Podcast - Episode 38: Batman v Superman: The Dawn of Justice

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Man.

So we saw Batman v Superman and thankfully Dave and I didn't have to pay for it (thanks Cal!). Johnathan Munroe joins us this week and he DID have to pay for it (sorry Johnathan!).

Johnathan didn't hate the movie as much as Dave or myself, but he sure didn't like it. Dave couldn't find much to like in it, despite being optimistic going in, and I just hated it. HATED IT.

Here's the thing about Superman and Batman, guys. I mean, I didn't think we still needed to go over this after nearly 100 years of character development on these two, but here goes:

These are aspirational characters. They represent the best of humanity. Humanity. That's important to keep in mind. Because this movie has NONE. Here's what the characters should be:

Superman is all-powerful, but never scary. His goodness is what makes him a hero. He is better than us, but it was mostly learned here on Earth, his adopted home. His values come from Johnathan and Martha Kent, from his Kryptonian parents who made saving the life of their son their final act before dying, and from the wholesome naiveté of small town America. He doesn't need to help us, he doesn't even need to stay here, but he will because he believes in us.

The core of Batman's character is, and always needs to be, hope. He doesn't do what he does because he hates criminals. He does it because he wants humans to be better. And that is why it is so important that he doesn't kill. Ever. Even the most bloodthirsty criminals get a chance at reform and redemption.

Superman teaches us patience, kindness, humility, and concern for our fellow humans. Batman teaches us determination, perseverance, ingenuity, and sacrifice. Together they should be overwhelmingly inspirational, and anything but cynical.

So, anyway, this movie had none of that and was garbage.

Before we get to talking about that, we talk a bit about DC Rebirth, which you can Google, as well as Daredevil: season 2 (Dave finished it, and I am still only up to episode 4), and Jeremy Renner's announcement that he is totally down for a Hawkeye Netflix series.

Oh, and I saw The Bronze! And I really liked it! And I forgot to mention this on the podcast, but J.Bone drew some really great Lance Tucker art (that's Sebastian Stan's character in The Bronze, guys). Check it out:

Sebastian's sex scene body double liked it! That's something!

I am exhausted from thinking about Batman v Superman. I am so glad it is behind me forever. Enjoy the episode! Warning: you can hear the sound of a cat barfing in the background. It's appropriate.

Podcast - Episode 37: Batman LOVES Superman!

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With Batman vs Superman: The Dawn of Justice looming, Dave and I decided to cheer ourselves up by talking about some of our favourite comics that feature both Superman and Batman.

But first! Here is that comment Sebastian Stan left on Instagram that explained the contents of Bucky's backpack/destroyed us all:

Ohhhh godddddddd. This movie!!!!! Who will remove my corpse from the theatre?!

If you want to find out if Sebastian Stan is your soulmate, you can take the BuzzFeed quiz but there is no point because he is MY soulmate.

MINE!

Oof. Those biceps. Anyway.

Here are some links to some old (so very old, holy smokes) blog posts I wrote about some of the comics we talk about in this episode.

World's Finest #302 back-up by David Anthony Kraft and David Mazzucchelli. I have the entire five-page comic posted here, with commentary. It's seriously one of my favourite things ever published.

World's Finest Annual #9 (final two pages) by Elliot S. Maggin and Alex Toth. I posted the entire hot dog vendor prank part of this comic at the end of the blog post here, which was mostly about Action Comics #241, which is one of my favourite Superman/Batman stories ever.

Brave & The Bold #150 by Bob Haney and Jim Aparo. Remember when you are looking at these panels, the goon who is beating the life out of Bruce Wayne is actually Superman.

I've done a couple of posts about the Super Sons, which you can see here and here.

World's Finest #71 by Alvin Schwartz and Curt Swan. You just have to read this comic to believe it. It's so crazy. Here's that panel of the slumped, silent Superman-in-a-Batman-suit, after being knocked out by Kryptonite:

That will never not crack me up.

World's Finest by Dave Gibbons and Steve Rude. I have the little Christmas gift scene posted in its entirety here.

