Podcasting This Week

Here's a quick update, I have three new podcast episodes available this week that I want folks to be aware of.

First up is The GAR! Podcast, co-hosted with friend and partner Ray Cornwall. The GAR! Podcast is the Glenn Walker and Ray Cornwall weekly podcast where they talk unrehearsed about whatever happens to come to mind. It’s an audio-zine for your mind, a nerd exploration of a nerd world, coming to you from the suburbs of New Jersey and the sunny lakes of Florida via Skype.

In the latest episode, Prince Underground, we discuss our favorite performer, the late Prince, Purple Rain Deluxe, The Revolution, Susan Rogers, fandom, bootlegs, the Prince estate, The Black Album, drugs, baseball umbrellas, high price paraphernalia, listener feedback, Keith Pollard and Ron Wilson, and AI Alexa.



Then there's The Make Mine Magic Podcast, which I co-host with The Bride. The Make Mine Magic Podcast features Jenn and Glenn Walker talking about Disney, parks, movies, travel advice, characters, Marvel, Star Wars, Studio Ghibli, etc., if it’s Disney, it’s fair game.

This week’s episode includes discussion of "The Lion Guard," including the show, the characters, the origins, the actors, the music, crocodiles, zuka zama, lion super powers, Return of the Roar, "It’s Unbungalievable," the circle of life, and being a kid again. You can hear it right here.

Finally, there is the Nerdfect Strangers podcast that I co-host with partners Bobby Fisher and Jerry Whitworth Nerdfect Strangers is hosted by Bobby Fisher, who started it in August 2014 with original co-host and all-around nice guy/rock star, Jonathan Rodriguez. Since March 2015 the show has been hosted by Bobby and cool comics blogger, Jerry Whitworth, and, as of September 2015, Glenn Walker, who is also a real class act. We talk about all things nerdy and geeky including but not limited to: comics, wrestling, video games, nerd news, movies and TV.

In the latest episode, Exploding Windup Penguins, we talk about some of the San Diego Comic Con news, Glenn's distaste for blue M&Ms, and that snake, Randy "Macho Man" Savage turning heel and joining the dastardly NOW. We also talk about the disaster that was the main event of WWE Great Balls of Fire, and promote Noah Houlihan's Game the Gamer Kickstarter.

Arrow S05 E03: A Matter of Trust

As we open, class is in session. The new recruits to Team Arrow - Wild Dog, Evelyn Sharp, Curtis, and Ragman, whose civilian guise of Rory Regan looks a bit like a Barry Allen stunt double - are watching Green Arrow in action and supposed to be taking notes.

There's a new drug on the street, stardust, that 'makes PCP look like children's aspirin.' Wild Dog wants to get on the street after it, but Oliver says no, so we know where this is going. Could the name stardust be a reference to Stephen Amell's recent adventures with the WWE? More than you can imagine. The dealer slinging stardust is Derek Sampson, played by wrestler Cody Rhodes, previously known as Stardust. Yeah, I know, whether I like it or not, I'm actually learning about wrestling from Nerdfect Strangers and The GAR! Podcast…

Wild Dog and his short fry sidekick Evelyn go out looking for who is dealing the stardust without Oliver's permission. The Dog kills him by dropping him into a vat of stardust and chemicals Batman style, yeah, this isn't going to end well. Sampson doesn't die per se, he was transformed, and now he doesn't feel pain. Oliver acts accordingly like a jerk, and forbids the recruits from helping.

As if we didn't already have too many characters, and are need of a scorecard, this episode we are introduced to new district attorney Adrian Chase. In the comics, he is known as Vigilante, created by Marv Wolfman and George Perez he was sort of DC Comics' answer to the Punisher, plus a code against killing. When he did eventually cause the death of police officers, the guilt brought him to kill himself. Of course, that's the abbreviated version, there's a lot more to it. We've seen an artist sketch of Vigilante in the first episode this season already. Chase had sought to flip Sampson to find the stardust supplier, but Wild Dog put a monkey wrench in that plan.

Once Sampson is on the rampage to build an army like himself, and after the obligatory pep talk from Felicity, Green Arrow re-gathers the team. They're sparring and bonding, and getting a lesson from Curtis on Mr. Terrific, sadly, it's not who we think. In the Arrowverse, Terry Sloane was a wrestler whose motto was 'fair play,' which is why Curtis' jacket has that on the sleeves. Groan. As a Mr. Terrific fan, I feel a bit cheated, but in a wrestling-themed episode, I guess I'll take it. If you want to know why I love the original Mr. Terrific, Mark Waid says it pretty well here.

