Ironheart was the final installment of Marvel’s Phase Five. Delayed and extended by Covid as well as the writer’s and actor’s strikes, Phase Five of Marvel felt like it took significantly longer to complete than the previous phases. In this episode we review the character of Ironheart. We talk about what we each knew about the character before this and how Black Panther: Wakanda Forever handled the introduction of her character. We examine her place in the world and how the series handles her race, gender, socio-economic status, and her potential. We discuss her motivations and how her background informs her decisions. We also talk about the series’ endpoint and whether or not we each feel that it’s fitting for the character and satisfying narratively. Along the way we get into street-level magic, villainous vibes, making iron suits overnight in a garage, and the culmination of something fans have been screaming for since 2021.
This week’s five-minute controversy asks if there’s any artistic merit to doing a shot-for-shot remake of an animated property in live action.
This week Ryan, Daviorr, and J.D. join the cast.
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The first season of What If…? was a surprise hit. Showcasing different paths that the MCU could have taken allowed the storytellers to reveal new aspects of familiar characters. In this episode we talk about the second season of the series. We discuss the various plot lines and what we think about them. We also compare it to the first season and what we think of the overall course of the season. We also give our opinions on whether or not new characters should be introduced in What If…?
Marvel has gone into the multiverse in a big way. In this episode we take a look at the biggest expression of that to date with What If. We discuss the series as the MCU’s first animation project. We discuss the What If concept and talk about which episodes worked for us. We also debate why this series had such a mixed response from the public and what we want to see from it moving forward. We also talk about what this series could mean for the future of Marvel going forward.
Eighty years ago a man named Martin Goodman founded Timely Comics, and the world would never be the same. We discuss the history of Marvel, starting with its founding in 1939 as Timely Comics. We discuss the name changes to Atlas and eventually Marvel. We talk about the major characters of the golden, silver, and bronze ages. We discuss our theories of what differentiates Marvel from its competition. We also talk about favorite characters in each era.
In 2008 Marvel released the movie, Iron Man, and the world would never be the same again. Now with their 22nd film, Marvel brings many of the story threads that they’ve been building for eleven years to a conclusion while leaving the door open for so many more stories. In this episode, we talk about Avengers: Endgame. We talk about the characters, discuss the plot, ponder time travel and parallel worlds, and opine on just where the MCU will go from here. Along the way, we discuss epic battles, characters we were delighted to see again, endpoints, the MVP that no one noticed, and the significance of a finger.
Avengers: Infinity War was a unique event in the history of cinema. Never before had 18 movies and multiple franchises culminated in a single movie combining all of the franchises and giving payoff for the various stories. In this episode from the archives we do a deep dive into the storyline. We talk about the ways that all of the existing characters are handled. We talk about the epic scale of the crossover, and we discuss breakout hit character Thanos.
Last year was the year of time travel shows. Most of them were canceled, but one series, Timeless, turned back the clocks and changed its destiny. In this episode we take a look back at Timeless season one to discuss it’s premise, characters, cast, and why we felt that this show is worthy of going on. We also talk about what we think didn’t work and how we’d like to see the show continue.
Back in 2015, Marvel and Sony announced an unprecedented deal to allow Marvel to use Spider-Man in their movies and for Marvel to allow Sony to use some of their characters in a Spider-Man movie. No money changed hands, and both studios reaped the rewards. This week we dive into Spider-Man: Homecoming and how it stacks up to previous attempts to do Spider-Man on film. We talk about how this version of Spider-Man fits into the MCU and why we’re so glad that we didn’t see yet another origin story. We also talk about the stellar work of Michael Keaton as the Vulture and speculate on what the sequel holds for our wall-crawling hero.