Podcast - Episode 11: Epic Runs, Grand Finales, and Forgettable Fade-outs

This week saw the end of Mark Waid's five-year run on Daredevil, with Chris Samnee on art for almost that entire run. It's sad, but the ending was satisfying, and that got us thinking about long runs by creators and how very few of them actually have solid endings.

So that's what the podcast is about this week.

But first!

Well, honestly, we don't have much to talk about this week.

I mention the creepy Captain America doll that my son picked out for me as a birthday gift. Here's a photo:

And I also mention that Chris Evans was at the premier of his directorial debut, Before We Go, on my birthday, looking super fine. Here's a picture of that:

Please keep in mind that the man in that picture and the doll in the picture above are supposed to look the same.

There was no Renner Report this week. And basically no This Week in Winter Soldier because there is nothing to talk about. But I am pretty distracted imagining that the next Waid/Samnee project is a Winter Soldier comic. Or a Winter Soldier and Black Widow comic. WHAT IF?! #BringBuckyHome

Here's that VERY romantic/horrifying preview image from Planet Hulk #5, which comes out today unless your comics are held up by Labour Day.

Interlaced fingers!!!! If the final issue of this comic isn't at least 80% a hardcore Steve/Bucky make-out session, I am going to be a little disappointed.

I will do whatever I have to to read this comic today, even if it means buying a digital version today, and the hard copy tomorrow. And then the trade whenever that comes out. And then the rights to the movie. I am going to miss these sexy gladiators.

And if you want to see a candid (pap) shot of my boy Sebastian strolling around Manhattan in the least incognito hat he could possibly choose, here you go:

What book is he carrying??!! What's he listening to?! THIS PODCAST?! That's a really big phone in his pocket! He has a pen in his other pocket! For autographs? I love him!

Anyway, these blog posts are very one-sided. I should get Dave to help write them before they just turn into straight Tumblr posts.

We did mention the Moondancers this week when we were talking about Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man. I did a post about those awesome ladies awhile back. You can read it here.

Oh, and that Cerise character Dave mentions? I guess she was in Excalibur a bit or something. You can read about her here, if you like. Or don't.

And, hey! Here's that slow news day front page Dave was talking about at the end of the episode:

Pretty great.

I also want to be clear, when I was talking about Catwoman deciding to give up her baby, what I actually meant is she gave up her 1-year-old daughter, Helena. Like, she had been raising that kid for a year or so. The kid was toddling around and could talk a little. I mean...

So a VERY heart wrenching and difficult decision. And one that...never came up again? And like I said, a few issues later she decides to quit being Catwoman, so the decision to give up her daughter, who she loves, so she could keep being Catwoman is PRETTY DUMB.

Man, I have been wanting to get that off my chest. One of the best series (81 issues!) about a female hero ever and they just throw the whole damn thing in the garbage by the end. Fuck you, DC.

What else did we talk about? Comics...movies...books...Chris Evans? Kind of a lot about Chris Evans this week, I feel (and yet, never enough). Anyway, here he is playing a very physically fit street musician in the movie he directed:

For real I want to see it. Send us a review copy, Chris Evans!

Lord, I'd better just wrap this post up right here. Just know this: we managed to fill an hour because we are the best there is at what we do.

Podcast - Episode 10: Animated Series

Animated series? Animated series'? Animated serieses?

Hey guys, it's my birthday today and that is super important! I am 35 today and to celebrate here is a solid hour of Dave and me talking about super heroes and cartoon shows! Like a couple of grownups!

In the This Week in Winter Soldier we talk about the super cute art that J. Bone made of Bucky and Natasha chilling out and watching Netflix. Here it is!

It's so cute I can't even...I hope Civil War is mostly this!

Speaking of Civil War, here is a link to that Civil War promo art that got released. And here you can see a very purple, one-sleeved Hawkeye (with a little buddy on his shoulder!), a stylish Sharon Carter, a fantastic-looking-as-always Captain America, a fancy new suit Falcon, and a salon-fresh, one-sleeved Winter Soldier:

I love that new Winter Soldier get-up. I also love that he has so many visible weapons (and probably like a couple dozen that you can't see). Still has the red star, though...interesting.

You know what these Marvel movies excel at? Boots. Great boots in every movie. They should release a line of boots.

