Marvelous! or The Death of Cinema – Details, episodes & analysis

This week on the pod your three favorite shithead haters find another thing to tell you sucks. Only this time, it's a movie everyone loves: Top Gun: Maverick, the sterile, Lockheed Martin sponsored legacy sequel to Tony Scott's (RIP) 1986 Air Force recruitment blockbuster that's equally as jingoistic but lacks the benefit of pure eighties cheese. We're mass issuing "fell for military propaganda" awards to people who should have known better but got caught up in the Cult of Tom Cruise, the sense we could finally go back to Normal under President Biden, and the desire to see some kind of sign that the "movies are BACK" after COVID. Nicole's not falling for it. Stu's plane autism was annoyed. Cole thinks its mid.

An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, squishward, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2. 

If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:

• Gaza Funds

• PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)

• MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)

• National Networks of Abortion Funds

• Urgent Aid for LA Families of 14 Detained by ICE

If you enjoy the show please consider:

• Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive subscriber only episodes.

• Joining our Discord.

• Checking out our Credits page where you can view a complete list of Patrons.

• Leaving a rating and review on your podcast provider of choice. 

Production by Miguel Tahni. Art by Zoe Woolley and Jo Hermeer. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates. 

Friend and critic Jake Tropila, bravely joins us to talk about the third Jurassic World movie, which is the sixth Jurassic Park movie, in which the fist film's septuagenarian cast is reunited to putter vacantly around a lab looking at big grasshoppers. Meanwhile, in Malta, Chris Pratt does the "talk to the hand" at every dinosaur he meets and it works for some reason. It's a cavalcade of bad performances, bad direction, and terrible xillennial writing. Thank you to Jake for joining us on this Odyssey into Crap. You can find his writing on inreviewonline.com.

An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, squishward, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2. 

If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:

• Gaza Funds

• PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)

• MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)

• National Networks of Abortion Funds

• Urgent Aid for LA Families of 14 Detained by ICE

If you enjoy the show please consider:

• Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive subscriber only episodes.

• Joining our Discord.

• Checking out our Credits page where you can view a complete list of Patrons.

• Leaving a rating and review on your podcast provider of choice. 

Production by Miguel Tahni. Art by Zoe Woolley and Jo Hermeer. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates. 

Oh my god shut the fuck up!!!!!! I'm going to turn these goddamn screaming meme goats into curry I swear to god.

It's another demoralizing Marvel movie. You guys like these episodes huh? You like listening to us inflict great pain on ourselves? Well this one's a two hour Old Spice commercial that inexplicably costs $200 million and pisses away whatever good will Taika Waititi ever had. Wherein one of us takes very personal issue with bringing Natalie Portman back just to give her the cancer that makes you reconnect with your ex and Stu offers an armchair analysis of Mr. Waititi to explain why his movies are Like That.

A special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

If you can, please lend some support to these organizations:

• Gaza Funds

• PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund)

• MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)

• National Networks of Abortion Funds

• Urgent Aid for LA Families of 14 Detained by ICE

If you enjoy the show please consider:

• Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive subscriber only episodes.

• Joining our Discord.

• Checking out our Credits page where you can view a complete list of Patrons.

• Leaving a review on your podcast provider of choice. 

Production by Miguel Tahni. Main Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates. 

On this episode Stu and Cole bully Nicole for enjoying things. Cole tells us about Thor and Hulk in comics, and how the MCU films have sold them both short. We discuss how a film that seems to want to be so whimsical and colorful seems to fall so flat, and how director Taika Waititi seems totally apathetic towards if not contemptuous of fantasy and science fiction: The small-minded and unimaginative cynicism that deflates the wonder and spectacle from Marvel's adaptations of it's more cosmic and psychedelic material. Also everything is on a green screen and half the cast are clearly never on set at the same time.

Thank you for listening! Please consider rating, reviewing, and subscribing to our Patreon where you can enjoy special bonus content, exclusive Discord community events, and have your name added to our Credits Page. Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.

