Crisis On Infinite Midlives

Marvel Studios's Avengers: Infinity War opened last week and scored the biggest box office opening weekend of all time. It pulled in about $640 million in four days, meaning that, at around $15 per ticket, it was seen by roughly 43 million people. Which is good news for us, because it means that it shouldn't be a big deal that this episode is full of more spoilage than an Arizona romaine lettuce warehouse. 

As is usual for our shows about the big Marvel movies (and the big DC movies, provided we bribe them sufficiently), we are joined by comedians Ross Garmil and Benari Poulten to talk about Infinity War, a movie that really had no right being as good as it was, considering it had a main cast so big it made A Chorus Line look like Waiting for Godot, and featured a villain best known to movie audiences for sitting on his throne as if it was the Wednesday morning after Taco Tuesday and said throne had a flush handle. 

We discuss the economical opening that turns Thanos from appearing to be a lazy gimp to a legitimate threat in all of five minutes, how the movie earns comparisons to The Empire Strikes Back not only in tone but in structure, how the original Jim Starlin comic series compares to the movie, and what we think might be coming in next year's finale movie. Rob has a theory that's one part deductive reasoning and two parts wishful thinking, shaken not served, served over ice, no you can't stop wanting a drink every time you think about that ending.

It's almost official: Brian Michael Bendis is nearly ready to take over DC's Superman franchise, with his first story appearing in this week's Action Comics #1,000. So we certainly discuss that, but we also talk about the other creative teams that took over Big Blue from the beginning of DC's Rebirth, taking the character from a blogger in poorly-explained Kryptonian nano-armor who was being smothered to death by editorial edict during The New 52, to one of the more enjoyable, back-to-basics characters in DC's stable, despite adding a child to his backstory.

But then, yes, we talk about Bendis's story in Action #1,000, and how we always get apprehensive when a new writer decides that everything you've ever thought about a character is wrong!

Season two of Marvel Studios's / Netflix's Jessica Jones dropped late last week, and as with most of Marvel's / Netflix's shows, we burned through it in a single weekend binge. And this binge was more enjoyable than the last couple, because for once no one from Crisis On Infinite Midlives threw up while watching the show, and because for the first time in a while Iron Fist was nowhere to be seen. Whether that's a correlation or a causation deal we will leave up to you.

Season two had a lot to live up to, as we loved the first season's combined exploration of PTSD and abusive relationships, and its meta examination of what it might really mean to be a companion to Doctor Who. This time around, the show tackles the concepts of different kinds of families, be they biological, adopted or self-created, and how they apparently will always let you down. And it combines it with a meta examination of why Trish Walker is the worst person in the world!

This show was recorded live to tape, with minimal editing. So if you're looking for a genre podcast where the hosts are excited about the return of congenital, reckless alcoholic Jessica Jones because representation in media matters, well, you've come to the right place!

With all the excitement and hype surrounding last week's release of Marvel Studios's Black Panther, it's easy to forget that, when the movie was announced as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase Three three and a half years ago, it looked to be nothing but a flick about another mid-tier character just to keep our juices flowing until Infinity War. While we loved Black Panther when he was pulled out of his element in Wakanda and dropped into a gritty pulp action story, his day-to-day adventures at home never set our world on fire, and we were looking far less forward to this than we were, say, Captain Marvel.

Since then, Marvel installed an A-list director who turned the movie into something much more than the half-decent filler in between Avengers movies we initially expected. We saw the movie this weekend (in a local theater packed in a way we haven't seen since the first Spider-Man movie), and we discuss, in a spoiler-filled way, how we liked it, what worked for us and what didn't, the worldbuilding and the depth of the character bench, and some of the political commentary we found to be embedded in the film.

We also discuss January 24th's Doomsday Clock #3, written by Geoff Johns with art by Gary Franks. This is the third issue in the DCU / Watchmen universe crossover, and we go into it in depth in a segment which we're beginning to refer to, here at the Crisis On Infinite Midlives Home Office, as "Dr. Manhattan Can't Do That, Dammit!"

This show was recorded live to tape, with minimal editing. So if you've been looking for a comics podcast where one of the hosts wants to move to Wakanda so they can find someone competent to program their Nest thermostat, you've come to the right place.