We talk a lot about Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, which we agree are kind of the gold standard for super hero cartoons. We got so into talking about those shows that we didn't leave time to talk about Batman: The Animated Series, so we will devote a future episode to that show.

But Justice League is awesome.

We also talk about some super hero cartoons from our childhood. I mention one that I can't remember the name of, and that possibly never existed, but guess what? IT DOES! And here is the theme song:

Dave mentions the intro for the Youngblood cartoon that never made it to air. The intro can be found on YouTube, and it's worth watching, especially if you are a fan of spelling 'Youngblood':

And, of course, the Swamp Thing cartoon intro, which had the best theme song ever:

We gave some love to both Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Avengers Assemble. Both very fun shows. Dave needs to watch Avengers Assemble. Here are some gifs to convince him:

So many great cartoon shows, so little time!

Podcast - Episode 9: What Kind of Nerd Are You?

We did it! We got Sean Jordan on the show! Our first guest!

On this episode we look beyond our love of super heroes to see what other things we are, and aren't, nerds about. Finally you'll know where we stand on things like Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Stephen King and more! We also share some stories, good and bad, from working in comic shops.

I promised to show you the amazing thing that Jeremy Renner posted on Instagram, and then on Twitter twice. But, to be fair, it did have a really important and not-at-all confusing message about equality or something. So...here it is!

And here is that super sexy Hawkeye pin-up we were talking about from the MCU poster book, complete with Dave's text and my horrified reply:

It was really exciting to have another installment of the Renner Report.

In This Week in Winter Soldier we mentioned the image that was released from the set of Captain America: Civil War of Winter Soldier and Falcon running through an airport, and the inevitable meme it inspired. I did this to it:

And my friend Melissa Buote did all of this to it:

The 10 one is my favourite.

Dave and Sean and I told some of our favourite stories from working in comic shops, including some celebrity sightings! Here is a photo of Dave and the Rocketeer himself, Billy Campbell, at Strange Adventures in Halifax!

Adorable!

That's all for this week! Release the Civil War trailer, Marvel!!!!!!!!! This is me checking the internet every day to see if it's been released:

Podcast - Episode 8: Superhero Friendships

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 7: Fantastic Four

We both re-watched the 2005 Fantastic Four, Dave watched the 1994 unreleased Fantastic Four, and then we went to see the new Fantastic Four movie on opening night together. So life has been PRETTY awesome lately.

Here's the thing: that 2005 movie is NOT THAT BAD. For one thing, my 5-yr-old son loved it, and isn't that worth something? For another, Chris Evans. For another, Chris Evans with chest hair.

Also, both of these guys were just great:

The new movie, however, is very bad and we clearly outline what was bad about it in the second half of this episode. I posted a bit of a rant about a specific problem with the movie here on Tumblr (Yeah! I have a Tumblr and I almost know how to use it! Dave has one too!).

Here is that J.Bone Devil Dinosaur print that he gave to my son, and the Marvel High print he gave me at Boston Comic Con:

Mitchell immediately called him on Superman being a DC and Devil Dinosaur being a Marvel.

Mitchell immediately called him on Superman being a DC and Devil Dinosaur being a Marvel.

Look at MODOK! Look at Captain America! Look at Tony Stark!!!

Look at MODOK! Look at Captain America! Look at Tony Stark!!!

J.Bone is awesome.

And here is that Deadpool that Franco drew for Mitchell. Pretty adorable little mercenary!

To clear up any confusion, yes that Midnighter series I was talking about was by Garth Ennis and drawn by Chris Sprouse, then the writing was taken over by Keith Giffen. It was good. The new Midnighter series is by Steve Orlando and ACO. I forgot to mention that on the episode (of course).

I mention in the This Week in Winter Soldier segment that some images were leaked from the Berlin set of Civil War that feature my boy in them. Here's one of them and you can find the rest here.

Such a happy winter soldier! I want to buy him one of those ice creams and watch the sun set together.

Such a happy winter soldier! I want to buy him one of those ice creams and watch the sun set together.

We will be talking to Dave (and hopefully Sean Jordan) next week on the show about their new comic, The Last Paper Route. You can buy a digital version of the first issue here.

And you can buy the new Wordburglar album, Rapplicable Skills (featuring awesome cover art by Dave and Signalnoise) here.

Hopefully we will have Sean Jordan aka The Wordburglar, on the show next week to talk about both of these things. And probably Tigra. Dude likes Tigra.