Show notes provided by Arco Esposito

Are you a Godzilla fan? What am I saying of course you are duh!! You’re here because your Kaiju fanhood is unquestioned and you have been living your best monster loving life this past year with the release of Toho’s Godzilla Minus One and Legendary’s Godzilla X Kong! Well we here at The Secret Origins Of Mint Condition share your love of all things Godzilla so we are proud to present you with this special podcast today which compares and breaks down these two awesome films! Join James and his trusted monster hunters Shareef And Arco as they deep dive into the depths of Japan’s and Hollywood’s near simultaneous odes to your favorite lizard and his destructive (but cute) friends!! Whether your into the Monsterverse or just into wanton destruction, we are here for it and all the monster madness that comes with them!

Before Freddy, before Jason, before Michael Myers, there was the original horror movie franchise the universal monsters. Although by today’s standards, they may not seem as scary, these legendary figures inspired the monsters and the horror movies of today. While not scary to a modern audience, each one of them was a dive into deeper parts of humanity and represent universal arch types that we still write stories about today. Joining your host James, Joe, Chris, and Josh as they enter the castle, Dracula or Frankenstein and share their thoughts about why these classic monsters still live on today.

In this episode James and Joe talk about: The return of Jim Lee and Geoff Lobe to Batman, DC Absolute Power, initial impressions of Agatha All Along, The Penguin, big new for Superman and Lois final season, what we have been reading, and recommendations.

Show notes provided by Joe Peluso

Horror, mysticism, spiritualism, psychology, philosophy, and a touch of quantum physics, put them all together, stir passionately until a murky broth is formed, and you will have concocted a classic comic entitled "The Saga of the Swamp Thing". Join your hosts James, Chris, Joe, and returning guest, Josh Murray for a deep dive into a marshland of mayhem that could only come from the mind of Alan Moore.

"Anatomy Lesson"-- comprising issues 21-27--of Saga of the Swamp Thing, redefines the titular character, and more importantly, elevates mainstream comics to a new level of enlightened storytelling. Aided and abetted by draftsmen Stephen Bissette and John Totleben, Moore crafts a monumental tale of horror told on an intimate scale that begs the question of what it means to be human.

The boys bring their A-Game as they critique this highly praised seminal story. Questions are raised, theories are discussed, and allusions abound as the insightful analysis branches off into as many bulrushes as one could encounter in the swamp.

A word to the wise: Stay on the shore. Don't delve into the cloudy and cloying confines of the swamp. Alan Moore and his Swamp Thing could be lurking.

With their flight suits on and proton packs charged, The Secret Origins crew is back in the firehouse to talk about Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Join your hosts James, Joe and Chris as they trap ghosts while also giving their thoughts and reflections on this movie and where is stands in the Ghostbusters franchise.

Show notes provided by Joe Peluso

Just in time for the MLB Playoffs and the impending start of the

NHL Season, the boys are back with their raucous and rousing reports

on all things Baseball and Hockey! Join hosts Chris and Joe as they

attempt to "go yard" and slip "the biscuit" past the goalie. The guys

will bring you up to speed on who's making the playoffs and what

skills and advantages the teams have to wield in order to win The

Commissioner's Trophy. Joe makes a surprising pick on what two teams will make it to the Fall Classic; including a dark horse squad the

league should not sleep on.

And then it's time to hit the ice with status updates, roster

moves, and predictions for the new Hockey season. Who is best

positioned to score Lord Stanley's Cup at the end of the most grueling

campaign in pro sports? Chris details it all!

And after spinning out of the way of errant four-seamers up and

in, or surviving a bombastic boarding that spills bloodied teeth onto

the ice, the guys give an unexpected, and somewhat, scathing account of the current NFL. You better duck, the flags will be flying!

So ice that pitching arm down after throwing 110 pitches to the

killer offense of The Phillies, and try to avoid those "majors" when

you clash with The Lightning.

Do that and you might see your favorite team take home a

championship. It's why we watch, cheer, boo, scream, and sometimes, at the end of a wild season, are brought to tears of happiness. The Trophy and The Cup are might be coming home.

Joe and Keith do a deep dive into the TV show Dexter. Taking about the original series, Dexter: New Blood and the upcoming prequel series Dexter: Original Sin.

Just a note if you haven't watched Dexter there a spoiler's ahead.

