House Ads 7- Power Man & Iron Fist

I’m a sucker for some of the buddy cop-style adventures you get with certain characters: Spider-Man & the Human Torch, Hal Jordan & Barry Allen, Nightwing & Wally West, Beast & Wonder Man… you get the idea. Maybe the best example of this kind of relationship is Luke Cage and Danny Rand: the Iron Fist.

Born out of the blacksploitation and kung fu popularity in the 1970’s, these two characters that on the surface have nothing in common are as close as brothers and it’s actually more common to see them together than apart. They’ve each had solo titles the other often guest stars in, they’ve been the leads of more than one Heroes for Hire, and for a while they actually co-starred in a book together: Power Man & Iron Fist, and below are two separate ads that appear for the book, showing the two leads’ very different approaches to getting readers to check out their book:

Ranking the MCU Films (So Far) part 3

Dare I try to do the nearly damn impossible and rank the film entries in the MCU?
It’s a very daunting task, because how do you choose between some of these? Is recency bias really a thing? Thunderbolts* over Iron Man? Black Panther not in the top 10? What the f*** am I even doing?

The important thing to remember with the below list is that these are ranked not by cinematic achievement or a carefully plotted out chart or an algorithm to determine what are truly the best MCU entries. These are based solely on how much enjoyment I derive from them. You might think I’m a madman, or that finally (FINALLY!) somebody truly gets you, but regardless of whether or not you disagree with my choices (I’m sure Erik will have a completely different breakdown) I hope you enjoy reading!

Continue reading →

Ranking the MCU Films (So Far) Part 1

Dare I try to do the nearly damn impossible and rank the film entries in the MCU?
It’s a very daunting task, because how do you choose between some of these? It might have been easier to do a tier-ranking list, but what are you gonna do?

The important thing to remember with the below list is that these are ranked not by cinematic achievement or a carefully plotted out chart or an algorithm to determine what are truly the best MCU entries. These are based solely on how much enjoyment I derive from them. You might think I’m a madman, or that finally (FINALLY!) somebody truly gets you, but regardless of whether or not you disagree with my choices (I’m sure Erik will have a completely different breakdown) I hope you enjoy reading!

Continue reading →

CZ #56: Random Grab Bag – 2026 Edition (New Comics, Trailers, and What Ifs!) – Podcast

Click here to listen to the latest episode!

“When Captain America throws his mighty shield!”

Chris and Erik bs for a couple hours about new comics / trailers, and what we would do with certain properties if given the chance…

On this Episode:

  • Captain America by Chip Zdarsky
  • Mortal Thor by Al Ewing
  • Daredevil: Born Again – Season 2
  • The “Spider-man: Brand New Day” trailer speculation
  • “Supergirl” final trailer speculation
  • “Lanterns” teaser trailer speculation
  • Unfinished / cancelled comics we would bring back
  • Cancelled shows we would revive
  • Comics we would adapt to movies or TV
  • Comic book movies we would redo or change
  • Comic book video games we want to see

(Episode edited by Chris Carroll)

CZ#55: One World Under DOOM! – Podcast

Click here to listen to the latest episode!

“Doom is wisdom. Doom is power. Doom is prosperity. And only Doom can save you.” – Dr. Doom

Chris and Erik talk all things Dr. Doom – from his debut in the pages of the Fantastic Four to “Secret Wars”, speculation about “Avengers: Doomsday”, and the latest Marvel Comics Event: “One World Under DOOM”!

Also on this Episode:

  • The first 4 teasers to “Avengers: Doomsday”
  • Mount Rushmore: (non-FF) Dr. Doom adversaries
  • Pitch Ideas: “Age of Doom” (Chris) and “Iron Man and Doctor Strange in Freaky Friday” (Erik)
  • The Best / Worst Dr. Doom adaptations
  • Essential Reads: Dr. Doom!

(Episode edited by Chris Carroll)

(Another) 10 More Great X-Men Stories

 

You know ’em, you love ’em, it’s Marvel’s- maybe comics’- greatest team, the Adjectiveless, Exceptional, Astonishing, Wolverine & The, New, Immortal, X-Men! They’ve been around for over 60 years now, and insanely popular for 40+ of those years. Combining that with the fact that for many of those years there have been numerous titles running simultaneously, you end up with thousands of X-Men comics!

Out of those thousands there are so, so many great stories. The Marvel universe’s best and most important moments are full of X-Men stories. There are so many amazing ones, and many of them so drastically different, that creating any kind of ranking is both impossible and leads down the road to madness.

