Marvelous! Or, the Death of Cinema

Shazam: Fury of the Gods, or Blunder the Dome

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 17:20:18 -0700

We enter the home stretch of the pre-Gunn DCU with Shazam: Fury of the Gods, a confused and inert mess of glop, nonsense and awful dialogue anchored by the unbearable anti-charisma of future Jesuslop washup Zachary Levi. Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu are wasted. Rachel Zegler needs a new agent; Diedrich Bader gets killed and nobody seems to notice; and the barely-explored villain scheme is stolen, inexplicably, from The Simpsons Movie. Needless to say, none of the teasers for future 'Shazam' installments will be paying off. Ever.

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:

If you enjoy the show please consider:

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

[Teaser] Bride of Chucky

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 17:54:24 -0700

BREAKING NEWS: Nicole Queens out!!!!!

Support Marvelous! on Patreon to get the full episode and more!

M3GAN, or MUMSN3T (feat. Evan)

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 17:03:03 -0700

As the gang ventures into uncharted territory in industrial scale genre filmmaking, Nicole taps in her beau Evan to help talk about one of Blumhouse's biggest hits, M3GAN, the PG-13 killer AI doll movie/meme generator. It's a manufactured, half-baked horror-comedy about the dangers of letting children have too much screentime, so transparently desperate to launch its titular character into the pantheon of queer horror icons that it had to start beef with notable queer horror elder Chucky and do a stupid TikTok dance to make hundreds of millions of dollars from undiscerning audiences. The only difference between Kevin Feige and Jason Bloom is that one is better at money management.

"Film Review: 'M3GAN' — Child’s Slay" by Nicole

"The story behind M3GAN's iconic TikTok dance sequence" by James Grebey

"Get Out producer booed off stage at Israeli film festival for criticising Trump" by Sam Wolfson

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:

If you enjoy the show please consider:

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

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, or The Kang that Shouted At Women At The Heart of The World

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 16:33:04 -0700

Witness a failure so epic, it accidentally made the show good. It all goes wrong here.

"I’m a VFX Artist, and I’m Tired of Getting ‘Pixel-F–ked’ by Marvel" as told to Chris Lee, Vulture

"‘Honestly, I Equate It to Human Greed’" by Chris Lee, Vulture

"Jonathan Majors’ ‘Extreme Abuse’ Allegedly Goes Back Nearly a Decade" by Cheyenne Roundtree & Althea Legaspi, Rolling Stone

"Jonathan Majors Had a History of Abuse in Relationships, Women Say" by Melena Ryzik, New York Times

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:

If you enjoy the show please consider:

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

TEASER: Patron Raffle winner delivers punishment (Justice League x RWBY feat. Ty)

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:00:26 -0700

The first of our two (long story) Patron Raffle winners passes judgement on Marvelous! and forces us to watch the direct-to-streaming two part OVA Justice League x RWBY. Ty from TGOFV bravely joins us, to salvage the episode, ask the big questions, and talk about comic books.

Want to hear more? Want a chance to pick an episode (or inflict punishment)? Subscribe to our Patreon now!

BONUS: Smallville Chat Season 1 with Cole and Seqarts

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 15:38:14 -0700

Cole and beloved friend of the show Seqarts discuss the first season of "Smallville", The WB's successful attempt to replace Buffy with a Superman prequel show about hunky teen Clark Kent and his best friends: Lex Luthor and the chick from NXIVM.

Discussions of future seasons will appear exclusively on the Patreon.

Tickets and schedule for the Boston Underground Film Festival at Brattle (and Coolidge) Theater

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:

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 Kly, Zoe Woolley, and Jo Hermeer. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.

Him, or Winning the Touchdown (feat. Gus)

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 20:14:44 -0700

Gus from the very funny podcast Most Controversial joins Stu and Cole to discuss the strange Jordan Peele produced sports horror film "Him", a surreal saga about professional football and the relationship between the greatest quarterback of all time and his up-and-coming protege and rival. Our discussions include the many themes the film gestures at, it's ability or inability to corral them into a coherent thesis, where it is and isn't trying to be funny, and the ways in which it fundamentally misunderstands football and the particular psychopathology of our era's greatest athletes.

Support Most Controversial on Patreon

Tickets and schedule for the Boston Underground Film Festival at Brattle (and Coolidge) Theater

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:

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 Kly, Zoe Woolley, and Jo Hermeer. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.

[TEASER] Wuthering Your Heights at the Theater

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 15:42:49 -0700

Before delving into a 90 minute bitch sesh on Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights", Cole and Nicole share some details on their respective theatrical experiences being surrounded by BookTok fans and captive boyfriends on all sides.

Support Marvelous! on Patreon to get the full episode and more!

Dr. No, or Dr. I Told Her Twice

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 16:58:29 -0700

While Nicole's away, the boys laze about for Queen and Country. Witness the lackadaisical start for everyone's favorite series of Spy "Action" Thrillers as we dive into Dr. No. Duh duh duh-duh da duh indeed.

Tickets and schedule for the Boston Underground Film Festival at Brattle (and Coolidge) Theater

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:

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 Kly, Zoe Woolley, and Jo Hermeer. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2, or Derailing at the Speed of Sound (feat. Andy)

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 16:06:57 -0800

Wrapping up our trip through the 2022 blockbuster landscape, returning guest/friend of the pod/Sonic autist of note Andy (@Ex_AnarchoAnon) from Those Good Old Fashioned Values joins Nicole and Cole for what's supposed to be an episode about Sonic the Hedgehog 2. We really were going to try to stretch out a mediocre video game movie for children and their ironically detached millennial parents into a 90-120 minute conversation, accounting for at least 45 minutes of derailments (as to be expected). But then Paramount and the Ellison crime family colluded with Trump's ROG (Reddit Occupied Government) to expand their slopaganda reich and successfully win the bid for ALL OF Warner Brothers, consolidating a vast chunk of American media under the control of an eyebrow-less failed-actor whose tech-billionaire daddy footed the bill for a movie studio as consolation for Flyboys eating shit at the box office. Plus, more Ken Penders talk and Live Reacts to Jim Carrey's new face.

Tickets and schedule for the Boston Underground Film Festival at Brattle (and Coolidge) Theater

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:

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 Kly, Zoe Woolley, and Jo Hermeer. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.

[TEASER] Pimp Your Wife

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 17:26:02 -0800

While Nicole and Cole wait for Stu to fix his internet connectivity issues so they can all finally talk about Blade, they venture into Bow Wow's (formerly "Lil") Wikipedia page and discover the greatest deleted Tweet of all time.

Support Marvelous! on Patreon to get the full episode and more!

The Gray Man, or Sorrow

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:22:42 -0800

The Russo brothers are boring, lame guys who make boring, lame movies. The Gray Man, appropriate to it's name, is perhaps the most boring and lame so far. Our suffering is Eternal, but the episode is only 80 minutes.

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:

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 Kly, Zoe Woolley, and Jo Hermeer. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.

TEASER: Mulholland Drive (feat. Jake Tropila)

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 15:58:02 -0800

Jake Tropila joins us to discuss David Lynch's dark side of the Hollywood dream (within a dream) masterpiece.

Would you like to hear more? Support the Marvelous! Patreon to get this and other exclusive episodes in full!

The Fabelmans, or Live from the Cuck Chair (feat. Aaron from Hit Factory)

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 18:09:23 -0800

Steven Spielberg: whiz kid of New Hollywood, maestro of cinematic spectacle, Lord Emperor of eighties kids nostalgia, and chief architect of the modern blockbuster as we know it . A spectral presence over this podcast, but first and foremost, he's our preeminent child-of-divorce auteur. We're joined by Aaron from Hit Factory to talk The Fabelmans, Spielberg's stunningly revealing work of autofiction mistaken for another navel-gazing piece of Oscar bait.

Listen and subscribe to Hit Factory on Patreon

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:

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 Kly, Zoe Woolley and Jo Hermeer. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.

[TEASER] The Greatest Trailer Music of All Time

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 19:10:26 -0800

Before delving into the fabled (and shockingly good) Pyun work print cut of Captain America (1990), we revisit Captain America: The First Avenger and give some much needed and deeply reverential space to that one First Avenger trailer with Tool in it.

Support Marvelous! on Patreon to get the full episode and more!

Babylon, or The Ick Factor (feat. Jane Altoids)

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 16:57:14 -0800

Jane Altoids (@staticbluebat) of Pacino Pod joins us to relitigate one of Film Twitter's favorite discourses: is Damien Chazelle's mega-critical and commercial flop Babylon an underrated masterpiece or a heaping pile of elephant shit? Did Babylon deserve to fall or did the guy famously who lost Best Picture to Moonlight make one of the great misunderstood films of the 21st century? Can a straight man (loosely, debatably) adapt Kenneth Anger's tome of gay lies, deceits, and fallacies Hollywood Babylon into what dumb people call a "love letter" to silent cinema? The verdict: Babylon bad, or at the very least a hot mess of ambition, miscasts leads, and tonal whiplash from a director lacking the camp touch and the ability to diagnose where Hollywood evil truly resides.

The Radical Stardom of Clara Bow: The First It Girl by Be Kind Rewind

Fake News: Fact Checking Hollywood Babylon by You Must Remember This

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:

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.

[TEASER] Speed Racer, or An Assault on Modern Aesthetic (feat. Esther Rosenfield)

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 17:55:09 -0800

Esther Rosenfield joins us to discuss the Wachowski sisters' innovative, stylish 2008 film Speed Racer.

Support us on Patreon if you want to hear the full episode plus other exclusive episodes, commentaries and more!

Morbius, or An Alleged Vampire in Brooklyn

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 16:53:14 -0800

A movie so nice they put it in theaters twice!

This week on the pod, Stu, Nicole, and Cole Netscape watched Morbius, the Sony Spider-Man Universe's (sans Spider-Man) follow up entry to Venom: Let There Be Carnage and a multi-million dollar vanity project for notoriously Method actor and (ALLEGED PLEASE DON'T SUE US) pedophile Jared Leto. You know its fucking terrible.

Link to join the still active Morbius Discord

"The Cult of Leto" by Elena Clavarino

"'Morbius' Direction Daniel Espinosa on What the Heck Happened Here" by Mike Ryan

The very awkward Japanese anime Vtuber interview with Jared Leto

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:

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.

[TEASER] Gentrifying Gary, Indiana

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 17:22:41 -0800

On the eve of the new year, the gang must improvise a last minute substitute for our delayed She Is Conann episode...

Support Marvelous! on Patreon to get the full episode and more!

