So you're telling me: -This event is 25 issues long -Has never been collected -Published when DC was desperate -And it's one of the worst things the company has published? That's almost a Back Issues Bingo.
I love how half this episode is just Ben reading off names of the new characters and everyone on the couch talking about how dumb they are. Premium Backissues content.
An interesting bit of history about Bloodlines, DC editorial went to every creative team and told them they had to create a new character that would appear in each annual. When the creative team's found out that they wouldn't own the character and it was considered "work for hire" many just half a$$ed their new character so DC wouldn't get anything of value out of Bloodlines.
25:27 Sal: "They even entertained the notion of doing a similar treatment to Wonder Woman. . ." Me: What? Was DC going to have her raped or something? Sal: "THE RAPE OF WONDER WOMAN!" Me: I WAS KIDDING!!! P.S. In 2019, DC released the movie Wonder Woman: Bloodlines. It's probably a coincidence, but I wanted to add it anyway.
Oh, based on his body of work, I can absolutely believe Tom King was one of the seven people who read this shit at the time. His comics show he absolutely loves this sex and violence shit.
Ashamed to admit that this was one of the first “crossovers” I read when first started reading comics and got a smile on my face when ever referenced-usually when DC writers were gleefully killing them off later Razor-sharp, Geist, Ballistic, and most of Blood Pack killed in ONE PANEL by Superboy Prime in Infinite Crisis Anima was killed and Gunfire had his hands cut off by Prometheus somewhere in JLA Have not seen the patriotic gym teacher get killed off but he better keep his head down…..
I've probably watched a comic pop video every day or close to every day since my first Back Issues in 2019. Y'all have gotten me through many a work day, especially in 2020. Finally able to join the patreon, and good timing with the 5 year quest that was Bloodlines! Thank you Sal, Tiffany, Ethan, and Ben for being you!
I can't believe they were considering doing that to Wonder Woman... I remember Sal referenced it once in an old episode and at the time I thought he was joking but he wasn't! Just shows how creatively bankrupt and stupid a company can get.
It would have been amazing, if gun fire was in heroes in crisis and his powers were on the fritz. Imagine him sitting down with to enjoy a burrito at Chipotle and he accidentally shoots the soda machine. So he has a constant fear of him shooting himself or others.
I'm not gonna lie As creatively bankrupt as all these characters are, I think there's a kernel of an interesting idea with Gunfire that you could make into an interesting character or storyline
What's also interesting is that the same year, MARVEL did the same thing in their annuals that year, except without any connecting story or shared origin. Something about 1993, man.
Ahhhh that brilliant idea of having your crossover event played out in 60 page annuals across the whole publishing line. Just genius stuff by DC in the 90's.
As someone who picks up a lot of old DC back issues Bloodlines annuals are not in my collection, I cant beleive it's worse than the JLApe annuals. Thanks for this Sal, hopefully Ben and Ethan forgive you.
My little sister & I had a solid 20 minute laugh session over gunfire & the real world application of his powers. Thank you for working so hard to do this story 😂
Gunfire's ability is dumb enough that I went and looked it up. He fires pieces of the thing he grabs, and for some reason, it also becomes a grenade unless it's a sphere.
Hitman appears in Batman: Contagion, believe it or not- Batman Chronicles #4. As I remember it, Batman and Hitman happen to intercept the same goon, and they spend most of the issue debating the value of life and all that. Some of Ennis' best work, IMO.
Sal, I just want to say that I appreciate all the effort you put in for years to make this one episode that will likely be your poorest performing episode yet.
Fun fact: in 1993 Marvel also had a mini Non-Event across most, if not all, of their annuals where every single one would introduce a new character and the comics would come polybagged with a trading card of said newly introduced character. Difference was that all the annuals were standalone stories, there was no massive story that crossed over, it just so happened that they all introduced new characters. 99.9999% of which were either immediately forgotten or brought back only to be killed.
All of these characters feel like they’d be introduced in a James Gunn Suicide Squad sequel, be riffed on in their intro scene, and then all die one by one in increasingly comedic fashions
I find it ironic, you hear people who don't like a new legacy character complain about them not making new characters but know full well they won't read it. But sometimes you get this
I’d take this over most legacy’s. I think peoples REAL complaint is that most people make new characters or legacy characters just to do so without having a legitimately good idea.
