The Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow! Podcast

It’s gloves off, autopilot on as font of wisdom Liz Large joins us to debate and dissect the crushability of floppy haired sexy-criers who may or may not be sociopaths in Excalibur #90, “Blood Eagle,” in which pride’s better than wisdom but isn’t it always? Shocking twists abound as Kitty Pryde and Pete Wisdom explore the depths Black Air’s alien repository and Pete’s tortured mind, while the GGW team delves fearlessly into the equally dark recesses of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to resurrect fandoms past. As they said back in 1995: where there’s smoke there’s fire and probably hot knives.

We’ve got one by the proverbial tail in Excalibur #89, “Easy Tiger,” in which returning guest, comics and pop culture scholar Nicole Freim, helps us peel back Pete Wisdom’s battered trench coat to reveal… a guy who might be more of an asshole than John Constantine? But hey, his hot knives are cool, and that’s enough for Kitty Pryde to almost kiss him with her lips in the laboratory of Black Air’s top-secret base for aliens and general weirdness. Plus! Amanda smooches Kurt and everybody hates Rory who hates Spoor.

Welcome back to “Our Son Pete,” a monthly analysis of the best/worst/worst-best mutant on Marvel’s main Earth! Just kidding! Or are we…? We are! But only mostly, because we are joined to chat Excalibur #88, “Dream Nails,” by the man who does host that podcast, daring Dan Grote! Love Pete or hate him, he’s here to stay and we’re here to reckon with it, talking what makes this broody super-spy tick and how he’s actually pretty crushable…? (But we’d definitely warn you away from dating him!) Plus memories of X-Files past and praise for Larry Stroman.

Welcome back to reality—we ain’t spat in it or nothing. (Though we can’t promise the same of Pete Wisdom.) But we’re jumping right from one apocalypse into another, driving a bumpy jeep through Genoshan metaphors and marvelous mutant ones in general, talking appropriation and identification and all the bad and better stuff pop culture can do with comics scholar Dr. Neil Shyminsky! Plus—we look back at the mad, mad, mad, mad world of X-Men bulletin boards and go searching for the Sugar Man hive.

This is a no-smoking podcast but Pete Wisdom’s coming in hot whether we like it or not. That’s right—it’s time for the debut of the asshole/heartthrob/irritating author surrogate (opinions vary!) mound of teen angst who walks like a man and loves a torn trench coat but loves smoking even more. We talk about that plus Warren Ellis and accountability and a Genosha metaphor or two with writer, activist, and podcaster Elana Levin!

Note: since we recorded this episode, SoManyofUs.com has released an update on discussions with Ellis. You can read their statement here. 

This week, we’re slashing (and snikt-ing!) our way to the conclusion of the “Soulsword Trilogy” in Excalibur #85, “Edge of Night,” co-starring Wolverine + Wolverine afficionado Dr. Justin Wigard! Our discussion digs into retributive violence, Final Girl tropes, 90s maximalism, and the complexity of loving a guy whose main thing is being extremely stabby. Plus, we discover a new unit of comics time involving cigars and how long it takes to smoke them while going to stabby town/proving your mutant manhood.

We’re still adapting to this brand-new era in which Excalibur sucks less. But supernatural transformations are better with great company, and we’ve got that in spades talking demons, magic swords, and the girls who wear them best in Excalibur #84, “Dark Adapted Eye,” with returning guest Dr. Cait Coker! Plus Cait does Supernatural, Anna quotes Lucifer, and we contemplate hard-hitting questions like—why do so many demonic possession stories feature bad dancing and karaoke?

We’re (still) back from the winter break and reeling from term prep, but that doesn’t mean we’re not excited (positively possessed!) by the start of a brand-new era for our beloved British-y mutants, with a new regular writer (Warren Ellis) who brings lots of baggage but definite skill at scripting. Dr. John Edward Martin helps us slice through atmospheres of horror in a story that sharply exploits tropes in the service of something truly uncanny! Who’ll get to Kitty first—the evil sword, the demon weed, or the fashion police??

We’re back from the holidays and eager to discuss the very important symbolism of robot Velociraptors in wizard capes in the bafflingly titled Phalanx Covenant crossover issue Excalibur #82, “Life Signs (Part 3): The Light of a Tainted Dawn,” in which Nightcrawler saves the world through the power of life-coaching and everyone’s hair looks fabulous. But we’re focusing on the Forge of it all, discussing race, representation, and Indigenous Futurism with comics scholar Dr. Jeremy M. Carnes!

New VIDEO episode! Feast your eyes & ears upon our 2nd annual Holiday Special, featuring reflections on the year that was, too much talk about essay plagiarism, a few technical difficulties, revisiting the top eps of '22, and a draw for PRIZES!

Note: This is the unedited audio version.