The second episode of AMC’s ‘Comic Book Men’ aired last night bringing its audience their weekly dose of comic, collectibles, and banter.
The show started with a discussion in the Stash amongst the employees: If you could time travel what would you do? Ming said that he would look himself up. Walt joked that Ming would probably find himself masturbating, to which Ming says he wouldn’t mind. If he’s still active like that at 75, then more power to him.
In the booth with the gang for the podcast, Kevin starts another discussion with the classic Spider-man line “With great power comes great responsibility.” They go on to talk about what power each of them would have if they were a superhero. Bryan says that he’d go for invisibility so he could sneak around and get food whenever he wanted. Walt wants Wolverine’s healing factor. Kevin, going for something completely out of left field, says that he would want super patience so he could out wait everybody. What?
Behind the counter, Bryan looks at and comments on an ad in a comic from 1978 about men’s girdles when the first customer walks in. While conversing with
the guy, Walt notices that there’s an Adam West Batmobile outside of the Stash. The customer said that the street legal replica was used in the movie ‘Rockstar’ starring Mark Wahlberg and that Batman himself, Adam West, signed it. The whole crew is excited about the car and wants to see it. The customer says that they can work out a trade in exchange for all of them getting to drive the Batmobile. Walt jumps at the opportunity, and then says to Ming, “Calm your batpole b*tch!” because someone has to stay in the store. Not about to be the only one left out, Ming follows them outside anyway as they’re about to take turns driving. But before they could take off, the customer pulls out a replica Adam West Batcowl for the guys to try on. Walt, who is usually cool, calm, and collected, is clearly the most excited out of everyone and he expresses his joy by exclaiming, “I rarely touch my inner kid.” Back in the booth, they discuss their favorite batmobiles. Walt likes artist Jerry Robinson’s interpretation. Ming sticks with the Adam West model. As Ming is driving the car, he says, “This is the best day of my life. Don’t tell my wife.” In closing, Walt hopes that in heaven, everyone has a Batmobile, to which Bryan expresses his hope that he goes to hell, if that’s the case.
Kevin calls the guys and says that he wants balls flying at him in all directions, so he’s arranged a hockey game for the guys. He goes into how important hockey was to him and the gang while growing up. So much so that it was even in ‘Clerks’. It tethers him to the past, he says. When they were growing up, Walt got Bryan and Kevin into hockey. Mike never played hockey as a kid, only soccer, so Ming tries to teach Mike the basics in the back alley of the store.
A self-publisher of biographical comics comes into the store with a page from Giant-size Man-Thing from 1975. Bryan identifies with Man-Thing, who basically just wants to be away from the world and left alone. Everyone laughs at the title of the book and makes Man-Thing jokes, and then Walt agrees to sell the customer’s book in the store and talks the guy down to $175 for the rare piece.
The hockey game starts as Kevin takes his spot in goal. He talks about one time when he was faced with a goalie on goalie penalty shot. Once they start playing, the other team scores a goal, which prompts Kevin to say that he doesn’t feel so young anymore.
A customer brings in full run of Crisis On Infinite Earths, a DC event that attempted to merge all their universes into one that included the death of Supergirl in issue 7 and the death of The Flash (Barry Allen) in issue 8. The customer says that he’s selling off the past to pay for the future. Intrigued by this, Walt asks what the young customer wants to do. Inspired by Kevin, he wants to sell his collection in order to build up funds to make a movie. Kevin is touched by the story and talks about how different it is these days in filmmaking. Today, it’s a lot tougher to stand out since everyone can do it, even with their phones. Walt gives the kid $30 for the set, as well as a signed Jim Lee Batman print. Kevin said that it’s like coming around full circle and that Walt may have funded the next generation’s Kevin Smith.
Back at the hockey game, Kevin says that his team is like a teenage boy who shot so early that he has nothing left. The score is 6-0, with the other team shutting out the guys from the Stash. They haven’t played in a while and their old age caught up with them it seems.
In the studio, the gang is talking about Barbra Gordon/Batgirl. They bring up The Killing Joke, which ended up confining Barbra to a wheelchair. Kevin says that he still liked her, especially since he wanted to take care of her after that. Bryan says, “Every girl I’m with feels nothing below the waist.”
Jason Mewes, the more talkative half of Jay and Silent Bob, drops into the store for a visit. He says that Kevin told him to stop by and see how the team was holding up. He tries to get some books and a hoodie without paying for them and points out that his face is on the sign in front of the building. Kevin says that Jay is Peter Pan-ish and that Mewes is what happens to Bart Simpson when he grows up. Ming gets tricked into paying for Jay’s stuff, and even gives him $20 for lunch.
A customer comes in with Captain 3D and True 3D from Harvey Comics while Jay and Walt are behind the counter. The customer gives a long-winded explanation of how he got them. While trying to haggle, Jay started haggling against the Stash. Walt talks the customer down to $45 store credit, even though he could have gotten them for a lot less. Mewes says that he wants to negotiate next time, which results in an eye roll from Walt.
Mewes starts playing with Viewaskew toys off the shelves after opening them, including one of himself. Walt is just happy that Jay is out of the way because a customer comes in to verify if he had an authentic Star Wars prop. Walt calls in Kevin (not Smith), a Star Wars expert, to help with the verification. Kevin deems that it’s an authentic Luke Skywalker lightsaber from ‘Empire Strikes Back’ valued at about $7 grand.
As Mewes says his goodbyes and walks out the door, Mike and Walt reveal that Jay ended up using Ming’s card again by looking at the receipt. Jay left and they never found out why he visited. Kevin brings in Jay to the booth to explain himself. It turns out that Jay took Kevin literally when he said that he should stop by some time and he hopped on a plane from California just to go to the Stash. Much to everyone’s surprise, it turns out that Mewes’ visit and changes he made while he was there actually boosted sales 100% according to Walt.
That does it for this week’s installment of ‘Comic Book Men’. Tune in next Sunday at 10:00pm to AMC to catch it on TV and/or check out my recap next Monday, but in the mean time, you can go back and check out last week’s recap and the other coverage I’ve done on the show.
