Podcast - Episode 63: Superhero Starting Points

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Dave and I run through five characters this week, making recommendations for people who became interested in them through the movies or television, and are looking for good places to start with the comics. These are necessarily the best comics ever written about each character, but they are good, accessible stories that most likely give new fans what they are looking for.

Before we get to that, here is Sean "Wordburglar" Jordan's new music video!

Here are our recommendations:

CAPTAIN AMERICA

The entire Ed Brubaker run, which would be:

  1. Winter Soldier
  2. Red Menace
  3. Captain America: Civil War
  4. The Death of Captain America
  5. The Man with No Face
  6. Road to Reborn/Reborn
  7. Two Americas
  8. No Escape
  9. The Trial of Captain America
  10. Prisoner of War
  11. Steve Rogers Super Soldier
  12. Secret Avengers (Mission to Mars/Eye of the Dragon)
  13. Fear Itself
  14.  Captain America (relaunch) #1-19
  15. Captain America & Bucky (The Life Story of Bucky Barnes/Old Wounds)
  16. Winter Soldier solo series (#1-14)

So if you haven't read all of that already, get going! If you need to skip parts, we would suggest skipping Road to Reborn/Reborn. You don't really need to read Secret Avengers, either, but it's good.

Captain America: War and Remembrance by Roger Stern and John Byrne (now collected in an Epic Collection called Dawn's Early Light)

The Avengers: Epic Collection Earth's Mightiest Heroes by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Don Heck, et al.
This collects the first twenty issues of the original 1960s Avengers comics. It's very fun.

Captain America: Man Out of Time by Mark Waid and Jorge Molina
NOTE: I don't actually like this book all that much. But it is accessible, and gives fans of the movie version of the characters what they are looking for, more or less.

Captain America: the 1940s Newspaper Strip by Karl Kesel
This was collected in a book in 2010. It's out of print, but you can probably track down a copy one way or another. They are all on Marvel Unlimited as well.

Captain America and The Falcon by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and others
This is getting collected into Epic Collections. A few are out now. Mad Bomb is probably the most significant story to come out of this run.

SUPERMAN

The Geoff Johns run, which would be:

  1. The Last Son of Krypton
  2. Secret Origin
  3. Brainiac
  4. Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes
  5. Escape from Bizarro World

I don't think it really matters what order you read these in, they were all kinda coming out at the same time. Some were dragged out while others filled in the space in between. It was confusing, but these are five great Superman books.

World's Finest by Dave Gibbons and Steve Rude

Birthright by Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu
NOTE: neither of us are crazy about this book, but it's good for new readers.

Superman For All Seasons by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
Same note as above.

IRON MAN

The Matt Fraction/Salvador Larocca run, which would be:

  1. The Five Nightmares
  2. World's Most Wanted
  3. Stark Disassembled
  4. Stark Resilient
  5. My Monsters
  6. Unfixable
  7. Demon
  8. Long Way Down
  9. The Future

Demon in a Bottle by David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita
Again, we only sort of recommend this. And it's not even a real story arc exactly, but it is collected in a book with this title and if you want to see Tony Stark hit rock bottom, this is for you.

WOLVERINE

Wolverine (1982) by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller
It's kinda weird, but still holds up. Good especially if you're interested in Wolverine's connection to Japan.

Wolverine: Weapon X by Jason Aaron and Ron Garney
We both really love this run. I can't recommend it enough. It's collected into, I believe, three volumes.

Wolverine and the X-Men by Jason Aaron and various artists
This is a fantastic run that followed the Schism event, and Wolverine is the headmaster of the new Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. The school is staffed by other anti-Cyclops X-Men, including Kitty Pryde, Storm, Ice Man, Beast and more. There are, I think, eight volumes of this. And it's really the last appearance of Wolverine because he's been dead in the comics for awhile.

Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday
Wolverine is a bit of a background player in this one, but I think he's note perfect in the scenes he's in. It's collected into two books.

WONDER WOMAN

Who Is Wonder Woman? by Allan Heinberg and Terry Dodson
Cool series where Diana Prince is a secret agent with gorgeous Dodson art.

Current "Year One" run by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott
Every other issue that is coming out right now is part of the "Year One" storyline and it's great.  

Wonder Woman: Earth One by Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette
It's a little weird, but it's an interesting examination of the character with beautiful art.

Wonder Woman run by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang
There are six volumes of this run, and it's pretty great. 

DC's The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke
Obviously.

Podcast - Episode 44: CIVIL WAR!!!!!! (with J.Bone)

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OHMYGODIT'SFINALLYHERE!!!!

We are joined once again by our pal J.Bone to discuss the movie that we've all been, um, looking forward to, Captain America: Civil War (or, as I like to call it BUCKY! BUCKY! BUCKY! BUCKY!).

Look, I'm not even going to write that much this week. Because this episode is LONG. We joke at the beginning about going two hours, but guess what? We completely did. Longer, even!

I cut as much as I can, and the rest, I am sure you'll agree, is solid gold.

