A Green Mushroom

Doctor Strange In this episode: The doctor! He’s strange! Guess what we are talking about this week? It’s kind of a spoilercast, so be aware of that. However, we do give you fair warning of when we start discussing them, so you can always listen for a little while and come back after you’ve seen the movie. Or you can keep listening because you love us. Either way. We are coming at the movie from two different perspectives: Void likes Bennybatch but has no connection to the characters and very limited knowledge of Doctor Strange, while Beej is the opposite. He doesn’t like Benny that much, but enjoys Dr. Strange in the comics. Our non-spoilery thoughts are pretty simple: We like it. It doesn’t feel like anything else in the MCU, and we believe that’s a good thing. It doesn’t feel superhero-y, and to Beej, it feels like it has more depth than a lot of the MCU. Void doesn’t have as many thoughts about the movie overall on the first viewing, and he thinks that’s because it’s so ...

I finally got around to watching X-Men Apocalypse and it was... alright.  I liked it more than First Class or Days of Future past.  But as for the movie itself it was just ok. The plot was entirely predictable from start to finish.  The bad guy was lame and never once interested me.  But the action was fine and the character development was good to see. Overall, I think it's a great movie for a different reason.  It has finally gotten away from the shackles of the original movie trilogy and it's cast.  By the end of X-Men Apocalypse we finally have our entire new cast of characters with new actors all assembled and they seem really good. I feel like the stage is finally set for the next X-Men movie to potentially be great.  I think this cast can do amazing things if given the right script now that they're finally free from all the baggage of the first three X-Men movies. So, while I don't think I'll be re-watching X-Men Apocalypse anytime s...

Incredible Hulk is the MCU movie I've seen the least, as I've only seen it once.  I actually didn't realize it was part of the MCU since it was a different actor and feels different from the rest of the MCU movies. This is the first time I've watched it since seeing it in theaters when it originally came out. It doesn't really hold up compared to everything that has come since.  It's slow with a very predictable plot. Honestly, huge portions of the movie consist of shots of Edward Norton's face reacting to things.  It got old fast. I guess I learned that I really like Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk instead.  I've loved him in the two Avengers movie and I'm really excited to see how he'll tie into Thor Ragnarok.

I've never actually been able to get through Iron Man 3 before, but as part of my re-watch of my least watched parts of the MCU I thought I should power through it. It wasn't as horrible as Thor Dark World but it was pretty bad.  It's definitely in the bottom half of quality in the MCU and it really seems like Iron Man as a solo character has reached the limits of interesting. I'm glad I got a little more context for the character but I can't see myself watching this one again for a really long time. All that being said, I still think Iron Man is a great character in the multi-character movies and I love seeing him interact with other super heroes.  I'm excited for more of that!

After the horribleness that was re-watching Thor Dark World, I decided to give the original Thor another shot.  I remembered the main story and how it interacted with the rest of the MCU but I had forgotten most of the plot. Having now re-watched it I have to say Thor is a much better movie than Dark World.  It has a coherent plot and a consistent tone.  It has characters that are interesting and who's motivations are understood.  It's overall a good introduction to Thor. I don't think it's a great movie, but it's somewhere in the middle of the pack for MCU movies.  I was pleasantly surprised to find it better than I remembered.

I've started swinging back through the Marvel Cinematic Universe after watching Civil War because I realized that I had seen some of the movies only once. Re-watching Ant-Man didn't stir up many thoughts, although I liked it still on the second viewing.  I think knowing what to expect made that movie better. Thor Dark World on the other hand... I feel like this is clearly the worst movie in the whole MCU.  It doesn't know what kind of movie it wants to be.  Sometimes it tries for humor, other times it's super dark, sometimes it's cosmic.  The tone of the movie is really hard to pin down and the pacing swings wildly. This is one of those movies where I'm glad I watched it again because I wanted to remember what happened but I didn't actually enjoy my time watching it.  There are a handful of MCU movies that don't live up to the others but this one is so far below them for me personally. I'm actually really curious about this so I started a...

Captain America: Civil War is really good.  It's probably the best thing the Marvel Cinematic Universe has created so far. It has so many heroes but still manages to fit them all into the story organically, give them their time to shine, and keep the pace of the story moving along.  It's a huge accomplishment and I can't believe they pulled it off successfully. It's about two and a half hours but it doesn't waste any of it.  Civil War never feels like it drags or slows down too much.  It keeps moving and stays interesting throughout.  From the tense conversations to the direct confrontations it held my attention the entire time. It feels like they earned this movie through a lot of hard work and set up.  It doesn't feel phoned in or cheap.  It was visceral and difficult to watch this team we know tear itself apart.  This is the benefit of setting up the MCU with so many movies before making the heroes come to blows with each other. Not...

