91: The Boys Read The Boys Part 7 - The Innocents

Summary
In this episode of the Comic Dudes podcast, the hosts discuss their Let's Read of the comic series 'The Boys'. They review the themes and storylines of the trade, highlighting the good, the bad, and the outrageous moments.  Overall, they find the story compelling and engaging. The conversation touches on the portrayal of women in the series and the use of offensive language. Other topics include the lack of agency for Annie/Starlight and the uncomfortable scenes involving sexual assault. The hosts share their least favorite characters, and discuss the manipulative actions of Butcher.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Recap of Volume Seven
07:17 Exploring the Compelling Relationship Between Huey and Starlight
10:56 Answers and Progression: Key Elements of Volume Seven
14:51 Comic References and Humor: Adding Depth to the Narrative
19:12 Entertainment Through Comedic Moments
23:12 Anticipation for Future Developments: The Impact of Cliffhangers
36:16 Problematic Portrayal: Women in The Boys
41:49 Uncomfortable Scenes: Sexual Assault and Offensive Language
45:22 Exploring Complex Dynamics and Themes in The Boys
47:58 Exploring the Outrageous and Over-the-Top
50:19 Controversial Content and Unlikable Characters
56:12 Questioning Garth Ennis' Storytelling

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Original Music by Alex Productions
Show notes include some AI generated content

Transcript

Superdooper Dave (00:02.359)
Welcome back to the Comic Dudes, a podcast about comic books and comic book related things. My name is Dave with me, as always, my co -host Matt, Matt, how are

Matt - CDWA (00:11.528)
I am back, we're back, I'm back, we're back, we're all back. I'm really excited. It's been a while. It's been too long. You know, I'm happy to be here. I don't know if you can tell I'm happy to be back. I'm happy to be talking boys with the boys.

Superdooper Dave (00:26.327)
Yeah, same. Also with us because it's a boys episode, our side piece Eric. Eric, how you doing?

Sound You Out (00:34.811)
much like Matt also good and also back happy to be talking the boys with the boys. This was supposed to happen a couple of times and things just didn't work out so I'm glad it did this

Matt - CDWA (00:38.754)
you

Superdooper Dave (00:47.011)
Yeah, me too. Me too. So that's a great segue into what this is. So every year, Matt and I pick a comic that we're going to read together and talk about. It's our Let's Read this year. Our Let's Read is the boys. Matt picked it. So whenever Matt complains about it, just remember he wanted this. So we read it. I will give us a quick synopsis of what we read and then we'll talk about the things that we liked about the trade, the good.

things we didn't, the bad, and the things that are just too outrageous to classify and sometimes read in general. Before we jump into that, you can follow us on TikTok and Instagram. have a CDWA account we post fairly regularly. I have begun posting on the TikTok account, just whatever I feel like that's sort of comics, gaming, or pop culture related. Sometimes it's memes.

The other day I just posted a video from cyberpunk 2077. tried playing that game again. I thought it was fixed. The game is surely not fixed. I killed some guys. I walked over to one of their bodies and while I was walking over to this guy's body, it turned 180 degrees and then just like floated away. Floats not the right word. It slid away on the ground across the street. A car stopped for it to cross the street, which I thought was nice and then continued on its way. The game is still broken.

But I posted that on TikTok. I don't care.

Sound You Out (02:12.731)
played it a good bit when they did the Phantom Liberty update. And I was like, you know, let me let me spend some time with this thing now that it's fixed and where it needs to be. And I was like, No, it's definitely still glitchy and buggy. However, it's playable. So it's not like game breaking bugs at this point, but there's still weird shit that happens.

Superdooper Dave (02:27.907)
Yes. Yeah, it's still not a game for me, unfortunately, and the setting of that game is one that I know I know I like.

Sound You Out (02:36.668)
I love the setting of

Superdooper Dave (02:37.795)
Yeah, I want to like it so bad.

Sound You Out (02:40.111)
I like aspects of it, but it's so overwhelming to me. It's too much. get lost in it. And I'm like, just guide me through, please. Somebody keep this moving for

Superdooper Dave (02:50.029)
Yeah, I do wish it was third person as well. I'm being

Sound You Out (02:53.667)
Same. Big time.

Superdooper Dave (02:55.597)
You know, beggars can't be choosers. So that's that. Anyway, you can follow us on socials. We'll also have our Twitters in the description of this episode. Eric sometimes knows how to log into Twitter. I rarely use Twitter anymore. And I think, Matt, you probably aren't much on Twitter. If you are, I don't ever see your tweets. So, yeah, you can follow us on Twitter if you want. Also, I refuse to call it X. Fuck Elon Musk. I'm not saying it. It's Twitter. It's always going to be Twitter.

Sound You Out (03:21.723)
you

Matt - CDWA (03:22.21)
Hahahaha

Superdooper Dave (03:24.679)
You can also join our Discord. We have an actually a relatively active Discord. It's a small community. It's tight knit. Those of you that have joined the Discord, thanks. We love you. We like talking about comic books and stuff. You're all good people. We need more good people. If you're a bad person, don't join the Discord. You're not welcome.

Matt - CDWA (03:28.324)
Yeah.

Sound You Out (03:31.077)
Yeah, but it's

Matt - CDWA (03:35.31)
Appreciate

Sound You Out (03:41.757)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (03:43.51)
You

Sound You Out (03:45.201)
We've had to have that conversation for our other discord a couple of times. Yeah, because every once in a while, no, once in a while somebody shows up and they just, you know, there are some people that just want to watch the world burn and we're like, no, no, no, this is a chill, fun place. Get out of here with all that. So good people

Superdooper Dave (03:48.995)
Really interesting.

Superdooper Dave (04:04.025)
Do know who the Versa Lord is? Versa Lord? I know you don't, because you're not on TikTok. So there's a dude that he's out of nowhere. just started like, he started posting these very long soliloquies on TikTok about what he's going to do in his content creation journey, how he's going to stream on Twitch and he has a Discord and he was like a super awkward. He's younger. He's like a maybe like late teens.

Sound You Out (04:07.579)
The who? I don't think so.

Superdooper Dave (04:32.885)
And he, he's a very awkward lad. So of course his first several videos like took off on tick tock. he got a ton of people in his discord and then like, you know how it is when things go viral and then people just want to see the world burn. So there was a good several weeks where every tick tock he posted was him just first. I started out complaining about the trolls and discord.

Sound You Out (04:49.935)
Mm -hmm.

Superdooper Dave (04:59.171)
Then it was, I'm going to find who you are. And then it was like apologies for what was happening in the discord. And while it was fun for me to watch from a distance, I did feel very bad for him. Anyway, he started every tech talk with like, hello, Versa Lordians, which was like his name for his community, because he's the Versa Lord. That was very funny. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. Wasting time. Before we get started into the recap here, I have a question.

Sound You Out (05:01.209)
I don't know.

Sound You Out (05:07.815)
That sucks.

Superdooper Dave (05:27.895)
And I think I know the answer, but have we had like this kind of like disability shaming yet in this comic?

Sound You Out (05:37.157)
Yes, we've had some ableist slurs and things like that. But this I think this episode or this volume, I should say, is a little more direct.

Superdooper Dave (05:48.079)
Yeah, it felt a little

Sound You Out (05:49.479)
Yeah.

Superdooper Dave (05:51.439)
OK, you know, I did I did some research after we read volume one between volume one and volume two's episodes just to get like the general opinion on this series. And I saw a lot of people that had like some really, really strong dislike that absolutely I would say they despise the comic.

And at the time, I couldn't really figure out how anyone could feel that way, particularly because I've always sort of enjoyed Garth Ennis because I've read his Punisher stuff. I liked Preacher. This is so different to everything else of his that I've read. And at this point, I do understand how people could absolutely despise this comic.

Sound You Out (06:41.021)
I, you know, I feel like there's a certain portion of the population in 2024. That would love the fuck out of this. And I'm talking about like the anti woke crowd that are like, Fuck yeah. Make comics great again. You know what I mean? Like that kind of crowd. I'm actually, I tried to justify some of it and say, he's using this as a storytelling device or a character building device, but

Superdooper Dave (06:56.857)
Yeah, -huh, yep. Unfortunately, I know.