Here's the thing though, guys. I got so caught up talking about the actual plot of this movie that I forgot to mention how scorching hot Winter Soldier is in it. And so did J! Like, what was this episode even for?!

So here are some things I forgot to mention in this episode:

  1. Bucky is crazy hot;
  2. Like, so hot;
  3. Like, I could not CUSTOM BUILD a hotter man;
  4. He's so beefy and scruffy and those eyes are so sad but also so smouldering;
  5. I wish he had been shirtless;
  6. What a god damn waste of a jacked Sebastian Stan. I mean, come ON!;
  7. Not for, like, the whole movie, but maybe just an extended shower scene?;
  8. The tank top was nice;
  9. He looked good in white;
  10. I love him and I am in love with him.

So yeah. That's important.

Hey, here's a supercut of that Late Late Show episode clip where Sebastian Stan flirts hard with Sharon Stone until she flirts back with him. Then he turns into a giggling mess. It's VERY CUTE!

I wish that video wasn't edited so heavily. You can probably find that whole episode online somewhere. I would recommend. Zach Woods is very funny. At the end of the episode Sebastian turns to him and says "we should be friends!"

Anyway, enjoy the episode. We had fun recording it. I shouldn't speak for everyone. I had fun recording it, even though it went way past my bedtime.

Now let's start the countdown to the next Avengers movie! 2018! YEAH!!!!

Podcast - Episode 41: Steve McNiven!

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Holy smokes you guys! Civil War mania is reaching a fever pitch, and it's not just in my own head any more! Dave and I are very serious about wanting to remain spoiler free when it comes to this movie, but we could not resist talking to Steve McNiven about his recent trip to L.A. to attend the world premier! He also visited the set in Atlanta last year! Oh, and he also drew the Marvel comic series Civil War. 

Steve McNiven is a superstar and he also lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia! He is also a super nice (and tall) guy and kindly invited Dave and me into his beautiful home to talk to him about all sorts of stuff. This is his very first podcast appearance ever you guys! What an honour!

I was very disciplined and I didn't even ask him how wonderful Sebastian Stan smells, or what Chris Evans' arms feel like, or if either or both of them are surrounded by an aura of pure white light. Or if that light only appears when they are standing together.

I kept it 100% professional.

Dave and I talk about some other stuff before, but whatever. Trailers, Spider-Man logos...these are all things you can Google.

Here is the cute lil' video of Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan on their way to a mystery location (Phoenix, AZ) to surprise some fans at one of the advance screenings of Civil War:

I would post more images and video of Civil War promo stuff, but there is just way, way too much. 

Ok, I am very tired from editing this podcast. Enjoy!

Podcast - Episode 36: Civil War Mania

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What a week, guys. What. A. Week.

There was so much Civil War/Winter Soldier/Sebastian Stan coverage in the media this week I couldn't even read all of it.

So this episode is a jumbled mess of trying to piece together our thoughts on everything. Plus, Dave is suffering from a cold. Nothing that a solid hour of listening to be ramble on about Winter Soldier can't fix!

First, let me introduce you to our special guest co-host:

Not a bad looking figure, right?

Here is the travesty that they are calling a Winter Soldier toy that I saw at Toys R Us:

Nope.

I did not enter the contest to win a helicopter ride with Henry Cavill, but I do get hilarious emails about it:

J.Bone did indeed do a really great drawing that imagines Spider-Man being Bucky's annoying friend:

So, so great. Knocking it out of the park as usual, J!

Here are some links to the many interviews and such that I mention this week:

Jeremy Renner being a douche with poor Elizabeth Olsen

Sebastian Stan doing a weird and adorable and sexy video Q&A for Moviepilot

Sebastian Stan on ET

Chris Evans and RDJ on ET

Markus & McFeely on why Bucky is a messed up sad sack

Buzzfeed Q&A with Evans, Stan, Downey, Boseman and the Russos

It's worth scrolling though the Buzzfeed posts because you get to see things like a portrait of Winter Soldier, quickly drawn by Sebastian Stan, as well as a screengrab of his Winter Soldier Spotify playlist. Plus, images like this one:

Boys. Come on. Cut it out.

There's also this really great little video of Sebastian Stan talking about seeing Civil War for the first time. I forgot to talk about it this week, but I will definitely talk about it next week:

Short version: it made him stress eat a whole thing of candy

Here is the new Civil War trailer, by the way:

And here's what you've all been waiting for: the Winter Soldier vs Black Panther Pop Secret packaging!!!

Butter only makes the Winter Soldier more powerful!

Ok, let's wrap this up, with, oh, I don't know...this picture from Friday of Chris Evans wearing the shirt that Sebastian Stan was wearing the DAY BEFORE?!

I mean. Come on. Also: god damn, Chris. Looking good. Trying to keep my eyes above the waist here.

I'm actually going to end this with this screengrab of Sebastian Stan's insane Winter Soldier body:

He's gonna get his shirt off in this movie, right? RIGHT?!

Podcast - Episode 15: Age of Ultron!