Christmas Special 2025: Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 14:00:00 -0800

Does a sequel to a Christmas movie count as a Christmas movie? It doesn't matter! Our patrons voted and Joe Dante's anarchic, loony tunes inspired, ahead of it's time fourth wall breaking creature feature was - to our delight - the winner. Join us in a fun, light episode in which we marvel at amazing creature effects, enjoy beloved character actors, share our favorite of the film's (many) gags, and discuss Robert Picardo's (Star Trek: Voyager) consentual-nonconsent relationship with Greta the Gremlin.

Thank you all so, so much for listening and supporting the show. We'll see you next year!

An extra special thanks to our $10 Executive Producers: JetChiclete, Isaac, squishward, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, Jim Locatelli, jprestonpoole, Lohik, bernventers, Owen2, and Ronnie Gardocki (who I now know is a character from The Shield).

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

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.

Avatar: The Way of Water, or Sullys Rizz Together (feat. John DeLillo)

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 17:13:26 -0800

Trending viral number one podcast Marvelous! Or the Death of Cinema trending viral number one movie Avatar: The Way of Water.

I see you. Yes, you. Eywa knows what you've done and she's ashamed of you. On christmas no less. Do the Na'vi celebrate christmas? Or is it more of a Life Day situation. Your sins aside, we're back on Pandora with our buddy wandering filmic troubadour John Delillo talking the Way of Water. We all loved it even more than we love the idea of having 9 foot tall blue wives (or husbands). Everyone loves a water level, and James Cameron delivers on a real humdinger of one; It's a glazefest folks.

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

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

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.

Nicole made me pick the title

[TEASER] The Marvelous Masks - Episode 1

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 16:52:27 -0800

Finally, a new adventure in podcasting and a new frontier of Patreon exclusive bonus content: an RPG.

Subscribe to the Patreon to listen to the first part of our campaign, learn how Sailor Honey looses all her clothes, hear more Michael Jackson vocal stims, and unlock more exclusive content.

Everything Everywhere All at Once, or The Discovery of Multiverse Among the Libs (feat. Alice Moody)

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 09:00:00 -0800

The cynics strike back! Guest Alice Moody joins the gang for the ritual slaughter of a sacred cow, the Widely awarded, critically lauded and enormously popular Everything Everywhere All at Once. Along the way we try and examine what what made this movie so popular, and what puts us in the small minority of people who dislike (or even hate) it - ranging from the writing and production, to it's absurdist and 'metamodern' philosophical underpinnings, and the 'whimsical, sincere' sensibility that seems to rub us the wrong way.

Alice's piece, 'Contrarianism Isn't Real'.

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

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

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.

[TEASER] Lynchian Deep Tissue Massage

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 10:07:59 -0800

Before Nicole and Cole get to discussing Lost Highway (a.k.a. one of the most cursed things ever made) for two hours, Nicole shares a funny Instagram account that made her laugh so hard she drooled on her phone.

Support Marvelous! on Patreon to get the full episode and more!

Black Adam, or To Egg Fu, Thanks for Everything

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 16:53:52 -0800

He was chosen by the Wizard Shazam as a baby boy, messed up his head and even changed the hierarchy of power. More like Brap Adam as the gang dive into The Rock's attempted takeover of Warner Bros.

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:

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.

[TEASER] Goatse to the New Dimension

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 09:44:02 -0800

We delay having to have a conversation about Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time by positing a new hypothetical nobody else in the world has ever considered: what if goatse was a portal to another dimension?

Subscribe to the Patreon to hear us struggle through as really bad video game movie before we say fuck it and talk about the pleasures of crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you, and listening to lamentations of their women (but in a woke way).

Halloween Special: The Evil Within, or Poop Pilled (feat. Thomsen)

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 17:37:26 -0700

Happy Halloween everybody! Here's our scariest offering yet: a failson vanity project by a Getty scion who did so much meth it ultimately killed him

Friend of the show and man who was not torn apart by dogs on October 26th 2025 as foretold by Afroman, Thomsen (@mood_probiotic), joins us to talk about 2017's The Evil Within (original title The Storyteller), the first and last film by Andrew Getty, brought to you by decades of billionaire psycho familial trauma and an insane amount of meth. Starring real actors and shot with a real production budget in the early 2000s, The Evil Within is a movie about a mentally disabled man who is tormented by his evil mirror double Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes) into doing a Son of Sam style serial killing to open his own personal Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. It's like if Tommy Wiseau had 20% of David Lynch's artistry and sleep paralysis every night of his life. Plus, Thomsen tells the most insane story ever shared on the podcast.

Follow World Record Pace on Bandcamp.

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:

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.

Top Gun: Maverick, or Take My Gay Away

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 17:29:32 -0700

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:

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.

Jurassic World: Dominion, or Now This Just Happened

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 18:00:00 -0700

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:

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.

[TEASER] Brought to You by Tylenol

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 19:53:01 -0700

AnimeSerbia from Kemonofriendzone joins us on a breezy, digressive odyssey into zoomer nostalgia, 2000s toy lines, advertising, and the Tom Hanks Dynasty in an episode about a direct-to-TV CGI Hot Wheels movie.

Support Marvelous! on Patreon to get the full episode and more!

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, or Death at a (Wakandan) Funeral

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 19:00:46 -0700

Pulp month comes to a close and we get back to business as the gang discusses Black Panther: 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:

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.

[TEASER] #whoreremembers

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 16:31:20 -0700

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.

Dick Tracy, or The Color of Pomegranates

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 18:20:05 -0700

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 questionable 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:

If you enjoy the show please consider:

Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive subscriber only episodes.
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Production by Miguel Tahni. Art by Zoe Woolley and Jo Hermeer. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.

[TEASER] The Rocketeer, or Chekhov's Gum

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 18:31:48 -0700

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!

The Shadow, or Who Knows What Zesty Thoughts Lurk in the Hearts of Men?

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 19:13:04 -0700

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:

If you enjoy the show please consider:

Subscribing to our Patreon, where you can enjoy exclusive subscriber only episodes.
Joining our Discord.
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Production by Miguel Tahni. Cover Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.

RRR, or The British Really Were That Evil

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 20:15:36 -0700

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 set piece, 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:

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

[TEASER] Patron Raffle #12: Ang Lee's Hulk

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 17:27:00 -0700

Is it Ang Lee's Hulk 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!

Thor: Love and Thunder, or Terminal Kiwi

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 19:52:51 -0700

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:

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.

Girl Mode #4: Josie and the Pussycats (feat. Annapurna Sriram)

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 18:40:55 -0700

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:

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.

Nope, or American Spectacle

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 19:33:13 -0700

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:

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

[TEASER] Mamoru Oshii's The Red Spectacles

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 17:11:39 -0700

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.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, or Gaping Orifices

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 18:22:47 -0700

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:

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.

[TEASER] Raimi's Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 18:02:11 -0700

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.

The Batman, or The Big One

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 20:30:11 -0700

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:

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.

Bloodshot, or Jim Shooters (feat. Graham)

Thu, 29 May 2025 19:02:56 -0700

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:

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.

[TEASER] Michael Mann's Collateral (Patreon Raffle #11)

Thu, 22 May 2025 19:01:26 -0700

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.

Space Jam: A New Legacy, or Goo Filled Lebron

Thu, 15 May 2025 18:41:29 -0700

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:

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

[PREVIEW] Pitt-chat

Thu, 08 May 2025 19:24:30 -0700

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!

Spider-Man: No Way Home, or Dweeb Splooge

Thu, 01 May 2025 19:28:00 -0700

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:

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.

[TEASER] Hi-Octane Action Double Feature: The Raid and John Wick

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 19:04:00 -0700

This is a preview of our double feature episode on two films that help revitalize the action genre in the 2010s, The Raid and John Wick.

Would you like to hear more? Subscribe at patreon.com/marvelousdeath!

The Matrix: Resurrections, or Assigned Morpheus At Birth (feat. Violet)

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 18:39:03 -0700

Divergent opinions on this episode as friend of the show Violet (@paradeofviolets) joins us to discuss this peculiar and belated fourth outing in the iconic turn of the millennium action sci-fi series. Whether or not you think it's good, it's certainly interesting and marks an artistically sincere change of pace from the usual franchise and 'legacy sequel' faire. Discussions include: Making art under threat, what it means to be sincere, gender identity & trans art, ideology & social control, the dream of revolutionary pop culture, takes on the original film and suffering from success. The Matrix... is a land of contrasts.

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:

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.

[TEASER] Nicole's Much Needed Vacation

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 18:51:10 -0700

While Stu and Cole were talking about Star Trek Nicole was hanging out in a dive bar watching metalheads mosh to music medieval bards played. Anyways we're talking about Cecil B. Demented and John Waters.

If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.

The Suicide Squad, or Project Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 19:32:01 -0700

Nicole is still on vacation so enjoy a groundbreaking 'Marvelous!' first time event: A Stu and Cole solo episode. Free to hate-it up we talk about the enigma that is James Gunn, his Guardians rehash plot, the concept of 'rubber edge', bad casting, revisiting gen xcellence, the abuse and misuse of quality source material and classic silver age monsters. Bonus: Extended digressions about some new hospital show. Need a Nicole fix? She discussed this film on It's Giving Camp.

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:

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.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife, or Ghost Dad

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 18:33:23 -0700

Hey there, do you remember the 80s? We don't. We weren't even alive then. But somebody does, and they want to make sure you remember it to, remember it the way they did, as babies. In this episode we pick apart the falsely imagined perpetual childhood of the GenX Movie Guy, trace the counters of the crassly commercial 'Legacy Sequel', ponder the pitfalls of nostalgia, ponder Jason Reitman's daddy issues, and ask the big question: How does an affable 80s screwball comedy become a sepia-toned coming of age dramedy? Well, y'know, it's a love-letter! Though to whom and regarding what, we cannot say.

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

It's a bad world out there. If you can, please consider helping by supporting these organizations:

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.

[TEASER] Science Fiction is Dead?

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 18:55:45 -0700

A preview of our latest Patreon exclusive episode on the 2016 'romantic' 'science fiction' dud Passengers.

If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.

Eternals, or For Your Consideration

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 18:34:00 -0800

In which Marvel Studios proves they can one-up DC in the ponderous epics department by releasing a two hour and twenty minute movie that feels longer than the seven thousand year timespan of its vacuous, shambling plot. They thought they where going to win an Oscar for this? The gangs all here to discuss all your favorite memorable characters like... uh, 'kingo', and... droog? Also: Male body dysmorphia, the empty themes, dry and murk cinematography, a sleepy and wasted cast, awful pacing, woke racism, the abuse of Jack Kirby's legacy and ask the question: All these movies suck, so why was this the one that critics and audiences turned on?