Sound You Out (07:10.213)
My logic fell apart and I'll talk about that as we get deeper into the episode.

Superdooper Dave (07:13.155)
Yeah, I know we'll get to this stuff, but I just, I really wanted to lead off with that before I, before I do the recap, I had to get that off my chest. So anyway, we have another eight issue trade. Again, the math of this escapes me completely. I don't know. I don't know. Anyway, the first issue of volume seven, the innocence is really a slice of life issue.

Sound You Out (07:22.593)
Fair.

Superdooper Dave (07:42.639)
Huey and Annie go to a porn store. They end up doing some sex stuff. Mother's Milk gets a prostitute. They do some sex stuff. Butcher thinks that he's got it all figured out because he knows Starlight did some sex stuff with Homelander. And then at the end of the issue, Huey and, or I'm sorry, Butcher sees Huey and Annie together. And that's when Butcher realizes

Huey is dating

Now we get to part one of the first story in this trade, The Innocence, and we're introduced to a team called Super Duper. Butcher goes to see the legend because he now thinks that Huey is working for Vought or is a Vought plant. And speaking of Vought, Vought Man, because I don't know his name or I've forgotten it.

Matt - CDWA (08:37.575)
That's what perfect that's his name. That's his name. Fuck man is his name

Sound You Out (08:38.737)
I don't think we know it. Yeah. Yeah.

Superdooper Dave (08:40.353)
Yeah. Has a new assistant, I think I in question mark in parentheses on assistant. And they discuss Homelander and sort of what to do with or about him. This is never touched on again in the trade just happens in this issue. And then you are supposed to forget that ever happened, I guess, I don't know. Butcher sends Huey to New Jersey to perform some surveillance on super duper.

He says it's because they have a new team leader joining named Malchemical, but really he just doesn't trust Huey. Butcher also follows Huey to the train station to spy on him and Starlight. Malchemical shows up at Super Duper headquarters. He treats them all like shit. They go on a, I'm gonna air quote, mission to save a cat. And one of the members ends up pissing himself. The whole thing is an absolute disaster.

I will say at the time. I had not yet figured out what super duper was supposed to

Sound You Out (09:46.779)
like what the real world analog is in comics.

Superdooper Dave (09:47.245)
I didn't, I didn't yet. Well, no, like, I think the real world analog is like the Legion of superheroes at first. That's what I thought, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's the teen Titans. I don't know. yeah. My first thought was the Legion of superheroes, cause they're all kind of like goofy with their power sets and the Legion of superheroes has some really goofy power sets. but I think, I think it's teen Titans based on what we learned about Malchemical. but anyway,

Sound You Out (09:58.365)
That's the vibe

Matt - CDWA (10:01.314)
This isn't

Superdooper Dave (10:16.801)
At this point, Mother's Milk is starting to question Butcher and his motives. Huey ends up saving the lives of one of the super duper kids that's choking. He like cuts a hole in his neck and like performs a tracheotomy on the street. And Butcher is also there and watching. I almost forgot Starlight is also thinking about quitting the

Not much happens after this. Huey plants some bugs in super duper headquarters. Starlight gets close to telling Huey what she did to get into the seven and also what she wants to do. And Butcher is still trying to suss out if Huey is a Vought plant. Meanwhile, Mother's Milk is on a mission to figure out if Huey is working for Vought because he doesn't believe that he is and wants to clear Huey's name.

the innocence concludes with Malchemical attempting to rape two members of super duper and possibly kill Auntie, whatever her name was, Auntie something. I don't know. Auntie sis. Yes. Thank you. Huey intervenes almost dies, but butcher saves him. I'm to say it's thanks to mother's milk. after this and sort of like the epilogue of the innocence butcher and mother's milk.

Sound You Out (11:19.056)
anti -cis.

Matt - CDWA (11:19.925)
Auntie Sister, so

Superdooper Dave (11:35.437)
go at it for a while verbally, but nothing really gets resolved. Mother's milk is mad at Butcher for what he did to Huey, cause Huey could have died. The issue ends with a homelander by himself saying to himself that he can do anything and maybe it's time he gets started. End of the innocence. The back half of our trade is a story called Believe.

Belief starts off as more of an aftermath of the innocence. Starlight and Homelander get forced into doing like this weird Christian superhero festival that's called Belief, which is why this is the name of our storyline. And Butcher and are still at odds over the super duper stuff. This first issue ends with Starlight in the park with Huey telling him that she's a soup, him not believing it, and then

Levitating off the ground to prove it He does not take that news. Well at all. He throws up and runs away I don't know why I thought that was really funny But just the thought of someone throwing up and running away makes me laugh At believe Homelander and a character named father who has a bunch of children superheroes and a flock around him

have a chat about what would essentially be the Supes taking over Earth. Butcher surprises Huey at his apartment and Huey tells Butcher everything about him and Starlight and their relationship. And he thinks that Butcher is going to kill him. Butcher takes Huey way inside the circle of trust at this point. He gives him all the info he's been waiting on since he joined the boys. So you can prove to Huey that Butcher does in fact trust

he also reveals to Huey that they have cameras and bugs in the sevens tower and asks Huey to help him review the tapes to see if they can clear starlight of using Huey because that is butcher's angle here is how do you know that she's not using you to get to us? and at this point while reviewing the tapes, Huey sees the blow bang.

Superdooper Dave (14:03.605)
and does not take that well at all. Also, Homelander is like auctioned off at Believe to have dinner with some family. He flies away with them in their car like he's holding their car and flying away and he goes higher and higher and higher. They're like freezing and can't breathe. They tell him that and then he just drops them out of the car. He dumps the car. They just fall to their deaths.

Matt - CDWA (14:27.01)
Yeah, it

Superdooper Dave (14:31.075)
So after he kills that family, there's like a ton of soups just like floating in the air there with him. I guess only soups that could fly were invited to this powwow. He, he just has, he starts talking to them. I know. don't really know what happens there. What, what has said, Huey goes on to confront starlight about that blow bang, says some absolutely awful shit to her, and then leaves her in the park.

said he never wants to see her again. And that is how volume seven ends.

Sound You Out (15:09.351)
Yep. Very nice.

Matt - CDWA (15:10.126)
Great recap.

Superdooper Dave (15:11.223)
I don't accept the applause, this is not my best recap work and I know

Sound You Out (15:16.795)
I mean, it was an accurate recap.

Matt - CDWA (15:16.888)
Damn.

Superdooper Dave (15:19.041)
It was.

Matt - CDWA (15:20.77)
I thought it was a good recap. learned some stuff. Every one of these recaps, between the conversations, you fill in some gaps that my simple mind can't handle. So I appreciate it. That's why I'm The boys, the boys for whatever reason, just a lot of stuff goes over my head and I don't know why. No pun intended, like soups, but I really enjoyed these chats because you guys fill things, like the whole mother's milk thing. I like had no idea what he was doing. Like I had no idea.

Superdooper Dave (15:31.503)
Don't sell yourself short like

Matt - CDWA (15:50.252)
I didn't know that he was trying to clear Huey's name. so that makes a lot more sense now. So I don't know. All right. I'm going to rattle off my good if that's cool.

Superdooper Dave (15:53.03)
yeah.

Superdooper Dave (16:00.141)
Yeah, please

Matt - CDWA (16:01.762)
Go ahead Eric, I know if you had something, sorry. Okay. Okay. Something we didn't touch on was Queen Maeve. She's an insider working with the boys actually, because Homelander did some horrible shit to her back in the day and trying to release some very suggestive photos of her that she did not want out.

Sound You Out (16:04.657)
No, I wanted to hear you're good.

Matt - CDWA (16:31.02)
I I felt I liked it because it like, all we've known her to this point is just like this mean bitch who doesn't do anything and she just drinks and smokes. And there really hasn't been much character development to her. And I'm not going to say this is the greatest character development of all time, but I was like, wow, she's serving a purpose in this story other than just being this mean woman, you know, who's letting Annie in a little bit, but.

there's a rationale for her being in this story. And I actually liked that. was like, it may be like, all these other panels, I want to go back and see what was going on. Cause like, I'm kind of thinking about her thought process and this whole thing. And maybe that's why she's so quiet and she's not saying a lot. And she's actually taking a lot of this information in to maybe pass it off or the whatnot. So it just made me think a little bit more about that character and maybe some things that aren't going on in the panels that we see. was like, all right, all right, Queen Maeve.

