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Everybody knows an accident caused Captain America to spend decades in suspended animation after World War II. What this book presupposes is…maybe the U.S. Government froze him on purpose? But if that’s the high concept behind “Ice” by Chuck Austen (with John Ney Reiber) and Jae Lee, why is the comic mostly about a guy with an alien robot hand trying to test Cap’s sense of morality? By request, host Justin uncovers the complicated history of the post-9/11 Marvel Knights Captain America run on the way to defrosting this controversial (but ultimately inconsequential) storyline. Also covered in this episode: failed attempts at winning enemies to your point of view via hallucinogens, the irrationality of amphibious love interests, and the most conspicuous anagram in the history of superhero comics.

In the year 2000, the comic book Captain Marvel belonged to Genis-Vell, a novice superhero trying to to live up to his father's name and keep up the momentum gained by his appearances in the popular Avengers Forever series. But series writer Peter David may have been more interested in chronicling the sitcom antics of Genis' odd-couple partner, longtime Hulk supporting character Rick Jones. David and artist ChrisCross' Captain Marvel (vol. 4) is fondly remembered by fans as a great series cut down in its prime, but does it hold up? Genis is headed back to comic store shelves this month in a new miniseries, and to mark the occasion, regular host Justin Zyduck and guest Jim Cannon revisit the original.  Also discussed in this episode: PAD's possible similarities with Garth Merenghi, an unnecessarily elaborate scheme involving the Wendigo, a potshot at Wild Wild West that's taken on a strange resonance 22 years later, angling for Tom Brevoort's job, and the unsettling possibility that Bill Jemas might have been right about this series all along.

Remembering the New Coke of Superman storylines 25 years later, when a desperate DC Comics tried to get people excited about the Man of Steel again by giving him new powers and a '90s X-Men-style costume. But can absolute mastery of the electromagnetic spectrum counteract event fatigue, a flagging comics industry, and a morass of subplots? Indefensible Ink takes a look back at the "Triangle Era" of Superman books and offers an opinion about why depowering the character isn't the quick fix people assume it will be. Also discussed in this episode: the benefits of super-USB-drive fingers vs. invulnerable toes, a thinly veiled Rush Limbaugh whining that his co-workers don't like him, and strategies for playing Connect Four with small children. BONUS: Where is Metropolis? Where is Gotham City, for that matter? Justin takes a look at the implications of the DC Universe having three New York Cities and considers a possible solution.

We will not see his like again.

Today, many comics artists work completely digitally, but in 1988, creating a comic book using a computer was a noteworthy novelty. Is Mike Saenz's cyberpunk thriller Iron Man: Crash--billed on its cover as "The First Computer-Generated Graphic Novel"--just a gimmick, or is there a story behind the low-rez bitmaps? And if there is a story...is it any good? Justin takes a look at what could either be described as "The Dark Knight Returns, but for Iron Man" or as "Popular Mechanics, crossed with Tales of Suspense." Along the way, this episode attempts to examine anti-Japanese xenophobia in American media of the '80s and also--improbably--contains spoilers for Hercule Poirot's character arc in Kenneth Branagh's Death of the Nile. Also discussed in this episode: naked sauna days, undercover robots at the post office, and the possible re-exposure of Pentagon secrets that have been buried for 30 years.  BONUS: Who are the creators of Venom? It's a tangled web of what constitutes "creation" and when, but Justin offers his perspective. 

Comic book titles don't get much bloodier than Youngblood: Bloodsport...but there's even more types of bodily fluids to worry about in this unfinished miniseries by Mark Millar and Rob Liefeld! What happens when you let a then-up-and-coming Scottish provocateur off the leash and turn him loose on an excitable artist's flagship team? Your host Justin grimaces through some more immature and tasteless nonsense from these goofballs so you don't have to. WARNING: Some reptition of salty language and sexual content. Also discussed in this episode: supper club decorum, every generation's belief that its celebrities are the worst, an extremely questionable attempt at doing an accent, and Stan Lee's least prestigious cameo. BONUS: What exactly constitutes a character's "first appearance"? Inspired by a recent blog discovery (remember blogs?), Justin shares some instances where the answer to this question is more of a matter of philosophy than simple publishing dates.

