Episode 105: My Struggle… With The X-Files: Reopened

Sorry for last week’s unexpected absence, but something unexpected made its way into our home and made us feel terrible. And on a completely unrelated note…

A couple of weeks ago brought us the conclusion of the much-anticipated return of The X-Files. Presented as six episode miniseries meant to function as an official tenth season of the original series (down to the original, shot-on-video opening credits), the event was intended to satisfy both long time fans and newer viewers alike. Meaning that we were the entire target audience – Amanda watched the show from the first episode, whereas Rob has only seen the first couple of seasons on DVD and the movies.

So we talk about the things about the season that worked, the things that unexpectedly delighted us, the elements that were more distracting than anything else… and the things that were simply, truly, irrevocably awful. And while we didn’t agree on everything, there is one thing in which we are lockstep: of all the things that work in The X-Files, Chris Carter should be George Lucas’ed into the cornfield, Disney style.

We also discuss:

• The Walking Dead #152, written by Robert Kirkman wih art by Charlie Adlard,
• Green Lantern #50, written by Robert Venditti with art by Billy Tan and Vicente Cifuentes, and
• Black Widow #1, written by Mark Waid with art by Chris Samnee!

And, the disclaimers:

• As we said: we were sick last week. So you’re going to hear more coughing and sniffling than normal. We apologize.
• This show contains spoilers. While we try to yell out warnings ahead of time, be aware that we will ruin the ending of The X-Files more thoroughly for you than Chris Carter did. Actually, that’s not possible.
• This show contains adult, profane language, and is therefore not safe for work. Do you want your employer to learn how to violate millions of television viewers with a move I like to call the Sudden Stem Cell Trespass? Then get some headphones.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:45:42 — 98.4MB)

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Thanks for listening, suckers!

Episode 67: C2E2 Panel Recap, Part 1: Spider-Man GWAR

We’re a bit later than we originally intended, but proud to present the first part of our C2E2 2015 panel recaps. But these aren’t your normal panel rundowns; these are chock full of audio from the panels, including quotes direct from Dan Slott, Brian Azzarello, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, Charles Soule, and a bunch of other creators!

We start by going through the Secret Wars: Last Days panel from Marvel, where the panel talks about the Last Days miniseries leading to Secret Wars for characters like Ms. Marvel, Black Widow, Silver Surfer, Punisher, Ant-Man and the Inhumans. While there’s not a lot in the way of revelations in this panel, there are one or two really interesting new tidbits… as well as the name a of supervillain that, by the end of the episode, will haunt your nightmares.

We then recap the New DC Universe panel, where the post-Convergence storylines of books including Harley Quinn, Starfire, Bizarro and Catwoman, as well as some details about the upcoming We Are Robin, are laid out. This was the panel where Dark Knight 3: The Master Race was made, and we have that audio (and our opinions) as well.

We plan to tape and release our recap episode about the Batman panel (where Scott Snyder talks openly about the Bat-Bunny) tomorrow or Friday, so stay tuned!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:39:07 — 91.0MB)

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Thanks for listening, suckers!

Crisis On Infinite Midlives Podcast Episode 10: The Fist of Rebirth

I know what you’re saying. You’re saying, “Jesus Christ, Rob! A podcast? How timely! Only almost exactly 23 months after your last podcast! You’re a Goddamned radio machine, you guys are!”

True, true… but we just came back from watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which we enjoyed the hell out of, and decided that rather than just sit in a bar and talk about it, we’d dust off the old microphones and mixer and do it for public consumption. Hell, we liked podcasting… but what we never liked was recording one, then listening to it and taking notes on what editing and post-production we wanted, then taking another two hours and actually, you know, doing those edits and post-production, before finally uploading the damned thing.

So we tried something a little different today: we just sat down, shot the s**t about the movie for about half an hour, slapped the intro and bed music onto it, and uploaded it. This is live to tape, boys and girls; as you hear it is how we said it, awkward pauses, “um”s, and everything. But since that “everything” also includes fisting jokes, we hope it evens out.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier in general
• Black Widow, and how this is the first time it feels like she’s a character who could carry her own movie
• Deviations between the movie and Ed Brubaker’s original comic
• What effect this might have on ABC’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
• The post-credits sequences
• How the lack of laughter over a tombstone makes me weep for the state of movie-goers in general

And a bunch of other stuff we can’t remember because yeah: live to tape.

Here’s the usual disclaimer: this podcast is not safe for work. Further, we spoil a bunch of stuff from the movie, so if you haven’t seen it and want to remain pristine, give this a pass for now… but feel free to come back after you’ve seen it!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:36 — 33.5MB)

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Enjoy the show, suckers!

Meet Black Widow – Captain America Movie Sequel Featurette

Hey, kids! Did you really dig Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, in her various appearances in Iron Man 2 and The Avengers? Did you wish you could see more of her?

No, not that way, you perverts.

Well, it looks like she’s going to have a very central role in the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier movie. And, she’s got her own stand alone movie in the works, although it’s just in the beginning stages of getting past being a twinkle in Marvel’s pants eye. Take a look at this new featurette focusing on the lady herself!

Captain America: The Winter Soldier opens in US theaters April 4, 2014.