Sound You Out (17:24.701)
Mm -hmm.

Matt - CDWA (17:25.954)
Here we go, here's some good stuff here, a something going on. Yeah.

Superdooper Dave (17:29.869)
Fair point. I like that. I like that. I do think it's odd though that she was upset about the release of those photos when she knows that there are cameras all over the tower and like her part -time job is just like draining the balls of dudes all day every day like in front of the camera. Man.

Matt - CDWA (17:41.996)
Yeah.

Sound You Out (17:48.507)
Well, Butcher said that he was like, she doesn't care. So I don't really think it's those pictures. There's something else. So we've got a little bit of a cliffhanger there.

Superdooper Dave (17:54.765)
Yeah, yeah, that's right. You're right. Yeah, that's right. That's right Well, do a cliffhanger or do we have a dangling thread that will never be resolved? Hard to say with this comic

Matt - CDWA (17:55.086)
Sound You Out (18:01.757)
Only one way to find

Matt - CDWA (18:02.454)
Yeah, yeah, a little Queen Maeve. Good counterpoint, but who knows? I enjoyed her. Homewinder. I need to know what's going on. Like, don't, that cliffhanger at the end, like, I want to know what is going on. And I've seen, like, I don't know everything about the show, but I kind of think I don't think.

I see like the previews of kind of where it's going. And I'm like, is this going to kind of be like the show or is this going to do its own thing? But like, I need to know what's going on. Like this dude has slowly been like, we're seeing more and more of him turning and like, he's just going to flip all these soups and they're just going to wreck everything. And are we going to have like a full on like Viltrumite situation for all you invincible fans out there? Like, are we going to have like an invasion of like these super power people? Like, I don't know, like that cliffhanger.

I was like, damn, I want to read the next volume and know what's going on. Unfortunately, the next volume, think has nothing to do with this story. It's like a, it's a Huey side quest when like Dave was talking about how are we getting this in? How are we going to get all these in a year? I'll tell you exactly how we're going to get them in, Dave. We're going to read 10 issues of the boys and then we're going to interject 50 mini series in between, know, like that's it's. So the next thing is a herogasm like thing, but with.

Sound You Out (19:07.464)
good.

Sound You Out (19:21.541)
good.

Matt - CDWA (19:26.382)
So it's like a Huey side story for six issues. So we'll see you in two months to get the resolution to maybe this whole Homelander storyline. yeah. Not lo - Sorry, I thought I put it in the chat. Sorry guys, we're on Huey's side quest next month.

Superdooper Dave (19:35.843)
That's terrible news. I don't, I don't want to know

Sound You Out (19:37.617)
That makes me sad.

Superdooper Dave (19:43.151)
No, I didn't. didn't. I can't be.

Sound You Out (19:45.403)
You put it in, and I thought it was you were talking about this one, and I'm reading it, and I'm like, it's way more than six issues, but it is all about Huey, so maybe that's what he was saying.

Matt - CDWA (19:54.942)
No, we got, yeah, this one's like eight, you know, like, cause Dave's just like, the numbers don't add up. We have six, eight trades and then it's like, we're going to inject these little side stories in. So sorry, boys. Sorry. Yeah. I it still doesn't add up, but, and then the other thing, like, I think we rightly so give Ennis a lot of shit for this series. Like, I mean, this is not my favorite thing I've ever read, but I do like this Huey

Sound You Out (20:06.439)
Still doesn't add

Matt - CDWA (20:25.696)
situation, what's going on, not where it got to at the end of this trade. But I think that's one thing he wrote very well. I'm not going to say it's, you know, Peter and MJ or Mark and Eve or what, like those stories, Mark and Alana from, you know, from all the other, from saga or anything, but like, it is a compelling story and a compelling relationship that I got bought on, bought into. I know we all were like, we know that this shoe is going to drop at some point. Like something is going to happen

I don't, think the shoe dropped this trade. could drop even further somewhere down the line, but I think we finally getting kind of the, the meat of that resolution and hopefully they come back together. But that whole storyline through this, I was really like compelled and like really into it when reading. So, those are my three good things.

Superdooper Dave (21:14.329)
Yeah, I mean, I've mentioned that multiple times where the tension building on the Huey and Starlight, what do they really do and who are they really? Drama has been very delicious.

Matt - CDWA (21:25.76)
It's one of the only things that brings me back. Like, every mo Like, it's one of the few things that I enjoy. But that's all I got.

Sound You Out (21:28.463)
you

Sound You Out (21:36.285)
All right. You want me to do mine? Okay. Yeah, I'd love to. Number one, Matt, I will say having finished season four of the TV show, this is the first volume in like five volumes where there are concepts from the book that they repurposed for the show, obviously put through the 2024 filter and made it completely different. But there are so many things here that I'm like, okay, I see.

Superdooper Dave (21:38.767)
Sure, if you want

Sound You Out (22:03.835)
where they got this, the show isn't just you know, running off on its own path, they're using some of these things, or at least I expect that's where this is headed. So that's kind of interesting. But I'll agree with you big time. This volume was a page turner for me, especially the believe arc, I was like, I need to know what's gonna happen because that relationship and the like, you know, are they going to tell each other who they are, what's going to happen with the Huey and Annie stuff was really interesting to

And this is the first volume in a while that I feel like answered questions and progress the story. There's things that we've been like, I wouldn't even say like edging on for the past few volumes, they just kind of like acknowledge that these things exist. And then they're like, we're not going to talk about it. So this one finally, we got to like bust a little bit, right? We got some of those answers. And I thought that was cool. But also, yeah, I was

Matt - CDWA (22:42.21)
You

Matt - CDWA (22:54.958)
A bust. A little bust. A little bust.

Superdooper Dave (22:57.135)
What are you doing right now? What are you doing right now? We're edging, we get to bust. What are you doing? What are you doing right

Sound You Out (23:02.831)
Yeah, that's I'm talking about the boys. Yeah. But I think it's really cool that we got answers for some things that they resolved some questions and aspects of the story, while also giving us not just one cliffhanger, but multiple. Where is this going to go? What's going to happen with Homelander and the flying only soups? What's going to happen with Huey and Annie? What's going to happen with

butcher, like all of these different things. It's like, okay, where's this gonna head from here? So so pretty cool. I liked that aspect of the book. Those are my positives. Yeah, that was that was.

Superdooper Dave (23:43.457)
that was it? Okay. All right. Mine aren't nearly as insightful as yours. are just like, I've really taken a step back on this comic and now it's like, the things that I think are good are just sort of things that didn't make me mad that time. Did I laugh? Okay, that's good. Let's put that in here. So my first good was, God, I forget when this was.

Matt - CDWA (23:59.694)
I didn't miss you.

Superdooper Dave (24:12.399)
It was sometime in the first story or in that first issue in the trade, but Frenchie gave the female some comics to help occupy her time. He gave her some 2000 AD comics, which if you don't know, 2000 AD is a weekly comic that's published in the UK and it always contains a Judge Dredd story and Garth Ennis is a legendary.

Matt - CDWA (24:23.886)
The ear has turned.

Matt - CDWA (24:36.302)
dread.

Superdooper Dave (24:39.855)
Judge Dredd writer. He's had some pretty iconic runs in, in 2000 AD, right in Judge Dredd. also some good stuff, some good Garth Ennis reading. If you need to palette cleanse the boys, I'd urge you to go read Judge Dredd written by Garth Ennis. It's kind of the same like dark or gritty ultra violent stuff, but, like it doesn't have all of like the racism and homophobia and ableism and all the other nasty stuff. also, yeah, we should have,

Matt - CDWA (25:04.92)
Maybe we should have read that instead.

Superdooper Dave (25:09.603)
There's also not much to you know, there's not a whole lot of like running plot threads in Judge Dredd because it's being it's a weekly comic, you know, you kind of get to the point quickly with that. it's you know, Judge Dredd is uncomplicated as far as characters are concerned. He is literally judge, jury and executioner. Anyway, I also understood the Frenglish in all of that, because I know that in the UK they refer to

the comics as progs. That's like 2000 AD is considered a prog. It comes out weekly. It's a prog. So I got that one and I felt good about that. Yeah, the progs that means like the comics. Another good for me was at believe when the female was unable to be in disguise and French use solution was to buy a bunch of balloons for her to ride in these balloons.

