Issue #41: Revisiting the MCU: Phase Three (Part 2 of 2) – Podcast

To kick off Season 3, Chris and Erik are teaming up with Zack Derby the ‘Nick Fury of podcasting’ himself: radio host extraordinaire (from Podcasters Assemble, Effin Cultured, and The Neat Cast), to revisit the Marvel Cinematic Universe – starting with Phase One!

MCU Phase 1 Movies:

IRON MAN (2008)
THE INCREDIBLE HULK (2008)
IRON MAN 2 (2010)
THOR (2011)
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER (2011)
THE AVENGERS (2012)

Be sure to listen to the last episode for our “Spider-man: No Way Home” Review And check out our blog at ComicZombie.net for more – including Erik’s recent article on “Into the Spider-verse”!

(Episode edited by Erik Slader)

Continue reading →

A “Brief” Recap of the MCU Timeline (Part One)

Posted by ErikSlader on September 22, 2021

Reblogged from ProbablyWork.com

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been going strong for over a decade, and has already become the biggest, most-expansive franchise in movie history! First starting in 2008, with Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man”, starring Robert Downey Jr., who’s story eventually culminated with 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame” – the 22nd movie in the series. All of which was orchestrated behind the scenes by the one and only Kevin Feige!

The MCU continues with ‘Phase Four’ (including several new shows now streaming on Disney+). Most of these titles are intrinsically tied to the overarching narrative of the MCU as a whole, so where does everything fit in? If you’re not already a hardcore fan (like us), it can probably feel like A LOT to catch up on, so if you want to dive in and follow along in (mostly?) chronological order, the following is a *quick* guide to the MCU Timeline (so far), from Captain America: The First Avenger to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and beyond!

Continue reading →

“LOKI” Season Finale – Breakdown (Spoilers)

Posted by ErikSlader on July 16, 2021

Check out my Episode 5 breakdown here!

EPISODE SIX: “FOR ALL TIME. ALWAYS.”

As I said in my review of Episode One, “LOKI” has been a ‘wild, off-the-rails, jaunt through time’ – and with so many crazy twists and turns, it’s a rollercoaster that’s never once slowed down since then! Throughout the show we’ve followed a Loki variant (Tom Hiddleston), after the time-traveling events of “Avengers: Endgame”, go from being an Asgardian supervillain to an introspective Alice through the looking glass.

Through a series of random Douglas Adams inspired shenanigans with Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson) of the TVA (Temporal Variance Authority), Loki encountered a female variant of himself in the form of Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) who he then joined on a quest to uncover the identities of the Time Keepers who turned out to be nothing more than robotic puppets! Together, the two Lokis eventually found themselves in a realm at the end of time known as the Void, where all manner of Lokis have been discarded amongst the remnants of countless erased timelines, including Kid Loki, President Loki, and Gator Loki. With the valiant sacrifice of an older Loki, Sylvie and Loki are able to combine their powers and enchant the hangry cloud monster known as Alioth, revealing a portal to… somewhere?

It’s all lead to this…

Continue reading →

“LOKI” Episode One – Review

Posted by ErikSlader on June 13, 2021

Marvel’s new “LOKI” series is a wild, off-the-rails, jaunt through time – once again starring Tom Hiddleston as the Asgardian Trickster God himself. Following this first episode and the success of “Wandavision” and “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”, I think it’s safe to say that the MCU is *still* going strong on Disney+!

LOKI 101

For those who somehow don’t already know, Loki is a supervillain in the pages of Marvel comics (first appearing in ‘Journey Into Mystery’ #85, 1962), loosely based on the Norse deity of the same name, he’s the adopted son of Odin, and brother to his greatest adversary, Thor – the God of Thunder. He was also the first villain to fight the Avengers in “The Avengers” #1 in 1963! In the comics, like in Norse Mythology, Loki has taken on a number of forms throughout the years, including a female persona. While Loki has an array of powers, including shape-shifting and conjuring illusions, his most cunning weapon is his mind and his innate ability to persuade and manipulate others for his own ends.

Continue reading →

Top 10 Comic Book Movie Villains

Posted by comiczombie on June 2, 2013

Part of making a good comic book movie is getting the hero correct. You have to make sure they look close enough to the source material, and you really have to make sure the character feels right. You can’t have Daredevil fighting on a seesaw, or Batman and Robin going to a social event with the media present and talking to reporters (I hate you, Schumacher).