One time Hitman took his girlfriend out for Indian food, after dropping her off Batman shows up to threaten Tommy and warn him that he is watching him before punching him in the stomach and Tommy proceeds to throw up on Batman 😂
36:19 So DC being racist didn't end with Invasion, or calling an Inuit Pie-f*ce, but continued into the 90s with calling a mixed race character Mongrel. I don't know if this was John Ostrander, Tim Truman or Dick Giordano but I'm blaming Dick as the fucking editor & Jenette Kahn as Editor-In-Chief at the time. Jesus Christ what a shit show.
Shadowstryke. Just for the intentional bad spelling, and that damn stupid purple skull mask Is the winner here. (not to mention sounding like someones MLP oc)
I was 14 and just getting into comics when this landed. The one I remember most was the Green Arrow one with Hook. Half the issue was his backstory of being a marine patroling the boonies and meeting a girl at a bar whose family was trying to sell her out to his squadmates. So he steps in, pays for her for the night, talks and they fall in love. He tries to bring her back him with to the states but his truck is bombed and he never sees her (or anyone else) ever again. As a kid who only read stuff with the "Approved by the Comics Code" stamp on it, this was next-level stuff to me.
It resulted in a few pretty good characters at least. Also as I remember Lobo was meant to parody really violent 90's Anti-Heroes like Wolverine and in particular Wolverine him self.
I don’t know if anyone mentioned it but in the final issue of Infinite Crisis there are two panels that depict the Blood Pack fighting Solomon Grundy and then being vaporized alongside Grundy by Superboy Prime.
So you're telling me:
-This event is 25 issues long
-Has never been collected
-Published when DC was desperate
-And it's one of the worst things the company has published?
That's almost a Back Issues Bingo.
Nowadays we just call that the yearly DC/Marvel event
@@Insane-Howl-Cowl Damn, that’s true.
Don't forget the Free Space
@@Insane-Howl-Cowl i want to argue against that. But, Dark Nights Metal still hurts me.😐😑
Damn, I got like 20 different issues of this up in my attic somewhere.
Thanos's quest for the Infinity Gems pales in comparison to Sal's quest for all of Bloodlines
I'm dead 😂😂
Sal looking for a omnibus of Bloodlines:
"Fine I'll do it myself"
And after this episode no one will care about this series.
He had to use Bloodlines to destroy Bloodlines.
@@fearnloathingingeneral the hardest of choices require the strongest of wills
@@Deadpoolzilla perhaps one day he'll realize he judged DC too harshly
When sal brought out the stack because it’s uncollected, you know this man did his research for this thing no current fan cares about. Love it
I didn't even know this event existed lol.
I love how Sal doesn’t even give an introduction this time, but instead just says “Hi” and then immediately starts ranting.
Twenty seconds in and Sal's already doing his, "Editor who hates the characters of the company he works for." Voice. This is gonna be a good episode.
I totally do this too, I try to gauge the episode based on their expressions in the thumbnail as well 😂
Well he's interviewed Dan Didio so we know the impression is accurate 😂
“I hate that we own Superman, he’s such bullshit!”
I love that all of Sal’s Machinations have led to bloodlines. What a ridiculously circuitous scheme
Oh you. Lol
I really hope you did the mocking, ridiculous hand thing that Sal always does when he says it lol
The greatest cross over you never asked for😂😂😂😂
I love how half this episode is just Ben reading off names of the new characters and everyone on the couch talking about how dumb they are. Premium Backissues content.
An interesting bit of history about Bloodlines, DC editorial went to every creative team and told them they had to create a new character that would appear in each annual. When the creative team's found out that they wouldn't own the character and it was considered "work for hire" many just half a$$ed their new character so DC wouldn't get anything of value out of Bloodlines.
*Gunfire:* "Using my powers, I can turn anything into a weapon! Even this rifle!"
"...But-"
*Gunfire:* "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-!"
I will defeat you with the power of friendship, and this gun I found
Ha!
From an actual issue of Hitman: “Oh no! I’ve turned my own ass into a hand grenade!” - Gunfire 1 million
within moments your goal for helping them reach 100K subscribers will be achieved
@@rte3y838 YAAAAAAY!
I now picture Sal hunting down issues of Bloodlines dressed like Indiana Jones.
Both of these definitely happened
When they asked "What is your favorite Bloodlines character?" I had already forgotten all their names.
The fact that most of these guys were ANNIHILATED by Superboy Prime is hilarious.
Sal: this is a 25-part-
Ethan: oh no..
Sal: This is a 25 part-
Me: Comic Series?
Sal: CROSSOVER SPECIAL!!!
Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
“This is the only one you need to read...
...I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Everyone: Y'all should do Bad Blood!
Sal: (half listening) mmhm sure squad, blood, got it.
When Ben sees the giant stack I instantly knew we'd have a hilarious disaster on our hands
Garth Ennis' Hitman was the only worthwhile thing to come out of Bloodlines, and for that series alone it deserves to exist.
25:27
Sal: "They even entertained the notion of doing a similar treatment to Wonder Woman. . ."
Me: What? Was DC going to have her raped or something?
Sal: "THE RAPE OF WONDER WOMAN!"
Me: I WAS KIDDING!!!
P.S. In 2019, DC released the movie Wonder Woman: Bloodlines. It's probably a coincidence, but I wanted to add it anyway.
I love how Ben says “What the hell is this?” Absolutely kills me 0:54.
My favorite New Blood was Tunnel-Vision, whose powers let him only make decisions based on a myopic view of the most obvious trends.
Is that one of the editors? I was going to ask "was" but it seems he's still working at both Marvel and DC.
The best thing to come out of this isn't even directly Hitman. It's Dogwelder, a character from a Hitman book.
3 guesses as to what Dogwelder does.
Dogwelder was Wizard magazine's new character of the year or some such nonsense. I love Ennis for that series!
I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and day he welds dogs to things in a horrifying fashion
I just saw that gunfire died in heroes in crisis. Truly taken before his time.
Pour one out for a true one! PEW PEW!! 21 GUN salute! Lmao!🤣
HEROES IN CRISIS? Why did Tom King remember him? Or that he was still alive??
Oh, based on his body of work, I can absolutely believe Tom King was one of the seven people who read this shit at the time. His comics show he absolutely loves this sex and violence shit.
@@SpiralSine6 heroes in crisis killed a bunch of 90s heroes so he probably ran through a wiki
Ashamed to admit that this was one of the first “crossovers” I read when first started reading comics and got a smile on my face when ever referenced-usually when DC writers were gleefully killing them off later
Razor-sharp, Geist, Ballistic, and most of Blood Pack killed in ONE PANEL by Superboy Prime in Infinite Crisis
Anima was killed and Gunfire had his hands cut off by Prometheus somewhere in JLA
Have not seen the patriotic gym teacher get killed off but he better keep his head down…..
It’s 1am and I’m in bed trying to sleep listening to comic pop stories, with my eyes closed with a big smile on my face cuz you guys are hilarious
I admire Sal for collecting all the issues of this story just so he could talk shit about it.
You know it's gonna be a good episode when Sal takes at least 5 minutes to talk about the book without actually starting to tell the story
I've probably watched a comic pop video every day or close to every day since my first Back Issues in 2019. Y'all have gotten me through many a work day, especially in 2020. Finally able to join the patreon, and good timing with the 5 year quest that was Bloodlines!
Thank you Sal, Tiffany, Ethan, and Ben for being you!
This video was 5 years in the making, 5 YEARS!!! Thank you Comic Pop for this gem.
Another weird parallel between Hitman and Punisher is Hitman idolizes Superman and Punisher idolizes Captain America.
Ethans little “oh” when sal says it’s a 25 part story.
Now Sal needs to track down the Marvel version of this event which gave us such amazing characters as Adam-X the X-treme and Empyrean.
I can't believe they were considering doing that to Wonder Woman... I remember Sal referenced it once in an old episode and at the time I thought he was joking but he wasn't! Just shows how creatively bankrupt and stupid a company can get.
It would have been amazing, if gun fire was in heroes in crisis and his powers were on the fritz. Imagine him sitting down with to enjoy a burrito at Chipotle and he accidentally shoots the soda machine. So he has a constant fear of him shooting himself or others.
Gunfire was in Heroes In Crisis. He was one of the people who died.
I think 16:40 is Sal's losing-his-mind-becoming-a-super-villian laugh. We've just watched his origin story.
This is also during the time of the speculator boom, where everyone wanted the first appearance issues.
I hate to admit it, but Bloodlines was my jam. It was my intro to a lot of DC characters.
A man with a plan is a dangerous man. This applies to Sal and whoever had the idea to do Bloodlines.
This is like if you fed Image's entire 90's lineup into a brain damaged ChatGPT set to half-assed.
Never heard of this event in my life. Based on Sal's opening thoughts, I am reasonably excited.