Sound You Out (25:42.475)
Sound You Out (25:48.369)
I noticed that word and I was like, I don't know what they're saying

Superdooper Dave (26:09.007)
The good is that at one point she's hovering over this kid that stole her candy when she was pretending to be just like a regular little girl and she paces on his ice cream cone from up in the balloons and I thought that was awesome Yes, and so like just out of nowhere And then my

Sound You Out (26:23.579)
It's so cartoony and silly.

Sound You Out (26:29.147)
Yes. And they never address it. It's one frame of piss going on to the ice cream and then move on. Yes. No.

Superdooper Dave (26:35.479)
Yeah, that's it the french doesn't even know that it happens He's on the phone with butcher. I have I actually have two more good but they're quick So that one member of super duper with tourette's I just thought he was funny because he just said fucking cunt all the time And then it was always like really bash was like, my god. I'm so sorry I just thought that was that was a good time.

Matt - CDWA (26:48.536)
you

Matt - CDWA (26:52.545)
Yeah

Sound You Out (26:56.059)
The best thing about that though is everybody's kind of understanding about it or like Malchemical just thinks it's funny. But Butcher is like, what? What did you say? And it just works so well because that's the kind of shit that he says all the time anyway. So it was pretty

Matt - CDWA (27:00.62)
Yeah.

Superdooper Dave (27:02.329)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (27:04.854)
Yay!

Superdooper Dave (27:08.759)
Yeah. Yeah. then my last good was just, in general, I really enjoyed the mother's milk, everything in, in this trade, particularly the stuff he was doing to like, try to, to clear Huey's name. I've been kind of begging for MM to do anything of substance. And, other than like, I forget what's trade it was when he was, went to like Connecticut or something to try

like solve the mystery of that missing girl or something. I don't quite remember, but like other than that, he hasn't really done much except have like a super weird and potentially problematic origin. so was nice to see do something.

Matt - CDWA (27:38.515)
Yeah,

Sound You Out (27:38.929)
Mm -hmm.

Matt - CDWA (27:47.288)
Bro.

Sound You Out (27:47.577)
Yeah. Did you feel in this trade that he's starting to unravel a bit he's starting to lose it? Because every time he showed up, he's doing something frantic even at the beginning when I assume he hired this woman because she's like, Is that all you want? And all he's doing is getting the mother's milk from her. He's not trying to have sex or anything.

Superdooper Dave (28:12.825)
Mm -hmm.

Sound You Out (28:12.917)
That's the most calm thing he does in this whole thing. Outside that, he's losing it. Like he shows up at the end and he's freaking out. Who took my flask? Now, maybe Butcher did it, maybe he didn't. But there was all these sort of, I think, is starting to lose it and starting to question what's going

Superdooper Dave (28:32.035)
Yes, I agree.

And if you're current with the show, you will too.

Sound You Out (28:40.392)
Yeah, that's

Matt - CDWA (28:42.179)
it.

Superdooper Dave (28:42.925)
All right, let's move on to the bad.

Matt - CDWA (28:47.819)
Huey going in on Starlight. He went in like way too, like in my opinion, this dude went way too hard for finding out the secret. Like it was, I mean, I don't really need to go into it. It's just like him, Huey just being half cocked like he always is and just like not thinking about anything, no repercussions and just like this relationship you've been building all this time. Like you just completely just went berserk.

I and like Butcher was like, don't talk about the tape, don't talk about the tape. And then it's like the next panel, he's talking about the tape. Like, I'm like, dude, like, like you're supposed to be like this kind of like not secret agent, but you're on this like military force. And like, you have like no discipline. You're like the most undisciplined person I've ever, you know, I've ever read, which is gonna. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess, I guess let's yeah. He's the every man. He's the every man.

Superdooper Dave (29:36.047)
But he's just like a guy off the street. Like he's not, he's not like everybody else in the boys. That's kind of the point, isn't

Sound You Out (29:40.645)
Yeah, they address that a bit in the book, you know, that he's not like the rest of the

Matt - CDWA (29:46.638)
And this will kind of go into my second point is honestly like this whole thing was just about trust

You know, our good friend or my best friend Dave is one of the most loyal, trustworthy people I've ever met in my entire life. Like some, some, some might say to a fault at times. but no, I'm not talking shit. no, no. like, like Dave, like once you have Dave's trust, you really have Dave's trust and you got to do a lot to fuck it up. And

Superdooper Dave (30:04.875)
Aww. Thank

Superdooper Dave (30:10.095)
Okay, I take it back. Now we're talking shit. You went from a compliment to here's what's wrong with you like

Matt - CDWA (30:24.578)
I just feel like through everything that they have gone through together, the butcher like flip so quick and he has all this like Intel on Huey and all this like, I'm just thinking, do you have any like Intel? And I guess, I guess if you see Huey with Starlight, you're like, you know, maybe he's with Vaughn. I'm trying to see it from that angle, but I just, I really would like to think that if you're like the leader of this group, that you would have more intelligence than

that is all you know or why did you bring this guy in? Like, I don't know, it just, everything they've gone through, the whole Russian arc, herogasm, the whole teen kicks thing, I just felt like Butcher just turned on a dime really quickly. And I was just like, I just felt a little, little icky. That's all. I could be wrong. I'm talking from the gut. That's how I feel. That's how I felt.

I

Sound You Out (31:25.191)
Dave did not like my reactions while you were talking about how trustworthy Dave is. And I'll explain my reaction. listen, our good friend, my best friend Dave is absolutely one of the most loyal and trustworthy people that you could ever have on your side. However, in my experience, Dave is a very smart and astute guy and probably one of the few people I've encountered in my life that is really good about boundaries.

Superdooper Dave (31:27.767)
I didn't. I

Matt - CDWA (31:29.218)
Davis!

Sound You Out (31:54.961)
So many people struggle with that stuff. And if Dave sees that you are crossing a boundary or that you have given reason not to trust, he is quick to go, okay, let me reassess this, this trust and loyalty, because we've definitely encountered lots of people over our time that seemed trustworthy and seemed like somebody who could be loyal to loyal to, then ended up not being. And Dave is, is always like, keeping an

at the same time that he's being loyal. Dave's not going to be taken for a ride is what I'm saying.

Superdooper Dave (32:31.439)
Feel very uncomfortable hearing all of this stuff while we're recording this episode. However, thank you. think those are wonderful observations and the feeling is very mutual. You guys are both extremely trustworthy and loyal friends as well and I love you both for that. I will say that comment about like I'm also quick to like pull the cord. I've been working on that in therapy, OK?

Sound You Out (32:40.933)
It's not an insult.

Sound You Out (33:00.005)
No, no, I'm not. I'm not. I didn't say what I said. I said something other than what I

Superdooper Dave (33:00.291)
I'm getting better about that. I'm getting better about

Matt - CDWA (33:02.272)
If, I mean, you've, that's good, but

Matt - CDWA (33:07.714)
I mean, some of the people you've objected out of here, I mean, you were right. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. Well, hold on. All right. right. While we're in this bubble of uncomfortability, I want to talk about my last thing that is uncomfortable in my last band. It has kind of nothing to do with the boys by any chance. So we went out of town with the kids. at night, the kids were down.

Superdooper Dave (33:08.131)
Yeah, no, I know. I know.

Sound You Out (33:13.585)
Yeah, that's what I'm saying too.

Superdooper Dave (33:13.625)
No, no, I know. Yeah, Yeah, I get it. I get it. I get it. I get

Matt - CDWA (33:32.718)
I'm like, I'm going to sit in bed. I'm actually going to get ahead and start reading the boys and get ahead of reading for once. So I pull up the boys on my iPad. I downloaded, I have all the trades on the humble bundle. So I had them on one of those PDF viewers. So I'm reading the first issue and there's no word bubbles. And I'm like, Garth Dennis is doing like the GI Joe thing issue 21, the silent issue on us. So we go through, I'm reading, I did that for the first three issues. And I'm like, hold

Superdooper Dave (33:53.305)
Silent issue.