But, just as importantly as all of that is getting the villain right. How many lame ass versions of cool characters have ruined (or at least contributing to the ruining of) movies? I’m looking at you, Jim Carrey’s Riddler, Danny Devito’s Penguin, Tommy Lee Jones’ Two-Face, Arnold’s Mr. Freeze, Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy, Collin Farrell’s Bullseye, Jigsaw in Punisher War Zone, and every villain in every Superman movie (yes, even Terrance Stamp’s Zod).

Here are my top 10 examples of villains they got right.

10. The Abomination (The Incredible Hulk)

This really shouldn’t have worked. They completely changed everything about the character except for his name, Emil Blonsky. He looks different, acts different, has a completely different origin, and somewhat different motivations. The only real similarities besides his name are the fact that he’s as strong as, or stronger than, the Hulk, he’s huge, and he’s a maniac who has no qualms whatsoever about massacring anyone and everyone that gets anywhere near him.

I like the fact that we saw Blonsky evolve from a regular man to a psuedo super soldier to a gamma monster. I like the design, despite the fact that he’s completely different from the version that’s been around for nearly 50 years. I like that he’s made with a combination of super soldier serum and Hulk blood, which is the worst nightmare of the Hulk, and something that would/will piss off Captain America to no end.

I think the fight(s) between Blonsky/Abomination and the Hulk are the highlights of this movie, and probably keep it from being a really average movie.

Continue reading →

Comiczombie’s Top 15 Comic Book Movies

Posted by comiczombie on August 8, 2012

15. Watchmen

“Just a matter of time, I suppose.” – The Comedian

As faithful an adaptation as we were ever going to get, despite the fact that this movie probably never should have been made. The whole purpose of the story was to use comics to deconstruct comic book archetypes. It was never intended to be a movie. For years Terry Gilliam was attached to a possible adaptation, but eventually quit the project, supposedly saying it was an ‘unfilmable movie’. Surprisingly, Zack Snyder did a great job while remaining faithful to the source material (possibly even too faithful at times).

Continue reading →

Erik Smash!’s Top 15 Comic Book Movies

Posted by comiczombie on August 7, 2012

Here it is! My top-FIFTEEN Favorite Comic Book Movies of ALL TIME! (so far…)

I know it’s a long list, but there’s a lot of damn good comic book movies out there, and I kinda had to expand it in order to compensate for this years entries alone!

ENJOY!!

15. SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE (1978)

“Your name is Kal-El. You are the only survivor of the planet Krypton. Even though you’ve been raised as a human, you are not one of them. You have great powers, only some of which you have as yet discovered.” – Jor-El

Continue reading →

Top 10 Scariest Marvel villains

Posted by comiczombie on June 14, 2012

There are a TON of villains in the Marvel universe. Some are jokes, some aren’t really villains at heart, some are pretty bad, and some are straight up evil. Then there are the ones that are just scary, because of what they’re capable of, or how far they’re willing to go to get what they want. There are some that didn’t make this list that might belong, like Magneto, or the Green Goblin, but in the end I think it depends on how you define scary. If you disagree with my choices feel free to leave your own top 10 in the comments. Here are my top 10 scariest villains of the Marvel universe.

Continue reading →

RETRO SPOILER ALERT! – First Appearances Can Be Deceiving – SILVER AGE (2 of 4)

Posted by ErikSlader on June 12, 2012

Continued from Part 1: The Golden Age!

THE SILVER AGE (1956 – 1970)

— “With great power comes great responsibility!” – Ben Parker (Spider-man comics)

This period from around 1956 to 1970 was a huge shift in the world of comic books. Prior to this comics were in decline, mainly because of the Comics Code Authority banning all the awesome shit that was actually selling, because they were afraid it was going to create a generation of delinquents, you know like rap music and video games! Thanks to douchebag of the century, Fredric Wertham, many comic books and pulp magazines were burned in massive bonfires around the country.

So the Silver Age is considered the point at which comics were rejuvenated after a lame stint of pure camp in the Atomic Age of the 50’s. It was the beginning of many a Marvel hero and was marked by a much more sci-fi focus than ever before. This was also notably the introduction of some of the industry’s best talent to date, both artists and writers, including Neal Adams, Denny O Neal, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita Sr., and of course Stan Lee. Comics of this era are seen as an extension of the Atomic Age, and are often heavily influenced by B-rated Science Fiction films of the time where flying saucers, and giant radioactive monsters ran amok across the silver screen. One of the earliest instances of this was with the devious BRAINIAC first invading Action Comics in issue 242 (1958). Much like the Children of the Atom (the X-Men), Comics began to evolve.

Continue reading →