Magic is so hard to define in the DCU. It's a bit all over the place.
I agree... somewhat.
DC collectively calls any sort of supernatural-based power source "magic", but really what they're talking about is a wide spectrum of divine, angelic, demonic, homo-magi, talismanic, or even totemic based powers.
Similar to what Gaiman did in the original "Books of Magic" series, our show is attempting to create a unified narrative, although - I'll admit - our greatest successes are probably usually born out of the ongoing chronological creative histories, more so than the actual narrative continuity. In any case - nearly a year in, I still love doing this show and I can easily see it being a life-long project.
Btw - don't have a clear picture yet but - sometime in the next 10 or so episodes, it will be our "magic and the Legion" spotlight, covering the early things like Command Kid, the Luck Lords, and the Ghost of Ferro Lad, up through the Adventure-Era biggie: Mordru the Merciless!
I think it is simply easier for Marvel because they basically grew from a handful of supernatural books (Dr.Strange and Thor books being the most prominent from the Marvel Age days) and added on content later. We get magic users in the X-Men and other books who are directly tied to what came before.
DC as we know it is the result of a merger between two publishers in the Golden Age, as well as other publishers/content that they bought out. Post-Crisis they have had the task of making everything connect, and whether or not they did depends on your perspective.
By the way, was anyone able to identify all the dimensions hinted at in the movie? I think I saw Mephisto's realm, the Cancerverse, the Negative Zone, and the Dark Dimension.
Go with the good and you'll be like them; go with the evil and you'll be worse than them.- Portuguese Proverb
Great show with Emily (who, I agree, should do a Marvel Universe magic podcast). I kept seeing her LW avatar as she was talking... Having only a peripheral knowledge of Dr. Strange, this discussion was good prep for seeing the movie.
The background and historical info you provide in these podcasts is excellent. The Sheldon Mayer history was fascinating (an artist losing his eyesight - tragic! although it was eventually restored). Did Mel tie her hair up in a pony tail for the reading?
Thank you for the compliment, I was very nervous on how it turned out. I would love to do a podcast/broadcast someday. I'm trying to find a winter project, and it is high on the list.
Go with the good and you'll be like them; go with the evil and you'll be worse than them.- Portuguese Proverb
for no other reason than that I think it's really good.
Over the past year, we've been advancing chronologically through DC in the 60's - currently up to early '68. Ep 42 deals with a dark period in comics history when older creators like Gardner Fox, Otto Binder, George Kashdan, etc. found themselves the target of ageism.
This one is light on the "supernatural" focus, and instead, connects an artist bio of E. Nelson Bridwell to the "artistic purge" of '68 with a thru-line via a "Mad-Magazine" style deconstruction of 1960's DC editorial. I know it sounds a bit scattershot in structure, but it was one of my favorite eps to research and record.
In any case, if you like that era, and would like some cool history, check it out!
Doing initial editing right now for Episode 47, the first of two "Magic and the Legion" episodes covering the Mordu the Merciless story from the Adventure run, when three days ago I find out there was going be this super-small comic convention literally 10 minutes from my house where both the writer and cover-artist from that story, Jim Shooter and Neal Adams, were both appearing!!!
Allow me to repeat that: !!!
Seriously... this was an amazing coincidence that I couldn't pass up. Mel and I went yesterday, met both creators and had really good chats with both of them.
I had met Shooter years ago, right after the 3-boot, and he was understandably bit miffed at DC at the time, but this time he was very cordial and we had a nice conversation about Mort Weisinger, E. Nelson Bridwell, and some of his literary inspirations during his Adventure days. Neal Adams went above and beyond. We got a Deadman sketch from him and - while he was drawing it - he called Mel and I over for like a half hour (!) as he told us about his relationships with Dick Giordano, Carmine Infantino, Jack Miller and tons of behind the scenes stuff about Deadman... including the fact that he is currently working on a new miniseries for DC that picks up the story right at the end of his Strange Adventures run.
It is going to be cool to see how fantasy and science-fiction gets interwoven in Legion (and in the following decades of fiction in general). It reaches it's height with the Fourth World and Star Wars.
Go with the good and you'll be like them; go with the evil and you'll be worse than them.- Portuguese Proverb
Magic is so hard to define in the DCU. It's a bit all over the place. I see some classic JLA issues in there, that are too tempting to ignore. I recently read those Doctor Fate issues for the JSA Idol thread. The Spectre had stories in those issues, lowering the reoffending rates by killing the crooks.
In the 90's DC had Gaiman write a small piece for their RPG in an attempt to explain DCU magic and use it in quantifiable game mechanics (which, of course, is inherently antithetical to the function of magic). He listed these three rules (Basically a summation of his views from "Books of Magic"):
"A) You can have power and ability and so forth, but it's not free. You always pay for it; few of the people who step into the world of magic come away happy.
B) You have a choice. But if you enter the world of magic, you can never return to a scientific point of view. You're in a world which looks like the one you knew but is more glamorous and more dangerous.
After 16 months, Ex's Podcast Thingie (AKA The Parliament of Rooks Podcast) gets around to the Legion. My wife and I just covered the intro of Mordru the Merciless across two episodes, covering Adventure Comics #'s 369 and 370, a guest spot by Paul French of the Legion of Substitute Podcasters, and a tragicomic recap of the teen years of Jim Shooter.
We decided to try something a bit unique for this one and perform it as an old-fashioned radio drama. There will be a bunch of different stories in it, but here's a sample of one that already has a bit of polish on it. I've included the actual comic below for follow-along-ability.
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