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, Jim (shout out to Jim!), Tiaer, jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

If you can, please consider supporting these organizations in support of Palestinians or find an abortion fund in the US to donate to:

[TEASER] Screen Memories

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 17:34:47 -0800

A preview of the first several minutes of our supporter exclusive Patron Raffle episode on James Wan's Malignant, selected by supporter It's Brunhilda!

If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.

Dune: Part One, or Spice World

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 17:38:49 -0800

Stu returns from exile in the desert of the real. Cole gets hype. Nicole is easily amused. Finally, a movie we like: Hints of oedipus, the corrupting nature of power, the difficulties of adaptation, flying above the storm and threading the needle, midcentury freakboys, representation and engaging with art, outer thoughtworlds, women in space, when 'realism' works, when the cgi doesn't suck, and oh how low the bar is in this fallen world.

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, Jim (shout out to Jim!), Tiaer, jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

If you can, please consider supporting these organizations in support of Palestinians or find an abortion fund in the US to donate to:

TEASER: We're Sorry David :( (feat. Jake Tropila)

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 18:07:24 -0800

[Extreme Gordon Cole voice] I'M NOT GONNA TALK ABOUT DUNE! IN FACT, WE'RE NOT GONNA TALK ABOUT DUNE AT ALL!

If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage, or Out of the Hardy Closet (feat. Andy and Esther)

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 17:03:28 -0800

They did it. They made this shit gayer.

This week on Marvelous!, Nicole and Cole are joined by returning guests Andy (@Ex_AnarchoAnon) of TGOFV and Esther (@capybaroness) of Get Cynical/The Lost Broadcast to discuss Venom: Let There Be Carnage, an amazing film about gay couple Tom Hardy and the goop monster that lives in his ass fighting off against a San Francisco polycule comprised of Woody Harrelson in a wig, a woman who yells, and the red goop monster they bring in as their third.

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Tropical Doves, Jim (shout out to Jim!), Tiaer, jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

If you can, please consider supporting these organizations in support of Palestinians or find an abortion fund in the US to donate to:

[TEASER] Fell For It Again Award

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 18:51:16 -0800

Still have no idea what else Cole expected from the rest of WandaVision other than boredom, crushing disappointment, and Paul Bettany's cock outline apparently.

If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.

WandaVision (Part 1), or I Dream of Feige

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 19:36:19 -0800

Your three incredibly busy but dedicated hosts are finally taking the TV plunge with the only MCU miniseries we're going to cover until further notice. It's WandaVision, the critically acclaimed "change of pace" from the Marvel mines about two characters whose relationship we've never cared about getting some spotlight in a sitcom pastiche people with brain damage compare to David Lynch (RIP). Is it really as good as everyone made it out to be so far?

(Subscribe to the Patreon for next week's Patron-exclusive episode on the rest of WandaVision when it drops next week!)

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Kevin Feige doing the Shmurda Dance, Jim (shout out to Jim!), Tiaer, jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

If you can, please consider supporting these organizations in support of Palestinians or find an abortion fund in the US to donate to:

[TEASER] Clive Barker's Nightbreed

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 21:37:12 -0800

The gang discusses Clive Barker's deeply flawed yet striking sophomore horror-fantasy film Nightbreed.

If you'd like to here more, please subscribe to our Patreon!

The Battle at Lake Changjin, or Maoist Cinematic Universe

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 17:04:35 -0800

This week on the pod we're diving into the elusive and booming Chinese film industry to see how they make their blockbusters. Funded in part by the CCP (i.e. definitionally propaganda), The Battle at Lake Changjin is the highest grossing movie ever made in China and spends a significant amount of its nearly 3 hour runtime on the PLA killing American imperialist pigs. Sounds sick right? Well...

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Kevin Feige doing the Shmurda Dance, Jim (shout out to Jim!), jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

If you can, please consider supporting these organizations in support of Palestinians or find an abortion fund in the US to donate to:

Christmas Special: The Wizard of Oz

Thu, 26 Dec 2024 18:00:00 -0800

It's a boxing day content miracle! The gang assembles to talk in earnest about a beloved classic, a movie that might not be Christmas themes, but definitely shares those vibes: The Wizard of Oz. Nicole holds court in this special episode about family, technicolor, Hollywood horror stories and myths dispelled. And in the fine tradition of holiday specials, we're joined by a surprise guest star! Can you guess who? Tune in to find out!

Special Thanks to our Executive Producer Tier Patron Supporters: Isaac, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Kevin Feige doing the Shmurda Dance, Jim (shout out to Jim!), jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

If you can, please consider supporting these organizations in support of Palestinians or find an abortion fund in the US to donate to:

TEASER: A Very Special Episode

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 16:38:45 -0800

Remember that lady who didn't show her face and made the Dance Moms kid do interpretive dance to her songs who also happened to be one of the biggest pop stars of the 2010s? Well she made a movie about how autism is just seeing the world like a Christmas commercial for Target.

If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.

Shang-Chi, or the Castle of Simu Liu (feat. Seqarts)

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 18:13:49 -0800

Friend of the show/Discord moderator of the year/Asian correspondent Seqarts returns to guide us through a discussion of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings that takes us on a journey through Marvel's orientalist source material, American liberal understandings of Asian identity, the limits of representation politics, and Simu Liu's sordid internet history. Shockingly woke discussion.

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Kevin Feige doing the Shmurda Dance, Jim (shout out to Jim!), jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

Nikkei Progressives

If you can, please consider supporting these organizations in support of Palestinians or find an abortion fund in the US to donate to:

TEASER: Cat People

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 19:35:28 -0800

The Jellicle Moon is shining bright Jellicles come to the Jellicle Ball Jellicle cats are black and white Jellicle cats are rather small Jellicle cats are merry and bright And pleasant to hear when we caterwaul Jellicle cats have cheerful faces Jellicle cats have bright black eyes We like to practice our airs and graces And wait for the Jellicle Moon to rise Jellicle cats develop slowly Jellicle cats are not too big Jellicle cats are roly poly We know how to dance a gavotte and a jig Until the Jellicle Moon appears We make our toilet and take our repose Jellicles wash behind their ears Jellicles dry between their toes Jellicle cats are black and white Jellicle cats are of moderate size Jellicles jump like a jumping jack Jellicle cats have moonlit eyes We're quiet enough in the morning hours We're quiet enough in the afternoon Reserving our Terpsichorean powers To dance by the light of the Jellicle Moon Jellicle cats are black and white Jellicle cats (as we said) are small If it happens to be a stormy night We will practice a caper or two in the hall If it happens the sun is shining bright You would say we have nothing to do at all We are resting and saving ourselves to be bright For the Jellicle Moon and Jellicle Ball Jellicle cats come out tonight Jellicle cats come one come all The Jellicle Moon is shining bright Jellicles come to the Jellicle Ball

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Free Guy, or NPC Home Cinema

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 16:23:58 -0800

Ryan and Reynolds and Taika Waitit? In a Shawn Levy movie? How could we lose! Easily, it turns out. Join us on a journey with the least imaginative minds into the least interesting virtual world since Zuckerberg's Metaverse. Are you an NPC? Listen and find out!

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Kevin Feige doing the Shmurda Dance, Jim (shout out to Jim!), jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

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TEASER: Animation IS Cinema!!!!!

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 16:43:45 -0800

We take a brave stance on our Patreon Raffle episode for the 2009 CGI Astro Boy that bankrupted a studio that animated movies for children should be good, or even cinema.

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Black Widow, or Red (Ledger) Scare

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 17:53:32 -0800

We return to our regularly scheduled timeline and the MCU with one of COVID's most high profile release victims: Black Widow. It's a movie at least five years too late to be of any value and literally ends with Natasha saving ALL women. You probably know about the lawsuit between Scarlett Johansson and Disney about how co-releasing the movie on Disney+ fucked her bag up, but did you also know Disney was going to pay the original creators of Yelena Belova/White Widow a few thousand dollars as compensation for Florence Pugh playing their character? Just business as usual.

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Kevin Feige doing the Shmurda Dance, Jim (shout out to Jim!), jprestonpoole, Sam, Lohik, bernventers, and Owen2.

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Halloween Special: Creepshow, or the (Stephen) King of Comedy

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 17:35:11 -0700

It's a very special Halloween episode as the gang covers the classic EC-comics inspired 1982 George Romero/Stephen King anthology film Creepshow. Our conversation includes: The strengths of the anthology format, the history of moral panics, how much creatively minded boomers hated their dads, EC comics and the comics code, scary Leslie Neilson, and King's memorable turn as doomed simpleton farmer Jordy Verrill.

Special thanks to our Executive Producer tier Patrons: Isaac, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Kevin Feige doing the Shmurda Dance, Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, Jim (shout out to Jim!), jprestonpoole, Sam, Porridge Fist and Ronnie Gardocki

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Thank you for listening! If you like our show, please consider leaving a positive rating or review on Apple or Spotify, 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 and barf. Follow @MarvelousDeath for updates.

X-Men: Days of Future Past, or Magneto Bullet Theory

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 19:14:19 -0700

X-Men: Days of Future Past is notable for three things. The first is that it splits the timeline continuity between the old X-Men movies directed by (allegedly) sex pests towards underage boys or adult women with the new ones that will eventually bring us to Dark Phoenix and New Mutants taking Fox's outing with Marvel off a cliff, and in doing so innovates the now lucrative concept of the "multiverse." The second is that aforementioned sex pest towards underage boys (allegedly) is back to directing an X-Men movie and now we have to talk about him. The third is that JFK is a mutant.

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Kevin Feige doing the Shmurda Dance, Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, Jim (shout out to Jim!), and jprestonpoole

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TEASER: Diverse Racial Weapons Auction (feat. Ty)

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 19:24:55 -0700

In one of our many silly tangents about Steel Cole laments that there aren't enough big third act scenes where the climax is a weapons auction to different stereotypical racial ethnicities, seemingly forgetting about Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Ty is also here.

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Kick Gyatts, or The Reappraisal of Mark Millar By The Coward Java Jigga

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 18:20:28 -0700

Finally, our most off topic episode. Like a Millarworld comic we've got dick and fart jokes, imminently dated jokes about what's in the news, and a slight fixation on race in maybe our most off topic episode yet. Maybe in 15 years Netflix will give us like 10 billion dollars to produce a live action version of the podcast that will be canceled after one season. Did anyone else ever watch the netflix released Jupiter's Legacy show?

