[SPEAKER_00]: Kingdom of Zod event takes over Superman books.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mary Jane celebrates 60th anniversary.
[SPEAKER_00]: Epstein's suicide note found in graphic novel.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is comic book club news from May 8th, 2026.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've been teasing this one for a long time, and it's finally happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: This August in September, DC's Superman line of books will kneel before Zod with a two-month long event titled Kingdom of Zod.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kicking off on August 12 in Supergirl number 16, Per PR from the publisher, quote, A mysterious military coup dangerously destabilizes the Kryptonite Kingdom of El Caldero.
[SPEAKER_00]: Supergirl assembles her own strike team of Super Force including Superboy Prime, Connor Kent, Tomorrowman, Steel and Moher to infiltrate the occupied territory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fresh off the epic reign of the Superboy storyline, Cara's Superboy crew is shocked to discover this conquering forces, Kryptonian and Dedley, that same day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today, Action Comics 1111 sees Superman crash land back into the present day after the events of Action Comics 11100, no spoilers here, only to find himself immediately drawn into the escalating conflict.
[SPEAKER_00]: To take a little step back after the events of the 2024 Limited Series deal before Zahn, the former general found his powers missing and readers discovered that they had moved over to lowest lane transforming her into superwoman.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those powers have popped out and often in the meantime, Superman has been told by a skinny dubs day for the future called Time Trapper, that an enormous threat is coming for him and his family that will lead to devastation.
[SPEAKER_00]: That threat?
[SPEAKER_00]: Probably so.
[SPEAKER_00]: T-C-T's is a shocking twist, right at the beginning of the crossover, and it will continue throughout the next two months, ending in Superman Kingdom of Zonspecial on September 30.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mary Jane, wacky weed, reefer, sweet green, marijuana has many names and frankly it's disgusting that Marvel is celebrating the 60th anniversary of this deadly drug with, oh I'm sorry, yeah, I've been told this is the anniversary of the fictional character Mary Jade Watson.
[SPEAKER_00]: My bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anywho, because Mary Jane said a thing one time 60 years ago, the publisher will release the one-shot Mary Jane Faset Tiger No.
[SPEAKER_00]: 1.
[SPEAKER_00]: A celebration of all things MJ featuring all new stories and a glimpse of what's to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the book, you'll get stories from GM Demetas, Jane Michael Strisinski, and Nesente and Ashley Allen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Looks at art from Phil Noto, Alina Erofiva, Andrea Bracardo, and Luigi Gisagaria.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mary Jane Faset Tiger No.
[SPEAKER_00]: 1 hit stores on August 5, 2026.
[SPEAKER_00]: They say all presses good press, but I'll be honest, I don't know if that applies here because Jeffrey Epstein's alleged suicide note was found inside a graphic novel.
[SPEAKER_00]: The news comes via the New York Times, and while there are plenty of more pressing questions about this, one tends to wonder which graphic novel was Epstein reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: Last November, while coming through 18,000 of Epstein's emails,
[SPEAKER_00]: Bloomberg assembled a rough reading list for the convicted sex offender.
[SPEAKER_00]: List doesn't seem to include any graphic novels, so if Epstein was busy reading Batman or was getting into invincible, it doesn't say there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I looked at the publicly available Epstein files provided by the government, and most of the scanty emails that mentioned graphic novels are from Kickstarter, which Epstein, to be clear, was not pledging he was just on the mailing list.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are two exceptions.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first is a long email thread about a cancer benefit that mentions Marissa Akachella Machetto's excellent 2009 memoir Cancer Vixen.
[SPEAKER_00]: The second and slightly more eye-opening set of documents are financial reports from ADW capital partners from February 17, 2016.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why is this interesting?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's because the documents are about ADW's investment in IDW.
[SPEAKER_00]: They call out mostly media properties like Winona Earp, but specifically also mentioned quote, one of the company's most famous properties, Lock and Key, is co-owned with Joe Hill, Stephen King's son.
[SPEAKER_00]: As far as I can gather, ADW, which it's likely Epstein was an investor in, was heavily invested in IDW, and so much so that on March 5, 2019, ADW urged a sale of IDW in a publicly release press release.
[SPEAKER_00]: Later that month, IDW hired JP Morgan to explore a sale, then less than five months later, on August 10, 2019, Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide.
[SPEAKER_00]: Coincidence?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look, will we ever know what graphic novel Epstein was reading?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do we really want to know?
[SPEAKER_00]: And was it locking key?
[SPEAKER_00]: More on this as it develops.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe.
[SPEAKER_00]: For comic book club news, I'm Alex Elbin.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you want to hit the jackpot tigers, then stay away from hitting that bomb.
[SPEAKER_00]: Got tips or stories you'd like us to cover?
[SPEAKER_00]: Email us at comic bookclublive at gmail.com For more comic book news, reviews, and interviews, check out comic bookclublive.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen early and add free on patreon.com slash comic book club.