Make Mine Multiversity

Welcome Back to Make Mine Multiversity: A Marvel Podcast! Each episode we’ll be looking at Marvel books, old and new! We discuss fun Marvel comics, Marvel news, Marvel history and, now, are putting the "mine" back into Make Mine Multiversity.After taking a month off to recharge, we're back. For those who're new, each month I talk with a guest about a Marvel comic that's memorable to them. Sometimes they're personally meaningful, sometimes it's "I read this a few months ago and its still sticking around." I'm excited to see where it leads.This month I'm welcoming on our first comics professional with Jeff the Landshark co-creator Kelly Thompson. We're talking "Excalibur" (1988) #42-50. When I say these comics are bonkers, I mean it. Pure comics joy here, folks.For some bonafides, Kelly has been writing comics for the better part of a decade. Her career has taken her from "Jem and Holograms" to "Nancy Drew" and "Sabrina" to indie and creator-owned titles like "Heart in a Box" and "Black Cloak." At the Big 2, she's had a 50-issue run on "Captain Marvel," is wrapping up her "Birds of Prey" run, and crushing it with "Absolute Wonder Woman."We jump to the early 2000s with three "Punisher MAX" one-shots: "The Tyger," "The Cell," and "The End."Elias can be found writing here at eliasrwrites.ghost.io. Kelly's work can be found at your local comic book shop, on her website, or her newsletter. Our theme music is “Excelsior” by Carol Romo and our audio editor is me, Elias. If the episode is too quiet or, maybe, too loud, blame him.The show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, (Stitcher is apparently dead and buried) and other places so please subscribe

Welcome Back to Make Mine Multiversity: A Marvel Podcast! Each episode we’ll be looking at Marvel books, old and new! We discuss fun Marvel comics, Marvel news, Marvel history and, now, are putting the "mine" back into Make Mine Multiversity. Make Mine Multiversity was a twice-monthly podcast that premiered on the first and third Friday of every month. Now we're shooting for monthly every fourth Friday (though we may skip October.)We've got a new format to go with the new schedule! Each month, Elias will be talking with a guest about a Marvel comic that's memorable to them. Sometimes this will be personally meaningful, sometimes it'll be "I read this a few months ago and its still sticking around." I'm excited to see where it leads.This month we're kicking it old school to welcome back Jaina and Kevin to discuss everyone's favorite despot (this feels way too glib for the moment) teaming up with everyone's favorite asshole doctor in the Marvel graphic novel "Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment." We go to hell, learn about how Doom got his mask, and figure out how Strange got his Sorcerer Supreme on.Next time: It's a surprise! (Meaning I'll probably edit this once an episode is scheduled and I know which book we're doing.)Elias can be found writing here at eliasrwrites.ghost.io. Kevin and Jaina are ghosts in the wind and all the better for it. Our theme music is “Excelsior” by Carol Romo and our audio editor is me, Elias. If the episode is too quiet, blame him.The show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, (Stitcher is apparently dead and buried) and other places so please subscribe!

Welcome Back to Make Mine Multiverse City: A Marvel Podcast! Each episode we’ll be looking at Marvel books, old and new! We discuss fun Marvel comics, Marvel news, Marvel history and, now, are putting the "mine" back into Make Mine Multiverse City. Make Mine Multiversity was a twice-monthly podcast that premiered on the first and third Friday of every month. Now we're shooting for monthly every fourth Friday. How's that for calling my shot?We've got a new format to go with the new schedule! Each month, Elias will be talking with a guest about a Marvel comic that's memorable to them. Sometimes this will be personally meaningful, sometimes it'll be "I read this a few months ago and it's still sticking around." I'm excited to see where it leads.This month, we're welcoming my good friend and former Chief Manager at Large (don't call him EIC) of Multiversity Comics, Brian Salvatore, to the podcast to read "Fantastic Four" #347-349, published in late 1990. It's the one about the skrulls. And the mole man. You know the one. Oh, and I think The Punisher shows up?I should also mention we totally beefed it while talking about legacy characters. How could we have left off Miles Morales?! He's the example of a legacy character with staying power (kinda. Sorta. 616 monkey-wrenches the whole thing.) In our defense...okay, there's no good defense besides "whoopsie."Next time, a couple familiar voices join us as we tie-in with "One World Under Doom" and talk "Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment." Reading along with us? You've got options! The best one is "Doctor Strange" Epic Collection, Vol. 8: Triumph and Torment.Elias can be found writing here at eliasrwrites.ghost.io. Brian can be found on Bluesky ‪@brianneedsanap.bsky.social‬ or hosting a podcast on the Distinguished Competition, TheDC3Cast. Our theme music is “Excelsior” by Carol Romo and our audio editor is me, Elias. If the episode is too quiet, blame him.The show is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, (Stitcher is apparently dead and buried) and other places so please subscribe!