Via Bleeding Cool.

Who Wants To Be An Avenger? Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers Lineup Revealed

We’ve known for quite some time that Brian Michael Bendis’s run on the various Avengers titles was coming to an end, and it was recently announced that current Fantastic Four writer Jonathan Hickman was going to be taking over the two main titles, Avengers and The New Avengers. But one of the burning questions leading into the transfer of power has been: after the Avengers Vs. X-Men event shakes out and Hickman takes over, who’s gonna be on which team?

Well, some of those questions have been answered, as Marvel has released the first three covers to Avengers, written by Hickman with art by Jerome Opena, picturing a pretty big gathering of superheroes (and, as did Pinocchio, I question the correct term for a gathering of multiple superheroes. For today, I will eschew “gaggle” and “pride,” and will go with “wad.”):

Crisis On Infinite Midlives Podcast Episode 9: Doublefisting Justice

I know what you’re saying: “Rob,” you’re saying, “It has been a month since Amanda’s and your last podcast. What’s the occasion?” Which would be an excellent question had Avengers not opened in American theaters last Friday, so asking it makes you look foolish. So stop it. You’re better than that.

Here is the pure hell of being editors of a comics Web site: Amanda and I watched Avengers together Saturday afternoon, and rather than discuss it, we agreed to see it again on Sunday… and still not discuss it until we got home and did it into microphones. And discuss it we did; in this Avengers podcast, we discuss:

• The Avengers 3D vs. 2D Experience from the point of view of people getting old with slowly failing vision!
• The Hulk: Great Avenger or Greatest Avenger?
• The Hulk can lift tanks, so why can’t he carry his own movie?
• Our Friend, The Thrice-Nightly Screening, or: Why Can’t Johnny Edit?
• Black Widow as best developed Avenger (insert your own boob joke here)!
• Hawkeye: Redundant Avenger or Redundant Avenger?
• I Can Has Justis Leeg Moovee Nao?, and:
• AAAvengers: who do we want to bring up from the minors?

As always, if you intend to listen to this at work, we recommend you wear headphones unless you want your boss to hear phrases like, “Lokif***er,” “Mjolnir… is not the hammer,” or, “You just want a Dirty Ruffalo!” Besides, with headphones, if you listen really close, you can hear two grown comics geeks misidentifying S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Sharon Carter as Ms. Marvel!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:44 — 56.5MB)

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Enjoy the show, suckers!

(Avengers Booty Ass-emble via Kevin Bolk)

Geek Penthouse: Joss Whedon on Buffy Vs. Black Widow

If you’re anything like I am, you watched that teaser clip, from Joss Whedon’s upcoming Avengers flick, of Black Widow tied to a chair and still kicking the shit out of three or four guys and you wondered: “Why can’t I control when I get an erection? I’m a fucking 40-year-old man!”

However, if you’re anything like Amanda, you wondered who would win in a fight: the Widow, or Whedon’s most famous creation, Buffy The Vampire Slayer? I know she wondered this because she asked me while I was drafting the above-linked article; I sat quietly for a moment after her question, and after some intense consideration, I could only reply: “…I gotta go put on clean pants. New rule: don’t ask me about purely theoretical superhero girl fights. No, this does not supercede the existing rule to not ask me to solve complicated mathematical word problems in front of you and your friends.”

Thankfully, Whedon has responded directly to the question to USA Today, saving those of us wallowing in the realm of superhero geekdom the heartbreak of hours of heated bar debates, ill-advised and extended podcasts, and shameful and furtive midnight laundry sessions.

To wit:

Black Widow Chair Dance: Avengers Movie Clip

I know that we said that we would see you tomorrow (suckers), and that it was the end of our broadcast day, but this is simply too new and too good to ignore.

Yes, we are still reading this week’s new comics and drinking beer. However,  in the meantime, please enjoy the first full, non-trailer clip of Avengers, starring Black Widow doing an awesome chair act, after the jump.

The Final Countdown: Secret Avengers #20 Review

Unlike every other comics Web site in the world, we here at Crisis On Infinite Midlives are not putting together any lists of the best and worst comics of 2011. This is partially because we only came into existence in September, partially because when we review books we try to tell you what we think in a little more depth than a star rating or an idiotic list of weekly winners and losers, and partially because before we started this site we read many, if not all, of our comics on Wednesday nights while shitfaced at the bar next to our local comic store.

But if I were compiling a list of my favorite comics of 2011, Warren Ellis’s Secret Avengers would have a rock solid place on it. It has been a series of big idea, one-and-done issues with rotating, top-shelf artists, and an overriding concept – missions to stop extinction-level events that no one can ever know about – that cheerfully lends itself to big stories that can flip the bird to ongoing continuity. And this week’s #20 continues the solid run… although I readily admit that more than once, the stories have felt a little, shall we say, recycled.

A couple months ago when I reviewed Secret Avengers #18, I reveled in the fact that Ellis acknowledged that the problem with time travel is that if you just move through time, the planet would have moved, and you would pop out of your time tunnel or your hot tub or your DeLorean in the empty vacuum of space to die with blood boiling in your brain and leaving Elizabeth Shue available for Karate Kid II after all.