The Beyonder has turned away from his despair, and now he wants to help people. But this bugs Captain America and Mister Fantastic who yet again  do nothing about the Beyonder but do continue to threaten him. The Marvel cosmic beings show up in this issue, and something happens that finally gets Molecule Man off the couch. 

Plus we have a whole bunch of crossover comics, including a Thor/Power Pack crossover and a Micronauts story that is so wild you just have to read it.

Next week's homework!
Secret Wars II #7
Amazing Spider-Man #273
New Defenders #152
New Mutants #36
Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #111
Uncanny X-Men #202

This week The Beyonder gets real sad and goes emo with a 13 year old girl, who ends up being a significant recurring character in the X titles! The Avengers pull a Ray Stantz, and Derek wonders if Iman Vellani is scabbing by promoting her new Ms. Marvel comic book. 

Next week's Secret Wars II is much more crossover heavy than some of our recent issues, and one of the comics you need to read is simply unavailable anywhere. With that in mind I have included a link where you can find the issue. 

Your homework: 
Secret Wars II #6
Cloak and Dagger #4
The Micronauts: The New Voyages #16 (read this issue here)
Power Pack #18
Power Man and Iron Fist #121
Thor #363

The Beyonder goes to pound town this issue as he seeks to understand this crazy little thing called love. What is love and desire? And can he make Dazzler love him? This week sees us having a big argument about Dune Part II moving and the Oscars in general, as well as, believe it or not, a big argument about the existential philosophy of an issue of Rom: Spaceknight. 

Next week the Beyonder gets sad! And we have a handful of crossovers for homework. Your reading for next week:
Secret Wars II #5
Doctor Strange #74
Fantastic Four #285
The Thing #30

That's not so bad, and this time all of them are on Marvel Unlimited! See you in a week, gang. 

This week The Beyonder takes over the whole world - but can that satisfy him? We also have a mixed bag of crossover comics; there's Derek's favorite ever issue of The Incredible Hulk and there's an issue of Daredevil that saw Denny O'Neil quit the book. It's a mess, but is it purposefully recalling the temptation of Christ in the desert?

Next week: the Beyonder tries to understand love. We have some crossover action again, but be aware: there is one crossover comic that is hard to find. It's not on the Marvel Unlimited app because it's Rom: Space Knight, which was a licensed book. But fear not, we have a link to where you can read the issue. 

This week's homework: 
Secret Wars II #4
Alpha Flight #28
Avengers #261
Dazzler #40
Rom #72

That Rom comic can be found right here. And if you like it, be aware that Marvel struck a deal with Hasbro and they will be releasing a Rom omnibus in the future! Look out for it. 

When is a crossover not a crossover? When it happens in only one panel of the comic book in question, I'd say. 

This week we follow the Beyonder to New York City, where he bumbles around and learns to poop. Then we get two fantastic Spider-Man crossover comics and a Fantastic Four issue that is, crossover or not, just kind of bad. 

Next week: the Beyonder takes over the world! Here's your homework:

Secret Wars II #3
Avengers #260
Daredevil #223
The Incredible Hulk #312

This week we're doing a big pivot. Now that Secret Invasion has finished we have decided to not return to X-Men: The Animated Series just yet. Instead we're going to spend the next few weeks reading Secret Wars II and all of the associate crossovers. Yes, it's a trip back to 1985 to talk about the granddaddy of all crossover event series. Secret Wars II is weird and shaggy and an awful lot of fun, even if it isn't exactly one of the great comic book storylines.

This week we cover:
Secret Wars II #1
New Mutants #30
Captain America #308
Uncanny X-Men #196
Iron Man #197
All of these are available on Marvel Unlimited with a subscription.

These crossovers really run the gamut from making Secret Wars II the main focus to almost totally ignoring the events of the comic. And they run the gamut from great to kind of dull, and also Kitty Pryde says the N word. Seriously.

Thanks for listening! Join the Patreon at www.patreon.com/cinemasangha to get access to our Discord; at the $5 level you'll get our Watch Men podcast - this month we will have two episodes, one about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and one about Blue Beetle. Don't miss them!

Well that's a let down. 

The Secret Invasion series wraps up with a whimper, and it didn't have to be this way. There is stuff that happens in this episode that, had it happened in episode three, would have made this series an all-timer.  After this episode the hierarchy of power in the MCU is changed, but will anyone care or ever reference it?

Next week we begin a new project here: a weekly read-along of Secret Wars II, the 1985 comic book miniseries and all of the tie-in comics. That's nine weeks, which should bring us pretty much up to the debut of Gen V, the spin-off of The Boys, which we will tackle next. X-Men: The Animated Series will return... someday.

Until then, thanks for listening and consider becoming a $5 patron at www.patreon.com/cinemasangha as we will be doing two episodes of our $5 and above exclusive podcast, Watch Men: one about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and one about Blue Beetle!

Things start coming to a head this week on Secret Invasion, but they also kind of stop making sense. Lotta plans that aren't very coherent and some weird decisions and just some other things that don't hold up under too much scrutiny. But we also get a pretty good shoot-em-up, so maybe it all evens out. Then again, there is also a cameo that absolutely no one on Earth cared about, which isn't a great sign. 

Heads up: after Secret Invasion we are not returning to X-Men: The Animated Series. Not right away, at least. We're going to bridge the gap between now and the debut of Gen V (the spin-off of The Boys) with a new concept: we're going to read Secret Wars II. Yes, the sequel crossover miniseries featuring The Beyonder done up like a disco dude. And we're going to be reading all the tie-in issues as well! 

You can follow along by reading on the Marvel Unlimited app, which is well worth a subscription, or by finding it elsewhere or don't read along and just listen to us talk about it. This is not an ironic bit! We love Secret Wars II and will try and make a case for it over the next few weeks. So next week we wrap Secret Invasion and then after that you'll want to read the following comics: 

Secret Wars II #1
New Mutants #30
Captain America #306
Uncanny X-Men #198
Iron Man #197

The numbering on Marvel comics is a nightmare now, but all of these are 1985 comics and should be volume 1 of each individual series. Get reading and meet us back here in two weeks for that new series!

It's strike time, baby. Hollywood is shutting down and we spend a little bit of time talking about this, and about Disney's Bob Iger and his big fat mouth. We also have some (limited) news, including intriguing casting on James Gunn's Superman: Legacy. If you don't care about all that good stuff skip to 

This week's Secret Invasion has good booze and a middling firefight, but once again we get a bunch of scenes where good actors get to go for it. Plus: are supposed to give a single damn about Emilia Clarke's character?

We shall be back next week as Secret Invasion heads into the homestretch and we are really wondering how the heck they're wrapping this one up. 

Let's get one thing out of the way: my audio isn't great this episode. I tried to adjust it best as possible, but I'm not a podcast engineer. I'm taking steps to make the next episode sound better. 

On to the show - the third episode of Secret Invasion gives us more spy tropes as well as what feels like an honest to God romance between Nick Fury and Talos. Am I shipping them? I'm shipping them!

In the intro we talk about Star Trek for a minute, as well as the low-level news that has been hitting the transom. If you don't care about that stuff, skip to 35:39. 

See you next week!