We are smack in the middle of awards season, when networks cynically fill their airtime with slapped-together ceremonies celebrating old crap you already know about, all in the hopes that someone will get drunk and start making a damn fool of themselves, all on a short budget. 

Or, in other words: welcome to the 2017 Crises Awards!

Last year was one where there were some truth spectacular accomplishments in comics, genre television and movies. And there were also several comics crossover events! So, as we do every year, we carefully account for our favorite, and least favorite, genre material from the past year! And by "carefully account," we mean "frantically re-read old show notes and dig through unsorted longboxes of comics!"

We go into the categories of: Best and Worst comic series or miniseries, Best and Worst single comic issues, Best and Worst comic crossover events, Best genre television, Best genre movie, and Most and Least anticipated genre entertainments of 2018!

It’s been an speedy week, from the threat of yet another government shutdown, to calling other nations ugly names, to a 30-something minute span where it seemed like a large chunk of the population of Hawaii might be on deck to have a chance at their own Silver Age superhero origin stories. It was the […]

After a couple of weeks off due to holidays, family travel, blizzards, arctic vortices, and professional obligations, and we've moved past holiday genre movies and into the pre-convention season lull. Meaning that until Marvel Studios' Black Panther drops in about six weeks, there's nothing to talk but comics.

And frankly, we're kinda glad about that. Because as much as we like the comics-related visual entertainment, there's nothing like a good, old-fashioned comic book to make you feel like a kid again. And sometimes, that kid is very, very angry about what has happened to the Watchmen universe.

So we talk about a few of this week's new books, including: Batman #38, written by Tom King with art by Travis Moore and Giulia Brusco, Spider-Man #236, written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Oscar Bazaldua, and Justice League #36, written by Priest with art by Pete Woods!

But no calendar can stop Rob from chiming in on a comic book about the character from Watchmen, so we also discuss December 27th, Doomsday Clock #2, written by Geoff Johns with art by Gary Frank!

This show was recorded live to tape, with minimal editing. So if you want to find out what the mythical 102nd use for duct tape is (the dirty one), you've come to the right show!

Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the inarguably most anticipated genre film of 2017 was released last Friday (at least the most anticipated by everyone except Rob), and based on the box office returns approaching half a billion dollars in four days, it was beloved by nearly everyone on the planet, yes?

Yeah, apparently not. It seems that a movie that takes many of the beats that you'd expect from a Star Wars movie and deliberately tries to do something different with them isn't for everybody. It's an interesting popular reaction to a film that is almost universally beloved by professional reviewers. Which we at Crisis At Infinite Midlives are most assuredly not.

So we brought in some help to talk about The Last Jedi, and when it comes to dissecting what works and what doesn't in a movie marketed largely to young people who are serious about their genre properties, we figured: who better than a pile of stand-up comedians all approaching, if not firmly ensconced, in middle age?

Se we are joined by Boston comedian Greg Boggis and New York comics Benari Poulten and Ross Garmil, who are not only funny people but hardcore genre geeks, to discuss The Last Jedi. We hit everything from the coolest moments, to the character arcs that are more satisfying than those in The Force Awakens, to the subtextual political statements made in the film, to the possible intoxicating properties of the green milk and flora of Ahch-To, to the crippling mental affliction that might be cursing one of the most beloved characters in the franchise. Which is funnier than it sounds. 

This is one of the funniest, yest most interesting, episodes we've done in a while. However: be warned: this show contains extensive spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. So if you haven't seen the movie yet, hi! Nice to meet you! Apparently you're the one!

Crisis on Earth X, the annual crossover between DCW (Rob swears he will make DCW a thing) shows Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash and DC’s Agents of Tomorrow aired a couple of weeks ago, and while we’re a little late to the conversation, we wanted to discuss it, because it wound up being one of the […]

Marvel Studios’s latest Netflix series, The Punisher, dropped all at once a couple of weeks ago, and it was, in a lot of ways, very different than the series that have been delivered up until now. Sure, the other series dealt with adult themes – Jessica Jones tackled being a survivor of abuse, Luke Cage dealt with racism, […]