In the subplots, Flashback Island is just Bratva blah blah blah, Thea is fighting with Susan Williams a deceitful newscaster at channel 52, and Diggle goes to jail to await court-martial, but there's a twist when it comes to his cellmate. It's Deadshot. I guess the moratorium set by the DC movie universe has loosened and the character can return to "Arrow." But who it is isn't the twist, it's that John imagined him up. He was never there - John is cracking up.

In the final fight we get to see the full Mr. Terrific ensemble. The facial T is as cool as it is weird looking, another effect better down on the comics page than in real life. Is it just me, or is it just too close to being blackface? Wild Dog is fully formed, Ragman would be better in a cape in my opinion, and sadly Evelyn Sharp needs to establish an identity before she gets a definitive costume. We'll wait for Artemis.

As I suspected, the John subplot will play out in the next episode as the A story, but another subplot has arisen to replace it. Felicity's weird guilt over Havenrock on Genesis Day forced her to tell Ragman that she did it. His reaction was to walk away. This can't be good.

For my other reviews of the entire "Arrow" series, click here. And if you'd like to discuss this episode and anything else in the Arrowverse, please join the Arrow Discussion Group on Facebook.

Next: Penance!

Captain America - The Damage Is Done

I have talked at length about this at Biff Bam Pop! in my review of Captain America: Steve Rogers #1, and on episodes of The GAR! Podcast and Nerdfect Strangers here and here. Captain America is an Agent of Hydra, and always has been - or so we have been told.

And that's key. That's what we were told, but apparently we have been lied to. Here's the gist - in the first issue of Captain America: Steve Rogers #1, we see a dual storyline - one where young Steve's mom is tempted into a group that is suspiciously like Hydra (or the Nazis), and one where Captain America kills fellow hero Jack Flag and then says, "Hail Hydra." I have to hand it to writer Nick Spencer, because while I wasn't happy with the story, it was good and I enjoyed it, to the point of wanting to see what happened next. This was accompanied by some great art by Jesus Saiz, not a bad comic, all things considered, and one hell of a cliffhanger.

But. That's not the problem. The problem is that the day before the comic was released, Marvel Comics Senior Vice-President of Publishing, and former editor and Executive Editor, Tom Brevoort, went on several high profile media circuits and made certain pronouncements. From Time to Newsweek, from Entertainment Weekly to CNN, he announced that this was not mind control, not a hoax, not 'an imaginary story,' not a double or clone, and not a double agent thing. He basically closed off any possible escape for this horror, and then he said what clinched the noose around the character and much of the American public. "Captain America is, and has always been, a Hydra agent."

None of this was in the comic book, mind you, only from his mouth. And that's what drove me crazy, the hype machine, not the comic itself. Now we comic readers know that editors lie, and we know that (hopefully) Captain America would be back to status quo in six months to a year. That's just how comics roll. The problem is, that's not how the non-comic-buying public rolls. They don't know that's how it works.

They also don't know the intricacies of comic book continuity and logic. Many people who are into comics equate Hydra with the Nazis. They are not technically the same thing as the Marvel Cinematic Universe has gone to great lengths to demonstrate, but let's face it, Hydra was founded originally (don't talk to me about Jonathan Hickman's retconned ancient origin) by Nazis, doesn't that at its core, make them Nazis? Both groups hate, both groups seek world domination, and both groups will kill to get their way. At the very least, Hydra is evil in a very Nazi way.

But the public doesn't differentiate, and the shorthand has become - Captain America is a Nazi. Have you ever been called a Nazi sympathizer in a public place? I have. Twice. In the last month. That was because of my iPhone with the cover of Captain America #100 on the case. After that, I have not even dared to wear any of my Captain America t-shirts. In discussions of the topics, many non-comics folks I chat with just call the character 'Captain Nazi.' Yes, it's that bad.

I have to wonder about all those folks I saw at the premiere showing of Captain America: Civil War wearing Cap shirts, along with Avengers, and a handful of Iron Man as well, are faring at this moment. Do they still wear their Cap shirts? Speaking of movies, that brings up another point about public perception. When you don't follow comics, and only the destructive changing events are publicized, and not the fixing or returning events, your only point of reference is what you know from the news.

Case in point. When I first saw trailers for Superman Returns (2006), Man of Steel (2013), and Batman V Superman (2016), I heard several folks in the theaters repeatedly ask, "Isn't Superman dead?" For those not in the know, Superman died in the comics in 1993, and returned from the dead a little over a year later. Guess which story the media covered? People only remember what is drilled into their head. Mark my words, in ten years, Captain America will still be a Nazi in the eyes of the non-comics-reading public. The damage is already done.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ~ So many folks have requested a full review from me of Batman v Superman, but the truth is I am worn out by this movie. I hated it in the theater, and have hated talking about it since, which I have done multiple times.

What I'll do instead is direct you to where you can read and hear some of my opinions on the movie, and then present a comic to read, one that shows what Superman is supposed to be like. Here you go…