Okay. Okay. I know. It's almost four weeks into 2024, and welcome to our first episode of the new year.

In this episode, I review and give my first thoughts on the new Marvel Disney+ show, Echo. The production details the rise of Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox), her familial and cultural roots, newfound abilities and origin story. Echo also sheds light on Vincent D'Onofrio's infamous Kingpin, his criminal empire and long lasting relationship with his 'niece' turn protégé, Maya. In conclusion, it's a topsy turvy affair with not immune from ups and downs.

Overall rating: 7/10.

Ayeeee. Okay, I finally got to watch my favourite (or rather most anticipated) movie of the year. The Marvels. What. A. Production!

In this episode we give our first thoughts and views on the movie's quality, the script and the overall delivery from the cast. The Marvels did a good job bridging the gap between Carol Denvers superhero debut & her prolonged absence, Kamala's introduction & her sudden disappearance, Fury's pre-and-post- Secret Invasion events and finally, Captain Rambeau's origin story.

Carol, Monica and Kamala had to overcome their trio's teething problems for the sake of cosmic stability. The Marvels found themselves entangled and switching places whenever they used their supernatural gifts, which made it tricky for them on the battlefield. In the episode we also covered how Captain Marvel's long-standing efforts to end the Kree conflict caused more harm than good. The Marvels is a classic, intricately-woven story on how love conquers all, and light inevitably trumps darkness.

The script ends with a couple of interesting mid-and-post credit scenes. Kamala attempts to make Kate Bishop her first recruitment for the Young Avengers. Photon finds herself in what looks like an X-Men facility, pending further analysis.

Okayyy, in this episode we mark our return from the prolonged break post-S1, laying out the groundwork for the new approach we're taking. We've abandoned the seasonal approach we used to run with, meaning that S1 will remain the first and only structured season of the podcast. It's safe to say that we will be taking the podcast forward, episode by episode. Tackling Science, Fiction and Science-Fiction as usual. We'll do our best to show more intent with regards to guest appearances and cameos, podcast crossovers and unfiltered live discussions/debates.

In the Season Finale we go back to our roots and review an MCU production, as was the case when we began with Ms Marvel a year ago. We review the 32nd movie from the MCU and review James Gunn's final marvel project before he went full DC. Overall the film was well executed. However we felt that Adam Warlock's long overdue introduction was underserved, perhaps we'll get to see him playing a bigger part going forward. One of the many positives drawn from the movie is how so many characters have developed since they debuted 9 years ago, we saw Nebula switching from a heartless death machine to an empathetic team player, Quill developed from a selfish, power hungry and self-serving captain to a considerate leader who took his team's needs into account. Also Rocket Raccoon's origin story is one of the best we've seen onscreen in a very long time. Mantis also picked up from where she left off in the Holiday Special, expressing herself more often and taking a break to find herself and write her own story. Secret Invasion drops in two days time and I reckon we'll review the show as bonus episodes as we build up to season 2. There's also a solid recommendation, Guy Ritchie's The Covenant which happens to be one of the best military films I've watched in a while.

We thank you for all the support, patience and motivation you've given and shown the podcast.

Until next time

Stay blessed and conquer

Finally got to watch AATW : Quantumania and it was worth the wait. We talk about Jonathan Majors' continued run as Kang (and his infinite variants), Peyton Reed (director) and the intricate production that the movie is. Family dynamics, kickass sci-fi, a MODOK cameo and so much more wrapped into one. We also talk about Kevin Feige and co slowing things down, and a slight dig at the Marvel writers and how ridiculous it might be for future marvel fans to catch up at this rate (if they don't slow down). There's also a couple of deliberate loose ends from the post and mid-credit scenes, a cameo from Loki and Agent Mobius (who have had previous encounters with another Kang variant "he who remains"), and a thrilling dialogue between the counsel of Kangs. We cannot wait to see how it all unfolds, all we know is, the MCU is in safe hands.

We preview what's next on our itinerary, playing catch-up as we return from Hiatus.

We have Citadel, The Blacklist, GOTG Volume 3 pending on our to-review list. Super excited as we finally have enough time on our hands to indulge in all the podcast-related content that's been made available in our absence.

In this episode, we shed light on the potential applications of phages and how there's so much room for improvement in R & D with regards to these versatile 'tools'.

We also mention Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase's innovative 1952 experiment, and some milestones in recombinant DNA technology and application of bacteriophages past, present and future.

Special mention https://www.cell.com/trends/biotechnology/fulltext/S0167-7799(22)00226-8

Expressing our excitement towards the recent additions and innovations in theatre and science respectively.

A nice summary of the Marvel project, season 1.

A blessed Eid to everyone celebrating, we took this opportunity to preview and review one of our favourite shows for the very first time. The Blacklist. Special mention to MT, for inspiring this episode.