Welcome back to Make Mine Multiverse City: A Marvel Podcast! Each episode we’ll be looking at Marvel books, old and new! We discuss fun Marvel comics, Marvel news, Marvel history and (not so) recently ended X-men eras.Make Mine Multiversity was a twice-monthly podcast that premiered on the first and third Friday of every month. Now it’s a little more irregular, and on a new network.From the ashes, we rise!…for one more episode before crawling back into our hermit lodges. Unlike Marvel, we let our era changes cook and oh boy, did this episode cook - we recorded it back in August. I promise it’s worth the wait. The return of Baseline X, Jaina and Elias’ power ranking of every X book of the Krakoa era, never got fully wrapped. There were still a few pesky books we never considered and an entire legacy to consider. We figured it was time to rectify that, in our own special way.Because, of course, an extra special episode deserves an extra special length AND format. Plus an extra special guest co-host! It’s not a surprise, if you read the next paragraph, but you should still pretend anyway.Elias can be found writing at eliasrwrites.ghost.io. Jaina and Kevin are both living the good hermit life, so you can contact them by carrier pigeon. Our theme music is “Excelsior” by Carol Romo and our audio editor is Livian Saphir.The show is available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and other places so please subscribe! You can also listen above or download it here.

Make Mine Multiversity was a twice-monthly podcast that premiered on the first and third Friday of every month.You read that right. "Make Mine Multiversity" is coming to a close in its current iteration. Jaina is moving on and the podcast is going onto an extended hiatus. Stick around until the end to hear more about that. However, we've got an episode to do! What did we read? Why, "Marvel: The End" of course. A six issue mini-series about the end of the marvel universe by Jim Starlin, Al Milgrom, Christie Scheele w/ Heroic Age Studios, and Cory Petit. Supposedly. There's a lot of Thanos.We also talked all about the rest of the "The End" books. Here's a brief list:“Incredible Hulk: The End” (2002)“Marvel: The End” (2003)“Wolverine: The End” (2003-2004)“Punisher: The End” (2004)“X-Men: The End” (2004-2006) 3 minis: “Dreamers and Demons”, “Heroes and Martyrs”, “Men and X-Men”“Fantastic Four: The End” (2006)“Iron Man: The End” (2009)“Spider-Girl: The End!” (2010)“Captain America: The End” (2020)“Captain Marvel: The End” (2020)“Deadpool: The End” (2020)“Doctor Strange: The End” (2020)“Miles Morales: The End” (2020)“Venom: The End” (2020)Thank you all for sticking with us for lo all these many years. Thank you to Kevin for passing the show onto us and thank you to all the other past hosts.

We're doing it folks. We've finally read one of the bugbears in the MMM canon: 'Castaway in Dimension Z' aka the first ten issues of Rick Remender's 2012 "Captain America" run. We do a recap on all things Remender, JRJR, and Cap once more before talking about this very divisive arc. Will Elias admit it's not as good as he thought it was? Will Jaina find more worth in it (and in the art?) Listen on, true believers!And for a bit of a fun time capsule, read Elias' review off issue #1 from our "Now That's What I Call Marvel" 2020 spectacular.Next time, it's time for "The End." Which end? A lot of them, apparently.

Elias has found a new pastime: griping about Dan Slott on "Spider-Man." Jaina would love to show him the good Slott books she's read. Elias caved and decided he could gripe about Slott AND read a good Slott comic by revisiting 1 of 2 arcs he's actually read: the original "Spider-Verse." Folks. If you've only seen the movies, this shit will be a wild trip. Spider-Gwen! SP//dR! Silk! The worst Silk plot point ever! Spider-Woman as a pirate? And something a little...Superior.For those wanting Spidersman, check out "Spider-Geddon." You will be horrified but you won't be disappointed.Want to read along with us? Here ya go! We read "Superior Spider-Man" #32-33, "Edge of Spider-Verse" (Vol. 1) #1-5 and "Amazing Spider-Man" (2014) #7-15. For completeness's sake, they also read "Spider-Verse" #1-2, "Spider-Verse Team-Up" #1-3, and because they really wanted to roll deep "Scarlet Spiders" #1-3, "Spider Woman" (2014) #1-4, "Spider-Man 2099" (2014) #6-8, and "Free Comic Book Day: Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014) #1. Don't ask for an actual reading order. It's all kind of a mess.Next time, "Captain America" (2012) #1-10. Simple! Easy! You probably don't even have to read it.

