abuddah

Agree with Shane 100%. Couldn't swallow the faux science or the tacked on ending or the schmaltzy trip to heaven. It's stunt storytelling and nothing as compelling as something Joss Whedon or Brian K Vaughan could accomplish. Jamie you're really that jazzed to see the adventures of Doc Ock as Spiderman? Well why don't we have Deadpool put on the Cap suit? Or Reed Richards get turned into the Hulk? These are flimsy headline grabbers as hackneyed as gender reversals of an established Superhero (see Ms. Dr. Fate). There are plenty of ways to tell a good Spiderman story without reverting to this claptrap.

The 1st 40 minutes appears to be a "looking forward to...." episode rather than a "Comic Talk"

Flint's V_Mail brings up a point that's been sticking in my craw for over a year. In previous incarnations, CGS would be all over any comic movie to hit the screens. Instead, we're met with apathy and real life excuses. I agree that a "geek cred" shouldn't be revoked if you are a citizen who's just ingesting pop culture at your leisure. But this is CGS. You were at one time the foremost podcast on comic book culture, but since a certain geek left, it's been the farm league. It really has. When's the last time there was a full studio? When's the last time more than three episodes were produced a week? Where's book of the month? Where's the top five lists? Where's the spinoffs promised in the summer of 2011? This is a comic book movie currently at 85% on rottentomatoes, and no one's interested? I'm saddened, I truly am. Radio, no matter how it's distributed is a habitual medium...

I also network the hell out of everyone I know in the industry. I am polite. I give them time as they are busy and owe me nothing. Some folks are very helpful, some are casual, some don't answer back.

KABOOM!
First short fired across the bows! Cue the music!
youtube.com/watch?v=ioE_O7Lm0I4

Will Gallagher respond!? Will Rios interrupt a CGS recording?? Has Pants' flight landed? Does Bryan Deemer even read comics any more?? Stay tuned true believers, the answers in an upcoming podcast!!!!!!

Holy moley you guys liked Nite Owl?! That book has been trashed by just about every reviewer I've come across. Example:

avclub.com/articles/before-watchmen-gets-a-progress-report-and-batman,82191/

J. Michael Straczynski has written good comics in the past, but his writing has taken a steep decline in recent years after ill-conceived stories in The Amazing Spider-Man and Superman. Neither of those titles touches Before Watchmen: Nite Owl #1 (DC), a repugnant book that is an offense to Alan Moore’s work. The overwrought dialogue, the winking references to “TVs that will fit in our pockets,” the gratuitous attempts to make the book “mature”—it all works against the storytelling principles of Watchmen. The “no free lunch” theme of the issue could have been ripped from a seventh-grade creative-writing assignment, and even worse, Straczynski’s plot developments actually diminish Dan Dreiberg’s character.

Of all the Before Watchmen titles, Nite Owl is the one to skip. Straczynski’s idea of fleshing out Dan Dreiberg’s character is giving him an abusive dad who makes his wife beg for him to beat her. The relationship between Dan and (Nite Owl I) Hollis Mason was a major source of heart in Watchmen, but their first meeting is cut short so that the plot can get back to Evil Daddy and his leather belt. Dan comes home from the meeting to find all his Nite Owl memorabilia burned in the backyard, and when his father has a heart attack, he decides to sit in silence with his mother and let him die. Straczynski is trying to turn Nite Owl into Rorschach, and it just doesn’t gel with everything that has been previously established about the character.

It’s unfortunate that Rorschach’s first Before Watchmen appearance is scripted by Straczynski, who writes him as a caricature of Moore’s character. The abuse of Rorschach’s “hurm” for comedic purposes is disgraceful, especially when it happens six times in one issue. Subtlety is lost on Straczynski, who feels the need to have Nite Owl talk about his creeping sense that Silk Spectre and he are meant to be together, a sentiment that’s expressed much more gracefully in a four-panel sequence of Nite Owl watching Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre flirt. The closing lines of the issue have a Saturday-morning-cartoon feel, which is the last thing that should be said about anything associated with Watchmen. It’s a shame the story is so rough, because the art team of Andy and Joe Kubert is phenomenal, with Joe’s inks bringing a layer of grit to the story that the writing fails to capture.

There isn't a face palm big enough for this dopey decision. Marvel did all this work undoing the marriage and essentially de-aging Peter Parker and now saddles him with a sidekick emphasizing his age even more? This is why I've only read the Ultimate title.