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Kevin Feige doing the Shmurda Dance, Owen2, bernventers, Jim (shout out to Jim!), and jprestonpoole

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Avatar, or They Done Screwed Up and Let Coal Upload an Episode (feat. John the DiLillo)

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 16:57:48 -0700

Did any of you guys get the pandora mental illness? I didn't for the first one but now I think I'd fuck a blue lady if she looked white enough. Do you guys read these? Anyways Stu and Nicole are having a JO sesh at the local theater so they let me do this and I had to spend like 45 minutes figuring out the login because nobody knows what the podcast email is. Anyways we had a great time with the homie John on this one. -- Cole

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X-Men: First Class, or No Darwin No Peace

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 16:56:15 -0700

So here's a movie everyone misremembers as being really good: X-Men: First Class. Not directed by a serial rapist pedophile or rampant sex pest of adult women, but by certified hack slop directed Matthew Vaughn a.k.a. Matthew Allard de Vere Drummond. It's the first of Fox's nu-X-Men movies in a saga that will end in Dark Phoenix (or New Mutants, however the fuck this canon goes). Basically we watched Star Trek again because this is also a prequel overstuffed with fanservice and weird shit about women. Made to be watched on FX with commercial breaks or by teenage girls projecting yaoi fanfic onto young Professor X and Magneto. Stu begins this episode in the closet and ends it in the closet running a 102 degree fever.

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TEASER: Live Kang Reaction

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 18:34:12 -0700

Jonathan Majors couldn't stop doing DV and now they're giving an unfounded amount of money to Robert Downey Jr. and his brand new Oscar to come back as Doctor Doom. All that and more Marvel news covered in this Special Report.

If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.

Star Trek '09, or Imbalance of Error (feat. Seqarts)

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 20:47:07 -0700

It's finally time for us to delve into a massive franchise we have yet to cover on the pod: Star Trek. Before J.J. Abrams was handed the keys to Star Wars to run into a brick wall and the hack fraud writing duo Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci gave us whatever the fuck the Tom Cruise Mummy movie was, they rebooted Trek with a glossy blockbuster prequel everyone loved and had absolutely no issues with. Does it really hold up after all these year? Three out of four podcasters say no, it doesn't. (Guess which one of us said it's alright. Hint: it wasn't Nicole.) We're joined by Trekkie/friend of the show/food wizard/beloved Discord moderator Seqarts to discuss all things Star and Trek.

Nikkei Progressives

Palestinian Youth Movement

Gaza Scholarship Fund for Displaced Students

Tickets to Boxing Helena at the Somerville Theater where Nicole is introducing the movie

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, Jim (shout out to Jim!), jprestonpoole, and PineappleRevy.

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TEASER: AMV Hunters

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 18:03:07 -0700

Towards the end of our Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within conversation, we uncovered the gem of all gems: an 18 year old Evanescence "Bring Me to Life" AMV.

If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.

Fantastic Four, or Josh Trank and the Wig of Despair

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 18:54:34 -0700

Coincidentally commemorating the 9 year anniversary of what’s been dubbed one of the worst superhero movies ever made, we watched Josh Trank’s 2015 mega-flop Fantastic Four a.k.a. Fant4stic this week. Doomed from the start by the competing forces of a hot young director and a studio trying to compete with the media conglomerate that will buy them two years later, the resulting attempt to reboot the Fantastic Four into darker, Cronenbergian territory was not so fantastic. It’s stinks actually, but who’s really to blame? Josh Trank? Fox? Kate Mara’s wig? With the MCU’s own iteration of Marvel’s first family on the horizon, the time has finally come for us to figure out exactly what went wrong.

Featuring the debut of our new fourth mic: Kevin Nguyen. He can only say "Hi, I'm Kevin" in a silly voice.

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Isaac, Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, jprestonpoole, and PineappleRevy.

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This podcast includes copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is included for commentary, criticism, and educational purposes in compliance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. All rights reserved to the copyright owners.

Green Lantern, or Emerald Shitty

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 18:42:51 -0700

Just in time for Deadpool and Wolverine, we're turning back the clock to 2011 to revisit Ryan "Reddit" Reynolds of Mint Mobile's greatest superhero shame, Green Lantern. Is it really as bad as everyone's made it out to be in the last 13 years? Yes, actually. But it also represents a fascinating transition point where Warner Brothers is trying to catch up to the MCU with their own attempt at Iron Man. The result is a movie that's simultaneously dated for the time it was released and also innovative in helping to make VFX crunches the standard for blockbuster productions. Plus, we plan a very special visit to a Hollywood cemetery to pay our respects.

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, jprestonpoole, and PineappleRevy.

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TEASER: Release the Timberlake Cut

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 18:31:42 -0700

Somehow in our discussion of Southland Tales we discovered that Stu's a semi-fan of the Justin Timberlake star vehicle In Time.

If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.

Wonder Woman 1984, or Triumph of the Wish (feat. Liz)

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 20:25:51 -0700

We end our brief and bitter sojourn into the COVID-riddled landscape of 2020 releases not with a whimper, but with a hateful, unapologetically awful bang. The follow up to the DCEU's critically and commercially successful Wonder Woman, Patty Jenkins' sequel Wonder Woman 1984 was reviled and mocked when it was released in theaters and on HBO Max. And if you can believe it, the movie has only gotten worse in the wake of ongoing genocidal events in Gaza. Returning guest Liz (@liz_irl) joins us to help eviscerate this truly abhorrent specimen of liberal Girl Boss #StillWithHer feminism brought to you by Equal Pay crusader Patty Jenkins, whose career will hopefully never recover from this piece of shit.

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Porridge Fist, Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, jprestonpoole, and PineappleRevy.

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The New Mutants, or X-Men, Interrupted

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 18:37:55 -0700

Remember that one poster you saw at the theater back in 2017 for that X-Men spin-off that you kept waiting to come out and never did, only to one day find it was playing at a movieplex near you in the middle of COVID? It's The New Mutants, the final installment in Fox's X-Men franchise victimized by both the Disney buyout and being the product of the guy who directed The Fault in Our Stars trying to make a horror movie for Freeform teenagers (among a bunch of other things). And in a shocking turn of events, Cole actually liked this one and thinks it's one of (if not the) best X-Men movies ever. Nicole and Stu thus spend significant time reacting to this unforeseen break in the ranks.

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, jprestonpoole, and PineappleRevy.

Link to donate to bail funds student encampments in solidarity with the people of Gaza.

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TEASER: Nicole Flexes Her Gender Studies Masters (feat. Jane Evelyn)

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 17:36:43 -0700

I know tons of you probably hate Assassination Nation and anything else Sam Levinson touches but what if I told you there's some insight to be mined from this movie?

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Sonic the Hedgehog, or Chaos Uncontrolled (feat. Andy yet again)

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 17:47:54 -0700

It's finally time to talk about Paramount's live action-animated hybrid Sonic the Hedgehog starring Jean-Ralphio as Sonic, every kid's favorite movie star James Marsden talking to another CGI animal, and Jim Carrey as Robotnik on Ozempic. Our favorite boy/Sonic-enthusiast Andy (@Ex_AnarchoAnon) from TGOFV returns once again to discuss the results. Everything basically turns to chaos. Stu literally begged us to end the episode. Don't worry, we talk about Ugly Sonic before that though.

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, jprestonpoole, and PineappleRevy.

Link to donate to bail funds student encampments in solidarity with the people of Gaza.

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TEASER: How to Lose Your Patrons in 60 Seconds

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 17:57:39 -0700

Somehow in the middle of our discussion on Belladonna of Sadness we entered a tangent about Bear in the Big Blue House.

If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.

Birds of Prey, or I, Harley Quinn (feat. Fabiola Liaño)

Thu, 30 May 2024 18:30:12 -0700

We're cracking open our brief excursion into 2020 with one of the last movies to get a theatrical run before COVID shut everything down. Women finally got their own Deadpool starring and produced by mega-star of the moment Margot Robbie. Against her better critical judgement, Nicole enjoyed this one for the incredibly flawed and messy thing that it is because women can have a junk food treat sometimes. Cole and Stu basically hated it. To help us break down whether or not women have the right to be annoying, we're joined by returning guest and fellow Robbie Quinn enjoyer Fabiola Liaño (@fabiola_liano) of It's Giving Camp to discuss the pop cultural figure of Harley Quinn, Grace Randolph spreading misinformation, the inherent appeal of unruly women to female audiences, and how this movie botches adapting the Birds of Prey comic series and its associated characters into a terminally pop feminist narrative about emancipation and wearing cute outfits or something. Somehow we managed to discuss this movie for slightly longer than Furiosa, and all without yelling at each other because we're friends first and foremost.

Listen and follow It’s Giving Camp (Twitter, Spotify, Patreon)

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, jprestonpoole, and PineappleRevy.

Link to donate to bail funds student encampments in solidarity with the people of Gaza.

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Train to Busan, or Trains, Brains, and Negligent Fathers

Thu, 16 May 2024 16:47:46 -0700

We're going international baby to see how other countries do their blockbusters! (Super producer and editor Miguel) picked, you (paying Patrons) voted: 2016's Train to Busan, South Korea's hit zombie flick . You're probably more than aware that South Korean movies (and a lot of their recent cultural exports) have been dog walking the slop America's been putting out recently, and for good reason. We talk a little bit about that, but mostly we go off the rails a lot talking about trains.

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, jprestonpoole, and PineappleRevy.

Cole's Watch Something Else, Seth's Dominion.

Link to donate to bail funds student encampments in solidarity with the people of Gaza.

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TEASER: Tactical Twink-strategy (feat. Angie)

Thu, 09 May 2024 18:26:35 -0700

This anime bullshit is actually giving us a real political discussion if you can actually believe it. If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.

Spider-Man: Far From Home, or Batalon Royale

Thu, 02 May 2024 19:12:11 -0700

Right off the back of the milestone of watching/shitting on Avengers: Endgame, followed it up with another Spider-Man movie, and to nobody's surprise it literally doesn't matter. This is an anime beach episode that has no bearing on anything else that happens in a cinematic universe. Spider-Man accidentally drones a school bus driving through the Czech Republic to get back at fakeass Charles Melton for taking revenge porn of him, and somehow it doesn't feel as insane as it should be. Everyone is so fucking tired here! Except for Jacob Batalon. Love that guy, let him be James Bond.

Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Walt Lewellyn of The Black Casebook, Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, jprestonpoole, and PineappleRevy.

Cole's Watch Something Else, Seth's Dominion.

Link to donate to bail funds student encampments in solidarity with the people of Gaza.

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Avengers: Endgame, or This is (Not) the End

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 21:43:36 -0700

It's all led to this. 21 movies, tens of billions of dollars made at the box office, a movie going public willing and hungry to return to the trough to see even more purple Josh Brolin. It's the second highest grossing movie of all time (unadjusted for inflation) and the episode you've all been waiting for since the very beginning: Avengers: Endgame. Has enough time passed now to say it sucks?