Matt - CDWA (34:01.878)
Something's going on here. So That's my other bad as I thought I was like, I'm really flying through this There's no words in this trade and I was like, hold up. This doesn't seem right so then I downloaded it on Comixology and saw all the words and I'm like son of a bitch had to go back and read all Fix I was like bro. This is the silent. This is the silent issue. This work. This is silent arc. I was like we're gonna get I kind

Superdooper Dave (34:18.575)
You got through almost 60 pages and you didn't question it before then?

Sound You Out (34:25.405)
How was that? Did you like it better?

Matt - CDWA (34:30.388)
Yes, yes, significantly, significantly better. Like the whole conversation with him and the woman, I was like, this is great. what is going on here? I don't know. But

Superdooper Dave (34:41.455)
I that if you could get through three issues of this comic with no words and it took you three issues to question, boy, it feels like maybe there are supposed to be some words here. I think that you owe Derek Robertson an apology because his art must be at least serviceable enough to carry you through story -wise for almost 60 issues with no questions.

Matt - CDWA (35:07.49)
I really thought you were gonna say you should be on Super Duper if you did that. Like if you got that far without reading it.

Superdooper Dave (35:13.44)
I feel like I probably shouldn't say

Sound You Out (35:15.653)
No, no, no, no. There's multiple artists in this issue, though, or in this volume.

Matt - CDWA (35:15.726)
No. Yeah, there. Yeah. But I was like, damn

Superdooper Dave (35:19.481)
There were, yeah, there were. There were. I noticed there was one panel in particular with Huey and Starlight laying in bed. And I was like, damn, Huey don't look so ugly right now. And then I was like, that's why Derek Robertson didn't draw this issue. I get

Matt - CDWA (35:27.532)
Yeah. Yeah. It's a different. That's all my bad trust boys trust is important. So and butcher doesn't have it. It's all I

Sound You Out (35:30.071)
Yep.

Superdooper Dave (35:43.457)
Also, I know you guys don't think that it's bad that I cut people off quickly, but I brought that up to my therapist and she very quickly was like, Hey, that is not healthy that you do that. And then we had to talk about that quite a bit. So it is what it

Matt - CDWA (35:46.424)
Love.

Sound You Out (35:56.113)
didn't actually say you cut people off quickly. I said you're really good with boundaries in a complimentary way because I think a lot of people are bad with that you're taking advantage of.

Superdooper Dave (36:02.179)
Yeah, yeah, but then you. Yeah, yeah, but then you went on to say when it feels like someone has crossed that boundary is no longer deserving of the trust. Dave is quick to and then you made a hand gesture. I know what that means.

Matt - CDWA (36:13.038)
B!

Sound You Out (36:13.159)
question it.

Sound You Out (36:18.333)
I didn't mean it that way, but... Okay.

Superdooper Dave (36:21.059)
So that's okay though, but it's true. have, I do, I do that and I've been working on it. I just wanted to give myself a little credit for growth. That's

Matt - CDWA (36:21.527)
I'm,

Matt - CDWA (36:28.982)
I'm glad to hear you grow, man. I'm glad to hear it. My band's still ain't gonna get taken for a ride though. know that. He can go to as much therapy as he wants. He ain't getting taken. Bye guy.

Sound You Out (36:30.127)
I'm glad too.

Sound You Out (36:35.569)
That's what I'm saying.

Superdooper Dave (36:39.353)
That's true. You know, there's everyone's hey, even if you work on some shit, everyone's got a limit. And when you reach that limit, sometimes you to deal with the consequences. If you owe somebody money and you never pay

Sound You Out (36:39.996)
That's what I'm saying.

Matt - CDWA (36:53.068)
You're justified there. You're justified there. You're ju - You're justified there.

Superdooper Dave (36:54.575)
Sometimes you gotta deal with those consequences

Anyway, who's doing their next bad? Matt, you're done, right? Was that all yours? Okay. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. You didn't know. This is a good conversation. Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (37:02.158)
I'm done. I hit a nerve with the trust thing. done. Alright, good. Good, good.

Sound You Out (37:03.333)
That's good. I can give you some bad. You want bad?

Sound You Out (37:13.393)
My bad was inadvertently stepping on a landmine there. Didn't mean to do that.

Matt - CDWA (37:17.742)
you

Superdooper Dave (37:22.637)
I was not offended by that in any way. I want you to know that. Nothing about that interaction upset me.

Sound You Out (37:24.539)
I'm glad.

Good. Because I certainly didn't want it to so. Okay, well, let's move on from it then if you're good, then I'm good. And Matt's good.

Superdooper Dave (37:31.331)
Yeah, no, I know. Yeah, I know. I understand. Yeah, I'm totally good. I let shit slide now, man. I don't get mad about stuff like that anymore. There's no reason to. Five years ago, I probably would have been mad about that. I ain't mad about that shit.

Matt - CDWA (37:34.582)
Okay, let's...

Sound You Out (37:41.233)
man.

Sound You Out (37:50.107)
All right. All right. I wanted to just let that sit and see what was going to happen with it. So, Matt, of to your point, I really appreciated the emotional complexity between Huey and Annie, but I really hated how he reacted to finding out her sexual encounter with the seven because he was so much more upset about

Matt - CDWA (37:52.725)
What's your bad in the boys Eric? Let us sit

Sound You Out (38:18.363)
than about her being a soup or about him being on the opposite side of things. And the fact that he blamed her for it and then discounted her as a person over it felt really bad. Like, number one, I don't feel like her past sexual experience would make a big difference, especially when it was something against her will. It just feels like such an outdated, like patriarchal mentality to me. really didn't. It just, I mean, I guess the way it was written, it was believable.

there are people that would react that way. So I get that I still hated it. But I did notice one this is maybe a good but I was reading the part where they're watching porn and having sex and he's like, I'm fast forwarding through the part where she's with two guys. I hate that when that kind of thing happens. And I realized when I got to the part where he finds out that was actually foreshadowing to him finding out that Annie did

Superdooper Dave (39:12.227)
Mm -hmm.

Sound You Out (39:16.015)
exactly the same kind of thing. And yeah, it was really, it was really kind of interesting. And I was like, okay, that all makes more sense. Pretty well written. So good and bad. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pretty, pretty clever. I do think that and I've been trying to put my finger on it. And I think it's that Annie is lacking some agency within the series. She is constantly trying

Superdooper Dave (39:17.295)
Yeah, that's why she stopped when he said

Matt - CDWA (39:20.213)
Yo!

Matt - CDWA (39:28.938)
Okay Garth, all right Garth.

Sound You Out (39:44.995)
stand up for her rights as a person, a human, fighting against sort of the sexual oppression of the people around her. And yet she's routinely portrayed as a sexual object within the comic. And it always feels strange to me. Like when they're showing her naked and stuff, I'm like, this is this just feels contradictory. So I don't

Superdooper Dave (40:06.965)
Mm -hmm. You know what else is interesting about that Queen Maeve is probably a better

Superdooper Dave (40:17.593)
I think she is more so like what a strong, like sexually empowered woman should or would be in the context of like taking these characters and applying them to real life. And other than that one photo in this issue, we have never seen Maeve naked, I think. We've seen like implied and more than implied sexual encounters with men.

but never like gratuitous nudity for the sake of Maeve being naked.

Sound You Out (40:50.309)
Yeah, it's interesting because that is a character that would have some sort of agency in a sexual capacity to, you know, be naked and they just don't do that. The only time we see it is in those photos, which is against her will, her being compromised. So that feels a little weird. And again, I think that's an NS thing. That's a miscalculation or maybe just his views on women. Another one is

Superdooper Dave (41:14.297)
Yeah, who knows.