So, that being said, the following are not necessarily my favorite X-Men stories, but I love them all the same. There are still so many more I could include, so we may have a couple more installments of these, but for now check out our first installment here, the second one here, and one on Spider-Man here!

 

Continue reading →

CZ#54 : The MCU – Phase Five (Part 1: The Movies) – Podcast

Click here to listen to the new episode!

“I am Marvel Jesus.” – Deadpool

Chris, Erik, and Zack (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Podcasters Assemble⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Neat Cast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠) assemble once again, continuing through The Multiverse Saga!

MCU Phase 5 Movies:

  • Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
  • Guardians of the Galaxy – Vol 3
  • The Marvels
  • Deadpool & Wolverine
  • Captain America: Brave New World
  • Thunderbolts*

Be sure to listen to our previous MCU episodes as well:

  • Issue #9: Ranking the X-Men Movies
  • Issue #10: Ranking the Spider-man Movies
  • Issue #17: Spider-man: No Way Home
  • ⁠⁠Issue #18: Revisiting the MCU: Phase One⁠⁠⁠⁠
  • Issue #22: Revisiting the MCU: Phase Two
  • Issue #24: Daredevil and the Marvel Netflix Shows!
  • Issue #39: Revisiting the MCU: Phase Three (Part 1)
  • Issue #41: Revisiting the MCU: Phase Three (Part 2)
  • Issue #46: The MCU – Phase Four (Part 1: The Disney+ Shows)
  • Issue #47: The MCU – Phase Four (Part 2: The Movies!)

(Episode edited by Chris Carroll)

CZ#53 – “Superman” (2025) and “Fantastic Four: First Steps”! – Podcast

Click here to listen to the new episode!

“That is where you’ve always been wrong about me, Lex! I am as human as anyone. I love, I-I get scared. I wake up every morning, and despite not knowing what to do, I put one foot in front of the other, and I try to make the best choices that I can. I screw up all the time, but that is being human, and that’s my greatest strength. ” – Superman to Lex Luthor

That’s right, it’s the one you’ve all been waiting for (probably) Chris and Erik are finally back with their thoughts on James Gunn’s “Superman” (2025), and the MCU’s latest entry, “Fantastic Four: First Steps”!

Featuring cameo reviews by:

(Episode edited by Erik Slader)

Also be sure to listen to Episodes ⁠⁠#40 – “All 4 Fantastic Four Movies?!” ⁠⁠and ⁠⁠#49 – “The Superman Movies (1978-2013)”!⁠

10 (More) Great Spider-Man Stories


Spider-Man, obviously, is one of the most popular characters in comic books (or movies, or cartoons, or video games, or…) and has been for decades now. His popularity has meant for most of the 60+ years of his publishing history he has had more than one ongoing title running simultaneously. Not counting what if…? or Ultimate stories (those would need to be different lists), I wanted to pick out 10 tales of the webbed wall-crawling wonder that will show you why he, his villains, and his cast of supporting characters are second to none.

I should point out this is NOT a top 10 list, in that these are not ranked in any particular order, nor are they the 10 BEST Spider-Man stories, or my absolute favorite 10. These are just 10 cool stories that maybe slipped your radar or were out before you were reading Spider-Man and/or were born. I imagine I will revisit this topic, because it was hard to narrow it to just 10 for this article.

So, if you haven’t read these, do yourself a favor and check them out, and if you have read them, well… good.

Check out our first installment of great Spidey stories here, and check out some X-Men recommendations here and here!

Continue reading →

CZ #51: Thunderbolts, Ultimate Spider-man, Spidey Villains, Cap, Kingpin, Krakoa, and more! (Podcast)

Issue #51: Thunderbolts, Ultimate Spider-Man, Spidey Villains, Cap, Kingpin, Krakoa, and more! (Podcast)

“There’s something wrong with me. An emptiness. I thought it started when my sister died, but now it feels like something bigger. Just a void… Or maybe I’m just bored.” – Yelena Belova / Black Widow (Thunderbolts)

Chris and Erik are back at it with another random episode…

  • MCU Catch-Up: “Thunderbolts”, “Captain America: Brave New World”, and “Daredevil: Born Again”
  • Ultimate Spider-man (2024)
  • X-Men: The Krakoa Era
  • Pitch Ideas – Event Books: “Kingpin Takes the Marvel Universe” (Erik) and “Acts of Vengeance 2” (Chris)
  • Mount Rushmore: Spider-man Villains
  • Essential Reads: Captain America

(Episode edited by Chris Carroll)

Check out our blog at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ComicZombie.net⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for more! 

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