward Middle Bit: Free Comic Book Day

00:57:00 Spotlight: Hilda & The Bird Parade by Luke Pearson

01:07:30 Our coming weeks

Show Timings:
00:03:30 Our weeks

00:18:00 This week’s comics
00:18:30 Captain America #7 by Rick Remender & John Romita Jr
00:22:00 Conan The Barbarian #15 by Brian Wood & Andrea Mutti
00:26:00 Wonder Woman #19 by Brian Azzarrello & Goran Sudzuka
00:28:30 Daredevil #25 by Mark Waid & Chris Samnee
00:32:30 Godzilla #11 by Duane Swierczynski & Simon Gane
00:33:30 Superior Spider-Man #8 by Dan Slott & Humberto Ramos
00:37:00 Hawkeye #9 by Matt Fraction & Dave Aja
00:39:00 X-Men Legacy #9 by Si Spurrier & Tan Eng Huat
00:42:00 2000AD #1828

00:45:00 Awkward Middle Bit: Superman’s birthday, movie trailers, Eisners

00:54:00 Spotlight: Asterix And The Roman Agent by Goscinny & Uderzo

01:07:00 Our coming weeks

Buy Mezolith by Ben Haggarty & Adam Brockbank here!

Show Timings:

00:01:30 Our weeks

00:18:00 This week’s comics
00:20:00 Fantastic Four #6 by Matt Fraction & Mark Bagley
00:23:30 Sex #2 by Joe Casey & Piotr Kowalski
00:29:00 Saga #11 by Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples
00:38:00 Bedlam #6 by Nick Spencer & Riley Rossmo
00:43:00 Batman #19 by Scott Snyder/James Tynion IV & Greg Capullo/Alex Maleev
00:47:30 Star Wars #4 by Brian Wood & Carlos D’anda

00:53:00 Awkward Middle Bit: Old British reprints/Doctor Who

01:01:30 Michael Georgiou on Fairest

01:05:30 Spotlight: Mezolith by Ben Haggarty & Adam Brockbank

01:24:00 Our coming weeks

Roll Call:
Matt Dyson!
Luke Searle!
Graham Johnson!
Mike Georgiou!
Stephen Lacey!

Huge thanks to the LoSM again, and special thanks to Matt Dyson for pulling it all together!