Sound You Out (41:17.349)
I was trying to figure out and justify this, I was like, okay, Garth Ennis uses the use of racist language to denote a character being evil. Because especially at that pivotal, when he's going to dump the family and stuff, he drops a really horrific slur. Like, I was like, Jesus Christ. But there's such an inconsistency, because even the protagonist characters use homophobic and sexist language.

they display views that sort of match that language. And to me, that's not dramatically different than racism. So it's weird that that sort of hatred and preconceived notions about, you know, somebody that's a different sex or sexuality or something like that exists on both sides. So I don't know, that's where my logic fell apart trying to justify him using that type of language in the

And the last one is for like five volumes, we have been asking or suspecting that butcher knew that starlight was Annie and Annie was starlight and what had happened, but clearly didn't just figured it out. And I'm like, how did nobody recognize Annie as starlight? She doesn't wear a mask. She doesn't put on glasses when she's in her like secret identity, right? There's nothing to disguise her face. Huey and his team spend all day every

Matt - CDWA (42:35.434)
I can't.

Sound You Out (42:43.205)
researching the seven and superhero teams and nobody including Huey figured this out. I know that they pointed out like how could Huey not know but I'm like how did nobody

Matt - CDWA (42:52.494)
I thought Butcher knew like when he saw the tapes in like volume two when he's sitting there he's like ha ha ha like I thought he knew then

Superdooper Dave (42:56.803)
Yeah, I thought so too.

Sound You Out (43:05.041)
Those are my

Superdooper Dave (43:07.385)
So I don't have any any super different stuff. Huey and Starlight's fight in the park when after he saw the video. Yeah, that's obviously that was horrible. You know, as I was reading it, I was trying to I was trying to not justify Huey's reaction, but at least like contextualize it for myself to to maybe see

I could get to saying some of those things and I couldn't. But I do think that if I accidentally saw a video of my current partner blowing three men, yeah, I don't know how I'd react. I'd probably be pretty sad. I don't think I would go call her a whore.

Matt - CDWA (44:00.92)
think that's the point is... you'd be pr yeah, but you wouldn't go in to that extent, you might be like, yo, like, yo, like, hold up, like, hold up, like, I need some time to process it, you know, like, you'd probably be an adult and you might say something foul, but like, this dude, like, went on, like, he went, that's, the extent, the extent of how he went in.

Superdooper Dave (44:01.625)
But I would be pretty fucked up about it, I can tell you

No, I would not. I would not.

Superdooper Dave (44:12.471)
Right, yeah yeah yeah.

Superdooper Dave (44:18.438)
yeah, it was awful.

Yeah, that's why it still made my list because it was still pretty awful. I did not like

Matt - CDWA (44:23.874)
Yes.

Sound You Out (44:25.799)
Yeah, I would think anybody might give an opportunity for the other person to explain or talk about it, give their side.

Superdooper Dave (44:33.613)
Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But you know, that's sort of I do, especially for things that we talk about on the podcast, I in situations where like something extreme is happening in the comic. There's a lot with invincible last year, too. And we read that I tried to like turn on the empathy and try to understand like character motivations and how would I feel if this happened to me and sort

Matt - CDWA (44:33.74)
Yeah, yeah, me! Explain this, like, yeah.

Superdooper Dave (45:03.693)
Walk myself through these things and it's easier to do that with this than invincible because you know invincible is such a classic superhero esque type of story a lot of stuff is completely impossible for me to empathize with or even like Pretend to walk a mile in those shoes. But for this stuff, it's a little bit easier because our main characters are pretty grounded in reality so also thinking about that bummed me out in the moment because

Try to like well, what would happen if I'm thinking do something that I don't want to this anymore. This sucks I moved on quickly from that But yeah, man that fucking sucked And I don't remember in in the show I know Huey knows in the show and I surely Do not remember him Reacting anything close to that in the show, which is you know, like the appropriate reaction But yeah, man

Matt - CDWA (45:34.124)
Yeah.

Sound You Out (45:36.759)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (45:37.4)
Yeah, it is.

Matt - CDWA (45:43.97)
Hehehehehe

Superdooper Dave (46:01.644)
I do hope they work it out, but boy, a lot of the shit Huey said feels like that's like point of no return type stuff.

Matt - CDWA (46:08.566)
Yeah, scorched earth. Scorched earth, dude.

Superdooper Dave (46:11.619)
Yeah, but also, I think Garth Ennis hates women, so I would imagine that, he'll make starlight apologize and beg for Huey to come back. And there's one thing that she said during that fight, that really, I really just bumped me out. and it was like, I forget exactly what she said, but it was something about how, Huey, you're the only person that I have, like without you, I'm totally alone. And I feel

Sound You Out (46:17.798)
I think

Matt - CDWA (46:36.866)
Yeah. Yeah.

Superdooper Dave (46:40.995)
That is another indicator of the way that Garth Ennis feels about and writes female characters, at least in the 2000s, where he's sort of written Starlight into isolation intentionally. So when this inevitably comes out, he can make it feel even worse for her and write her in a way that is like sort of helpless damsel in distress type shit.

Matt - CDWA (46:50.06)
Yeah.

Sound You Out (47:11.997)
two thoughts on your thoughts, I guess. I still think there's a little bit of Garth Ennis using Starlight to represent himself in his journey. Because I think there's part of him going, you know, I want to write stuff that's not superhero stuff. I want to get away from that. But people are going, but you did all that stuff with the superheroes, and we don't like you. And he's like, No, but I, I don't, you know what, don't hate me over that. I had to do it. I didn't want to do

And I think he's still using that as a vehicle to like tell his own story in a way. But also, did you notice at the end of that, it goes into narration, a third person narration of what's happening for the first time in the whole series, because I don't think it's happened before.

Matt - CDWA (47:53.008)
Mmm.

Superdooper Dave (47:58.905)
I think so either.

Sound You Out (47:59.589)
It was really unexpected. was like, what? Who's talking? wait, nobody. It's just pure narration.

Superdooper Dave (48:05.241)
Wasn't there third -person narration in Frenchie's Origin?

Sound You Out (48:11.035)
Was there I feel like they were he was telling the stories but I don't

Superdooper Dave (48:13.923)
Maybe he was, I don't remember. Yeah, I don't

Superdooper Dave (48:21.241)
Good insights. I think you're, you're on track there. my other bads, malchemical trying to rape those two girls, really didn't like that. particularly because, that guy just sucked so much. Like he was such a fucking asshole. Like, I mean, the reason that he's there in the first place is because he was kicked out of his other team for also raping someone

Matt - CDWA (48:22.606)
great insights.

Matt - CDWA (48:39.534)
Jesus, I

Superdooper Dave (48:51.309)
How much rape do we let this guy get away with? I guess none now because Butcher took care of it, but fuck that guy. And then the other was just in general, once I figured out what Super Duper was, just wasn't, just didn't like it. It's made me uncomfy. Also, I didn't like the black holes name because he was black.

Matt - CDWA (48:56.768)
Yeah.

Sound You Out (49:18.682)
Yes, he was.

Superdooper Dave (49:20.609)
I didn't have a clear understanding of his power set.

Sound You Out (49:24.315)
He could eat anything. That was his whole

Superdooper Dave (49:28.321)
Yeah, he couldn't though. Yeah. That's yeah. Anyway, on to the outrageous.

Sound You Out (49:29.925)
And then he choked.

Matt - CDWA (49:30.508)
Yeah, but he could have pretty bad at his power. He could have done.

Sound You Out (49:44.273)
got some outrageous.

Matt - CDWA (49:46.584)
I was just going to say that ridiculous Christian festival like was out of control, like just completely out of control, un -inged. But that happens. That happens. Is there Christian here? I'll tell you that happens. We all know it. But yeah. Mother's milk milking this woman too. so are we under the understanding that his mother is the only person that can provide him the mother's milk or am I confused? Okay.

Superdooper Dave (50:14.915)
Yeah, it's yeah, because she worked in that factory that had the the tainted dog food or whatever. She's got super breast milk from the tainted dog food plant she worked in. Just saying that sentence out loud. Just I hate myself.

Matt - CDWA (50:17.58)
That's factory, right? Okay.

Yeah, okay. So he just was

Matt - CDWA (50:27.766)
Yeah, well that's, that was my, that was my over the top. like, know, something, sucking on a woman's nipple really isn't that over the top. But I'm just like, mother's milk, this grown man with this stripper, like, can you just lay here and let me like suck your nipples kind of like latched on like a lamprey? Like, I don't know. It was just very uncomfortable for me for some reason. Yeah. Like those fish on the side of a shark on the side of the, like the, you know, the side of the shark. Yeah. You know, you know what it is, but yeah, it was very uncomfortable.

