Episode 21 has gone LIVE, my friends. This week we are down a man as Jeeg has flown off to Europe to find himself. In the meantime, we invited Vanessa and Erika from Girls Gone Geek to join us for a lively discussion about comic books.

Specifically we are talking about comic book scenarios. What sidekick would we like to have? What would we do if we ever got super powers? What character would we kill and make sure stays dead? These are the nerdy questions we ask ourselves and sometimes answer with very little geeky rambling.  Well, some rambling.

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The reboot led to a revamp of Action Comics, a renaming of the old Superman book to The Adventures of Superman as well as the launch of a brand new Superman book.  The new Superman book as well as Action Comics would be written and drawn by John Byrne.  The Adventures of Superman would be written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Jerry Ordway.  And this month, the post Crisis Superman reboot celebrates its 25th anniversary.

Here is a DC in-house ad advertising the launch of the new Superman titles.

The three issues that started the reboot and featured in this ad are Superman #1, The Adventures of Superman #424 (previously titled Superman) and Action Comics #584.  This reboot was a pretty big event and DC advertised it to the hilt.

For the most part, I wasn’t a fan of the Marv Wolfman Adventure issues, but I was a HUGE fan of the Byrne Superman and Action Comics titles.  His art and action packed writing style made Superman fun to read.  I still have many of the original issues.

Anyway, in celebration of the 25th anniversary, here are 5 reasons why the John Byrne Superman titles kicked so much ass.

Superman got into fights with EVERYONE - Under John Byrne, Action Comics essentially became a free-for-all.  It turned into a team up book starring Superman and another character (a la Brave & the Bold for Batman).  Within the majority of those issues, Superman wound up getting into a fight with his co-stars, usually over some misunderstanding.  But Byrne drew the fights with awesome jaw cracking detail.  The regular Superman title was the same way with Supes fighting the Legion, Metallo, Supergirl and a giant mutant ape.

Superman didn’t always win his fights (Bizarro, Metallo, Superboy, Rampage, Supergirl) – So, as I said,  Superman fought a lot.  And surprisingly, he actually got his ass kicked…a lot.  At least every other issue featured a panel of Superman getting either smacked in the face or being hit so hard he flies through the air.  Check out the myriad of comic panels above showing the Man of Steel on the receiving end of a Bronx haymaker.

Clark Kent wears a belt buckle with the initials CK – Click this image to see it full size and check out Clark’s belt buckle. It’s engraved with his initials.  HIS INITIALS.  Who does that?!  Apparently Clark Kent does.  It sort of falls in line with Byrne’s reimagining of Clark Kent as a former high school jock.  He’s a bit more of a douchey former football player in this series.  So that little character bit works.

Darkseid drinks brandy from a snifter glass – From Action Comics #593. Scott Free (aka Mr Miracle) walks into his house to Darkseid sitting in a chair drinking brandy. From a snifter.  How bad ass is that? And you have to imagine Darkseid slowly turning the chair around as Scott walks into the room. So awesome.  But also awesome is the fact that Mr mutha-f**kin Miracle lives in a house in suburban Metropolis and routinely comes and goes from said house in full costume.  I want to live in that neighborhood.

Action Comics #593 – So, we see above that Darkseid breaks into Mr Miracle’s house.  However he’s not there to just drink brandy and look awesome.  He’s there to show Scott (Mr Miracle) a video tape. First of all, Scott’s wife, Big Barda, has been missing for a while and Scott’s been trying to find her. Darkseid finds out where she is and shows up to give this piece of info to Scott. Mostly because the news will anguish Scott so much that Darkseid will get his enjoyment out of the suffering. Anyway, Darkseid has this video, and he pops it in the VCR and shows it to Scott. Here’s the reaction shot of Scott watching the video.

What could possibly be on this tape? Well, Scott goes to investigate.

Scott travels to the Metropolis ghetto called Suicide Slum.  And there he catches Superman and Big Barda about to film an amateur porn.  It’s not explicitly stated that it’s a porn, but read the panels.  It’s porn.  A super hero porn.  There’s actually mention of super hero porn earlier talking about strange niche videos that are sold in the slums of Metropolis.  Super hero porn is an interesting idea that was also mentioned in a 1999 Alan Moore comic called Top 10.

Anyway, Scott naturally goes Batman and bursts into the studio through a skylight and break things up before they go too far, well, any further than they’ve obviously already gone because Scott watched one of the videos in the beginning of this comic.

So, Scott busts in, separates our two heroes and we next discover that a slimy little empath demon called Sludge (seen in the earlier panel above) is feeding off the misery and emotions of these super heroes and making them do things they normally wouldn’t.  Like awesome, awesome super hero porn.