Extra special thanks to Seqarts, our $100 Kevin Fiege tier supporter for April!!
Thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, jprestonpoole, and PineappleRevy.

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TEASER: Cara Loft - Womb Raider

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 20:07:48 -0700

It's exactly what you think it is. If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, or The Real Glup Shitto

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 18:12:41 -0700

A $4 billion dollar Disney acquisition, Reddit internet flamewars, and three film trilogies of the so-called “Skywalker Saga” have finally led to this: a movie so desperate to backtrack on The Last Jedi and meet its 2019 release date that the end result is something akin to a term paper written half an hour before you’re supposed to turn it in. Rise of Skywalker isn’t so much a film as it is the apotheosis of every single horrible trend in IP blockbuster filmmaking this podcast has discussed since our very first episode, a movie that set out to please everyone and in turn satisfied absolutely nobody save for your dumbest co-worker and children with the attention spans of goldfish. JJ Abrams’ mystery box collapses in on itself in a jaw-droppingly stupid way that leaves you asking one question: how did anyone think this was okay to release?

Shout out to the lovely seqarts for upgrading to the $100 Kevin Feige tier on our Patreon!

And thank you to our $10 Executive Producers: Owen2, bernventers, Lohik, jprestonpoole, and PineappleRevy.

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Joker, or How I Got These (Psychological) Scars (feat. Ty)

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 19:10:14 -0700

Comedian and friend of the show Ty from TGOF(V) joins us to discuss the most well adjusted and normal practitioner of the greatest art, and its greatest artist: noted non-rapping Insane Clown and sometimes Bats-men pesterer, The Joker. A role now more prestigious than Macbeth, it both won an Academy Award and turned every lonely man that saw it into a spree shooter. Join us as we dive into the sick n' twizted origin story of the clown prince of crime, and maybe crack a few jokes of our own along the way.

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TEASER: Anti-Rape Super Saiyan

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 17:20:21 -0700

We ended up talking a lot about Dragon Ball Z in our discussion of Bitter Moon and the many sex crimes of one Roman Polanski. If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.

Dark Phoenix, or Professor Baldy's Academy for Freaks

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 18:25:10 -0800

In our first run at the Fox X-Men films proper we tackle Dark Phoenix, a film that turns one of the classic story arcs in comics that turns it into a flaccid two hours of cinematic rice cake. We explore the film's very troubled production history, the career of writer/director Simon Kinberg, and discuss the source material, how commercially oriented film production strips it of everything weird, exciting or interesting, and put two more Xs into the X-Men.

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TEASER: Our Idea for Big 2

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 17:56:27 -0800

We came up with not one but two pitches for legacy sequels over the course of our discussion about Bound. This is one of them.

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Godzilla: King of the Monsters, or Boston Strong (feat. Andy again)

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 17:23:25 -0800

In our first stab at Legendary's Monsterverse, we tackle 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which is really just a shiny American remake of Invasion of the Astro-Monster, Destroy All Monsters, and All Monsters Attack except there are no aliens dressed like a New Wave band and nuclear radiation is net positive for the environment. We've got our favorite Godzilla autist Andy from Those Good Old Fashioned Values back to talk all about our big favorite guy and why this movie isn't good. At least Nicole's home turf of Boston gets razed in the climax. Too bad you can't see much of it through all the CG snow/rain/fog. Brought to you by Murk-O-Vision!

*Yes, we'll go back and do Kong: Skull Island when we hit 2020 and COVID makes it so there were only three movies to talk about for the entire year.

Please support Peter David's medical expenses gofundme here.

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Detective Pikachu, or Adult Baby Consent Machine

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 19:36:17 -0800

We discuss a pokemon movie that a lot of people where tricked into liking because it had cinematography and a cute little guy. Along the we cover the (mis)casting of Ryan Reynolds, the growing synergy between American and Japanese entertainment industries, adapting anime characters to live action, childhood memories, childhood atavism, Drake, Roger Ebert: Southern Gentleman, and much more in a free-ranging tall-grass episode with some of the weirdest and wildest bets yet recorded.

Please support Peter David's medical expenses gofundme here.

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TEASER: Nicole Does an English Accent

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 19:07:18 -0800

Enjoy Nicole's impeccable posh English accent in this excerpt from our Patron-exclusive episode about the recent 'indie' hit Saltburn and writer/director Emerald Fennel. If you like what you hear, subscribe to our Patreon for exclusive episodes, commentary tracks and Discord community events at patreon.com/marvelousdeath.

Hellboy (2019), or The Right Hand of Goon (feat. Graham)

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 18:38:31 -0800

In 2019 they rebooted Hellboy. Remember that? They rebooted Hellboy. They made a new Hellboy movie. With David Harbour! Remember him? The stranger things guy? No you don't. Be glad! They really messed this one up. The guy who made "The Descent" then nothing else for 15 years was in way over his head. The producers kept trying to make this a Marvel movie. They turned Hellboy into Butthead. All the gore is CGI. It was edited by a a young child with meat cleavers for hands. Eddie Meatcleaverhands (original character do not steal). You know the drill: It's a bad movie, we talk about it. Hey, at least Milla's looking pretty good.

Graham's Twitter <- Click Here

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Captains Marvel: The Twin Fakes

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 19:58:35 -0800

We open 2024 with a deluxe-sized double feature episode as we compare two titanic 2019 superhero releases: Captain Marvel and... Captain Marvel!? Ok, it's Shazam, but realheads know. If you don't, listen to this episode, and find out all about the Captains Marvel, phony pheminism, corporate cuckoldry, bad relatable teen writing, bad relatable grown woman writing, golden age comics, gay wizards, space goblins, and what happens when your endearing superheroic lead is light-bending black hole of negative charisma and so much more!

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Spider-Man 2 (The Game), or Cookie Monster Symbiote [BONUS]

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 18:46:36 -0800

We're taking a little extended holiday break before we get back to our regularly scheduled programming (talking about capeshit movies). To tide you all over, Cole talked about Spider-Man 2 (the game) with Ty from Those Good Old Fashioned Values along with Gus and Charlie from Most Controversial in a Stu and Nicole-less episode.

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Black Christmas, or The Pod is Coming from Inside the House (feat. Spencer)

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 17:29:25 -0800

Merry Christmas everyone (or Happy Holidays if you're on that liberal anti-Christmas bend)! It's the two year anniversary of the pod, and rather than wasting our time watching Deadpool 2 retrofitted into a PG-13 Christmas edit with Once Upon a Deadpool, we let our Patrons pick what our Christmas/anniversary episode would be about from a curated list of four movies. Beating out Cole's pick for Bon Voyage Charlie Brown by one vote was Stu's choice: 1974's groundbreaking proto-slasher Black Christmas, directed by A Christmas Story and Baby Geniuses 2: Superbabies auteur Bob Clark. To help us out, we're joined by Black Christmas podcasting expert and Those Good Old Fashioned Values/Get Cynical co-host Spencer.

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PATREON PREVIEW: Cole’s Rant

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 13:00:54 -0800

Cole loses their mind in this excerpt from our Patreon exclusive book report on the recent hagiography MCU - The Reign of Marvel Studios.

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Alita: Battle Angel, or Cyberbodies and Spaces (feat. Esther)

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 18:00:00 -0800

Esther Rosenfield (@capybaroness) from Get Cynical joins us to discuss a movie... we all actually quite liked! The Robert Rodriguez directed, James Cameron produced manga adaptation of Battle Angel Alita (aka GUNNM). In this episode: Earnestness in adaptation, good action, big dick jimmy, modifiable and interchangeable bodies, trans and queer themes, differences between the film and the manga, what seperates 'good' and 'bad' CGI, and much more!

Performance and Selfhood in 'Alita: Battle Angel'

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Solo: A Star Wars Story, or L3R34

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 18:22:52 -0800

In this episode: Solo, a film cobbled together from memberberries and reshoots. An annoying bisexual 'sjw' robot. Pansexual Lando. A plot driven around space gasoline. It's a film less interesting than it's troubled production. They fired the Lego movie guys and hired the kid from Andy Griffith, who is too old to understand how digital cameras work so you can't see shit. Seriously, I thought there was something wrong with my TV, but the movie is just Like That. Also: Explicit human on droid sex. Is it the worst Star Wars film? Yes! And that includes the holiday special.
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Patreon Teaser: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Sun, 19 Nov 2023 18:51:38 -0800

We launched the podcast in 2021. Since then, thanks entirely to our efforts, the MCU has taken loss after loss. Diminishing box office returns, declining critical support, plummeting audience enthusiasm. Under-performers have given way to flops have given way to fiascos. On the eve of 'The Marvels' disastrous box office returns, we take to the mics to discuss where we are, how we got here, and take a lap in the afterglow of our assured victory over the forces of evil. Ladies and gentlemen: We got 'em.

Like what you hear? Get the full episode and much more on Patreon

Bumblebee, or Birds In the Trap Sing Travis McKnight (feat. Liz)

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 17:27:08 -0800

Special guest and Transformers scholar Liz (@liz_irl) enters the graveyard to discuss 'Bumblebee', the moderately successful and unexpectedly likeable spinoff of the Michael Bay Transformers franchise. In this episode: Franchise refreshes: the softest of reboots and how they try to shed their skins without losing their audiences. Fullmetal Fujoshi: Do girls like transformers? How a background in animation can help make better use of CGI. Is this movie just The Iron Giant + Christine? McKnight Begins: Stu makes an astonishing discovery about the origins and career of director Travis "Chilly Tee" McKnight.

Listen to Chilly Tee - Get Off Mine

Liz is available for video editing work! Contact her on twitter.

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Teen Titans Go! to the Movies, or Baby Talk

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 18:23:21 -0700

Cole (zoomer with attention deficit disorder) somehow talked us (Nicole and Stu, aging millennials) into watching the Teen Titans Go! movie. Not sure why we did this because we all maybe talked about the movie itself for a total of twenty minutes and somehow milked the conversation to almost two hours? Lotta cartoon talk, some debate over whether a joke can just be "it's a butt," and Cole explains Teen Titans comic lore.

If you can, please help Palestinians in need by donating to these reputable organizations:

ANERA (American Near-East Refugee Aid)

PCRF (Palestinian Relief Children's Fund)

MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)

The Book of Henry, or American Mishima

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 19:20:09 -0700

Why did we buck our own regularly scheduled programming of Funko Pop capeshit and IP pig slop to watch The Book of Henry, from the twisted mind of the demon Colin Trevorrow? Well, because it more or less killed his chances at what would become Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker and effectively nuked a totally separate film franchise than the one he was already dragging through pigshit. Also because this movie is batshit crazy. A "so bad it's good" cult hit in the making? Or, as Cole claims, "the smartest movie ever made"?