This episode deserves a like and a comment. Mostly to legitimise Sals epic quest to collect this ridiculous story 😂
You know this one is obscure when sal has to put in the Wikipedia article in the description instead of a synopsise.
Lmaooo the reaction to Sals stack of comics was incredible
I'm not gonna lie
As creatively bankrupt as all these characters are, I think there's a kernel of an interesting idea with Gunfire that you could make into an interesting character or storyline
If you leaned in on how ridiculous his powers work a writer could make one of the funniest superheroes of all time
What's also interesting is that the same year, MARVEL did the same thing in their annuals that year, except without any connecting story or shared origin. Something about 1993, man.
Hate to hear when certain episodes don't do as well. I'm going to go watch the Black Widow one right now. I really liked that one
Hopefully, you guys do Back Issues for John Ostrander’s Suicide Squad run
I agree. A great comic run and the pinnacle for Suicide Squad.
Was that the one with Ragdoll, Parademon and the Violinist?
Eyyyy this was my sole recommendation when you asked what DC events you haven't done yet! Good shit, knew it be perfect for the show!!
“I hate the fact that we own Superman, he’s just such bullshit!”
A phrase that’s still remains relevant today.
Bet when he comes close to public domain they’ll start caring.
@@patrickwebb7311 That won’t be happening for a long time
@@comixproviderftw_02 True, but it's closer than you might think, around a decade.
@@patrickwebb7311 is it the old Superman that can’t fly or the Superman that people know?
@@pineapplejaden3272 I believe it's the one that can't fly, since that's how he was originally designed.
I got into comic books reading this crossover, and it forever colored how I enjoy comics. It's so dumb and yet I love it, and regularly reread it.
Ahhhh that brilliant idea of having your crossover event played out in 60 page annuals across the whole publishing line. Just genius stuff by DC in the 90's.
As someone who picks up a lot of old DC back issues Bloodlines annuals are not in my collection, I cant beleive it's worse than the JLApe annuals. Thanks for this Sal, hopefully Ben and Ethan forgive you.
16:00 Ethan's immediate indignation upon hearing how Psyba-Ratz its spelled out is an all timer for me hahahaha
Ben's wheeze at 48:40 tho lmaoooo
this episode was so great, love it!
"The rape of wonder woman" ok I take it back mabye we don't live in the worst reality.
Could you imagine if that actually got approved? Probably with a different name, but still. There would’ve been backlash up the ass!
@@comixproviderftw_02it wasn’t an actual pitch
Categories of infectious disease outbreak: Epidemic->Pandemic->Plague->Death Storm
Covid-19 DEATH STORM BLOOD LINES
I was laughing so hard about Gunfire's powers that I momentarily forgot one question in my head:
Does he fire bullets when peeing???
🤣🤣🤣
Hitman one million answers this question
"This is a 25-part..."
Ethan: "Ohhh noooo." 🤣🤣🤣
“Guest” is really just what happens when Player2 selects Grifter at the same time as Player1
8:19 I was sure the premise sounded familiar then it hit me Chris talked about this on ComicTropes a few years back
Imagining sal fiendishly going through bargain bins like AHHHH WHERES MY BLOODLINES is too funny
"Myyyy precious (piece of shit) !!"
Holy shit I laughed so hard at Gunfire's powers. 🤣🤣🤣
I'd like to think Superman knew he was a Hitman but was 'eh I got enough on my plate, I wonder what Jimmy's turned into today?'
My little sister & I had a solid 20 minute laugh session over gunfire & the real world application of his powers. Thank you for working so hard to do this story 😂
Besides Hitman the only one of these characters that survived was the Hulk knockoff
I have never heard of this, Sal just pulled out that stack… this gon be good
Might be the only person who's been waiting for this one since I first came across the channel so happy Sal did it.
Sal's was Robin's mine was Flash Bloodlines
Gunfire's ability is dumb enough that I went and looked it up. He fires pieces of the thing he grabs, and for some reason, it also becomes a grenade unless it's a sphere.
Sol like gambit what he throws blows up
Hitman appears in Batman: Contagion, believe it or not- Batman Chronicles #4. As I remember it, Batman and Hitman happen to intercept the same goon, and they spend most of the issue debating the value of life and all that. Some of Ennis' best work, IMO.
Sal, I just want to say that I appreciate all the effort you put in for years to make this one episode that will likely be your poorest performing episode yet.
