Marvelous! Or, the Death of Cinema

Pulp month comes to a close and we get back to business as the gang discusses Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever. Disney and Ryan Coogler's brief Eulogy for Chadwick Boseman and the over-two-hour postscript in which they desperately cast around for replacements for all the guys that retired before Covid. An origin film for not only a new Black Panther, but a new Iron Man Jr. and completely revamped "Namor: The Sub-Mariner", they could've called it Ironheart Origins: Latinx Wakanda. Other discussions include: The contradiction between an idealistic power fantasy and anti-colonial politics, the friction between Coogler and Disney, US diaspora politics, the limits of MCU worldbuilding, murkovision, and more!   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. 

For some people the mere mention of December 25th, 2010, or "The Day Gainax Ruined Christmas," instills fear and traumatic flashbacks to being Le Trolled. For Nicole, it was another day in dad's mancave on the family desktop computer lurking /a/.  Full bonus episode on Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt (along with full-length exclusive episodes, commentaries and more) on Patreon.

In our final Pulp Month outing before we return for duty back at the IP slop mines, we watched the Warren Beatty vanity/autistic-passion project Dick Tracy, yet another attempt by Disney to play catch up to Warner Bros. and Batman. A nearly $50 million black tank-top movie shot by the DP of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage where Al Pacino in heavy prosthetics eats out the scenery and Madonna blasts nip. And in our most brain damaged discussion since The Book of Henry, we delve into Beatty's attempts to hold onto the Dick Tracy rights with Dick Tracy Special and Dick Tracy Special: Tracy Zooms In. Have you considered extending your life with SP (small portions), pomegranates, and our friend the blueberry? Plus, Stu reads a Diddy ahhh selection from Madonna's Sex book that even freaked Nicole out. A special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, squishward, 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. Art by Zoe Woolley and Jo Hermeer. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates. 

A preview of our episode discussing 1991's The Rocketeer and the Dave Stevens comic on which it is based.  If you like what you hear, please subscribe to our patreon for more full-length exclusive episodes, commentaries and more!

He can cloud men's minds with braps of mediocrity. We continue our foray into Pulp Month with our first actual pulp character, The Shadow, starring Alec "walkemdown" Baldwin as the titular character.  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. Cover Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates. 

We return to our 'International Blockbusters' series with a conversation about S.S. Rajamouli's breakout Telugu-language historical action romance. As complete outsiders to the world's largest and most diverse film culture, we try our level best to situate the film in a historical and cultural context, interpret it's nationalist politics, and discuss what makes India's maximalist 'Masala' blended-genre blockbusters both similiar and different from their Hollywood counterparts, and get into what makes this film so lively and engaging. Whatever we might get right or wrong, we can come away with one understanding that might unify all the world's cultures and creeds: Love for a well staged action setpiece, and hatred for the British ruling class. 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. Cover Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates. 

Is it as bad as everyone says, or a forgotten gem? In a rare confluence of reality and trite aphorism, the truth may be somewhere in the middle.    Every three months or so we host a raffle in which all active patrons are automatically entered. The winner is then allowed to select the topic for an episode. If you want to hear the full episode, or win the chance to select a future episode, or just like what we do, please subscribe to our patreon!

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 jerkin' (FREE BONUS!!!!!) episode of the Girl Mode subseries, Nicole is joined by the iconic multi-hyphenate visionary behind Fucktoys, Annapurna Sriram, to discuss the once maligned and deeply misunderstood Y2K pop satire Josie and the Pussycats, another cult camp classic proudly reclaimed by the girls (and the gays) as the Best Movie Ever. Before Riverdale updated and franchised the Archie Comics for modern audiences, A Very Brady Sequel screenwriters Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan took Dan DeCarlo's groovy girl band and put them at the center of They Live-plot against industry plants and consumer capitalism's mind-controlling powers over the youth of America. Smarter than it has any right to be, so of course critics at the time were ready to dismiss it as trivial teenage girl shit. Opens on an Backstreet Boys parody group singing about anal sex. Let's go back in time and meet Snoopy! Fucktoys is currently on the festival circuit and will be screening at the following festivals: “Get Off the Internet” Film Festival, San Francisco, California, July 19 Fantasia Film Festival, Montreal, Canada, July 22 (More festival dates TBA) A special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, Porridge Fist, 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. 

We're eating good again on the pod this week with Jordan Peele's spectacular, horrifying, and impeccably made third film, Nope, a modern masterpiece in its own right and (in)arguably one of the best blockbusters of the last twenty years. It's about bad miracles, filmmaking spectacle, the legacy and erasure of the black cowboy, aliens, UFOs, Travis the Chimp, how much Jordan Peele loves anime, and the exploitative relationship between people of color and American entertainment, all of which coalesce beautifully into something that transcends the sum of its parts and influences. Plus, Cole offers an alternative — and really, the definitive — reading on Nope's ending. (And rest in peace Jim Shooter.) A special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, Porridge Fist, 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. 

A sample from our discussion of Mamoru Oshii's (Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor) surreal first live action film, and the first entry in the multimedia alternate-history 'Kerberos' series.  If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath. 