Commentary track here.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, or Sexual Tyrannosaurus

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 18:39:29 -0700

It might be the dumbest movie about dinosaurs ever made. Too bored (and, in Nicole's case, incensed) by the first one to bother talking about it, we parachute into the second entry in this ur legacy-franchise-sequel-reboot for all the adult babies that never let go of their childhoods. The dinosaurs are your friends. Your pals. They're literally puppies. They're pedophiles. They're living things just like us, and deserve to live (and exterminate various other species in the process). Come for the dinosaurs, stay for rage-mode Nicole, Science Facts™, the refinement of our critique of 'soy dialogue', and an extended discussion of pubic hair in Baldur'a Gate 3.

Ant Man and the Wasp, or Small Soy-diers

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 16:35:27 -0700

It's another Marvel movie, and like most sequels in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ant Man and the Wasp doubles down on everything that was irritating and boring about its admittedly okay predecessor. It doesn't stand on its own as a film because it's just a prolonged set up for a plot mechanic in a future Avengers movie. Not too much to say here aside from the usual complaints, so for the first half of this episode, Nicole, Cole, and Stu go back to basics for anyone just joining in on the ride that is this podcast. What are the fundamental issues that plague not just the MCU but any attempt at an IP cinematic universe? What's a lampshade? What exactly is soy dialogue and what makes it any different from Whedonspeak? Will Nicole's curtains survive the recording? (Spoiler alert: they don't.)

Aquaman, or The Water Boy (feat. Graham)

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 16:50:40 -0700

Friend of the show and comic artist Graham joins the crew for a thorough filleting of one of the DCU's post-Justice League successes, the gleefully dumb light-hearted sci-fantasy romp "Aquaman." We discuss the origins of the character and his comic iterations, his nemesis Black Manta, the affable screen presence of star Jason Momoa, gestural environmentalism, bad wet-for-dry, big dick willie d, and how Black Manta in the comics has autism. All this and more in this episode jam packed with nautical nonsense and maritime adventure!

Buy Graham's Comic!

Deadpool 2, or The Cable Guy

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 17:16:29 -0700

We're heckin back again with another freaking awesome Deadpool movie you little epic piggies to listen to. Just kidding, it's a step-down from the really just okay first one in literally every way possible. The jokes aren't very funny, the action sucks (and got a stunt person killed), all the meta-stuff you're supposed to point at is lame, and the writers were too dumb to realize they pulled a Women in Refrigerators by killing off one of the hottest women to ever do it to even parody the idea into something marginally humorous. We also talk a little bit about the thankfully delayed Deadpool 3 and how much the MCU's first R-rated movie is going to be terrible. And Cole talks about whatever the fuck Cable's deal is. Plus, Nicole makes perhaps her funniest verbal faux pas in the history of the podcast.

Avengers: Infinity War, or Oh Snap!

Sun, 06 Aug 2023 15:41:29 -0700

Sorry for the delay on this one everyone, but on this super special episode of Marvelous!, we finally reach the moment Kevin Feige and his murderers row of enablers and sycophants have built up to since 2008. Hailed by critics and audiences alike and celebrated for its "complex" sneaker-faced purple villain/having the audacity to kill half its cast before the next one (or subsequent movies) revives them anyways, Avengers: Infinity War is the biggest movie EVER until Endgame or any other Marvel movie the marketing tells you it's actually the most important and emotionally wrought film you'll ever see. In actuality it's like a DnD campaign written by people who took screenwriting notes from Joss Whedon and looks like a series of video game cutscenes spliced together. Nicole really thinks Chris Evans is hot in this movie and you're not allowed to clip any sounds she makes out of context.

UNLOCKED - Patreon Raffle #1: Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 19:18:13 -0700

For our inaugural Patreon Raffle, Nicole's friend Jack* won and mercifully gave us the option of watching either the defanged RoboCop remake or European mega-bomb Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets starring two of the worst actors we've watched on the pod thus far: sick and dying actor Dane Dehaan from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Cara "Peg the Patriarchy" Delevingne from Suicide Squad. It's also directed by notorious French pedophile/former good movie maker Luc Besson, the man behind Léon: The Professional and The Fifth Element. Based on the influential French graphic novel Valérian and Laureline, this is a film Besson has sought to make as a passion project since development on The Fifth Element. What could possibly go wrong?

Topics of discussion include: good movies made by European pedophiles, what if a Chinese guy with more screen time than Rihanna went to space, and Stu's Great Replacement Theory for stacked redheads in film adaptations.

(*Who was urged to suggest this movie by mutual friend Ronan. Fuck you too Ronan.)

Ready Player One, or ”Nerdgasm”

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 17:15:22 -0700

Steven Spielberg. Colossus of film. Father of the modern blockbuster. Gamer. Ernest Cline. Author. Dreamweaver. Redditor. United, these two titans bring us the ultimate in entertainment product, that last movie ever made, the one where a guy jumps Doc Brown's DeLorean over the Iron Giant while RX-78 Gundam Fights Mechagodzilla. This week, the gang tackles the film that defines the death of cinema: Ready Player One. Nicole has an unprecedented meltdown over the abuse of Kubrick, Stu dissects the truly terrible source material, and Cole theorizes on how this nadir of insular pop-culture self-referentialism led Spielberg from a career nadir to the recent highs of 'The Fabelmans'. All this and much more in a tubular epic winsauce episode that you don't want to miss!

Special thanks to Kris Wolfheart for his Dramatic Reading of Nerd Porn Auteur. Please check out his channel!

Supplementary: Stu's read-along of the book.

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.

Venom, or Tom Horny’s Wild Ride (feat. Andy)

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 17:40:33 -0700

Venom. He's a slime guy, he has big teeth, a Spiderman villain without a Spiderman, cast adrift into the seas of franchise uncertainty. In this appropriately amorphous, wide ranging episode we discuss the Venom character in comics, Tom Hardy's weirdo performance, Sony's jockying for position in it's tense shared-franchise relationship with Disney, the economics of modern franchise blockbusters, Cole gets so high they invent an entirely different movie, and Nicole makes Stu read some depraved fan fiction. It's a wild ride.

Check out Andy's Stream and support Those Good Old Fashioned Values.

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.

Black Panther, or The Revolution (Will Not Be) Commodified

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 15:13:51 -0700

In our most controversial episode yet, we take a look at the only black led movie ever made, the film that ended racism in America and dislodged the cheeto from the throat of its government: Black Panther (no relation). In this exciting episode you'll find: Stan Lee is a wily bastard, Jack Kirby talks like an old man, Afrofuturism as laser-shooting spears, bad cgi doubles, the limits of the liberal imagination, Africa as a fantasy projection for Americans, the lamest civil war since the last marvel movie, great casting, the meaning of diversity in film, conservative contrarian film critic Armond White, and much more!

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.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, or Into the Cracker-Verse

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 14:49:49 -0700

In the grand tradition of raining on everyone's parade, we're bucking our usual schedule and revisiting/taking to task the critically acclaimed, Academy Award winning Sony Animation extravaganza Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a film Letterboxd users have rated as better than Goodfellas, Sunset Boulevard, and Persona. While the internet is currently freaking out over trans-coded Gwen Stacy, Nicole, Stu, and resident Spider-Man expert Cole bring some clarity to an admittedly beautiful looking but otherwise bog-standard Marvel movie about multiverses and believing in yourself that's very clearly written by white people trying to appeal to the young PoC Tumblr demographic (save for co-director Peter Ramsey). The only thing whiter than the production team behind Spider-Verse are the creative minds who brought us Miles Morales, a character whose origins lie in someone at Marvel thinking, "What if we made Spider-Man a young Obama?" And before you come to yell at us for not liking your favorite movie of all time, consider reading the late Dwayne McDuffie's 1989 letter to Marvel calling out the whiteness of their black characters and see just how prescient it reads regarding the creation and use of Miles Morales.

The Last Jedi, or At the Fandoms of Madness

Thu, 25 May 2023 17:56:41 -0700

Five years ago, a mysterious and terrible force struck our culture like a meteor - laying waste to fandoms, blogs, video essays and fanfic websites. Now, present day, present time, three intrepid podcasters set out across the irradiated rubble of dessicated dead discourse, into the scorched wounds of a dying film franchise, and sift through the ashes and entrails to bring you the final word on The Journal of the Whills: The Saga of The Star Wars: Episode VII: The Last Jedi - a mildly interesting but entirely mid film that inexplicably drove millions of people insane for no reason.

Justice League, or Two Guys One (Good) Cut

Thu, 11 May 2023 18:00:00 -0700

In this luxurious, deluxe episode the crew bring you two movies for the length of three: Justice League (2017) and Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021). We outline the troubled production and personal tragedy that led to Snyder's ouster from his superhero magnum opus, and how WB brought in noted male feminist Joss Whedon to work his MCU magic, soy-up the grim epic and bring the runtime down to a svelte one hour, fifty-nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds. Disaster ensues, then a phoenix rises from the ashes - after fan outcry and studio desperation, a undulturated four hour original cut is produced and released in 2021. We watched both. We liked one. Tune in to find out which, and much more, in this must-hear episode.

*The 'Stu Cut' of this episode will be released in 2024 pending fan outcry.

UNLOCKED - A Marvelous! Special Report: We Need to Talk About Ezra, or Who Watches the They/Thems?

Thu, 04 May 2023 15:50:41 -0700

With the release of The Flash on the summer movie horizon, we're unlocking our Patreon bonus special investigative report on Ezra Miller and their crazy ass 2022.

WB-Discovery cancelled basically everything except their upcoming The Flash movie, the basket in which the newly forged juggernaut of classic films, DC superheroes and Shark Week has decided to put all their eggs? Ezra Miller. Once indie darling (alleged) turned blockbuster star (alleged) turned raving groomer psycho (alleged) turned messianic cult leader (alleged). Why, in the era of MeToo, has WB pinned their fate on a powderkeg combination of Jim Jones and FF7haus? We don't know, but we're going to find out* in this Marvelous! special celebrity gossip true crime investigation.

*We may not in fact 'find out'. Offer void where prohibited. Terms and conditions apply

TEASER: Cara Delevingne’s Eyebrows

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 06:00:00 -0700

The winner of our first patron raffle, the crew is forced to talk about Valerian, the already-forgotten bankruptcy inducing french pedophile sci-fi epic. In this exclusive excerpt, Cole breaks the simulation on Cara Delevingne's eyebrows.

For the full after-dark exclusive episode, subscribe to our Patreon. Just $3/month provides access to all subscriber-exclusive content, VIP discord events and more.

