Peter and Eden dive into the first four issues of Larry Hama's classic G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero comics — a Kickstarter Peter may have regretted until roughly issue three, when a self-reassembling mech changed his mind. Before getting to Cobra, they cover Eden's return to Final Fantasy XIV and a crash course in Riichi Mahjong, Peter's take on Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 7 (enthusiastically defended as entertainment, explicitly not art), the emotional weight of the new At the Gates album The Ghost of a Future Dead, and a handful of other metal releases. The G.I. Joe discussion turns into a genuinely good riff on comics history, the widescreen movement, and what it feels like to read a 1982 military action comic with 2025 eyes.

SHOW NOTES

• Eden returns to Final Fantasy XIV: The new expansion Everkold was announced and Eden is skeptical of the premise. They made a new character on a new data center with a self-imposed gimmick — only picking classes that use magic, which leads to some fun justifications for Dark Knight and Reaper.
• Riichi Mahjong crash course: Eden attended a learn-to-play Mahjong event at a local board game lounge and has been practicing at the Gold Saucer in FFXIV. The tiles are described as resembling Haribo frogs — thick, satisfying, extremely edible-looking.
• Eden's reading: Clematis and Wisteria series: A contemporary fantasy series set in a majocracy where healers are second-class citizens bonded to mages. Features two prickly, genuinely unlikable protagonists in a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers arc. Eden is several books in and very much into it.
• Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 7: Peter finished it and reaffirmed his position that it is not art — it is McDonald's. A fun, genre-appropriate palate cleanser, nothing more. This generated at least one spirited reply from a listener on social media that Peter declined to further engage with.
• Dresden Files Book 18 (Cold Days): Peter is halfway through and pleasantly surprised by how contemplative and low-action it is so far — Harry processing trauma rather than punching things. He expects crazy stuff by the end.
• Metal roundup: Peter covers several recent releases — Grief Collector's The Death of All Dreams (classic doom), A Dream of Poe's Katabasis: A Marriage Among Ashes (gothic/symphonic doom from Portugal, came with a personal thank-you email from the artist), Avertat's Dead End Life (death-doom), and Sepultura's swan-song EP The Cloud of Unknowing. Peter delivers a hot take defending post-Max Sepultura and does not mince words about the Cavalera brothers.
• At the Gates — The Ghost of a Future Dead: The most affecting music note of the episode. Lead vocalist Tomas Lindberg was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma, recorded demo vocals for the entire album in one day before surgery, and ultimately died from the disease. The band completed the album using those recordings. Peter calls it a real banger and a worthy send-off.
• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Issues 1–4): The main topic. Both Peter and Eden started skeptical — Peter "made a hundreds of dollars mistake" on the Kickstarter — but came around by issue three when a self-rebuilding mech shows up. Eden provides a solid comics theory digression on the widescreen movement, Silver Age overexplaining, and where 1982 G.I. Joe sits in that history. Larry Hama's background (Asian American, invented characters alongside Hasbro, writing it into his 60s) gets discussed, as does the book's period-typical racism and sexism, Snake Eyes' ambiguous deal, and Cobra's complete lack of motivation.
• Free Comic Book Day plug: Eden reminds listeners that Free Comic Book Day is the following Saturday. The Dungeon Crawler Carl zero issue will be available. Eden also shouts out G.I. Joe: Silent Missions and a single issue written by friend-of-the-shop Phil Hester.