Sound You Out (50:46.877)
Like an eel.

Superdooper Dave (50:47.695)
you say like a lamprey?

Superdooper Dave (50:52.387)
Yeah. No, do you know what, do know what today is, Matt?

Matt - CDWA (50:57.366)
Is it shark week or something? No, I don't

Superdooper Dave (50:58.881)
No, today is National Sea Serpent Day.

Matt - CDWA (51:01.604)
Yes!

Sound You Out (51:01.965)
shit. I hate to spoil. I don't want to spoil anybody's fun, but that is called a remora the thing that attaches to the side of a shark a lamprey is an eel.

Superdooper Dave (51:04.909)
Wednesday, August 7th.

Matt - CDWA (51:14.138)
okay. Thank you. Thanks for the correction, nerd. Fucking nerd. Remora is it called? Sorry, Remora. Okay, all right. I appreciate that correction. All right. Mother's milk was latched on that woman like a Remora. So sorry. It was very uncomfortable for some reason. I don't know why, but no.

Superdooper Dave (51:15.375)
Thanks nerd. God.

Sound You Out (51:19.783)
Sorry.

Yeah.

Superdooper Dave (51:23.779)
You forgot to push up your glasses before you said that.

Sound You Out (51:26.365)
Actually,

Matt - CDWA (51:41.538)
But yeah, that and the ridiculous Christian festival was out of control, but... That's all

Sound You Out (51:51.783)
Dave, you want to do outrageous?

Superdooper Dave (51:53.101)
Yeah, sure. Yeah. Yeah, that's okay. That's okay. I always do so much talk in the beginning of these episodes. I'm okay to go third when it comes to the conversational part of it. That's okay. But if you want me to go now, I Eric, you mentioned this already, but Homelander's Hard R. I just wrote down where did that come from with several question marks because that was just so like, I don't want to say uncalled for, but it was, but also just like,

Matt - CDWA (51:53.154)
Yeah, Dave, I feel like we stole all yours, Dave. What do you got?

Sound You Out (52:05.201)
do

Superdooper Dave (52:22.891)
so like out of context.

Sound You Out (52:25.149)
completely unnecessary.

Matt - CDWA (52:26.232)
to family too.

Superdooper Dave (52:27.191)
Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah. Also, that that soup, father and his harem of children, particularly when Homelander is talking to him and he goes, Hey, man, you got to knock it off of these little kids. There's a bloodstain on that chair. And I'm like, what the fuck? Like enough, enough, enough with the fucking kids.

Matt - CDWA (52:34.637)
yeah, yeah, yep,

Sound You Out (52:44.557)
Ugh. Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (52:45.838)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yup. Yup. Yup.

Superdooper Dave (52:53.347)
Didn't like that. Didn't like that. And then just in general, the team super duper just, that was just such a, what the fuck, man. And the one girl that had like, kept walking into the walls and stuff. Like what was, yeah. Like what was her, I don't know what her powers were supposed to be.

Sound You Out (53:03.653)
You had some of the same.

Matt - CDWA (53:07.181)
Yeah.

Sound You Out (53:08.711)
Dual Shadow.

She can fade through matter, but her power didn't always work.

Matt - CDWA (53:16.319)
Yeah, I you.

Sound You Out (53:20.017)
Yeah. Yes.

Superdooper Dave (53:20.183)
Now it's actually a little funny. Now it's a little funny.

Matt - CDWA (53:21.228)
Yeah.

Sound You Out (53:26.673)
Well, you had some of the same ones that I was going to say. I was gonna say everything about the super duper team, like their names, their powers, the way the other characters talked about them. But the biggest thing being anti sissies biggest fear is a giant pair of underwear smothering her. That whole thing was so ridiculous.

Matt - CDWA (53:41.122)
That'll work. Yes. Yes.

Superdooper Dave (53:45.295)
Yeah, I feel like we need to mention Bobby Badoeing just because he's so ridiculous and so is his

Sound You Out (53:52.861)
so ridiculous. Yeah. Homelander eating babies and fucking people's heads to death. That scene I was like, what is this that whole page? So I read the first half of this on a plane, and I got upgraded to first class. So I'm sitting next to a 15 year old ish girl. And I'm reading I'm like, fuck, let me just put this away. This is not okay.

Matt - CDWA (54:00.14)
Yeah, yeah, that

You

Matt - CDWA (54:10.168)
Why are you

Matt - CDWA (54:17.869)
you

Superdooper Dave (54:17.94)
hahahahah

Sound You Out (54:21.367)
because there's so many things in that first half of this trade that's just ridiculous. But those images I was like, wow, okay, where did they get these pictures but and then my last one is anytime a DVD or magazine shows up in this trade, the names of them are ridiculous, like the DVD that Huey and Annie watches called fuckathon. And one of the other ones that they look at is called anal ladies world record.

later on somebody's reading a magazine called always room for one more with like a big orgy happening. And then my, my favorite one by far is at some point a train is just sitting there reading a magazine called coach.

Matt - CDWA (54:57.808)
That's pretty funny.

Matt - CDWA (55:05.272)
You

Sound You Out (55:09.733)
Yeah, so those are my over the top things.

Superdooper Dave (55:13.559)
On to our favorite character.

Superdooper Dave (55:17.903)
Who would like to go first?

Matt - CDWA (55:19.566)
I really didn't have one until you told me the whole thing about Mother's Milk, so I'm gonna go Mother's Milk. But you can elaborate, you can elaborate, because like I honestly

Superdooper Dave (55:25.145)
son of a bitch. Now there's no elaboration needed. He was my favorite

Matt - CDWA (55:32.108)
Yeah. And until you explained it and you recap, I had no idea what he was doing. yeah.

Sound You Out (55:38.405)
In the new season of the show, I had to check if there was a different actor because dude shaved his beard and lost weight. And I was like, Whoa, different person. Nope. Same guy. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Matt - CDWA (55:41.496)
Cause you lost so much weight.

Superdooper Dave (55:43.523)
Yeah, I Googled it too. I think we all did. In fact, we watched the first episode. Abby was like, did they recast Mother's Milk? And I was like, shit, yeah, I think they did. And then he started talking. I was like, sounds just like him. I don't know. I better Google

Sound You Out (56:02.865)
Yep, I did the same. Dave, you already talked about my favorite character. Not a huge character, not a big role, but I loved stool shadow. I love the concept of a character that can phase through matter, but not being able to control her power. So she keeps bumping into walls. It was really charming. And I liked that none of the characters on the super duper team were

Matt - CDWA (56:03.468)
I googled it and I don't even watch the show. I was like, he looks completely different.

Superdooper Dave (56:05.973)
Hehehehehe

Matt - CDWA (56:21.365)
Wrapping you in the walls.

Sound You Out (56:31.921)
They didn't do shitty things. They were sweet and innocent and cared about each other.

Matt - CDWA (56:40.106)
Insert malchemical. Yeah, insert malchemical.

Superdooper Dave (56:40.559)
Wholesome take, wholesome take, except for Malchemical. Fuck that guy.

Sound You Out (56:41.637)
Yeah, yeah. Well, he doesn't count. They didn't want him. He didn't need to be there. I also like the stool shadow kind of had a bit of a Raven vibe going on, which is another thing that makes me think Teen Titans.

Matt - CDWA (56:51.202)
Yes, that's a

Superdooper Dave (56:54.317)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I had a really difficult time. That's why I asked what her power set was because I didn't get the joke and with the name like stool shadow and the comic that we're reading I kept thinking that her powers had to have something to do with poop And I was like, I don't get it Like I don't know why she keep bumping in this shit and her name is stool shadow. Like what am I missing? I was missing a lot a lot of context That was just me not getting

Matt - CDWA (56:54.348)
Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

Matt - CDWA (57:11.288)
Fair point. Fair point.

