Gobbledygeek

Landlubber Yorick Brown sets sail for Australia in Y: The Last Man: Vol. 6 - Girl on Girl, and Paul and Arlo are on hand to detail his nautical adventure. Now that their year-long Four-Color Flashback journey through Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s beloved comic book is more than halfway over...the boys have an existential crisis and ponder why it’s been so difficult to discuss their journey. Is a series like Y: The Last Man built for this kind of volume-by-volume analysis? Every comic book is different, so is it fair for the boys to place it under the same scrutiny they did The Sandman? Besides making a classic of the medium sound surprisingly shitty, the boys do mine discussion from Girl on Girl, particularly about how the women in Yorick’s life realize they’re trapping themselves inside his narrative. They swear they love this book. Really. Plus, Arlo forced Amber to watch Firefly and Serenity.

Next: put pedal to the metal as Edgar Wright drops the needle on Baby Driver.

135 years ago, Robert Ford put a bullet in the back of Jesse James’ head. 34 years ago, Ron Hansen put pen to paper for a literary retelling of this slaying, calling it The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. 10 years ago, Australian writer-director Andrew Dominik put to film his version of this novel. What gets lost over time and multiple translations? What aspects of the legend become amplified, and what diminished? These are appropriately heady questions, as Dominik’s film tackles the very concepts of celebrity, idolatry, memory, and myth. The movie, met with decent reviews and zero fanfare upon release, seems like a classic in 2017. Paul and Arlo rave about the film, including Roger Deakins’ once-in-a-lifetime stellar cinematography, the spellbinding score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, and the haunting performances from Casey Affleck and Brad Pitt. They also discuss who’s the real coward, who really killed whom, and what the film has to say about masculinity and the Old West. Plus, that new Spider-Man game for the PS4 looks baller.

Next: the boys’ year-long Four-Color Flashback exploration of Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s Y: The Last Man continues with Vol. 6: Girl on Girl.

This week, the lasso of truth compels Paul and Arlo to tell you all about their thoughts on Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman, the fourth film in the DC Extended Universe and the first major female-led superhero movie since freaking Elektra. Joining them on this Themysciran horseback ride is friend of the show Hallie Prime. The gang discusses Gal Gadot’s note-perfect performance, Chris Pine’s frighteningly large eyebrows, whether or not the film’s villains live up to its hero, and if there’s still hope for the DCEU yet. Plus, Arlo gets all evangelical about The Leftovers.

Next: after a week off, Paul and Arlo will take a look at The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford ten years on.