Thor Ragnarok, or Taika This Movie and Shove It

Fri, 21 Apr 2023 21:24:20 -0700

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.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or Turtle Penis! (w/ Andy) [BONUS]

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 18:00:00 -0700

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!

Logan, or Children of X-Men

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 18:00:00 -0700

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.

Wonder Woman, or Waiting for Godot (To Learn How to Act)

Fri, 24 Mar 2023 16:05:55 -0700

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.

Spider-Man: Homecoming, or Peter Parker Custody Battle

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 17:04:00 -0800

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.

Spiderman, A People’s History (feat. Cole) [Part 2 of 2]

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 18:00:50 -0800

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!

Spiderman, A People’s History (feat. Cole) [Part 1 of 2]

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 17:27:41 -0800

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!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens, or Oedipal Phallic Power

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 16:58:51 -0800

We ring in the new year and year two of the podcast not adrift in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but somewhere a long time ago in a galaxy far far away (but still owned by the Walt Disney corporation).

The Force Awakens: woke SJW propaganda, the Walt Disney Company's hollow retread of A New Hope, a Lacanian manifesto in white men's fragile masculinity, or a JJ Abrams puzzlebox that's all set up and no pay off? Stu and Nicole take a break from capeshit to talk about gay ass space wizards and how delusional everyone was in 2015/2016. Plus, Nicole does some intellectual self-mutilation as by revisiting her award-winning psychoanalytic essay on The Force Awakens. It really was selected as the best essay of 2018.

Rate, review, subscribe to our Patreon and join our Discord Community! Special extra thanks to producer Miguel, who had to slog extra hard through technical issues for this one!

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

Christmas Special: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), or Grinch Boners

Wed, 21 Dec 2022 17:39:40 -0800

Merry Christmas simps!

While our Patreon subscribers will be treated to the much teased Batman Returns discussion like good little girls and boys, you freeloading plebs get a lump of coal in your shit stockings. But isn't every lump of coal capable of being a diamond — or at least an insanely horny and stylistically over-the-top curio of Millennial childhood at the end of history? To celebrate the Yuletide, Nicole and Stu (re)watch Ron Howard's 2000 live-action adaptation of Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas starring actual crazy person Jim Carrey. Topics of discussion include: Baby Grinch, Carrey being trained by the CIA to withstand being in a stinky green yak suit, the Grinch spectrum, the charm of 90s Nickelodeon gross-out humor, maximalist sets, Grinch/Martha May Whovier rule 34, and Christmas nostalgia.

If you're in the Christmas spirit and feel like giving something to your favorite podcasters, kick us a few bucks on Patreon and join our Discord Community! Patrons enjoy secret ultra-high quality content including Uwe Boll movie commentary tracks, and extra episodes (Batman Returns coming for year's end!)

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

Guardians of the Galaxy 2, or The Simple Feels Machine

Sun, 11 Dec 2022 18:03:03 -0800

Nicole kind of liked this one. Stu did not. It's kind of a movie. It's about found families. It's about feelings. It's fine. It's just fine. It's smooth. It's the vaseline you smear over your baby groot funko pop before you jam it up your ass and it's so smooth you feel... nothing. Nothing at all.

If you enjoy the show please consider helping us out with a positive rating or review, subscribing to our Patreon and joining our Discord Community! Apologies for the late release. Stu, like the cartoon raccoon, felt sad and didn't show up.

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

Doctor Strange, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Pronounce ’Synechdoche’

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 16:51:33 -0800

The non-event Marvel film formula is perfected with Dr. Strange, a movie so perfectly smooth and spherical it's already become a fixture of neoclassical economics textbooks. All the pieces are here and they're all shiny and grey like a kitchen appliance. Join Nicole and Stu as they try and fail to talk about this movie and talk about everything around this movie, because there's nothing to talk about. There is an idea of a Dr. Strange, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real movie, only an entity, something illusory.

You can get everything Dr. Strange has to offer, better, in under five minutes, by watching this Michel Gondry directed Chemical Brothers music video from 1999.

Rate, review, subscribe to our Patreon and join our Discord Community! Special extra thanks to producer Miguel, who had to slog extra hard through technical issues for this one!

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

Captain America: Civil War, or Marvelous! Civil Discourse (feat. Cathy Brennan)

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 16:41:48 -0800

A civil war brews on this very podcast as Nicole and guest Cathy Brennan square off against Stu over whether this movie is terrible, or merely kinda ok. We've got Steve Roger's not-gays, quasi-incest and age gaps, dubious character motivations, contrived plotting and a centerpiece action sequence that takes place entirely in a call of duty tutorial level, Nicole's insasiable lust for Chris Evans, the liberal conception of power, and the titanic behind the scenes battle between smooth-brained executives to make this movie even duller and lamer than it already is. For good and ill (ok it's all ill) with Civil War the MCU reaches peak-MCUness.

Get more Cathy here:
https://twitter.com/TownTattle

http://cathybrennan.contently.com

https://cinemayearzero.com

Rate, review, subscribe to our Patreon and join our Discord Community! Special extra thanks to producer Miguel, who had to slog extra hard through technical issues for this one!

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

Amazing Spiderman 1 and 2, or Spiderman Flavored Spiderman

Wed, 26 Oct 2022 18:43:40 -0700

A little catch-up two for one episode as Stu and Nicole revisit Marc Webb's Andrew Garfield starring "Amazing Spiderman" films, the movies so bad they convinced Sony to bend knee to the Disney-Marvel imperium. We talk about how Marc Webb turned Peter Parker into a self-insert artsy film kid, how Garfield and Emma Stone have chemistry despite dating IRL, the complete failure of the JJ Abrams esque 'puzzle box' parent plot, how stretching out the origin story into being an hour long doesn't add depth, the madness of casting swaggiest-man-alive Jamie Foxx as a chris-chan type character, Nicole's lust for sickly and dying men, the comical bathos of Gwen Stacy and her cop-dad Denis Leary, and so much more! These movies really are amazing...ly bad! But this episode is good.

Rate, review, subscribe to our Patreon and join our Discord Community!

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

Deadpool, or Red Dead Redditor

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 18:29:37 -0700

We always complain that these movies don't have enough sex or violence, so they gave us one with sex and violence. It's ok. Some of the humor is funny, some of it has aged badly. Has so much changed in just six years? It's a very 2010s movie. A very Reddit movie. We also talk about how TJ Miller is a freak and Morena Baccarin deserves better. Includes bonus Mario movie trailer live reactions (stu soyfacing dot jpg) and other miscellania.

Subscribe to the Patreon and join the Discord. We need weed money to keep doing this.

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

(TEASER) Stu Gets the Podcast Cancelled

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 17:33:40 -0700

Stu gets out of pocket in this excerpt from our Patreon-exclusive bonus episode "We Need To Talk About Ezra".

To listen to the full episode, wherein we discuss the ongoing melt down, messianic delusions and crime spree of DCU tentpole Ezra Miller, please subscribe to our Patreon. All bonus content is available at the $3 per month tier, with shout outs, credits, custom discord roles and other additional benefits available at higher tiers. Shout out to our most recent $5 'Producer' patron, Tankbuster!

Thank you listeners for your support, and your forbearance while we get through what's been a rough few weeks for everyone involved with the show. We'll have a new main series episode out next week.

Suicide Squad, or Insane Clown Pussy

Fri, 16 Sep 2022 19:10:20 -0700

There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it I have now surpassed. My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone. In fact, I want my pain to be inflicted on others. I want no one to escape, but even after admitting this, there is no catharsis. My punishment continues to elude me and I gain no deeper knowledge of myself. No new knowledge can be extracted from my telling. This confession has meant nothing.

Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow us at @MarvelousDeath for updates! If you enjoy the show please consider supporting us by sharing links, subscribing to our Patreon, and/or leaving a rating or review on your preferred podcast distributor.

Batman v Superman, or It’s Not 1938 Anymore

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 17:43:50 -0700

Twist ending: We didn't hate it. DC Jumps into the Cinematic Universe game ass first and Zack Snyder takes a second crack at Watchmen but with official superman and batman action figures. As we've said about cinematic universes: It makes the sum of it's parts weaker. A decent if overblown Batman vs Superman movie is buried under the unmanageable weight of a rushed Death of Superman movie and a terrible Justice League prologue. Three movies is too much! Listen in as Nicole and Stu discuss how American mythos and self-identity is projected onto superhero figures, how these films continue to grapple with the legacy of post 9/11 America, and how a movie that is fundamentally about nostalgia for the golden age of liberalism gets misread as fascist by it's critics... And much much more! It's an extra long episode, but still not as long as the movie (we watched the Ultimate Cut).

Watchmen, or Stu Watches the Watchmen

Wed, 17 Aug 2022 19:07:42 -0700

In delaying their dark fate (i.e. watching the 3+ hour director's cut of Batman v Superman) once more, Nicole and Stu pre-game with Zach Snyder's big-screen adaptation of Watchmen, the definitive Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons anti-superhero comic once deemed unfilmable by Terry Gilliam. More than a decade and several loud, gray, and stupid movies later, how does Snydog's Watchmen hold up? Well, it's not Man of Steel!

And big ups to our wonderful patrons/producers! If you like what we're doing and want to support us, or think we deserve hazard, subscribe to our Patreon for interpersonal clout and bonus content.

PREVIEW Tremble! Tremble! The Witches Are Back... Suspiria (1977) vs Suspiria (2018) Part 2 [WSE #4]

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 15:18:26 -0700

Modern dance. The RAF and Baader-Meinhoff. Chest vaginas. Human origami. Abject mothers. Metal rib hooks. Thom Yorke. Mennonites. Eating chicken wings. It's Suspiria (2018), a certified Nicole-core movie (one of her favorites actually) that arguably surprasses the legendary original and paves its own fucked-up way in the process. Is that controversial to say? Do you disagree and want to yell at us? Well you're going to have to listen to the whole episode on our Patreon if you want to make a good faith argument and not get laughed at by Nicole.

For as little as $3 a month, you can not only listen to this and future bonus episodes of Marvelous! (and unlock exclusive content), but you'll be supporting a ginger Canadian shitposter and his Bostonian bimbo co-host survive under the crushing machinery of late-stage capitalism. Subscribe to our Patreon here!

All of Them Are Witches: Suspiria (1977) vs. Suspiria (2018) Part 1 [WSE #3]

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 19:11:50 -0700

Double, double, toil and trouble, it's the first of our long teased two-parter Suspiria (1977) vs. Suspiria (2018) episode! On this edition of Watch Something Else, Nicole and Stu discuss Dario Argento's original Technicolor nightmare in all its bloody glory. With the color palette of a demonically possessed Disney movie and the gnarliest score ever recorded for a motion picture, 1977's Suspiria is a cinematic assault on the senses the way movies can and should be (i.e. not financed by the Department of Defense or directed by Zach Snyder). Plus, Stu goes on an inebriated tangent about Canadian cable channels because he thought this was the Patreon exclusive episode. Subscribe to our Patreon for $3 to hear our discussion on Suspiria (2018), coming soon!

Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow us at @MarvelousDeath for updates! If you enjoy the show please consider supporting us by sharing links, subscribing to our Patreon, and/or leaving a rating or review on your preferred podcast distributor.

Ant-Man, or Not the Wright Guy

Wed, 20 Jul 2022 17:21:40 -0700

This fortnight on Marvelous!, Nicole and Stu follow up Avengers 2: Joss Whedon Embarrassing Psychic Projection and finish out Phase Two of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a smaller-scale movie where Paul Rudd plays a bug guy who steals. Like Iron Man 3, it's okay for inflight entertainment, but it's also the Marvel movie that shows just how controlling Feige and Friends are over the studio's productions. Hey, at least Edgar Wright got to make his Kevin Spacey movie! Plus, a brief check in on Thor: Love and Thunder's box office slump and Taika Waititi's ongoing campaign to make everyone sick of him.

Please consider supporting us on Patreon and come say hi in our Discord!

Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow us at @MarvelousDeath for updates! If you enjoy the show please consider supporting us by leaving a rating or review on your preferred podcast distributor.

Avengers: Age of Ultron, or the One Where Joss Whedon Makes Black Widow Sterile

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 18:32:39 -0700

In his follow up to the most reaction GIFed movie ever made, feminist filmmaker Joss Whedon buckles under his own ego and the studio mandated checklist Kevin Feige and co. needed him to fulfill in order to set up Phase 3 movies. This episode of Marvelous!, Nicole and Stu dissect Avengers: Age of Ultron, the divisive sequel to The Avengers where another Olsen twin and not Evan Peters team up with the gang to stop an unsexy robot played by movie sex symbol James Spader from doing evil human genocide. It's a mess.

Please consider supporting us on Patreon and come say hi in our Discord!

Guardians of the Galaxy, or Funko Pops Assemble!

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 17:26:10 -0700

After the success of Avengers, the MCU was burgeoning into a colossus, and Disney found itself in desperate need of Intellectual Property to enlist in it's conquest of popular culture. They take a risk: A cult director with a pedigree in sicko schlock, a far fletched cosmic setting, and a d-list cast of offbeat throwoffs including a talking raccoon and a tree. What did they get? A smash hit and a money printing machine. What did we get? A perfectly fine mainstream blockbuster. Nicole and Stu take a look at the movie that helped define blockbusters in the 2010s and probably the best movie the whole Marvel thing has yet produced - but in it's success, does more than any movie to expose the problems and limitations inherent to the 'Cinematic Universe' approach to film.

Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow us at @MarvelousDeath for updates! If you enjoy the show please consider supporting us by leaving a rating or review on your preferred podcast distributor.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier, or The Unambiguously Gay Duo

Wed, 08 Jun 2022 17:10:37 -0700

It's conspiracies and queerbaiting as we get to possibly the most disappointingly overrated and bafflingly well remembered of these movies so far. We discuss a conspiracy thriller without a thrilling conspiracy, the problems with green-screen action and quick-cut editing, how the film inverts the relationship between the US Gov't and post-war Nazis, the continuing hollowness of hollywood 'war on terror' feaux-critiques, and Nicole guides Stu into the weird, wild world of horny fandom, queer readings, and the issue of 'queer baiting'. Are Steve Rodgers and Bucky Barnes gay for each other? It'd certainly make a more interesting movie.

Plus: Check out our conspiracy thriller and queer cinema Watch Something Else recommendations!

Thor 2, or Lame of Thrones

Wed, 25 May 2022 16:52:08 -0700

Thor is back for another aimless, dull adventure in Thor 2: The Dark World. Why do they keep shoving Thor's sidekicks on screen with nothing to do? Why do all these movies have pale black-cad bad guys in big pointy black ships? How come Natalie Portman stops being a character twenty minutes into the movie? Did studio interference actually make this movie slightly less terrible? Is genocide only bad if you're not good enough at it? Join Nicole and Stu for all this and much more as we discuss the movie that begs the question "Why don't you jus watch Krull instead?"

Iron Man 3, or An Achievement in Adequacy

Wed, 11 May 2022 18:12:38 -0700

Nicole and Stu talk Iron Man 3, the most adequate MCU movie yet! It has the most OK action! The least bad politics! A less underused villain cast! It's everything you could ever possibly want in a movie you see on an airplane! Tune in for a in-depth analysis and scathing critique of a movie we both thought was "perfectly fine."

Production by Miguel Tanhi. Art by Zoe Woolley. Follow us at @MarvelousDeath for updates! If you enjoy the show please consider supporting us by leaving a rating or review on your preferred podcast distributor.

We Live in A Society: Society (1989) and Heathers (1989) [WSE #2]

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 20:12:57 -0700

It's time to take another break from charting the decline of the hollywood blockbuster to take a look at two more movies we love that you should watch instead!* In this episode Nicole and Stu discuss two movies about the monstrousness of the American Bourgeoisie, Bryan Yuzna's 'Society' and Michael Lehmann's 'Heathers' both from 1989 the beginning of the end of history. We're talking imaginative weird creature effects, sick outfits, the rich feeding on the poor, loving our dead gay sons, culture presaging columbine and the era of stochastic violence, how Christian Slater plays the original 'we live in a society' joker guy, and more!

*Or at least one that we love, and one that we like.

Man of Steel, or Saturday Morning 9/11

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 16:38:48 -0700

Nicole and Stu discuss Man of Steel, the superman reboot hastily retrofitted into the genesis of WB and DC's 'Not-MCU' franchise. We talk about the exploitative and ill-conceived use of 9/11 imagery, the bizarre strain of gruesome horror running through the film, the failure of writers Nolan and Goyer to fit The Last Son of Krypton into their 'gritty realistic' Dark Knight formula, the enigma of dumb-smart/smart-dumb guy auteur Zack Snyder, and much more! But hey, at least it looks like a movie...?

The Avengers, or Slouching Towards A Theater Near You

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 18:59:42 -0700

At last it comes to this. The terrible beast that tore a path of destruction across the cultural landscape and remade the rubble in it's own image, the ground zero for an era of industrially produced perfectly smooth franchise IP gangbangs. A decade after it's release, what do Stu and Nicole make of Marvel's The Avengers Assemble (not to be confused with 1998's The Avengers)?1 What can we say about writer/director Joss Whedon, male-feminist nerd icon turned pariah?2 What, in the end, does all this superhero stuff actually mean?3

Find out all this and more as we take a look at the movie that made the modern blockbuster, and cross the dark threshold into the world that Marvel made.

1-It's a perfectly adequate adventure movie

2-He's a pretentious dork

3-Tune in to find out!

Captain America, or The Empire Yassified

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 17:29:49 -0700

Nicole is simps over Chris Evans and his big feet, Stu is leads the crusade against body fascism, and a man dressed like a flag punches Hitler - It's Captain America: The First Avenger. Join us as we trace the MCU's retconned origins back to WW2 and we discuss the origin point of American Hegemony, the mythology of liberal imperialism, the genre's immanent inability to confront it's own moral contradictions, sperg out over period military tech and much more!

Thor, or What If E.T. Was Sexy?

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 17:29:16 -0800

Half of this movie is sexy ET without sex, half of this movie is Shakespeare in Space but without any drama. Nicole wants to know how this movie didn't kill the MCU in the crib. Stu wants to know why Kat Dennings is shilling crypto. The movie is bad. The podcast is good. It's the "Marvelous!" Thor episode.

The Mad Dutchman: A Paul Verhoeven Retrospective [Watch Something Else #1]

Wed, 16 Feb 2022 08:46:16 -0800

This is the inaugural episode of "Watch Something Else", in which we discuss movies that actually kick ass and recommend that you watch them.

This week (Bi-week? Fortnight?) Nicole and Stu take a partial look at the career of Paul Verhoeven, noted Dutch Christ scholar and sometimes filmmaker. We examine the theological themes, the Christian analogies, and the explicit sex and ultra-violence of such films as Flesh + Blood, Robocop, Total Recall (briefly), Starship Troopers, and Nicole calls for a critical reevaluation of 2000's nearly forgotten thriller Hollow Man. I'd buy that for a dollar!

Paul Verhoeven will be back in "Mad Dutchman Returns", when (some day) we get around to discussing Showgirls and Benedetta.

Iron Man 2, or Three Action Scenes in a Trenchcoat

Wed, 02 Feb 2022 18:12:05 -0800

Nicole and Stu take a look at Iron Man 2, three action scenes in a trenchcoat pretending to be a movie. It's boring. It's meandering. It has a lot of plot threads that don't go anywhere. It's dumb as rocks and retreats from and muddles further whatever meager social commentary even the first film could muster. It's bad! So instead of watching this turd listen to our conversation about it, which is slightly shorter and substantially more entertaining!

The Dark Knight, or Joker Did 9/11

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 16:36:58 -0800

For our first excursion outside the realm of the MCU Nicole and Stu take a look at another 2008 movie. One that was even bigger than Iron Man, even more a reaction to the Bush era, and equally formative on the following decade's blockbusters, in particular defining the style and tone of Warner Bros attempts to build a competing cinematic universe. Is it a neocon tract? Fascist apologia? Or is there more going under the hood with the movie IMDB users once rated the greatest ever made?

The Incredible Hulk, or Hulk (Can Not) Smash

Wed, 05 Jan 2022 15:15:31 -0800

He's big, he's green, and he's... remarkably boring. Also he can't have sex with Liv Tyler. In the pod's own troubled* sophomore outing, Nicole and Stu talk about 2008's almost forgotten The Incredible Hulk. We go over the film's production woes, the conflict between the studio, the director, and miscast star Edward Norton, its failures as a movie, and how the media franchise that now rules culture with an iron fist almost sunk out of the gate - a conversation much livelier than its subject.

*Nicole's power goes out

Iron Man, or The Empire Redeemed

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 02:00:00 -0800

Nicole and Stu start at the beginning with 2008's Iron Man. There was no plan. There wasn't even a script. An indie director on the come-up took a long-shot casting a burnt out has-been who's charisma and pathos single-handedly turned a mid-tier action film into a monster hit that would spawn a monstrous cultural behemoth. We take a look at the troubled production, Downey Jr's charisma, and the film's confused politics as it tries simultaneously to critique the military-industrial complex while celebrating American empire and exceptionalism at the close of the Bush Era.