Running on Rooftops: The Comic Book Adaptation Podcast

Merry Christmas! In honor of the holiday where friends and family come together, Darryl reviews Marvel's Runaways, Hulu's new teen drama in which a group of teens finds out their parents are horrible supervillains. He covers his overall thoughts on the show, and the interesting adaptation choices Marvel chose to add. This show focuses on a group of former childhood friends that drifted apart after one of their group died, Alex, one of the teens, tries to get the group back together when their parents have an annual meeting for their Charity. The teens see their parents do something horrible and... Runaway from home, while developing special abilities and tools they didn't know they had. This definitely feels like a teen show. When Gert was talking about her club, I just realized how long it's been since I thought about homeroom. I enjoy the characters so far and I'm excited to see where they end up. If teen shows are not your thing, it's fair if you do not want to try it, but I would give it a chance. I would compare it to a PG-13 rated Marvel Netflix show. Adaptation wise, Marvel is setting things up to make more narrative sense. The biggest changes so far seem to be with Chase, Karolina, and Molly. Chase was a lot more of a slacker, compared to the preppy lacrosse player he seems to be. Molly was originally the child of two mutants, but now she just seems to have powers. What really happened to Molly's parents? I feel as if they have to show up sometime. Church of the Ghibborim seems like a fair change for the Dean family from their original roles as movie stars. It feels like They seem to be more integral to the plot when in comparison to their comic book counterparts, we will have to see. I hope you enjoy the episode and the holidays. I hope that there are no human sacrifices when your family gets together.

• 00:00:00 Intro
• 00:00:58 - Marvel's Runaways
• 00:09:52 - Adaptation Talk
• 00:18:07 - Farewell and Merry Christmas

Ratings Marvel's Runaways Season 1, Episode 1- Reunion

• Darryl: A-

Subscribe on Android Subscribe on iTunes

Running on Rooftops Episode 100! We are going to take a look at the Tv show that influenced most of the shows that cover, as well as the show that is referenced almost every podcast episode: Smallville. 0:07:15 - Bad

• The show has not aged well - Some of the choices in music and effects are fairly cheezy in retrospect.
• Bad Character Writing - A lot of this comes from how long Smallville ran, but many of the characters felt poorly used. Lana remained on the show for far too long. Jor-El and his overpowered shenanigans got very tiresome. Pete Ross was done a disservice. Finally, never forget "Henry James Olson".
• Smallville Season 8 - The number of missteps in this season almost made Darryl drop watching Smallville entirely

0:18:11 - Good

• The acting wasn't as bad in retrospect - Michael Rosenbaum was overall one of the better actors. His portrayal of Lex was a delight to see for seven seasons. John Glover's Lionel Luther was a fantastic villain for most of his time on the show. The Kents were way better parents than in the Man of Steel. Finally, Tom Wellings' Clark was a little stiff at times, but he did work as the character and an actor. One highlight was when he played Lionel in Clark's body. Another point to him is that his Clark wasn't as mopey as the Barry or Oliver could have been in similar situations.

• The redemption of the show in season 9 - After the disappointment that was Season 8, Smallville did a complete turnaround in Season 9. The writers trimmed some fat from early seasons, focused more on stories in Metropolis, While not perfect, Smallville season 9 was the best we could have hoped for live action superheroes at the time.
• The team-up episodes - Starting with the introduction of Bart Allen(Impulse), the team-up episodes with various DC superheroes were a delight. Some highlights were Impulse, Zatanna, Speedy and the Justice Society of America. By the end of season 9, you can see Clark grow into a leader and a symbol of hope viewers hoped to see from the beginning

00:26:33 - Take-Aways

• Not being afraid to commit to the comics - Smallville was afraid to commit to being a comic book show for half of its run. The Arrowverse starts with their heroes almost fully formed. If Arrow started back in 2003, it would have taken place years before he went on the island, with his home filled with various arrows in the background of each episode.
• The lost art of the Opening Theme song - A Strong opening theme song can get viewers primed and excited for the upcoming show. While cheezy, the opening theme song for Smallville still gets me a bit exciting. You can't really say much for the themes for the current run of comic TV
• Fingers crossed they don't drag the current shows for too long

00:32:12 - Thanks to everyone for 100 episodes! Thanks to everyone that is subscribed to the show! Even if this your first episode, I hope you say for another 100. Also Thanks to everyone who has been on the show in the last 99 episodes. Hope you all enjoyed being on, and let's keep on running! References

• A classic example Smallville not fully committing
• A classic example of some decent Smallville acting

Subscribe on Android Subscribe on iTunes

Phil delivers a stripped down version of the podcast this week, as he ranks the last two weeks of DC shows on theCW. Then he gives his impression on the first few episodes of The Gifted. Sorry for all the technical difficulties, but stay subscribed for our 100th episode next week.

