all_new_miracleman_annual_1_coverIt’s the first episode of 2015! In a week where there’s no comics news since everyone in comics is on vacation, and there were almost no new comics for exactly the same reason! Which means most comics podcasts and news sites are doing their Best Of / Worst Of lists this week… while we did ours last week. Clearly we don’t plan well.

So this week, we decided to look back to a couple of events from 2014 that we haven’t previously talked about in a lot of detail:

  • The Doctor Who Christmas Special, Last Christmas, and:
  • Luc Besson’s superhero-ish movie from last summer, Lucy, starring Scarlett Johansson!

And while it was a light week for comics, there were a couple of big, highly-anticipated issues. So we discuss:

  • All-New Miracleman Annual #1, written by Grant Morrison and Peter Milligan, with art by Joe Quesada and Mike Allred, and:
  • S.H.I.E.L.D. #1, based on the TV show Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., written by Mark Waid and drawn by Carlos Pacheco!

And now the legalese:

  • We record this show live to tape. While this might mean a looser comics podcast than you are used it, it also means that anything can happen. Like the definition of a Face Dream Herpe.
  • This show contains spoilers. While we try to shout out warnings ahead of time, just assume that you will be told the villain of 1988’s Miracleman #15. 27 years is enough of a cushion.
  • We use adult, profane language, so therefore this show is not safe for work. This week’s title is “Wookie Shoe Porn,” for God’s sake. We shouldn’t need to warn you to get some headphones.

Enjoy the show, suckers!

gotham_donal_logue_harvey_bullockGotham premiered on NBC this past week, so Amanda and I talk about the first episode. We discuss what we thought worked, what didn’t, why we don’t want to see all the fan service super villains we got in this first episode… and frankly, why we don’t want to see much more of Bruce Wayne, either. We also compare the show to Ed Brubaker’s and Greg Rucka’s Gotham Central comic series, sometimes favorably, others… not so.

We also talk briefly about the second season premiere of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and how we like that we got an honest-to-God supervillain, an early direction, and an Agent Ward who might not be long for this Earth!

And when it comes to comics, we discuss:

  • Secret Avengers #8, written by Ales Kot with art by Michael Walsh, and:
  • Harley Quinn: Futures’ End one shot, written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, with art by Chad Hardin!

And now the disclaimers:

  • We record this show live to tape. While this might mean it’s a looser show than you are used to from other comics podcasts, it also means that anything can happen. Like discussing the mechanics of M.O.D.O.K. sex.
  • This show has a lot of spoilers. We try to warn you ahead of time, but consider this our blanket heads-up.
  • Amanda and I use adult, profane language, and therefore this show is not safe for work. Did you not see the warning that we talk about M.O.D.O.K. sex? Get some headphones.

Enjoy the show, suckers!

star_hunters_4_coverOver the past week, announcements have come down that TV versions of Teen Titans and Supergirl are being developed… mere weeks before the premieres of Gotham, Constantine, The Flash, and a new season of Arrow. And all this on top of DC’s efforts to build a Marvel Studios style cohesive universe with their own movies.

So Amanda and I discuss who they could possibly use in Titans, what with all these other disconnected properties being released (spoilers: if we see Jericho, there will be blood). We also talk about whether, with these series as well as Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.Agent Carter, and the four Netflix series, we could be driving the non-comics reading public into superhero burnout, and if DC is fouling their own nest by pulling possible movie characters out of play for basic cable TV shows.

We also talk about:

  • Batman: Futures’ End #1, written by Ray Fawkes with art by Aco, and
  • The Death of Wolverine #2, written by Charles Soule with art by Steve McNiven!

And now the disclaimers:

  • We record this show live to tape. While that might mean a slightly looser show than you are used to, it also means that anything can happen. Like talking about Matthew Perry wearing Leifeld leg pouches stuffed with Vicodin.
  • This show contains spoilers. While we try to shout a warning ahead of time, consider this the official one.
  • This show contains adult, explicit language, and is therefore not safe for work. If you don’t have headphones, find Jericho, clock him in the head and take his. He’s got it coming, and besides: he can’t cry for help anyway.

Enjoy the show, suckers!

homer_superman_shirtMy God, it’s a miracle: we’re actually releasing a new podcast on our regularly-scheduled Sunday! Sure, we had to tape it on Saturday to get it done, and during a time when we were forced by circumstance to remain sober while we did it, but what the hell; it’s a small price to pay for being able to rant about comics and pop culture on a predictable schedule.

In this week’s episode, we discuss:

  • Television! Particularly, the announcements this week that Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was renewed (and whether or not that is a good thing), and the announcements that various networks have picked up season orders of Agent Carter, Gotham, iZombie, Constantine, and Flash, and which shows we think might be good or horrible, depending on their direction
  • Moon Knight #3, written by Warren Ellis with art by Declan Shalvey
  • Miles Morales, The Ultimate Spider-Man #1, written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by David Marquez, and
  • Why you should never allow a kitten into a recording studio when you are, you know, recording.

And, a few notes (and please let us know in the comments if we mentioned something obscure and forgot to include it here):

  • The “Maurissa” whose name we were trying to remember was Maurissa Tancharoen, one of the showrunners for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
  • When we talk about Beacon Hill and Dorchester, you might not know that Beacon Hill is a Boston neighborhood populated almost exclusively by people who use the word “summer” as a verb, and Dorchester is a place where you go to witness or participate in a knife fight (it is the home neighborhood of Mark Wahlberg, so you know almost nothing good has come from there)

Finally, the nitty gritty pseudo-legalese:

  • This show may contains spoilers, and it may spoil something with no warning whatsoever (although we make an effort to chuck a “spoiler alert!” in now and again)
  • This show was recorded live to tape and is unedited, so there may be more “ums”, pregnant pauses, and vile, ill-advised humor than you are used to from your everyday comics / pop culture podcast
  • This show includes the use of explicit and profane language, and is most decidedly not safe for work. Unless you have the kind of job that requires you to know what a “Tunguska Reacharound” is, in which case, listen away and feel free to tell your pimp that we think you deserve a larger cut of the take.

Enjoy the show, suckers!

tmp_captain_america_winter_soldier_poster_captain_america 1970456123I 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!

Enjoy the show, suckers!

shield_logoThere is a dearth of comics news between Christmas and New Year’s, for the same reason there is a dearth of anything else going on other than liquor sales during that same time: everyone is on vacation.

So on days like these, while we are trying to get our heads around our inevitable Best of 2013 posts to appear later this week, we’ll take what comics-related news we can get. And what we got is the birthday of Iain De Caestecker, the dude who plays Fitz on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Which normally would be about as comics-newsworthy as The Crow: Wicked Prayer star Edward Furlong picking up yet another drug-related arrest, but in the case of De Caestecker’s birthday, he got himself a gift from Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada. A present in the form of a Quesada drawing of his character. With a monkey.

You can check the image out after the jump. Or not. Look, this is as good as it’s gonna get today, folks. You’re just lucky you didn’t get 500 words about Reb Brown approaching a stranger and asking if they want their groceries bagged in paper or plastic.