So Superman, Big Barda and Scott clean house and set everything back to normal.  But they can never reverse the awkwardness of the fact that Superman and Big Barda did a porn.  Together.  And there’s video proof.  Of which I’m sure EVERYONE in Metropolis has a copy.  Because why wouldn’t you?

(Via mommysdirtylittlesecret.com)

In a move designed to make this episode seem less creepy and lecherous, we are joined by Kristin from the Geek Girls Network. You are going to love her, she’s hilarious.  And yes, we actually talk about half human half turtle babies.  We go there.  And Kristin is the one to bring it up.  I am so in love with this episode.

Anyway, download this episode from iTunes, Zune Marketplace or listen to it on Feedburner.

Again, this is a very visual topic (like the Nerd Decor episode) so I thought I’d give you guys a visual reference to some of my cartoon crushes. These are in no particular order, listen to the podcast to see what category in which I put these lovely ladies.

Supergirl (Kara-Zor El) – Introduced in Batman/Superman in 2003 by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Michael Turner.

Elise – From the SSX snowboard video game franchise.

Madelyn Pryor – AKA The Goblin Queen. Evil clone of Jean Grey. Created by Mr Sinister and featured in Marvel’s Inferno crossover event in 1989.

Invisible Woman – From the Marvel Ultimate universe.

Welcome your faces to Episode 7 of the Nerd Lunch Podcast.  This week we are joined by Robert from the blog To The Escape Hatch. Our topic is “Does It Live Up to the Hype?”

We each took a TV show or movie that has been recommended/hyped up to us over the years that we never got around to watching and…we watched it. Some of the things we watch include Braveheart, Mad Men and The Wire. Do they live up to the hype? Listen to the podcast to find out.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner.

This the is final day of AWESOME-tober-fest 2011 comic book week in which I look at comic books featuring the character of Dracula. Today I’m going to look at the epic battle between the Lord of the Vampires and the Dark Knight Detective.

Today’s comic is Batman & Dracula: Red Rain from 1991.  Yes, Batman vs Dracula in an Elseworlds tale.  How badass is that? The book was written by Doug Moench and illustrated by Kelley Jones. This was a very popular graphic novel and spawned a cartoon movie that was loosely based on the story.

This graphic novel has Batman investigating a series of murders affecting Gotham’s homeless population. Batman discovers that the murders are by a family of vampires led by Dracula himself. Batman recruits a female vampire named Tanya who recently left Dracula’s family to help lure the vampire legions to the Batcave. Batman is accidentally bit by a vampire but still manages to destroy the majority of the vampire family except Dracula. Dracula kidnaps Gordon and Batman goes after him. Dracula and vampire Batman battle and Dracula is impaled on a broken tree trunk. Batman laments that Bruce Wayne is dead but states that now, vampire Batman can continue forever.

The art is very cool and spooky looking and the action is very good. This is definitely a fun read. It was popular enough that it spawned two sequels; Bloodstorm in 1994 and Crimson Mist in 1998.

In Batman: Bloodstorm, the surviving vampire family members from Red Rain join up with the Joker and take over the major crime families in Gotham. Batman gathers a vampire hunting team consisting of Commissioner Gordon, Alfred, several Gotham PD detectives and Catwoman who was herself turned into a werecat after a vampire bite. Catwoman is killed taking an arrow for Batman. Batman becomes enraged because Catwoman was the only person that could control Batman’s blood thirst. Batman fights the Joker, drains his blood and then stakes him to ensure he doesn’t return as a vampire. Batman then forces Gordon to stake him to stop a Batman killing frenzy when his blood thirst returns.

In Batman: Crimson Mist, we find out that Gordon didn’t cut off Batman’s head after staking him. So while Gotham is in the midst of a crime wave after Batman’s “death”, Alfred removes the stake from Batman to restore him so he can save Gotham. Batman immediately goes on a killing spree of his former rogues gallery (Penguin, Riddler, Poison Ivy, etc). Two Face and Killer Croc form an uneasy alliance with Gordon and Alfred to kill Batman. They lure him to his old Batcave hoping to explode the roof of the cave and expose Batman to the sunlight. In the midst of the battle, while Batman is nearly fatally injured, Croc and Two Face try to double cross Gordon and Alfred. Alfred gives his life to Batman to give him the strength to beat Croc and Two Face. The Batcave roof is exploded and Gordon is killed by falling rock. Batman walks out into the sunlight hoping to gain the peace in death he has not been able to acheive while a vampire.

Overall, this series is very good. It gets pretty graphic and bloody by the end, but I’m really glad they went there. It’s absolutely worth a read. If you get a chance, at the very least, read the first one. But the other two are pretty good too.

This finishes up comic book week. Hope you enjoyed it. On Monday, I begin Dracula book week. I’ll be reviewing 5 books featuring either Dracula or vampires. Or both.

Come back next week, same vampire bat time, same vampire bat channel.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.