Marvelous! Or, the Death of Cinema

Guardians of the Galaxy, or Funko Pops Assemble!

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

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! 
 
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. 

Thor 2, or Lame of Thrones

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?"
 
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. 

Iron Man 3, or An Achievement in Adequacy

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]

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

Man of Steel, or Saturday Morning 9/11

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...?
 
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. 

The Avengers, or Slouching Towards A Theater Near You

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!
 
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, or The Empire Yassified

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! 
 
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.