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Everything has come full circle! This podcast was born from Dave and my write-ups of the Marvel movies leading up to the theatrical release of Avengers: Age of Ultron and now we are talking about that VERY SAME MOVIE the week of its Blu-Ray release! And we are joined by our very good friend, Tiina Johns!

We are keen to get talking about the movie, which we watched together right before recording this episode, so we blow through the news and stuff as fast as possible. In the Renner Report Tiina mentions that Jeremy Renner was on an episode of Angel. Here are a couple of images from that episode:

He looks better as a vampire, right?

We do take some time to talk about Captain America: White no. 2, because of course we do. Here is that ridiculous Namor page that we can't get enough of:

IMG_0164.PNG

It was nice to revisit Age of Ultron. Dave and I wrote our thoughts out on it in a blog post way back in May. Now we've had months to digest the movie (and a lot of fan hate and backlash on the internet) but we still love it and don't really understand why anyone wouldn't. But we do address the various problems people seem to have with the movie. I honestly can't make a call on how I feel about the Black Widow/Hulk romance. I'm mostly against it, but I don't hate it so much that it ruins the movie. I guess that's it.

I was thinking more about the Steve Rogers 'home' theme throughout the movie and I realized how many places we either see him in, or are mentioned, throughout the movie where he's not comfortable or not at home. Avengers Tower isn't home, Brooklyn isn't home anymore, he's weirded out when he's back in the 1940s in his vision when Peggy talks about going home, the farmhouse is very uncomfortable for him, he gets really upset when Tony talks about going home when the Avengers are no longer needed...and then he's at the new Avengers HQ at the end and he seems very much at peace. He's finally home. I love it. Now go find Bucky!

Here's that looks of pure respect and platonic love that Steve gives Natasha after she bravely suggests they go down with the flying city:

All I want is for Captain America to look at me like that.

Well, this is a short blog post. But it was great having Tiina on! We'll do it again sometime. Hope you enjoy listening to it.

Watch Dave's Tumblr for horror movie drawings and write-ups! Coming soon!

Hey I did it! No Sebastian Stan pics!

Important Information I Have Gathered From Reading Avengers Fan Fiction

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I have been reading a lot of Avengers (movieverse) fan fiction lately (shut up, I don't care).

Here is what is important to the Avengers, according to the thousands of fan fiction stories out there:

  • Coffee;
  • Movie night;
  • Disney movies;
  • Take out food in general, Thai food specifically;
  • Pranks;
  • Pancakes;
  • Having sex with each other.

Here is what is important to Tony Stark specifically:

  • Everybody else's love lives;
  • Pepper Potts;
  • Bruce Banner;
  • Spicy food;
  • Classic rock;
  • Making and consuming green smoothies;
  • Gifting team members with Avengers merchandise to annoy them;
  • Bothering Steve Rogers;
  • Helping Steve Rogers;
  • Sometimes having sex with Steve Rogers;
  • Improving Bucky's bionic arm;
  • Friends.

Here is what is important to Bruce Banner specifically:

  • Yoga;
  • Meditation;
  • Tea;
  • Healthy eating (usually vegetarian);
  • Tony Stark;
  • Listening to people talk in a therapist kind of way;
  • Protecting everyone from himself;
  • Not pranking people.

Here is what is important to Natasha Romanoff specifically:

  • Clint Barton;
  • Nothing;
  • Guns;
  • The Little Mermaid;
  • Vodka;
  • Steve's love life;
  • Trying different hair styles.

Here is what is important to Clint Barton specifically:

  • Being annoying;
  • Hiding in high places;
  • Sleeping in high places;
  • Natasha Romanoff;
  • Sometimes having sex with Agent Coulson;
  • Video games;
  • Obnoxious movies.

Here is what is important to Thor specifically:

  • Jane Foster;
  • Having a great time;
  • Not really being around all that often;
  • Loki;
  • Sometimes having sex with Loki;
  • Being generally agreeable about everything;
  • Introducing everyone to Asgardian things like hardcore alcohol and hardcore aphrodisiacs.

Here is what is important to Steve Rogers specifically:

  • Bucky Barnes;
  • Pretty much just Bucky Barnes;
  • Sometimes Tony Stark;
  • Sometimes Natasha Romanoff;
  • Brooklyn;
  • Losing his virginity;
  • Drawing;
  • Jazz;
  • Hot dogs;
  • Jogging.

Also note that:

  • Sam Wilson is everyone's free therapist, and is generally the nicest guy;
  • Darcy is a Mary-Sue for authors and sleeps with everyone;
  • Everyone lives together in Avengers Tower and it is like a college dorm;
  • Pepper Potts takes care of all problems;
  • Bucky is sarcastic and sexy, or he is broken and sad;
  • Bucky likes orange juice;
  • The Avengers and/or S.H.I.E.L.D. have a lot of missions that require agents to pose as a couple;
  • All of the Avengers listen to more Fall-Out Boy and One Direction than I would have guessed.

This is the important information I have gathered so far. I love fan fiction guys. Hit me up with/for recs! I'll see you on the beach with my iPad out!