So many podcasts have already weighed in on Matt Reeves' The Batman, but only Indefensible Ink asks the most important question of all: Is the Penguin in this film actually penguin-y enough to merit the name? Host Justin Zyduck welcomes back his recurring guest and brother, Zach, to discuss what they liked about this film and whether a lifetime of monklike dedication to the field of Batman Studies has ruined Justin's ability to enjoy it even further.

Building a year-long weekly comic book series around an ensemble of sub-A-list superheroes might sound like a risky gamble, but DC pulled it off in the middle part of the '00s with the acclaimed 52. So why wouldn't it work a second time, especially if it led in to the company's next big Crisis event? Your humble host tries to explain Countdown to Final Crisis, with detours into looking back on Dan Didio's tenure as DC's creative head honcho, dispensing some hard truths about the New Gods, and exploring other creators' fundamental inability to get on Grant Morrison's level. Also discussed in this episode: the Kirby vibe and how to get it, the Teen Titans' questionable definition of "ally," those boring Monitors and their boring pontificating, and Darkseid takes a cue from Rick Moranis.

Indefensible Ink is back in a new format, and to mark the occasion, we'll look at the time Peter Parker went through a soft-reboot of his own in Spider-Man: Chapter One. John Byrne took a swing at trying to redefine the web-spinner's origin story for the late '90s without throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so why did his carefully chosen changes leave readers either icily indifferent or hot with rage? Returning host Justin compares two nearly contemporary Spidey-origins to shine a spider-signal light on Chapter One's shortcomings.  Also discussed in this episode: the Chameleon's employment history, hairstyles of the rich and criminal, the dancing baby GIF as pinnacle of human achievement to that time, and the social and economic implausibility of teenagers attending a Rolling Stones concert.

Well ... it might not actually be that all-new or all-different, but come listen to Justin talk about what the future holds for this podcast anyway.

It's the end of an era at Indefensible Ink, and to mark the occasion, Ryan and Justin have reconvened one last time to tackle a topic they've had their eye on since the podcast began nearly three years ago: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Frank Miller's controversial turn-of-the-century followup to his legendary Batman epic The Dark Knight Returns. Is DKSA's crass social commentary and political nihilism sincere or satirical? Does it matter? Your hosts wrestle with a very challenging comic to try to determine what, if anything, we are supposed to take from it. And Indefensible Ink will, quite literally, never be the same again! An important announcement about the future of the podcast leads this episode. Discussed: The Dark Knight Strikes Again #1-3 (2001-02)

In this week’s Very Special Episode, Ryan and Justin discuss the controversial 2017 Marvel mega-event, Secret Empire, the crossover that spun out of the idea “What if Captain America was secretly a Hydra agent all along?” and inspired many people to understandably question whether publishing a storyline with a fascist-led America was either colossally ill-timed or in poor taste (spoilers: it was both!). If you listen to this show for goofy superhero absurdities and attempted riffing on such absurdities, this may not be the ep for you, as your hosts discuss (however uncomfortably) the actual sociopolitical climate in which the series was released. But if you're up for it, you can join them as they try to determine, now with some distance from that climate, whether Secret Empire as a storyline was or could have been satisfying, comparing it to other Marvel crossovers like Age of Apocalypse, and digging into what writer Nick Spencer and company were trying to do thematically. Also in this episode: some dude barfing up replicas of shards from the Cosmic Cube and some typically silly Canon Fodder nonsense. Justin also attempts to extort some money from Mark Waid before self-correcting an error of fact. Discussed: Secret Empire #0-10, the Free Comic Book Day issue, and Secret Empire: Omega (2017).