Sound You Out (57:13.435)
Yeah. No. But their names any superhero in this series, that's not part of one of the main groups has a ridiculous name. And I don't think it matters. You know, what it is they I think Garth and it's just like, let me think of a ridiculous thing to call this

Superdooper Dave (57:30.765)
Yeah, well, and also we've been like, we've been led down these horrible paths so often and so much awful shit happens in this comic that I no longer trust Garth Ennis to be, to be straightforward or unproblematic about anything. So now when I read this, I'm like, okay, how's this going to, how's this going to be fucked up? Where's the, when's the other shoe going to drop on this character? What's going to happen with this character?

When before I realized that super duper was supposed to be like a differently abled team of heroes and they introduced that character in the black hole, I was like, well, I guess this is going to be the gay character they're going to make fun of with the name like the black hole. And I was like, well, I was way off there, but I now assume the worst anytime someone new was introduced.

Sound You Out (58:19.687)
I think that's a fair level of skepticism based on what we've read so far.

Superdooper Dave (58:24.483)
Yeah, well, you know, according to the two of you, and you're right. Garth Ennis has crossed my boundaries, and now I no longer trust

Sound You Out (58:36.423)
Fair, same.

Matt - CDWA (58:38.222)
Do you want to cut them out of your life and we can read something different next month?

Sound You Out (58:41.315)
No. We gotta finish this.

Superdooper Dave (58:41.421)
I'm we're more than half done now. Yeah, I'm going to drag you to the finish line by your ankles if I have

Sound You Out (58:52.443)
Matt, you started this and you're gonna finish it, god damn it.

Superdooper Dave (58:55.927)
Yeah. Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (58:56.992)
I started this with the premise that this book was gonna be somewhat like the show which I'm interested in and still have not watched. That was my whole thing. Had I known we would descend into this kind of madness, I wouldn't have suggested we read this. It's all me. It's all me, guys. My bad. My bad. We're almost there. We're almost there.

Superdooper Dave (59:11.439)
Well, what did we learn, Matt? What did we learn? Maybe you do a little research next time first.

Sound You Out (59:13.169)
Hahaha

Sound You Out (59:23.847)
must.

Superdooper Dave (59:23.872)
My least likable is Matt.

Matt - CDWA (59:25.624)
Thank

Thank you. That should be unanimous at the end of this. Our last one is definitely be like, we went through the shit for no reason. this is definitely should be, yeah, please make sure you make that, that needs to come back around. That needs to come back around for sure. Mine was O 'Henry or what was it? Father O 'Henry. O 'Henry's a, O 'Henry.

Superdooper Dave (59:31.075)
No, not really.

Sound You Out (59:38.301)
Let me make that note so I don't forget.

Superdooper Dave (59:40.801)
you

Sound You Out (59:50.981)
like the candy bar.

Superdooper Dave (59:51.267)
father, Henry is a chocolate bar. I don't like that either, though, if it matters.

Matt - CDWA (59:58.766)
Correction. Henry, the candy bar. father didn't love him. Did love malchemical, but really my least likable honestly broke my heart was Huey. Dude, like I don't, he, something sent me with that, him just going in that hard. Like, I mean, I'm sure obviously people have been cheated on and people do heinous shit. People have probably, you know, killed their significant other or whatever, but I feel like most rational people would not, like Eric said, they'd

Can you explain this? maybe, you know, like, or, you know, like, or I'm out, like, I can't handle this right now or explain it. Like most people wouldn't like completely throw away this like beautiful relationship they had with someone over like, like that in my opinion. that's maybe, maybe that's me being naive. I don't know, but yeah. Didn't love Huey, man. Didn't love

Sound You Out (01:00:31.485)
Let's give this some time.

Superdooper Dave (01:00:32.153)
Yeah.

Sound You Out (01:00:53.755)
Well, Matt, sorry, go ahead. No, no. Okay. I was just gonna say I followed your rationale to a certain point, but came to a slightly different conclusion because I also wrote down Malchemical and Father. And Henry. I know Henry. But my pick was actually butcher, because I feel that he pushed Huey.

Superdooper Dave (01:00:53.975)
I...

Matt - CDWA (01:00:59.982)
Yeah, he is.

Matt - CDWA (01:01:08.878)
Andy Barton. Thank you.

Superdooper Dave (01:01:09.807)
And Henry whack -ass candy

Sound You Out (01:01:22.702)
in the wrong direction, because he's manipulating him. And that's one of butcher's things, when he already knew that he was in a vulnerable place. So I think it when he was like, whatever you do, don't talk about the tape, like he's gonna talk about the tape, right. And he he put him in that position. I think this was a this was a whole trade that showed how much butcher puts himself and his mission first.

Matt - CDWA (01:01:36.736)
He's not talking about the tape. Yeah.

Sound You Out (01:01:50.855)
And there's a really subtle moment where he references he says, you know, they're gonna be raped. Do you even know what that is? And he's like, Yeah, I think I do. And you start to see there's a motive behind what he's doing. But he puts himself before everybody else because he wants he wants to achieve what he wants to achieve. And I think to the detriment of Huey in this entire trade. So butcher

Superdooper Dave (01:02:17.455)
I don't think this could have worked out any better. I wrote down butcher and Huey because I couldn't decide which one I liked the least. I agree with everything that both of you said. At first I wrote down butcher, only butcher. And then as I was going back through my notes and thinking back on like some of the stuff that I knew we ended up talking about in the episode, I decided that I also didn't like Huey at all either because of multiple, multiple things, but primarily.

Sound You Out (01:02:25.221)
Hahaha

Superdooper Dave (01:02:46.627)
that flight in the park. yeah, Butcher and Hewie, they were the worst. I couldn't pick

Sound You Out (01:02:51.111)
Fair?

Superdooper Dave (01:02:53.933)
And that's it for volume seven, The Innocence.

Matt - CDWA (01:02:57.358)
I really want to close it out differently and like, and since you hate Huey so much, we're going to dive into six issues of his backstory next episode.

Superdooper Dave (01:03:04.399)
I mean, yeah, we are. I know I said last month we were going to double up in July and then we didn't and I'm sorry, it shit happens. So maybe we'll double up this month. We have to double up

Sound You Out (01:03:05.072)
Yeah.

Matt - CDWA (01:03:18.306)
You can double up. We can double up. We can double

Sound You Out (01:03:20.445)
eventually, or go until January, but we have to start, you have to start something new in

Superdooper Dave (01:03:24.301)
Yeah, well, you'll be starting something new in January, too, if you want to. It's an open invitation. You want to be our let's read boy.

Sound You Out (01:03:27.951)
I absolutely how could I I'm you know, there's nothing in the capacity of a podcast. There's nothing I could possibly want

Superdooper Dave (01:03:37.551)
Great. I just like talking about comics with you guys. Yeah. So yeah, we'll see. We'll see what next year holds. when we can do two in January, we can finish the boys in the beginning and start something new at the end. That's not an issue. But at some point I'd like to do two so we can start clean in January and leave the boys in 2024. But anyway, we'll be back in a couple of weeks. Matt and I will have something cooked up. Maybe at the end of the month you'll get a second boys episode.

Sound You Out (01:03:40.485)
Same.

Matt - CDWA (01:03:51.042)
Yeah, no, that's fine.

Sound You Out (01:03:57.957)
Yeah, that would be

Superdooper Dave (01:04:07.267)
Maybe it'll be in September. Who knows? It'll be sometime, but we appreciate you stopping by, checking out the podcast. Those are long episodes. If you're still here, you're a trooper. You're braver than the troops as a matter of fact, and we appreciate you. Until next time. Until next time.

Matt - CDWA (01:04:21.73)
Ne -whoa! Henry! Henry!

Superdooper Dave (01:04:25.625)
that Henry got me. Until next time, my name is Dave.

Matt - CDWA (01:04:30.926)
And I'm Matt.

Sound You Out (01:04:32.165)
And I'm Eric.

Superdooper Dave (01:04:33.443)
Take care of yourselves everybody. Bye

Matt - CDWA (01:04:35.288)
Peace.

Sound You Out (01:04:36.145)
Bye.

Superdooper Dave (01:04:37.637)
you did it this time. You didn't just do like a wave and then you actually said goodbye. Good for you. Yeah, no. Proud of you, man. Good job. Okay,

Sound You Out (01:04:40.369)
I'm learning. I'm learning that that's what we're supposed to do. It only took me seven episodes. Thanks.

Matt - CDWA (01:04:49.25)
The O Henry.