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.
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…..
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 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'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'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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 😂
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)
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.
Loose Cannon is still around in current continuity. He appeared really recently -- I can't remember what comic, and he was a bit player, but he does turn up from time to time.
I was so excited because I thought I hadn’t heard of this storyline, which is pretty rare. To my chagrin I realized (when the cover popped up) that I JUST READ Robin Annual 2 in the collected trades not two weeks ago. It’s the only issue in those collections that I skipped over because it was so out of context and ridiculous.
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.
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.
It’s a bit of a shame that this was handled so poorly. If done well, this could’ve been DCs X-Men. You’ve got a group of people with powers that the public doesn’t trust thanks to their connection to the alien invasion, there’s some interesting variety of powers, there are some of distinct different nationalities and they eventually form a team. Heck, some of them even have powers similar to X-Men characters, like Gunfire being very similar to Gambit, Nightblade being slightly like Wolverine and Loria being basically a one for one recreation of Colossus except as a woman. Could’ve been something pretty good, but they fumbled the bag.
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.
I looked up Bloodlines on DC Universe Infinite and I discovered that there was a 2016 series called Bloodlines that takes inspiration from the 90's Bloodlines event.
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
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.
I love how Sal doesn’t even give an introduction this time, but instead just says “Hi” and then immediately starts ranting.
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😂😂😂😂
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.
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 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.
When Ben sees the giant stack I instantly knew we'd have a hilarious disaster on our hands
Sal: this is a 25-part-
Ethan: oh no..
Sal: This is a 25 part-
Me: Comic Series?
Sal: CROSSOVER SPECIAL!!!
Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
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
Everyone: Y'all should do Bad Blood!
Sal: (half listening) mmhm sure squad, blood, got it.
“This is the only one you need to read...
...I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Garth Ennis' Hitman was the only worthwhile thing to come out of Bloodlines, and for that series alone it deserves to exist.
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
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 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.
This is also during the time of the speculator boom, where everyone wanted the first appearance issues.
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.
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'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 love how Ben says “What the hell is this?” Absolutely kills me 0:54.
I think 16:40 is Sal's losing-his-mind-becoming-a-super-villian laugh. We've just watched his origin story.
Ethans little “oh” when sal says it’s a 25 part story.
I admire Sal for collecting all the issues of this story just so he could talk shit about it.
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
This video was 5 years in the making, 5 YEARS!!! Thank you Comic Pop for this gem.
Never heard of this event in my life. Based on Sal's opening thoughts, I am reasonably excited.
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?
This is like if you fed Image's entire 90's lineup into a brain damaged ChatGPT set to half-assed.
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 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.
Besides Hitman the only one of these characters that survived was the Hulk knockoff
Lmaooo the reaction to Sals stack of comics was incredible
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.
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!!
You know this one is obscure when sal has to put in the Wikipedia article in the description instead of a synopsise.
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
This episode deserves a like and a comment. Mostly to legitimise Sals epic quest to collect this ridiculous story 😂
this episode was so great, love 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.
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.
I was laughing so hard about Gunfire's powers that I momentarily forgot one question in my head:
Does he fire bullets when peeing???
🤣🤣🤣
Out of pocket 🤣🤣🤣
Hitman one million answers this question
I NEED a Gunfire book in my life! NOW! God that has so much comedy potential. Wonder if Venture Brothers ever parodied him?
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
Holy shit I laughed so hard at Gunfire's powers. 🤣🤣🤣
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.
Imagining sal fiendishly going through bargain bins like AHHHH WHERES MY BLOODLINES is too funny
"Myyyy precious (piece of shit) !!"
I have never heard of this, Sal just pulled out that stack… this gon be good
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.
16:00 Ethan's immediate indignation upon hearing how Psyba-Ratz its spelled out is an all timer for me hahahaha
a legendary back issues, years in the making
next week tune in for the Psyba-Rats back issues
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?'
Another weird parallel between Hitman and Punisher is Hitman idolizes Superman and Punisher idolizes Captain America.
"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
8:19 I was sure the premise sounded familiar then it hit me Chris talked about this on ComicTropes a few years back
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 😂
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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
DC is back, baby! Finally some DC love after weeks of Marvel stories.
Categories of infectious disease outbreak: Epidemic->Pandemic->Plague->Death Storm
Covid-19 DEATH STORM BLOOD LINES
"This is a 25-part..."
Ethan: "Ohhh noooo." 🤣🤣🤣
Ethan..have you been setting this up for years? Sal YES! You beautiful man you. Also high five for Ben and Bloodclot.
And then he did make it the title, and it was good.
They [JLA] would never forget the Terrorsmith!
Just how much are you willing to bet, DC?
Ben's wheeze at 48:40 tho lmaoooo
I think this might be one of if not the best episodes of Back Issues.
Loose Cannon is still around in current continuity. He appeared really recently -- I can't remember what comic, and he was a bit player, but he does turn up from time to time.
24:15 In fairness, 'the Swamplands of Metropolis' DOES at least work for a likely Legion of Doom location
I was so excited because I thought I hadn’t heard of this storyline, which is pretty rare. To my chagrin I realized (when the cover popped up) that I JUST READ Robin Annual 2 in the collected trades not two weeks ago. It’s the only issue in those collections that I skipped over because it was so out of context and ridiculous.
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
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.
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.
God I remember trying to follow this as a little kid. God help you for sorting it out.
Kudos to Sal's quest for collecting all of that garbage.
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.
“Guest” is really just what happens when Player2 selects Grifter at the same time as Player1
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
I cant l express enough how HAPPY this episode made me!!!
5 years hunting those? What a legend
It’s a bit of a shame that this was handled so poorly. If done well, this could’ve been DCs X-Men. You’ve got a group of people with powers that the public doesn’t trust thanks to their connection to the alien invasion, there’s some interesting variety of powers, there are some of distinct different nationalities and they eventually form a team. Heck, some of them even have powers similar to X-Men characters, like Gunfire being very similar to Gambit, Nightblade being slightly like Wolverine and Loria being basically a one for one recreation of Colossus except as a woman. Could’ve been something pretty good, but they fumbled the bag.
I love that there was a reference to Pete Holmes Ex-Men sketches. And Whitest Kids U Know. Amazing.
I said the biggest request list the other day and I’m so excited that one of them happened to be this video. I can’t wait to watch it after work
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.
I looked up Bloodlines on DC Universe Infinite and I discovered that there was a 2016 series called Bloodlines that takes inspiration from the 90's Bloodlines event.
Thank God DC never went through their stupid idea for Wonder Woman, because _Jesus Christ_ can you imagine the backlash?
Of course Mark Millar, patron saint of try-hard edgelords, would pitch that Wonder Woman idea.
He sucks so much and always has