We finally got around to watching Deadpool! I had heard a lot of good things and my expectations were really built up because of it.  Overall, Deadpool was better than I thought it would be, but not as great as other people's reviews led me to believe. It was definitely good enough that I'd see a sequel to it!  It was interesting seeing a Marvel character on screen in an R rated movie.  The blood and violence fit the character perfectly but they didn't push the R super hard just because they could.  It was a good use of the rating! I'm interested to see what they do next since Deadpool isn't part of the MCU and it seems like it wants to keep it's distance from the core X-Men franchise too.  We'll have to wait and see.

Captain America: Civil War In this episode: SPOILERS AHEAD! But that helps you enjoy things more. For real! We are talking pretty in-depth about Captain America: Civil War, so if you haven’t seen it or don’t want to know the outcome of #TeamCap vs #TeamIronMan...well, you’ve been warned. Civil War didn’t feel like a Captain America movie. But it also didn’t feel like an Avengers movie. The cast was huge, and unlike some recent ensemble movies, this one pulled it off very well. In Civil War , we get fight scenes and backstory without the movie feeling bloated. The introductions of Spider-man and Black Panther are more than cameos. Plus, they’re not origin stories, and they get real fight scenes that matter! The movie fits in the MCU, and previous viewing is pretty much required. And that’s a good thing. It creates investment in the viewer, and your emotional response is earned. It can still be enjoyed as a standalone, but it is extra meaningful if you’ve been aroun...

Secret Wars turned out to be really fun to read.  After checking out some of the side stories that tie into it, like Spider-Verse and Old Man Logan, I thought I would check out the main Secret Wars series. Apparently, over the last few weeks of Marvel binge I've absorbed enough information about the general state of the Marvel universe to actually appreciate this giant crossover. Secret Wars sees the end of all the worlds across all Marvel properties as they slowly crash into each other and are destroyed.  This results in Doom becoming a god and jamming a bunch of sections of different universes together into Battleworld... the last planet in existence. It's a fun setting where they can remix characters and they're not afraid to kill heroes off. I've had a lot of fun tearing through a ton of Marvel comics on Marvel Unlimited lately but I think I'm finally to the point where if I wanted to check up any further I would have to buy comics individually becau...

I finally got through Season 2 of Agents of Shield.  It was tough. I really liked the momentum at the end of Season 1 but it felt almost entirely gone at the beginning of Season 2.  After struggling through almost ten episodes I decided to ask a friend if it was safe to just skip ahead. It was the best decision! After a few episodes it was obvious which direction they were taking the main storylines... they just needed to hurry up and get there! Episode 19 is where things really start picking up.  The main team is finally back together to run an interesting operation and then the episode ties into Age of Ultron also. At this point I'm starting to realize that Agents of Shield is best when it's tying into the greater MCU and at it's worst when it's biding time.  I really hope that Season 3 finally has better pacing when I give it a shot.

Continuing with my Marvel Unlimited browsing and reading: Silk This is a spin-off of Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Verse.  Silk is a female version of Spider-Man who was bitten by the same spider.  Her story is really interesting and doesn't overstay it's welcome.  It also ties into Secret Wars... which many of the modern comics do. Infinity Gauntlet This was a Secret Wars comic about the infinity stones and Nova Corps.  I'm not super familiar with either but I gave it a shot because it looked interesting.  Unfortunately I bounced off of it after less than two issues.  I think it required more background knowledge than I have to actually get into. Amazing Spider-Man I had basically already read the middle 50% of this run of Spider-Man because I read Spider-Verse.  I liked it a lot so I thought I would finish the run by reading the other 25% on each side of what I had already read.  It's very good and I would have read more if it wasn'...

One of the recommendations I got from listeners was to check out the Spider-Verse storyline in secret wars.  I did, and I liked the premise a lot. Basically, a bunch of spider-men and spider-women (and a spider-pig) come together from different universes and team up to defeat a big bad.  The secret wars storyline was a quick 5 issues but I saw more Spider-Verse runs listed in Marvel Unlimited and after looking at them I quickly realized there was a massive storyline from multiple spider-man comic runs that all link up. I thought I would sample some of the more interesting looking ones but what actually happened is that I read the entire storyline, just a bit out of order.  I read all the Spider-Verse storyline issues for: Amazing Spider-Man Spider-Verse Spider-Verse Team Up Edge of Spider-Verse Spider-Gwen Spider-Woman Scarlet Spiders Spider-man 2099 There might have actually been 1 or 2 more series that contributed that I'm forgetting.  But all ...

