After the initial wave of Avengers film, people started wishing that Marvel had the Fantastic Four film rights, so that they could apply the same MCU formula to the first family in comics. Years later, Disney obtained those rights as part of their overall acquisition of 20th Century Fox. Fantastic Four: First Steps is the result. For this episode we dive deep into the story. We talk about the characters, the choices that were made in the depictions, and how we feel those resonate. We debate some of the story decisions and how well those worked for us. We discuss whether origin stories are necessary, the pros and cons of shorter films, and how we think that this movie will fit into the overall MCU storyline. Give it a listen and let us know what you think!
This week’s Five-Minute Controversy asks what we think of Nintendo’s unasked for announcement that Peach and Mario are not a couple but just “very good friends”.
This week Stephen, Michael, and Page join the cast.
Show Notes:
Nintendo says Peach and Mario are “just good friends”
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Star Trek: Discovery completed its course after a five-year mission spanning CBS All Access and Paramount Plus. It was the first of the “new” Trek series and spawned its share of controversies as well as accolades. In this episode we review the fifth and final season of the series. We talk about the quest plotline and how we feel about the payoff. We discuss the utilization of the characters and whether we felt that they were used fittingly. We also get into the coda scene and whether we felt that it was a fitting ending for the series. Along the way we talk about lore expansions, narrative payoffs, and Discovery’s main achievements and failures.
Phase Five of the MCU completed this year. The phase was unique in that it had more content than prior Marvel phases. In this episode we take a deep dive on Phase Five. We discuss our favorite parts of this portion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We debate the perceived drop in quality among fandom and whether we think that there’s any merit to those arguments. We also discuss where these arguments are coming from. We also give our opinions on what we know is coming in Phase Six as well as speculate on what we think is coming that hasn’t been announced yet. 
Marvel has generated a lot of buzz lately with announcements regarding the upcoming phases of their universe. This week we discuss the announcements from the SDCC and D23 2022. We’ll talk about our favorite announcements. We discuss the things that surprise us. We’ll opine on the direction that the MCU seems to be going and how we feel about it. 
The 42cast goes bad this week as we take a look at the darker side of entertainment. In this episode we talk about villains. We discuss what makes a character an interesting villain and exactly what criteria you should use to determine if a villain is the “greatest”. Then, we talk about our favorite villains across all of media and why these we think they have a claim to the title of “greatest”.