• 00:00:20 - Phil's Technical Difficulties
• 00:01:47 - Rankings for theCW Premieres
• 00.00.0 - Rankings for theCW shows for the week of 10/15/17
• 00:11:35 - The Gifted
• 00:15:30 - Question of the Week
• 00:16:48 - Outro

Question of the Week

• Which one of the Legends powers would you want to have?

Subscribe on Android Subscribe on iTunes

The Fall 2017 season kicked off on theCW last week and Darryl is here to give his opinion on who came back the best. Darryl ranks the 4 returning shows (not counting Riverdale) Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash, Supergirl.

• 00:00:00 - Intro
• 00:01:21 - #4
• 00:02:49 - #3
• 00:04:45 - #2
• 00:06:15 - #1
• 00:08:30 - Outro

Ratings

1. Supergirl
2. The Flash
3. Arrow
4. Legends of Tomorrow

References

Subscribe on Android Subscribe on iTunes

Darryl is running solo this episode as he reviews the new Marvel TV Show "The Gifted"

The Strucker Family

What surprised me the most I'm not hating the kids. Lauren is a good elder sibling, Andy was not the worst. It's also nice that the family isn't completely dysfunctional. The parents were a little less interesting. The mom is a bit stereotypical, but the Dad's dynamic as a former part of the mutant-hunting division, now trying to save his mutant kids has potential.

Mutant Underground

I'm a bit surprised that Blink is used as our introduction to the Mutant Underground, but not as surprising after the fact. She was a character in the X-Men Mega Event "Age Of Apocalypse" where she was a fairly green character. However, I know her the most from the long-running Exiles comic (One of my favorite comics series BTW), where she ended up leading the team. Polaris is in an interesting position, both in her adaptation and her position in the story She may be the most high profile character from the comics, but she may also be the character with the most interesting arc at the outset of the series. The other Underground characters do not stand out too much. Thunderbird is their sensor. This is fine, but I have no feelings about Marco, the laser leader man. I'm excited to see where this family drama goes. I was honestly expecting to dislike the show, but I'm interested to see what happens next. Also, Stan Lee had a cameo!

QOTD

Who is your favorite Marvel mutant?

Next week:

We cover the return of the CW shows.

Time Codes

• 00:00 -Intro
• 01:40 - The Gifted Review
• 05:10 - Mutant Underground
• 05:33 - Blink Character Background
• 06:43 - Polaris
• 08:26 - The other characters
• 10:25 - Final Thoughts
• 11:05 -Question of the Week

Ratings

The Gifted - Episode 1 Season 1 - eXposed

• Darryl: B+

References

Subscribe on Android Subscribe on iTunes

Welcome to Season 4! Welcome to Season 4 of Running on Rooftops. If this is your first episode, Darryl and Phil are two guys that enjoy comic books and the media they are adapted to. We will be here every week to rate and review comic book tv shows and movies. There's a lot of new events ahead that we will cover this year, like Gifted, the Justice League movie and the CW four-way crossover "Crisis on Earth X". We are a spoiler-filled podcast, meaning we like to discuss the source materials for the shows we cover. So be warned, and feel free to skip around. In this episode, we cover the two-part premiere of the new ABC Series Marvel's Inhumans, and the first 2 episodes of Gotham season 4 Marvel's Inhumans This show raises a lot of questions. The biggest question being: why should we care about the Inhuman Royal Family? Something just seems off about the show, but I can see them trying to build to something epic. Overall, it does not quite meet the expectations for a show that premiered in IMAX theatres. Gotham It is hard to deny how cool it was to see both Selena and Bruce fighting in the streets, and seeing Bruce's costume evolve was a highlight. For the villains, Penguins crime licenses are amazingly stupid but straight out of a comic book. As for Scarecrow. He's really off looking, and scythe doesn't look sharp, but it's a good, not so high-level villain to face. In addition, the mob element was a highlight of season 1, so it's great to see Falcone may return Sadly, Barbara's return is tiring and the lack of spine for the cops was frustrating. It feels like the GCPD goes from corrupt to clean every few seasons, but it's a good place for Jim to come in as the commissioner he needs to be. Next Time We cover Fox's new show in the X-Men universe "The Gifted" QOTW What Inhuman Power would you want to have after Terrigenesis have? Time Codes