Finally, some fucking mid. Even late-period Sam Raimi (more the guy who made Oz the Great and Powerful than Evil Dead or Spider-Man 2) manages to pick the bar up from the depths of hell to make something we can at least trip and stumble on. We literally remember nothing about the first Doctor Strange, so this is a marked improvement even if it's marred by another bad screenplay from one of Dan Harmon's writers. And hey, Elizabeth Olsen is having fun for the first time in five movies? Was this movie worth its $500 million price tag? Probably not. Is it one of the better recent Marvel movies we've had to sit through? Despite everything, yes. Plus, we derail the episode for a live reaction to Zohran Mamdani winning the NYC democratic mayoral primary. A special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2. If you can, please lend some support to these organizations: 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. 

Not even ten minutes into our Raimi Spider-Man (maybe we'll do the third one eventually I don't know) double feature episode and Cole goes old head about sixties cartoons and an X-Men reference in a Wings song. If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath. 

It's finally here.  A special bat-thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, Jim, jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, Owen2, and Ronnie Gardocki. If you can, please lend some support to these organizations: 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. Episode Art By @kingchefyaoi. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates. 

Today we tackle yet another incipient cinematic universe that never made it past one movie because half the character rights went to another studio before release and then had its opening weekend just as every theater in America was closing due to COVID. It's Bloodshot starring Vin Diesel (who's terrible in it by the way), the first and last entry in the Valiant Cinematic Universe and a movie that seemingly fell out of a portal from 2009 after your high school drug dealer tripped and fell while trying to put the copy he owns into the DVD player. Kinda like if RoboCop and Total Recall did the fusion dance and it came out with a significantly lower IQ. We talk about the movie for maybe 15 minutes before Cole and returning guest/comic artist extraordinaire Graham (@EddieMcstriplin) talk about this really tall guy named Jim Shooter who once had an effigy of himself burned because Marvel employees were mad at him or something. Buy Graham's comic CYMK ULTRA on Etsy. A special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, Jim, jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, Owen2, and Ronnie Gardocki. If you can, please lend some support to these organizations: PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund) MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians) National Networks of Abortion Funds 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. Game the algorithm for us by hitting the like button and leaving a review, ideally a nice one. Production by Miguel Tahni. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates. 

Thanks to Patron raffle winner Glenn Shook, the gang enjoys an opportunity to talk about the 2004 Michael Mann thriller 'Collateral'. Would you like the chance to select an episode? If you want to hear more, or get a chance to select an episode, subscribe at patreon.com/marvelousdeath! Active patrons are automatically entered for each raffle, which is drawn quarterly.

Hell holds no surprises for us. A special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, Jim, jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, Owen2, and Ronnie Gardocki. If you can, please lend some support to these organizations: Fundraisers related to Los Angeles 2025 fires PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund) MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians) National Networks of Abortion Funds Thank you for listening! If you enjoy the show please consider: Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive subscriber only episodes! Joining our Discord, where we maintain active and friendly community! Checking out our Credits page where you can view a complete list of Patrons. Leaving a positive rating and review on your platform of choice. It really does help! Production by Miguel Tahni. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates. 

With Nicole away, Cole and Stu indulge themselves with a two and a half hour conversation about The Pitt, a popular new medical drama. It's just good TV. Would you like to hear more? Subscribe at patreon.com/marvelousdeath!

It's the movie that finally got people back into the theaters after a global pandemic, a billion-dollar hype machine/feat of emotional manipulation that successfully weaponized our collective nostalgia by retrofitting two previous iterations of Marvel's flagship character into a snake sucking its own dick. Everything you once loved and found heart-wrenching pathos in will be reduced to fan service or lamp shaded to death with aloof ironic detachment. Digitally de-aged villains whose internal struggles can be cured with a homemade injection concocted with kitchen science. A once bustling metropolis filled with everyday citizens barren save for whatever extras can fit against a blue-screen. The entire multiverse fracturing under the weight of a wish to get into MIT. Great powers and great responsibilities in service of Kevin Feige's bank account, save for the cut Sony and Amy Pascal get to take home. The tragedy is that you don't realize what you're tasting is ash in your mouth because you've been convinced otherwise.  You are not immune to popaganda. But we are. Spider-Man: No Way Home A special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, Jim, jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, Owen2, and Ronnie Gardocki. If you can, please lend some support to these organizations: Fundraisers related to Los Angeles 2025 fires PCRF (Palestinian Children's Relief Fund) MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians) National Networks of Abortion Funds Thank you for listening! If you enjoy the show please consider: Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive subscriber only episodes! Joining our Discord, where we maintain active and friendly community! Checking out our Credits page where you can view a complete list of Patrons. Leaving a positive rating and review on your platform of choice. It really does help! Production by Miguel Tahni. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates. 

This is a preview of our double feature episode on two films that help revitalize the action genre in the 2010s, The Raid (2011) and John Wick (2014). Would you like to hear more? Subscribe at patreon.com/marvelousdeath!