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The Hour Cosmic Presents: Our Favorite Cross-Publisher Battles, and a Bonus Episode with Joshua Hale Fialkov

By , and | June 19th, 2014
Posted in Columns | % Comments

In case you missed the most recent installment of The Hour Cosmic, your favorite comics game show podcast (Episode 71: New 52 Martha Wayne with Gabo), we played a game, inspired by EnterVoid.com, a website Gabo created, where we pitted some of the biggest names in comics from different publishers against each other, middle school cafeteria style. Well, we decided to take it a step further and share some of our favorite all-time cross-publisher battles with you guys here today.

Originally, Joshua Hale Fialkov, writer of Gabo’s upcoming series for Oni Press, “The Life After,” was supposed to join us for the show but wasn’t able to make it. So, last night, Brian and Josh recorded a special mini-episode, which you can hear by listening below, and can get the full show notes for by scrolling to the bottom of the post.

Bonus Episode: Velouria with Joshua Hale Fialkov

Brian’s Pick: Green Lantern and Silver Surfer Vs. Parallax and Thanos from “Green Lantern/Silver Surfer”

Kyle Rayner was, and is, one of my favorite characters in all of comics – his creativity and passion were true inspirations to a young Brian, and I still cherish the early years of the character among my favorite times of any comic run. Toss in the Silver Surfer, one of my favorite Marvel characters, and this was a crossover I needed to buy.

But to pair the two up against Parallax (Hal Jordan) and Thanos was an absolute stroke of genius by Ron Marz, Darryl Banks, and co. Thanos wants to use Kyle’s power to destroy both the DC and Marvel universes, so that he might truly join Lady Death; Parallax wants to use the Surfer’s power cosmic to repair all the sins they’ve committed over their lifetimes.

Unrelenting hope and unrelenting despair look awfully similar here, and we get some of the coolest cosmic battles of the era to boot. What isn’t to love about this battle?

Matt’s Pick: Slade Wilson Vs. Wade Wilson from “Superman/Batman” Annual #1

“Superman/Batman” Annual #1 featured Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness coming together again to tell a one-and-done story that, to me, stands above and beyond pretty much every other issue of the series — and it was a really impressive anthology series. Kelly and McGuinness getting back together is like seeing one of your favorite bands reunite, though, and not only did they knock it out of the park with a fun little story about Superman and Batman dealing with their Earth-2 counterparts Ultraman and Owlman (pre-New 52) but they managed to sneak in the best DC/Marvel crossover to date: the meeting of Deathstroke and his shameless rip-off, Deadpool.

Now, to be fair: since his inception, Deadpool has very much become his own character. But any comic fan who happens to like either Wade or Slade certainly knows that the similarity between the Merc with a Mouth and the Terminator is too uncanny to be coincidental, and Kelly and McGuinness — who had a very notable “Deadpool” run together — lampoon the heck out of it. It’s perhaps one of the funniest running gags of any issue in the series, and the jokes and meta-commentary here are beyond outstanding.

Chad’s Pick: Punisher vs. Archie in “Archie Meets Punisher”

Back in the Golden Age of comics that was 1994, I was a charming 15 year old who was waaaaaaay too cool for Archie comics, okay? Afterall, what was so great about Archie when compared to the exploits of one Cable and his dashing band of mutant lawbreakers known as X-Force? By then, I’d pretty much seen all I needed to see where Archie was concerned, and had absolutely zero time to spend on America’s Favorite Teen™? Then this happened:

The Punisher Meets Archie (or Archie Meets The Punisher depending on the cover you picked up…) was a one-shot crossover that nobody expected, but everybody wanted. Written by Batton Lash, with art by Archie alum Stan Goldberg and Marvel legend John Buscema, it finds the Punisher visiting Riverdale in search of a drug pusher named Red. Red just happens to look an awful lot like — you guessed it — Archie Andrews, so naturally, trouble ensues when Big Frank mistakes Archie for the dude. The real Red ends up kidnapping Veronica, which sets-up Arch’ and Frank’s real team-up. The duo save both Veronica and Riverdale, and even manage to take down a few rival drug lords in the process. It’s a damn hoot!

Continued below

And you can probably tell I have fond memories of this comic, but what really stands out in the here and now is how in-line with Archie’s current publishing initiative it feels. You can almost draw a straight line from Archie Meets The Punisher to the company’s most innovative projects of today, like Afterlife with Archie, Archie Meets KISS, and the upcoming Death of Archie story. I credit this comic with proving to me that Archie could be cool, but more than that, for reminding Archie Comics they could take chances, and in doing so, make comics even more fun!

On the show next week is our pal Tim Daniel, writer of “Enormous” for 215 Ink.

Tim is a past guest, our go-to graphic designer, and a good friend to the site.

Make sure to visit @TheHourCosmic and retweet this tweet by 10pm Eastern Time tonight (Thursday), which will enter you in a contest to win a prize if Tim wins the game!

In our first ever bonus episode, Josh Filakov joins Brian to talk about:

– Middle names!

– His obsession with the end of days!

– The Pixies!

In case you’ve forgotten…

Joshua Hale Fialkov is a 13-year veteran of working in the sequential arts, currently writing the “The Life After” and “The Bunker” for Oni Press, and is about to launch “The Devillers” for Dynamite. He is wrapping up his run on “Ultimate FF” for Marvel. In the past, Josh has written “I, Vampire” for DC, “Alpha: Big Time” for Marvel, “Last of the Greats” for Image, as well as the Eisner nominated “Tumor” for Archaia and the Harvey nominated “Echoes” for Top Cow and “Elk’s Run” for Villard. He has a website, a Facebook fan page, and can be followed on Twitter (@JoshFialkov).

You can direct download the episode here.

Thanks for checking out our show – we hope to see you back here next week!


//TAGS | The Hour Cosmic

Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

EMAIL | ARTICLES

Chad Bowers

Chad Bowers has been reading comics for most of his life. His transition from fan to professional is a work in progress. He’s the co-founder of ACTION AGE COMICS, creator of the webcomic MONSTER PLUS, co-creator of AWESOME HOSPITAL, THE HARD ONES, and DOWN SET FIGHT (coming soon from Oni Press) with Chris Sims. He reviews comics, writes G.I. JoeVersity, and co-hosts The Hour Cosmic for Multiversity Comics! If you've got nothing better to do, you can follow him on Twitter or Tumblr.

EMAIL | ARTICLES

Matthew Meylikhov

Once upon a time, Matthew Meylikhov became the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Multiversity Comics, where he was known for his beard and fondness for cats. Then he became only one of those things. Now, if you listen really carefully at night, you may still hear from whispers on the wind a faint voice saying, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine is not as bad as everyone says it issss."

EMAIL | ARTICLES


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