I've had my Marvel Unlimited subscription for awhile since I got a really good deal on a year long sub, but I haven't checked in and browsed much until lately.  Here's a quick sampling of what I've been checking out: Civil War Civil War was very comic booky... and not in a good way.  I didn't enjoy it since it was so over the top and it couldn't go more than 2 pages without trying to reveal a new hero in the fight or have someone switch sides.  I know it was a big thing at the time, and now I'm glad I know the source material for the upcoming movie, but I don't think this storyline holds up. Old Man Logan I didn't realize what Secret Wars was until like half way through this series.  But it's a short 6 comic run.  Secret Wars is basically a bunch of alternate universe earths that have all been jammed together into one planet somehow via the power of Doom.  It sounds dumb, but it lets the writers do mini storylines in any universe setti...

One of the recommendations I got from a few people after the comic podcast was to check out the first two runs of The Ultimates comics. It turns out these are fantastic. The Ultimates is definitely a huge source of inspiration for the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of The Avengers.  The Ultimates is the start of it's own separate universe from the main Marvel comics so they're not burdened with all the history of all the characters.  It gets to assemble it's own Avengers for the very first time and it does a great job. The pacing of the story is fast and I love that about it.  Every issue moves multiple storylines forward which is something very few comics can say. I don't really want to spoil anything about the plot because it's so good. My main takeaway is that this is going to go into my back pocket as a recommendation for people who ask me what comics they should check out.  I think most people will like The Ultimates and The Ultimates 2.

I just finished up Agent Carter Season 2 and overall it was kind of a disappointment. Season 1 grabbed me and held my interest for the entire season.  Season 2 feels like they wanted to make a movie and stretched it out into ten overly long episodes instead.  It doesn't feel like they actually were trying to write it as a TV show. The episodes flow together but no individual episode actually has a good payoff and it bugged me a lot.  The end of each episode felt very arbitrary.  I forced myself through the season because I enjoyed the first one so much but I didn't really like it. I would love to see them take another swing at the franchise for a third season as long as they don't follow this format again.  Season 2 was a big letdown.

Agents of Shield is a weird series for me.  I really wanted to like it when it came out.  I watched the first handful of episodes but it completely failed to captivate me.  I drifted away around episode 6 or so. I just came back to the series and finally picked up where I left off.  A lot of people I trust told me that it gets better but you have to give it time. This is very true.  Around episode 16 the show starts tying into the events of Captain America: Winter Soldier where Hydra has infiltrated Shield and basically destroys Shield from within. Before this, the characters started growing on me, but the plot was basically worthless.  It was super boring.  But, once Hydra makes their move and starts destroying Shield from within the plot picks up a lot.  Not to mention that you never know which one of the characters might be a sleeper agent. I still wish it were paced better.  The first half of the season isn't that great and th...

I think this is the best thing that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has created so far.  It's so much better than the other shows I've watched, especially compared to DareDevil. Where DareDevil left me frustrated with the pacing problems and inconsistency in quality, Jessica Jones is well paced and interesting the entire way through.  I watched it in two sittings but stopping that first night because I had to go to bed was painful since I was so engrossed in the story. The premise is that Jessica Jones has super powers but doesn't want to be a super hero.  She's super strong and can heal faster than normal people but she mostly just uses her powers in an everyday sort of way while doing her job as a private investigator.  The story is all about her dealing with her powers and confronting her past with the villain Kilgrave, who is played by the amazing David Tennant.  I thought he was good in Doctor Who but he's amazing in Jessica Jones. Kilgrave is a min...

DareDevil is another show I got to catch up on while I was sick the other week. Oh boy, does this show have some pacing problems. I don't exactly know how to review DareDevil for you because it has some great episodes and it has some absolutely amazing scenes in certain episodes.  But it also has episodes where almost nothing happens and the show seems to drag on for way too long. That's especially bad as a Netflix Original since the show can be any length it feels is appropriate.  It doesn't have to fit into the normal 42 minute block for an "hour long" TV show airing on network TV. But then we have scenes like the hallway encounter at the end of episode 2.  It's one of the most interesting fight scenes I've ever seen. And then there are amazing moments with Wilson Fisk, the bad guy.  He's portrayed so incredibly by the actor. I'm honestly torn.  I'm glad I watched season 1 of DareDevil but I don't see myself ever wanting t...

I've been watching a lot of Marvel lately and getting into the new Star Wars stuff and it's gotten me thinking about Disney. Disney is a company that has been through some good times and some questionable times.  I feel like the content they were putting out in the 90s when I was a kid was amazing.  Movies like The Lion King, Aladin, Mulan, Hercules, Pocohantas, and so many more came out of that era.  They had hit their stride for classically animated movies and it was great. Then in the 2000s it seems like they faded a bit.  I know they were never in trouble as a company, but their output just wasn't of the same quality as it once was. Recently I feel like they've finally turned this around.  The acquired Pixar and started making amazing animated movies again, although this time CG movies.  Then they started buying licenses like Marvel and Star Wars.  So far they're doing amazing things with the Marvel universe and I'm so excited to see what...