Lois Lane #89 by Leo Dorfman and Curt Swan. Lois marries Bruce Wayne without knowing he's Batman! She's marrying him for HIM! Just an ordinary billionaire hunk!

World’s Finest #189 by Cary Bates and Ross Andru. Superman dies and leaves Batman the gift of unnecessary surgery.

And here is the bonus issue of World's Finest I mention where Batman and Superman get sick of Earth and decide to start a new life in space. Oh, Bob Haney. I love you.

Alright, we are off to watch Superman kill Batman or whatever tonight. We'll let you know what we think next week! Thanks for listening!

Podcast - Episode 34: An R-rated Batman vs. Superman Movie? Really?

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Mere days after Dave and I said that the success of Deadpool would lead to a tidal wave of R-rated superhero movies, Warner Brothers Studios announced that there will be an R-rated cut of Batman vs Superman: The Dawn of Justice for Blu-Ray and such. Seriously. Superman and Batman. R-rated.

So we have a few things to say about that.

This was the first week recording with our fancy new mics and mixing board and, yes, I need to turn Dave's mic up more next week and turn my own mic down. Will do!

We talk a bit about Hail, Caesar! this week because I finally got to see it. I specifically talk about Alden Ehrenreich and how I am now in love with him. Look at this beautiful thing:

Siiiiiiiiigh.

Anyway, great movie.

If you want to read Jennifer Garner's awesome Ben Affleck shade, the Vanity Fair article is here.

And, hey, speaking of Daredevil (?), here is the latest (as of today) trailer that we discuss on this episode:

I forgot to mention this on the podcast, but I was a guest this month on Sean Jordan's Weekend at Burgie's podcast, and it was released this past week. You can listen to that here.

Here are those Paul Renaud preview pages that show the return of young, sexy Steve Rogers. Check it out:

Daaaaaaamn. That's some sexy Steve. A whole pile of hot Captain Americas, really.

Ok, well. Enjoy the episode. Thanks for listening, as always. Follow us on Instagram!

Podcast - Episode 28: Great Writing/Bad Art & Great Art/Bad Writing

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This week we totally talk about actual comic books! We talk about books that had such great writing that we were (almost) able to overlook the not-so-great art. And then books that had art that was so great that we bought them even though the writing was just terrible. It gets kinda mean, not gonna lie.

And the panel at the top of this post is, of course, from JLA (great writing by Grant Morrison, just dreadful art by Howard Porter). Here are a few more of the comics we mention:

1. Animal Man with great writing by Grant Morrison, not-so-great art by Chas Truog:

2. Miracle Man with great writing by Alan Moore, not-so-great art by Chuck Beckum:

3. Godland with great art by Tom Scioli and not-so-great writing by Joe Casey:

4. Doom Patrol with great writing by Grant Morrison, not-so-great art by Richard Case:

5. Our favourite example: Superman/Batman with great art by Ed McGuinness, terrible writing by Jeph Loeb:

Hey, if you want to watch the entire Captain America: Civil War panel from Wizard World New Orleans, you can!!! Right here.

And if you want to see how extremely handsome and snugly Chris Evans looked while doing that panel, here's some visual reference:

I'll finish this with a picture of that Winter Soldier Dorbz toy that is coming out and is adorable. And some very funny fan art inspired by it.

Nah, I lied. I'm gonna end this with a selfie of Sebastian Stan in a tux on Golden Globes night:

Podcast - Episode 8: Superhero Friendships

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We are STILL waiting for that Civil War trailer. Guys, why won't they release it? WHYYYYYYY??!!!

Anyway, in the meantime, here is a new episode of our podcast.

When I gush talk about Planet Hulk this week I mention that the colours are amazing, but I do not mention that the colourist is Jordan Boyd. Seriously amazing art on this book.

I mention my adventures on Tumblr and some of the blogs I have been enjoying. Here is a link to parksandcap, which pairs Parks and Recreation quotes with Captain America stills and is HILARIOUS. Behold:

 

And now I just want to watch all of Parks and Rec again.

I also mentioned the textsfromcapscrew blog, which pairs tweets from the 'Texts from Last Night' Twitter account with Captain America stills. Also hilarious:

 

So funny. Go follow both of those blogs.

