Comic book movies are dead! Now what?

This week, we talk about how we got here, what comes next, and what are we worried that we’re going to miss out on. How elegantly can we glue comic books onto other hot genres (elevated horror, anybody)? Are we getting into the deconstruction era already? Are we seeing the real-ass return of practical effects, or smaller theatres, or giving up and staying home? Do we embrace the future, or hide in our caves?

And in the Warmup, we have the triumphant return of the Comic Book Movies’ Actors Quiz! Play at home, you too can beat Kyle at this!

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CALVIN & HOBBES.

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It’s episode number 501, so you know what that means: AN ALL JEANS EPISODE! The result is a 40-minute trip into madness that’s at least tangentially connected to denim. We begin with a look back at the famous and/or infamous button-fly Levi’s jeans commercial featuring Rob Liefeld and directed by Spike Lee, a real thing that happened. We debate button-fly vs. zipper, compare our personal experiences with social-media algorithms, and slip into some denim-related tangents.

But what of our comics Jeans? Such as Jean Loring, who was put through the ringer in “Identity Crisis”, a superhero event mystery that does not make sense. And of course, Jean Grey, and we try to figure out if literally anyone in the Marvel Universe can defeat the Phoenix! Which superheroes and villains can pull off a costume with jeans, from Superman and the Superboys to Angar the Screamer, Jessica Jones, and even Conan the Barbarian? And just imagine Iron Man’s denim armour, the Mk. D! All this and Gene Colan, too!

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500 episodes! Like, 500 complete episodes. Way more than Seinfeld has, I’m pretty sure. For this centennial celebration, this time? We’re just gonna sort of take it easy, with a chill-as-heck lava lamp of an episode, which are the kind of episodes that I think we like to do, now that we’ve discovered that after over a decade of getting together and recording, we’re actually kind of good at just talking to each other about comics and junk.

Also, happy birthday, Merk’s sister!

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It’s time for the FIFTH installment of the CELERY STALK SLAM!!

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CONTENT WARNING: This episodes includes a discussion on human trafficking, which some may find upsetting or triggering. This topic begins at 13 minutes into the episode.

This week we interview a man who should need no introduction: TYLER MANE! From Saskatooner to globe-trotting professional wrestler to movie and television actor to comic creator, our guest has done it all! We dig into his wild and expanding career, his experiences portraying comic characters like Sabretooth, Torminox and Blackstar, and producing his graphic novel “The Last Spartan: Red Tape”! Based on the novels by John F. Saunders and inspired by real crimes in human trafficking, Tyler discusses how he and editor Renae Geerlings recruited legendary writer Christopher Priest, artists Will Conrad, Jimbo Salgado, Michael Montenat, and cover artist Marc Silvestri to bring the project to life, through every step of the creative process, how these stories can help in the real world, and where the series may lead next!

And guess what? This episode is also in video format! Watch below!

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In 1982, a young Wes Craven set out to make the ultimate horror character. He failed, and made a Swamp Thing movie, instead! To wrap up this year’s HowLenWein festivities, this week, we sit down and watch this thing. Do we watch the unrated version? Not all of us! And some of us are steamed about that. Mostly Kyle, because he watched it on YouTube like a chuuuuuuuuuump.

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Howl-Len-Wein, our October celebration of all things Len Wein, continues with an ALL-WEIN LIGHTNING ROUND! Merk tests Kyle and Bry at three rounds of LEN WEIN TRIVIA, in which the Wein-owledge of both quizboys and quizmaster is tested! Mega-Producer Kyle has a list of Len Wein-created characters for us to cast in the movies, from Brother Voodoo to Krakoa to Jigsaw! Bry takes his opportunity to discuss Wein’s writing contributions to pioneering Canadian computer-animated series ReBoot, and some particularly pivotal episodes at that! And in the style of Wein’s All-New, All-Different X-Men co-creations who were originally intended to be DC characters, we try the same trick in reverse by reimagining cool Marvel designs as entirely different DC characters! All this, and a tangent about David Dastmalchian and his very comfy-looking coffins.

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We continue HOWL-LEN-WEIN with dramatic read from one of Len Wein’s weirdest comics, Batman: A word to the wise, a one shot Batman comic that takes place in it’s entirety in Canada, really pushing literacy  and has STRONG and STRANGE ties to Zellers!

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Happy HowLenWein, everyone! For this indeterminate amount of time (there may be a slight dip in the middle, not unlike a fancy ballroom dance), we are covering all things Len Wein. This week, we start it off by really talking about the man himself: a writer and editor of many comics for the Big Two, the co-creator of Swamp Thing, Wolverine, and about a hundred more characters that you’ve probably heard of or have a passing familiarity with.

Plus he wrote for Mummies Alive! I’m bummed how little we got to talk about Mummies Alive this week. Maybe next week. Probably not. Mummies Alive ruled.

Mummies! Alive!

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