Zero Issues Comic Podcast

The question all comic fans have wrestled with their whole lives! Which member of The Defenders is the best Defender!? We take five, uh, famous Defenders — The Silver Surfer! Hellcat! Nighthawk! Moondragon! Valkyrie! — and pit them against each other in some very essential Defenders challenges! How convincingly would the Silver Surfer pretend to be Batman in order to help protect Bruce Wayne’s secret identity? How would Moondragon fare in the very real and very serious art of dressage (y’know, fancy horse dancing)? Is it possible Valkyrie would be the absolute best at telling scary campfire stories? Can fancy rich boy Nighthawk possibly compete in a proper hot-dog eating contest? And how do we feel about the vampire and/or vampyr-slaying abilities of Patsy Walker, the Hellcat? All this, and more rankings, and more tangents, and phone calculator functions, for you, all for you!

But first, in honour (with a U) of the late, great Donald Sutherland, we posthumously discuss which comic characters he could have brought to life in a way only he could! Galactus! Colonel Weird (from “Black Hammer”)! The Watcher! DC’s Uncle Sam! Khonshu! The Spectre! And, unfortunately, this segment is how Kyle learned that Donald Sutherland had passed. (Sorry, Kyle.)

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It’s POWER RECORDS week on Zero Issues, where we listen to not one, but TWO ridiculously amazing DC Power Records from decades ago. Comics on vinyl! First up is Superman- PO Box 65 …. a riveting tale of a Beatles like band kidnapped by someone who doesn’t know much about computers and Superman quietly admitting to leaving people to die on a desert island that he dropped a comet on to.

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This episode has some serious balls, and I don’t mean the eyeballs that Nightcrawler popped out of Apocalypse’s head in the most recent issue of X-Men! This week, we tackle some current topics: the Venom 3 trailer, the Wolverine, uh, popcorn bucket, that picture of the new Superman costume, Terrence Howard IN GENERAL, and, finally, how the grand experiment that is Krakoa ended. That, and we throw balls at each other. Serious balls!

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A week late, but worth the wait! As we enter a weird summer movie season in a year with few superhero movies, at least by 21st century standards, we feel compelled to discuss the untapped cinematic potential of comic series NOT based on DC or Marvel characters! So listen along as we stunt-cast the future stars of indie-comic movies! Just imagine… The extremely youthful Johnny Pemberton as the titular MADMAN! Jeff Bridges, Chip Zdarsky and Will Forte as father and sons in PUBLIC DOMAIN! A big guy who famously wore blue, Henry Cavill, spooning justice as THE TICK! Fletcher Hanks’ STARDUST as portrayed by the only man who could, John Cena! Amanda Seyfried as the skull-faced mystery woman FANTOMAH! And can you imagine Oscar Isaac as Will Eisner’s THE SPIRIT? Merk can’t. But just maybe… HOLLYWOOD can!?

But first! We return to a recent favourite in our ongoing series of games based around Merk’s collection of 1991 Marvel trading cards! Prepare for another round of the just named, zingy Zero Issues… uh, “Battle Holes”… in which the votes against Sasquatch are suspicious, we pit Amazing Friend against Amazing Friend, things take a turn for the magical but also stage-magical, Archangel is a grumpy boy, and Quasar finally catches a break.

We’re brave enough to say it: This is a damn fine episode.

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The first season of Xmen 97 is OVER!!!

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This Week, for our annual We Put Up a Mother’s Day Episode a Week or More Late spectacular, we’re thinking about some moms that haven’t really gotten the spotlight. What’s The Question’s relationship with his mother? What about Doctor Doom? Puck? What is Cyclops’s mom’s name, even? Who’s the best mom in comics, and who’s the absolute worst? All that, and Ma Hunkel, AND The Cyclone Kids. But NO SCRIBBLY.

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Hey, let’s put all that structure aside for an episode, and just relax by the fire and have a friendly chat about comics. Doesn’t that sound nice?

We discuss comic runs that just didn’t do right by their character or concept: Merk compares the new wave of Conan comics from Titan coming off Conan being a friggin’ Avenger over at Marvel, Kyle mourns for the lost potential in the Krakoan era and the wacky island hijinx so suddenly torn from us, and Bry gripes about the current status of Spider-Man (again!?) as we get into the modern habit of abrupt status-quo changes, relaunches, and gimmicks in superhero titles.

Aside from the X-Men and Deadpool and everyone’s fave Kraven, we’re looking at a relative comic-media drought for 2024. Does this signal the end of superhero dominance in Hollywood? Are we just getting a much-needed breather? Or is a bigger shift in the movie business brewing? (I mean, we don’t know, we’re indie comics podcasters, sheesh.)

All this and more! Including talking about the things we don’t have more time to talk about!? What an episode!

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OH MAN!! X-Men 97 continues and we talk episodes 5-7.

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Meanwhile, at a different while! This week, we’re talking about our favourite comics that take places with familiar characters in unfamiliar times. Just what happens when super heroes start showing up hundreds of years ahead of schedule? What else causes cancer that Spider-Man 2099 didn’t warn us about when he travelled back to 1995? Just how much time is there between Conan, Kull, and Solomon Kane? Find the answer to none of these questions, plus and intriguing Read This Now for the new Flash ongoing, in this timely episode!

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Comics and movies! Movies and comics! Superheroes from comics and movies have been entrenched in pop culture as a mainstay for quite a while now (some say too long). But what about the superhero movies that AREN’T based on comics?

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