Last year, Jaina and Elias once again attempted to become a precog and figure out what Marvel was going to get up to in 2023. 10 items each. 11 if you count the Secret Invasion holdover. 10 chances to find out who would win and subject the other to a comic with art they think is bad, bad, bad. Elias is competing to make them read "Major X," the "modern" Liefeld return to Marvel that was, uh, very, very odd. Jaina wants Elias to reevaluate his love of 'Castaway in Dimension Z,' the first arc of Rick Remender's 2012 "Captain America" run with art by John Romita Jr.They were shocked by how much they got right and unsurprised by how much they got wrong. But who won? Well, that would ruin the fun of listening if I told you now, wouldn't it?Next time, we thwip our way through the original 'Spider-verse' as the countdown to the end commences. If you want to read along, we're reading "Superior Spider-Man" #32-33, "Edge of Spider-Verse" (Vol. 1) #1-5 and "Amazing Spider-Man" (2014) #7-15. For completeness's sake, we'll also read "Spider-Verse" #1-2, "Spider-Verse Team-Up" #1-3, and if you really wanna roll deep "Scarlet Spiders" #1-3, "Spider Woman" (2014) #1-4, "Spider-Man 2099" (2014) #6-8, and "Free Comic Book Day: Guardians of the Galaxy" (2014) #1. Don't ask for a reading order. It's all kind of a mess.Shout off in the comment section below and get the conversation started or share them on the burning hell site formerly known as Twitter using the hashtag #MakeMineMultiversity. Maybe skeet it on BlueSky! Or toot it on Mastodon. Or do something EXTRA funky over on Tumblr. We're exploring our options.

Apparently our own snap lasted longer than anticipated (thanks winter sicknesses.) That's right folks, we're back ot talk the Phases two through four and beyond as we wrap up our time with "MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios" by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards. How will our intrepid podcasters fair against the insidious intrusions of Ike? The wildly worrysome, patently pernicious Marvel writers program? Or Elias' own tendency to get mired, once again, in contract negotiations?! Won't someone help Jaina out, true believers?!Next time, 2023 is in the books and it's time to see which of those books the crew loved. It's more than you think and less than you'd expect. Unless the answer is 11 and 2/3rds, in which case, good job.

After a week delay due to some personal circumstances, it's time to read the definitive (so far) book about the Marvel Cinematic Universe "MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios" by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards. What nuggets of wisdom will we learn? How much hot goss will there be? Will Elias ever stop talking about contract negotiations!? Strap in, true believer! You're in for one heck of a ride.Next time, well, it's not quite time to wrap up 2023 but you'll just have to listen to the episode to find out what we're doing. We may even sneak in a post credits scene or two! You don't know. You haven't listened yet.

Elias convinced Jaina that we needed to do this book. Does she regret agreeing? Only time, and this episode, will tell. What did we read? "Look Out for the Little Guy!" aka the in-universe Scott Lang memoir that was actually written in ours by Rob Kutner. Also, as if the universe decided to laugh at me (Elias,) I finally found the author's website when putting the post together. It was not the same Robert Kuttner I thought it was. Dang.Next time, we keep on the movie and book train as the crew reads "MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios." It was, after all, inevitable. 

Long awaited, ever since Jaina lost our 2022 predicitions episode, it's finally time to watch Howard the Duck! Yes, the 1986 film starring Lea Thompkins, Tim Robbins, and some other people we'd rather not name. Written by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, directed by Huyck and produced by George "it's like poetry, it rhymes" Lucas, it's truly something that has to be seen to be believed. Not even our well documented love of the duck's comics can save us now.To that end, this episode is a commentary track! Cue up the film, listen to our intro, wait for the countdown, and enjoy. We had a lot of fun making this and, honestly? Made watching this deeply uncomfortable, absolute mess of a film bearable. You can also listen to it without the film but it's a lot more awkward, which, you know, is the vibe this movie elicits.Shout off in the comment section below and get the conversation started or share them on the burning hell site formerly known as Twitter using the hashtag #MakeMineMultiversity. Maybe skeet it on BlueSky! Or toot it on Mastodon. Or do something EXTRA funky over on Tumblr. We're exploring our options.

HICKMAN! He's back and he's getting ultimate. So ultimate he's launching a brand new line of comics for the universe he helped crash into oblivion. We talk "Ultimate Invasion," "G.O.D.S." #1, and speculate wildly about the new, ultimate versions of Spider-Man, Black Panther, and X-Men. Oh and we also try to summarize what Hickman's been up to since "Inferno." Or Elias tries. "Decorum" is impenetrable, OK?Next time, we're doing something special and finally, FINALLY watching our bet movie from the start of the year Howard the Duck. Be there or be quacked.