Show notes provided by Joe Peluso

Bruce Wayne/Batman is now in his 85th year! That's amazing! Thousands of tales have thrilled the legion of fans who have followed The Caped Crusader from the crime infested back alleys of Gotham to "apocalyptic" worlds populated by monstrous fire pits!
  Mobsters, super-villains, demons and aliens have all met defeat at
the gloved hands of The Dark Knight. On countless occasions, brains
over brawn has won the day for this fearless crimefighter. The
superstitious cowardly lot of deviants and skels fear his rage and
wrath, and quiver and quake at his awesome visage framed against an
unforgiving moon. He is an "urban legend" that melts into the shadows when his grim work is painfully accomplished.  But there was a time when this "creature of the night" was still learning how to hunt down his prey. A time in the shrouded past when his nights were fluid andfraught with decisions and actions that did not always lead to
victory.
   Join your host, James, Chris, and Joe as they explore one of The
Batman's seminal undertakings--the thirteen issue opus--"Batman: The Long Halloween"! The brainchild of writer/editor Archie Goodwin, this story is the direct sequel to "Batman: Year One". It is populated by a cadre of career criminals and freaky fiends who would turn Gotham into a warzone.Creators Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale weave a tale of villainy and viciousness, danger and deceit that will leave guessing to the very end!
   As the seasons come and go, leading from one harrowing holiday to
the next, the body count mounts and the fledgling Batman continues to be stymied by the Holiday Killer. Seamlessly and artfully accompanied by the stylish renderings of Tim Sale, "Batman:The Long Halloween" is a classic tale that builds to a fever pitch. It belongs on the bookshelf of all Batman aficionados.. It is one of the truly great
highlights in the 85 year career of The Dark Knight!

Show notes provided by Jack Adrien

How does a rejuvenated science fiction franchise follow arguably the best installment in its long-standing television and movie series? Well, if it’s the decades-long Star Trek franchise and following Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan’s (Khan’s) critical and commercial success, Paramount Pictures greenlit for producer Harve Bennett to write a sequel the day after Khan opened. But how would that work? We watched and mourned Mr. Spock’s heroic sacrifice to save the Enterprise and her crew, marking the “death” of not only one of the franchise’s most beloved and well-known characters, but also a character that embodies the science fiction genre. And Leonard Nimoy, the actor who brought Mr. Spock to life, had long expressed his frustration with the weight of playing the character, most notably in his first autobiography released in 1975, I Am Not Spock. With Khan, did Paramount grant Nimoy’s wish?

Whereas Star Trek: The Motion Picture rebooted the franchise for cinema audiences, Khan reintroduced a memorable antagonist from one of the series’ first season episodes. Although the third film in the Star Trek film franchise,Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Search) marked the second part of what many consider a three-film story arc – beginning with Khan released in 1982 and ending with 1986’s Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Voyage) – that shows how the original series characters accept aging in the franchise’s world building. Within this loose narrative trilogy, Captain James T. Kirk met his son, David Marcus – neither of whom had met before – and Kirk witnessed the death of his best friend, Mr. Spock, in Khan. And in a startling reversal, rogue Klingons kill Kirk’s son and Mr. Spock is “resurrected” in Search. Memorably, to save his life and those of his crew, Kirk must kill the franchise’s most central character in Search: The USS Enterpriseitself. Nestled as the story-arc’s midpoint, Search allowed the Star Trek franchise to mature and move beyond its television series roots. Released three years before the successor television series in the franchise, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Search delivers on poignant story arcs for its characters, particularly William Shatner’s portrayal of Kirk.

As Paramount released more films over the years, the fandom (i.e., Trekkies) settled on an “Odd-Even Rule” (i.e., the even-numbered films are often considered better than the odd-numbered ones). But that shorthand has often overlooked and underrated Search’s significance to the franchise. Foremost, Search marks Leonard Nimoy’s motion picture directorial debut, deftly balancing action, humor, and tension. Nimoy later garnered acclaim for his direction of Voyage and Three Men and a Baby, respectively. Further, Search formally introduced the grammar, syntax, andvocabulary for the Klingon language. The constructed language gained greater notoriety when its creator, Marc Okrand, and Pocket Books published The Klingon Dictionary in 1985. Moreover, Nimoy cast Christopher Llyod against type as the primary Klingon antagonist, Commander Kruge, and whose standout performance paved the way for his later iconic role as Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy. Lastly, Kirk’s destruction of the USS Enterprise over the Genesis planet in Search would later introduce the USS Enterprise-A in Voyage, the replacement for the destroyedstarship, creating a legacy of distinguishing successor ships of the line with the next letter in the alphabet that has endured in the franchise. 

Join the Mint Condition crew of James, Joe, John, Josh, and Jack as we go behind the scenes and discus Search’s history, our impressions when we saw the movie, and where the movie fits in the Star Trek film franchise today. Moreover, we discuss alternative castings and storylines, and does Search disprove the Odd-Even Rule. Because the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many.

We have made it through another year of podcasting and to celebrate we dive into something that has been talked about few times on this show. Almost 50 years ago a fanzine was created by a group of friends. This fanzine was called Outlooks it featured interviews some of comics top talent including Neal Adams, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman and more. It also featured reviews, opinions and artwork from some of the great talents of the time. One of Outlooks creators was our own Joe Peluso but also joining us is returning guest and another part of the Outlooks creative team Jim Chadwick. We hope you enjoy this episode and thank you for being a listener.