Fun fact: in 1993 Marvel also had a mini Non-Event across most, if not all, of their annuals where every single one would introduce a new character and the comics would come polybagged with a trading card of said newly introduced character. Difference was that all the annuals were standalone stories, there was no massive story that crossed over, it just so happened that they all introduced new characters. 99.9999% of which were either immediately forgotten or brought back only to be killed.
Argus actually sticks around for a couple issues in Mark Waids Flash. He appeared out of nowhere and I had no idea who he was.
All of these characters feel like they’d be introduced in a James Gunn Suicide Squad sequel, be riffed on in their intro scene, and then all die one by one in increasingly comedic fashions
Most of them were killed in one page by Superboy Prime.
a legendary back issues, years in the making
next week tune in for the Psyba-Rats back issues
Biting off your finger to turn it into a gun is something I could see James Gunn putting in the next Suicide Squad movie lol.
Oh my god you crazy lad been collecting 24 more of these things over all these years?! I’m so glad I’m tuning in. Holy moly.
24:15 In fairness, 'the Swamplands of Metropolis' DOES at least work for a likely Legion of Doom location
I find it ironic, you hear people who don't like a new legacy character complain about them not making new characters but know full well they won't read it. But sometimes you get this
I’d take this over most legacy’s. I think peoples REAL complaint is that most people make new characters or legacy characters just to do so without having a legitimately good idea.
Kudos to Sal's quest for collecting all of that garbage.
It was so bad, Sal literally had to search from Bargain-bin to online collectors in the hopes of ripping this arch to shreds. Comics are wild.
Sal doesn't let companies' mistakes go forgotten. No matter how hard they try.
One time Hitman took his girlfriend out for Indian food, after dropping her off Batman shows up to threaten Tommy and warn him that he is watching him before punching him in the stomach and Tommy proceeds to throw up on Batman 😂
Idk why but "Joe Public" sent me uncontrollable laughter. It's like the dumbest name ever, might as well be "Joe Mama" lmfao
Been laid up with covid since yesterday, but a new episode of Back Issues definitely helps me feel better.
Best wishes!
I think Ethan and Ben need to write a one-issue Gunfire book
DC is back, baby! Finally some DC love after weeks of Marvel stories.
I think this might be one of if not the best episodes of Back Issues.
This is one hour of preamble and then a 20 minute summary.
A Perfect Back Issues.
I NEED a Gunfire book in my life! NOW! God that has so much comedy potential. Wonder if Venture Brothers ever parodied him?
5 years hunting those? What a legend
God I remember trying to follow this as a little kid. God help you for sorting it out.
Thank God DC never went through their stupid idea for Wonder Woman, because _Jesus Christ_ can you imagine the backlash?
36:19 So DC being racist didn't end with Invasion, or calling an Inuit Pie-f*ce, but continued into the 90s with calling a mixed race character Mongrel. I don't know if this was John Ostrander, Tim Truman or Dick Giordano but I'm blaming Dick as the fucking editor & Jenette Kahn as Editor-In-Chief at the time.
Jesus Christ what a shit show.
Shadowstryke. Just for the intentional bad spelling, and that damn stupid purple skull mask Is the winner here. (not to mention sounding like someones MLP oc)
I was 14 and just getting into comics when this landed. The one I remember most was the Green Arrow one with Hook. Half the issue was his backstory of being a marine patroling the boonies and meeting a girl at a bar whose family was trying to sell her out to his squadmates. So he steps in, pays for her for the night, talks and they fall in love. He tries to bring her back him with to the states but his truck is bombed and he never sees her (or anyone else) ever again. As a kid who only read stuff with the "Approved by the Comics Code" stamp on it, this was next-level stuff to me.
As always Ben is every one of us at 48:20! Lmao!🤣😂🤣
Of course Mark Millar, patron saint of try-hard edgelords, would pitch that Wonder Woman idea.
He sucks so much and always has
Ethan..have you been setting this up for years? Sal YES! You beautiful man you. Also high five for Ben and Bloodclot.
You know it’s great when 15 minutes in and they haven’t even started the story
It resulted in a few pretty good characters at least. Also as I remember Lobo was meant to parody really violent 90's Anti-Heroes like Wolverine and in particular Wolverine him self.
And then he did make it the title, and it was good.
I don’t know if anyone mentioned it but in the final issue of Infinite Crisis there are two panels that depict the Blood Pack fighting Solomon Grundy and then being vaporized alongside Grundy by Superboy Prime.
The characters from bloodlines that were killed in Infinite Crisis were Geist, Ballistic, Razorsharp, Mongrel, and Nightblade