What can we say that the words "Franken-castle" can't convey? This run is bonkers and strange with excellent art and...well, we don't know if we'd call the writing/plot GOOD but it's certainly unique. We do a dive in the career of Rick Remender at Marvel and beyond, figure out what makes the Punisher an enduring and fraught character, and yell at Disney for being spineless, corporate COWARDS with regards to white supremacist/cop usage of the logo. Of course, we also talk about "Frankencastle." This book is so strange y'all. We can't even tell you.Reading along? The issues are “Dark Reign: The List: Punisher” #1, “Punisher” (2009) #11-21, and "Dark Wolverine" #88-89. If you're reading on Marvel Unlimited, know that "Punisher" was renamed "Franken-Castle" for issues #17-21. Trade readers can find the whole run either in "Punisher," Vol. 3: Franken-Castle or the "Punisher by Rick Remender" omnibus. We also talk about the first ten issues of the run but there's no real need to read them.Next time, we're seeing if Phase 5 can't redeem itself with "Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 3." You didn't think we'd miss the chance to talk about the Guardians again, would you? Galactus forbid.

There's very little we could say here that would capture just how psyched we are for the Fall of X books. Elias was SO energized he decided to talk about act structures in the Shakespearian vein! Take that Hickman. You and your G.O.D.S. and your Makers.Next time, or at least next book club, we ring in the spooky season with Franken-Castle from Rick Remender and (mostly) Tony Moore, not Jerome Opeña; he did the first arc that we will not be reading. What we will be reading is “Dark Reign: The List: Punisher” #1, “Punisher” (2009) #11-21, and "Dark Wolverine" #88-89. If you're reading on Marvel Unlimited, know that "Punisher" #17-21 can be found under "Franken-Castle" as the series name. Trade readers can find the whole run either in "Punisher," Vol. 3: Franken-Castle or the "Punisher by Rick Remender" omnibus.

It's been a while since the MMM crew checked in with what's going on in the current world of Marvel Comics. What can we say, we like examining the past? Still, you can't ignore the present forever and boy, oh, boy was there a lot to potentially ignore. From the Kamala Kahn debacle to the shake ups at Avengers & X-Men headquarters to the relative paucity of superheroes outside your doorstep, Jaina and Elias are swinging from one edge of the Marvel Universe to the other just for you.Next time, we talk about the other half of the publishing line with our quarterly check-in of the X line. Just in time for the Fall.

Elias convinced Jaina that they had to watch <cite>Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania</cite> and it was a decision they both regretted. Elias nearly has a melt-down at least twice and Jaina nearly loses her faith in the cinema. But we have fun slowly disintegrating adn you will too. Just don't talk about [R.E.D.A.C.T.E.D.].Shout off in the comment section below and get the conversation started or share them on Twitter (while it still exists) using the hashtag #MakeMineMultiversity. Elias can be found on Twitter @Quetzelish and Jaina @Rambling_Moose or tumblr at ramblingmoose. Our theme music is "Excelsior" by Carol Romo and our audio editor is Livian Saphir.

A few months ago, the latest "Avengers" run came to an end, capping off Jason Aaron's tenure on the title. Now that it's over, it's finally time to see how the whole thing shaped up. There were highs, there were lows, there were flaming wooly-mammoths and lots of big swings. Every arc an event! What did we think of it all? You'll just have to listen to find out. We are far more praiseworthy of it than Slott's "Fantastic Four" though.

Note at the top: We originally recorded this BEFORE a whole lot happened in the Marvel universe, like JMS's >"Captain America" announcement or the release of "Amazing Spider-Man" #26, Just in case you were wondering.Anywho. This episode is all about what we've been reading, what we've been enjoying, and what's going on in the various corners of Marvel comics. We talk greatest hits, a couple lows, and hidden gems. Just no X books. That's for another day.Next time, we're finally retrospecting and dissecting Jason Aaron's "Avengers" run. Whew!

Fuck. Across the Spider-Verse is so good y'all, we had to scuttle our original plans to bring you this episode. Elias has seen it at least twice, and at least once since recording, and has so many more thoughts than could make it into the episode. Go watch it, then listen to our episode, then watch it again. Then, in a year, we'll do this one last time.Next time, the original 117 (which is getting less and less timely) and THEN we're retrospecting and dissecting Jason Aaron's "Avengers" run. Whew!