• 00:00 - Intro
• 00:55 - Season 4
• 05:03 - Behold! The Inhumans
• 31:37 - Ratings
• 34:14 - Question of the Week!
• 38:19 - Gotham
• 01:01:37 - Ratings
• 01:03:49 - Outro

Ratings Gotham

• Darryl: B
• Phil: B

Inhumans Behold... The Inhumans Inhumans: Season 1, Episode 1

• Darryl: C
• Phil: D+

Subscribe on Android Subscribe on iTunes

Darryl and guest host Joe take a first look take our first look at Netflix mini series: The Defenders. This is the series we've been waiting for since this podcast started, and it does not disappoint. We give our spoiler free impressions on the first three episodes of The Defenders, then we discuss the four main characters and villains in Spoiler Space. How satisfying were the fights? Which characters worked surprisingly well together? Listen and find out! This episode was recorded the premiere weekend of the show, (8/19/2017) so forgive any outdated comments! Check out our coverage on the other members of the Defenders:

• Daredevil - #NinjaFatigue (Daredevil Season 2) -IROR #39
• Jessica Jones -AKA Phil needs to watch more Jessica Jones (Jessica Jones): IROR #10
• Luke Cage - Sweet Christmas Day (International Podcast Day 2016, Luke Cage Episode 1) : TAROR #2
• Iron Fist - Wait, What's your Name? (Iron Fist Spoiler Free Early Thoughts) : TAROR #24

Time Codes

• 00:00 - Intro
• 11:58 - Episode one concerns
• Spoiler Space
• 15:00 - Alexandra
• 20:18 - Electra
• 27:51 - Luke Cage and Iron Fist
• 34:31 - Daredevil and Jessica Jones
• 45:00 - Final Thoughts and Ratings
• 54:25 - Outro

Ratings The Defenders: Episodes 1 -3

• Darryl: A
• Joe: A+

References

• Follow Joe on Instagram: joedumpster21
• The Defender's IMDB

Subscribe on Android Subscribe on iTunes

This a podcast where comics, their adaptations, and all things superheroes are discussed by fans like you. From page to screen, we run in between, analyzing and reviewing your favorite comic book media. If any comic book property has been adapted to another medium, Darryl and Phil will be there to cover it.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Darryl and Phil review Spider-Man: Homecoming, the joint release from Marvel and Sony. We reflect on the past few iterations of Spider-Man movies, talk about a basketful of Easter eggs, and gush about Tom Holland and Micheal Keaton. Spider-Man is finally in the Marvel Cinematic Universe everyone. Let's Celebrate! This episode is also our final episode in our Totally Awesome season. Thanks for sticking with us for another season. There may be a few episodes here or there this summer, but be ready for new, regular episodes near the end of September 2017.

Time Codes

• 00:00 - Intro
• 00:53 - Where Have we Been?
• 03;00 - Spoiler Free Review
• 31:40 - Ratings
• 33:43 - Spoiler Space
• 34:25 - Donald Glover
• 35:27 - One of Our Favorite Moments/ Twists
• 41:30 - Ned
• 47:09 - Tony and Happy
• 55:18 - One of Our Least Favorite Moments
• 01:10:20 - Outro

Ratings Spider-Man: Homecoming

• Darryl: B+
• Phil: B+

References

Spider-Man Homecoming on IMDB The broken timeline on SlashFilm http://www.cbr.com/roll-call-putting-names-to-17-new-faces-in-spider-man-homecoming/

Phil Sprints through the season 3 finale of iZombie. Was it bigger? Badder? Zombier? Listen to find out.

Time Codes

• 00:00 - Intro
• 00:56 - Phil is back
• 01:12 - Season finale Review
• 11:20 - Ratings
• 12:40 - Outro

Ratings Finale

• Phil: A-

Season 3

• Phil: A-

References