In the superhero friendships discussion part of this episode, we talk maybe too much (but never enough) about one of my favourite comics ever, Action Comics #241. I wrote about this story at length in a post on this blog here. It's seriously the best. I mean...

Some of the other specific comic issues that we mention/rec are:

Marvel Two-in-One #86 (The Thing hangs with Sandman)
Marvel Two-in-One #51 (Poker game with Beast, Wonder Man, Ms Marvel, Nick Fury and DumDum Dugan)
The Avengers #198 (Wonder Man and Beast shake off hangovers to fight a giant robot)
Wolverine: Weapon X #11 (Wolverine takes Captain America on a post-resurrection pub crawl around the world with Nightcrawler as designated driver)

We also mention the completely awesome (and completely out-of-print) Spider-Man/Human Torch series by Dan Slott and Ty Templeton. You can buy a digital version on Comixology if you can't find some old copies at your local comic shop. It is the best.

That about wraps it up for this week. And now back to anxiously awaiting the Civil War trailer. And looking at Chris Evans gifs from D23. Gifs like this one:

THANK YOU TUMBLR!!!!!  Source.

THANK YOU TUMBLR!!!!!  Source.

Go buy Dave's new comic, The Last Paper Route! You can buy it online here.

Podcast - Episode 5: Ant-Man!!!

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Dave and I saw Ant-Man this week and we spoil the hell out of it in this Giant-Size Ant-Man episode (actually a normal length episode). And can I just say, it was nice to have a recorded conversation with Dave about a Marvel movie after writing out all those dialogues for our Countdown to Age of Ultron recaps on this blog.

First we discuss the Batman vs Superman trailer, which you can watch here:

And I really go off on "Renner of the Week" Jesse Eisenberg's dumb 'genocide' comments about Comic Con. You can read about what he actually said here.

jesse-eisenberg-comic-con-genocide.jpg

We talk about the X-Men: Apocalypse images, which you can see here.

And I try to talk coherently about Hayley Atwell's DubSmash videos. I can't. Just watch these and try not to die (like you haven't watched them a million times already). You can see the whole epic battle here.

Just follow Hayley Atwell on Twitter and Instagram. She's the best. You can check out the full Pajiba 10 2015 list, which is a great list of sexy people that I fully endorse. It's also full of hot pics and gifs like this one:

I keep talking about how awesome Planet Hulk is on the podcast and I keep not mentioning either the writer or the artist's names. which is very dumb and horrible. So here they are:

Planet Hulk is written by SAM HUMPHRIES!

Planet Hulk is drawn by MARC LAMING!

As I mention, the Ant-Man end of credits scene makes me lose my damn mind. There is a good in-depth look at both end credits scenes here. This line made me very sad:

“Add in Sebastian Stan’s intense acting and it doesn’t take much to believe that this Bucky is also one who has pretty much decided to give up.”
— Andrea Towers, Entertainment Weekly

Bucky!!! Noooo!!! I love youuuuuu!!!

Dave had another idea about the end credits scene, which he has drawn here and it is the best:

On the episode I refer to the writer of the Paul Rudd article as a man. It was a woman! Ugh! I am part of the problem!!! You can read that great New York Times article on Paul Rudd here, and you can join me in trying to solve the Mystery of the Obnoxious Avenger that the author clearly hates (I still think it's Downey, though my heart wants it to be Renner). Here's the quote, for quick reference:

“Twenty feet away, a different Avenger hammily belted show tunes into a personal fan while some crew members pretended to laugh. Noninclusive.”
— Molly Young, The New York Times Magazine

Big thanks to Dave for letting me go on about Magic Mike XXL for awhile. It's basically all I can think about.

I am not kidding about adding Sebastian Stan to Magic Mike 3. I mean, I know these movies don't need more white dudes, but please. I went home after recording and Google image searched things like 'Sebastian Stan dancing' 'Sebastian Stan shirtless' and 'Sebastian Stan lips' for quite awhile. More than usual, even.

Next week we are totally going to talk about comic books on this podcast.