In this special bonus episode, Andy from Those Good Old Fashioned Values joins the pod to walk us through a retrospective on the formative years of this generation spanning cartoon franchise, its origin in independent comics, and a discussion of the surprisingly well-crafted and endearingly corny 1990 live action film. But first, Nicole makes a horrifying discovery about Turtle biology.

Check out Andy's Twitch and listen to TGOFV!

Thank you for listening! Please consider rating, reviewing, and subscribing to our Patreon where you can enjoy special bonus content, exclusive Discord community events, and have your name added to our Credits Page. Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.

What if they made a comic-book movie... for grown ups? It's Logan! It's Wolverine! Remember Wolverine? He's old and sad. He says fuck. He chops dudes arms off. Professor X says swears and poops his pants. Everybody dies in the grim dark future of six years from now. We liked it ok, it's good but not as good as you remember, but we get to enjoy some great performances, fun gore, and discuss just what it means to make a 'mature' superhero story.

Thank you for listening! Please consider rating, reviewing, and subscribing to our Patreon where you can enjoy special bonus content, exclusive Discord community events, and have your name added to our Credits Page. Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.

Nicole reckons with her cringe girlboss past, Stu spergs about how badly they got WWI wrong, new permanent third mic Cole has some wild shit to tell you about Wonder Woman comics lore. How could you take something as wild as a demigoddess created by a Freudian bdsm polycule and turn it into this bland rehash of First Avenger? How could you take a solid cast of stars and character actors and force them into orbit around the dead cold star that is animate mannequin Gal Gadot? Why did people like this movie? All this and much more on Marvelous!

Thank you for listening! Please consider subscribing to our Patreon where you can enjoy special bonus content, exclusive Discord community events, and have your name added to our Credits Page. Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.

Cole (@java_jigga) returns once again to help us out with Spidey's grand foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and Disney shareholders' wallets), Spider-Man: Homecoming. After a prolonged and ugly custody battle, Sony begrudgingly offered Marvel Studios to share parental rights over their little baby cash cow, and the result is yet another genre pastiche with the visual tactility of a Verizon commercial. 

Thank you for listening! Please consider rating, reviewing, and subscribing to our Patreon where you can enjoy special bonus content, exclusive Discord community events, and have your name added to our Credits Page. Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.

Spiderman expert Cole returns to take us from the close of the 1980s Bronze Age of Comics and into the modern day, with the rise and fall of independent comics, 'adult' subjects, edginess, Marvel's bankruptcy, and the decline of mainstream American comics in the 21st century through the lens of Marvel's flagship webhead. This is the second part of a two part series. Next time, we'll be watching Spiderman: Homecoming - as the friendly neighborhood arachnid is assimilated into the Disney-Marvel Machine.

Click here to check out Cole's twitch stream and other things!

Subscribe to our Patreon and come hang out in our Discord.

Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow us at @MarvelousDeath for updates! Thank you for listening!

Noted comics scholar Cole (@java_jigga) joins us to discuss the History of Spiderman as a character and brand, from his origins in the 1960s, through major lore moments, changes in creative staff, behind the scenes shenanigans, and the long weird history of licensed spin-offs, including a Japanese live-action series from the 1970s that had a formative role in the tokusatsu/sentai genre of television that begat series like Kamen Rider and Power Rangers. Along the way we learn about the long-history of exploitation of artists and writers, the origins of the crossover shared-universe and multiverse approach as a marketing gimmick, and in the process sketch a general history of superheroes and comic books from the post-war period to the today.

This is the first part of a two part episode, which carries us roughly up to the 1980s. Part two will drop later this month, followed by an episode on Spiderman: Homecoming. An additional off the cuff conversation between Nicole and Cole (aka Ni/Cole) will also be available soon on our Patreon.

Click here to check out Cole's twitch stream and other things!

Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow us at @MarvelousDeath for updates! Thank you for listening!