EPISODE 231 - CAPTAIN AMERICA: HEROES REBORN

Episode 231 - Captain America: Heroes Reborn

This time out I am starting a four part series that will pop up randomly over the course of 2016 to celebrate the twenty year anniversary of Heroes Reborn.  For those of you not "in the know" Heroes Reborn was an initiative Marvel launched in 1996 to breathe new life into four of its flagging properties.  To accomplish this goal they brought in Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee and let them reboot the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, the Avengers and Captain America.  Leading off this series is Captain America for no other reason than to tie into the upcoming film Captain America: Civil War.  

Joining me is Jon M Wilson (co-host of the Giant Superman Podcast and host of the New 52 Adventures of Superman) and when I type "joining me" I meant that literally.  Jon spent the weekend at my house when Batman v Superman came out and we thought it would be fun to record this face to face instead of over the Internet.  After checking out the copy of Captain America: The 75th Anniversary Vibranium Edition that my wife got me for Valentine's Day Jon and I dive heard first into the Jeph Loeb/Rob Liefeld issues of Captain America and revel in the energy and craziness and wonky perspective that make up those six issues.  After the break we get into the James Robinson issues of the series and all the retroactive continuity and high octane action that make up those stories.  

Be sure to keep an ear out towards the end of the episode for an exciting announcement regarding future episodes of this show!

Next Time: Andy Leyland stops by to talk about Captain America: Man Out of Time!

EPISODE 230: MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY

Episode 230: Man Without A Country

Before I get into the show notes I want to apologize to Alan Middleton.  This episode was supposed to be the conversation we had when he came to town a month or so back but because of my inability to read a calendar I had to bump that until May.

Sorry, Alan.  I'll make it up to you at some point.

You may have heard that there's this big time Captain America film coming out in a couple of weeks and while I didn't want to devote an entire month to episodes about Cap I did want to spend some time talking about the character.  So for the next three episodes Steve Rogers is taking center stage.

Because I am not above shamelessly trying to tie into something big in an attempt to gain new readers and entertain the ones I already have.  

Joining me for this first installment is award winning talk show host Scott Ryfun.  Scott hosts and co-hosts a variety of shows including Earning My Ears (with Scott Gardner), Dinner 4 Geeks (with Jeff, Ryan and Ron...just Ron), Growing Up Star Wars (with Scott Gardner and Chris Honeywell) and the always amazing My Star Wars Story.  He also likes Captain America, so I thought he'd be a good fit for what I wanted to do over the next three episodes.  Our subject (ostensibly) is the Mark Waid/Ron Garney fueled Man Without a Country storyline from their first run with the character.  What follows is a discussion on Waid's work with Captain America both before and after Heroes Reborn, the Man Without a Country story in specific and a good number of tangents.

Good lord in heaven are there some pretty epic tangents.

If you like tangents then this episode is for you.

Seriously...at one point this episode turns into two guys practically begging you to get the Marvel Unlimited App.

Anyway, Scott and I talk Cap and why some of his best stories involve him at odds with the American government, which ties thematically with the upcoming film.  We also discuss some misconceptions people have about Steve Rogers and why Man Without a Country is such a fun story that highlights everything great about the character.

Next Time: Jon Wilson returns to the show to discuss one of the most infamous eras of Captain America ever...Heroes Reborn.

EPISODE 229: 2016 VIEWS MAILBAG PART 1

Episode 229: 2016 Views Mailbag Part 1

This one is all you, dear listeners.  I put out the call for feedback with the promise that I would read it on an episode and this episode is where I make good on that promise.  Facebook comments are read.  iTunes reviews are read.  E-mails are read.  I even play an audio email (of sorts) sent in by the always awesome Donovan Morgan Grant.  It's a very raw episode so you might hear things like me saying things like, "I need to cut this out" and "all politicians are lizard people" which I would normally cut out.  

If memory serves (because I tend to forget stuff I say once the recording is over) I think I mentioned that I was on two episodes of Gene Hendrick's awesome The Hammer Podcast.  We discussed the first Superman & Batman: Generations mini-series in the 19th and 20th episode of that show so be sure to check it out and then listen to Gene's other podcasting efforts because anyone that says, "Quasar deserves his own podcast" is a man ahead of his time and I am not being sarcastic in the least when I type that.  

Speaking of guest appearances (which I suck at promoting on this show but then again I have had a bad track record of getting episodes out on time) be sure to head on over to Trentus Magnus Punches Reality to listen to Magnus and I talking about the Marvel event Civil War on episode 143 of that show.  It was a fun episode to record and hanging out with Magnus is always fun.  

Next Time: Dinner with Alan Middleton.  For reals.  We eat and everything.  

EPISODE 228 - I LOVE BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER: FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BATMAN V SUPERMAN

Episode 228 - I Love Bringing People Together: First Impressions of Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice

The first thing I want to make absolutely clear is that despite this episode's setting I am in no way trying to rip off the format of the very awesome Dinner 4 Geeks.  That is an amazing show.  Scott Ryfun (award winning radio host), Jeff (Scott's minion). Ryan (the toy geek) and Ron (just Ron) have something special down there in south Georgia.  The fact that this episode was recorded at a restaurant was a matter of practicality more than a desire to be like another show.  So...yeah.

Anyway, back on March 25, 2016 I went to see Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice with my lovely wife Rachel, Jon M Wilson (co-host of The Giant Superman Podcast and host of The New 52 Adventures of Superman), Donovan Morgan Grant (co-host of The Comic Revue Podcast and the now done and dusted The Next Dimension: A DragonBall Z Podcast), Jesse Garrett (also of the now done and dusted The Next Dimension: A DragonBall Z Podcast) and Jesse's wife April.  After the film we went to grab something to eat and as fans do after seeing a comic book film we talked about it.  What followed is a spoiler filled discussion of the movie and I can't stress the spoiler part of that enough.  We talk about what we liked, what we didn't like, the implications of the ending, how the characters were treated and why the cheddar cheese bites were great.  

You know...the important stuff.

No matter how I felt about the film this was one of the best movie going experiences of my life.  It was awesome that Jon came to visit and that Donovan drove from another state through Atlanta traffic to see the film with us.  I'm glad this episode came out as well as it did.

Next Time: FEEDBACK!  LOTS OF FEEDBACK!