Champion Casters: A podcast about heroes and craft

The Hot Ones Challenge is upon us! Since Michael lost our trivia sessions for Season 2, Joe got to interview him with questions that the listeners submitted. At the same time, they both had to eat increasing hot spicy wings. Well these wings were more like vegan nuggets, and the spice was inconsistent, but that's neither here nor there. Michael finally got to talk about things he loves like Final Fantasy, and sexy Riverdale actors! Thank you all for listening this season and submitting questions. Special shoutout and thank you to But Why Tho for giving us a space this season. We'll all be back in the late Fall for Season 3 of Champion Casters! 

The Season Finale of Champion Casters! We've done two seasons of this show (3 total seasons if you've been with us a while) and for our 100th episode we're talking about something near and dear to our hearts, The Spectacular Spider-Man. You may have heard us mention it off-handed in one of our other Spider-person-themed episodes. This is the greatest Spider-Man tv show and probably one of the definitive takes on Peter Parker. It's not perfect, but it's damn amazing a show of this quality got made and was abruptly cancelled. We have a lot to say about this web-head to buckle up for a nice Giant-Sized episode of Champion Casters. Tune in to the end of this episode to find out who lost the trivia challenge this season, we'll be releasing our hot sauce special in the coming weeks. 

In season 2 episode 24 of Champion Casters, Michael and Joe find love. . . and some thunder in the newest Thor movie. There are two Thor's in this movie so really there's twice the love and twice the thunder, but that's neither here nor there. Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman are back, both as Thor's looking to rekindle their lightning. This movie is no Thor: Ragnarok, but with Taika Waititi at the helm again, there's still some great humor and heart in this film--more than some people are giving it credit for. Tune in for Michael and Joe to fight for Love. . . yeah and Thunder. 

In season 2 episode 23 of Champion Casters, Michael and Joe are joined by Swara Salih co-host of But Why Tho?'s Into The Spider-Cast to talk all things Ms. Marvel. Yes we know the show is quite the departure from the comics, but the heart of Kamala was still there. Iman Vellani absolutely embodies the character. And yes, we know the plot gets very complicated in the middle. But the episodes around that are what we will be talking about today. So join us, for a long and excited conversation about pacing, family stories, and genetically modified bird-clones of Thomas Edison. 

Swara Salih's "If You Loved Ms. Marvel, Here Are 10 More Muslin and South Asian Heroes to Check Out."

In season 2, episode 22 of Champion Casters, Michael and Joe take a detour from superhero antics and talk about environmental justice and Ashitaka's role in Princess Mononoke. Haiyo Miyazaki created a masterpiece of animation that's also an expression of frustration about our industrialism killing the environment and how to live with that. Ashitaka represents the struggle to reconcile, and boy does that feeling still resonate today. This movie was released in like 1997! Michael had barely hatched out of his turtle shell!

Get superhero gifted. In season 2, episode 21 of Champion Casters, Michael and Joe get twisted while watching Static Shock. One of the most popular children's animated shows on television (at the time), Static was fundamental to the Saturday morning cartoon block. Virgil Hawkins was a stand-in for every good-hearted kid, but what makes him and this show special was the dedication to showing children how to be good community members. Yes, this show was the definition of Saturday Morning Cartoon, but it did it very very well. 

CONTENT WARNING: This episode covers a lot of tough subjects that the show covers like grief, housing instability, gun violence, and racism. 

Look who has the high ground, now! In season 2, episode 20 of Champion Casters, Michael and Joe talk about Michael's older brother aka Obi-Wan Kenobi. In Disney's never ending pursuit of turning movies into 6 episode streaming shows, Obi-Wan is the latest to get his own--sorta. The show is set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, when Obi-Wan finally learns Anakin is alive and he must get back in the Jedi game to protect Leia and Luke. This show follows Obi-Wan and he's technically the hero but Champion Casters would like to argue Reva, the Inquizitor tasked with finding Obi-Wan, is the true protagonist and probably should have gotten her own show. 

In season 2 episode 19 of Champion Casters, Michael and Joe ponder the likelihood of a heaven while watching Kristen Bell play Eleanor in The Good Place. The Good Place ran for 4 seasons and we'll be discussing Eleanor across all of them. Yes, we will be discussing the other characters, but we decided to focus on Eleanor since she can kind of function as the protagonist. We also decided to talk about the character who eats the most shrimp and, of course, it had to be her. 

Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me, but I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed. In season 2 episode 18 of Champion Casters, Michael and Joe analyze not a Champion, but an All-Star: Shrek! Yes, the big green ogre is up for debate. How deep is this character? Is it just a bitter diss on Disney, or is there a significant meaning or lesson learned from this series. Michael and Joe revisited Shrek 2 as the pinnacle of this series. Surprisingly enough, when we waded into the swamp we found something of worth. 

Danny Phantom has had it coming for a while. In season 2, episode 17 of Champion Casters, Michael and Joe go ghost and talk about one of their favorite zillenial shows, Danny Phantom. Imagine a world where "The MCU" doesn't exist and instead superhero shows had to be completely original--only nodding to existence of other heroes. Danny Phantom stands apart in this time because the concept is very simple: rip off Spider-Man, but make it about ghosts. The show succeeds in a lot of ways, but it isn't perfect. Michael and Joe use a couple of episodes to frame their conversation about what makes Danny Phantom work.