Cinematic Universe

Joe and James are joined by The AV Club's Caroline Siede to discuss the one comic book movie of 1997 that was an unqualified success. Probably because people didn't know it was a comic book movie. It's Barry Sonnenfeld's witty, Will-Smith-stratosphere-launching, Men in Black! The gang also dive deep into the Wonder Woman 1984 news, with TAKES on whether or not the apparent return of Steve Trevor is a good thing. And it's a DC-heavy news segment generally, with some chat about Aquaman, Green Lantern Corps and the company's recent executive reshufflings. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joe and Seb are joined by Rhys Williamson to take a run at some of the most recent news - including that gorgeous Into the Spider-Verse trailer, the prospect of a new Jared Leto Joker movie, the new Ant-Man and the Wasp character posters, and an avalanche of Avengers 4 clickbait. And continuing the theme from last week, there's a musical element to the Pitch! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A pod's gotta do what a pod's gotta do Joe, Seb and James have a treat here for you The only doom that's looming is us singing you to death So we'll give you a second to catch your breath No, don't worry. We're not singing. At all. We promise. But we have gone pretty darned deep on Joss Whedon's 2008 online musical miniseries Dr Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog, with yet another discussion about fridging as well as an exploration of toxic masculinity that seems even more worryingly apt than it did ten years ago. And while we don't sing ourselves, for those of you who've never heard the songs we're talking about (or even if you just want to hear them again) we have included a whole bunch of clips, so in a sense it is still a musical episode. Enjoy! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is James referring to in the title of this minisode? Well, you'll have to listen a good way in to find out, because flipping heck, this one pushes the definition of the term "minisode" to its limits. We had a lot to talk about, from Mysterio to Shazam to Doom Patrol to Batwoman to Watchmen to The Eternals. Have you figured out which one made us so angry yet? Clue: it's not Mysterio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The first Deadpool movie was a surprise in just about every sense - from the fact that it was actually pretty good, to the fact that it went on to be phenomenally successful. So does the sequel stand any chance whatsoever of also springing any surprises? Spoilers: actually, yeah. Join Joe, Seb and James for our run through the latest chapter in a series that takes the piss out of comic book movies so much yet might actually be the most comic booky movie series ever to exist. As usual with a new release, we give our spoiler-free reactions for a quarter of an hour or so before then doing a much deeper dive into the nitty gritty. And while there's no news section this week, we have also taken the time for a brief word about Superman star Margot Kidder, who sadly passed away last week at the age of 69. 00:00 - Intro / Margot Kidder tribute 10:58 - Spoiler-Free Discussion 27:46 - Spoiler-Filled Discussion 131:19 - Recommendations / The Pitch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Releasing a little later than expected due to some unforeseen life things getting in the way, here's Joe and James with a minisode chat that mostly acts as a follow-up to our Infinity War episode after both had a chance to see the film a second time. Because, what, our three hour main episode on the film wasn't enough? Well, no, actually, it wasn't. But we do get to covering some other stuff as well, including the latest trailers for Venom and Ant-Man and the Wasp. It should go without saying, but once again there are COMPLETE AND TOTAL SPOILERS for Infinity War in this ep. In case you somehow still haven't seen it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last month, Joe did something pretty amazing: he watched every single MCU movie (prior to Infinity War) over a single weekend, without any breaks inbetween. And as well as raising a ton of cash for Parkinson's UK, he spent the weekend livetweeting and recording short mini pod segments for Soundcloud after each film. So if you didn't catch any of that while it was going on, we've stitched every one of those little bits together - along with a freshly-recorded intro and outro with Seb and James along for the ride! Note that this podcast is technically the first time you'll hear Joe talk directly about Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy, since we haven't got as far as covering those on main episodes yet; and you'll also get to hear what happens when a man has to watch Thor: The Dark World in the small hours of a Sunday morning. If you enjoyed this experience then please check out Joe's Justgiving page and consider adding to the fundraising total: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/joe-cunningham-mcu If you want to jump to a specific film, you can find them in the following places: 00:00 - Team Intro 01:46 - Joe's Intro 02:44 - Iron Man 06:21 - The Incredible Hulk 08:41 - Iron Man 2 11:22 - Thor 13:45 - Captain America: The First Avenger 17:29 - The Avengers 21:29 - Iron Man Three 26:05 - Thor: The Dark World 30:00 - Captain America: The Winter Soldier 34:33 - Guardians of the Galaxy 38:49 - Avengers: Age of Ultron 43:16 - Ant-Man 47:26 - Captain America: Civil War 51:57 - Doctor Strange 54:54 - Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2 57:09 - Spider-Man: Homecoming 59:31 - Thor: Ragnarok 60:02 - Black Panther 67:05 - Team Outro Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's our Infinity War episode. If we have to say any more than that, you've probably got the wrong podcast. Be warned, though: this podcast is SPOILER FILLED from the outset. There's no news discussion, and there's no spoiler-free reaction section. We are straight in there from the word go, because... well, how could you NOT be? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded prior to Joe's epic weekend charity MCU marathon, this week's minisode sees him and James taking a run at the latest news - from the final Deadpool 2 trailer to the latest on Gotham City Sirens/Suicide Squad 2/Birds of Prey. Plus! Who will be the first to suggest Johnny Storm for last week's "How would you put Ryan Reynolds in the MCU" pitch segment? And, stay tuned right until the end when James suddenly out of nowhere drops an AMAZING Infinity War/Captain America theory. Four days to go, people... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In brightest day In blackest night Bad movies can't escape our sight And though Joe worships Reynolds' light We can't deny: Green Lantern's shite! Yes, we've managed to find the Ryan Reynolds movie that even Joe can't love, and a DC Comics movie that Seb even thinks might be worse than Man of Steel. But is Green Lantern an interesting failure, or just a complete and total failure? Well, we've managed to spin it out into a two-and-a-half hour episode, so presumably there was something of note to talk about. Plus! We pull a bit of a downer on the Incredibles 2 trailer, assess Batgirl's chances of ever existing and explain who the heck The Boys are. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A few weeks ago, the latest trailer for Infinity War dropped - and Joe got so excited, he couldn't wait until our next episode, so stayed up far too late (and far too long) talking to pod-chum Rhys Williamson about it. We initially put it out as a Patreon exclusive, but now that we're only a week-and-a-bit out from the film's release, we thought we'd let the rest of you hear it as well, if you're so inclined! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There wasn't a lot of news in the last week, but have we let that stop us? We have not. Join us for a shorter-than-usual (but still longer-than-they-used-to-be) minisode, as Joe, Seb and James waffle on about Flashpoint (no longer), Zack Snyder's own social network, the first photo of Kiernan Shipka's Sabrina, possible villains for Spider-Man: Homecoming 2, Astro City and The Continuing Absence of Hawkeye. Plus, James and Seb respond admirably to last week's request to pitch something as intentionally bad as possible, although maybe not in the way Joe expected. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1996, Jack Sholder and Eric Blakeney made a Generation X pilot for Fox. In 2018, James Hunt decided that we should cover it on the podcast. It's hard to know who you should be more annoyed at, really. Either way, join us for a light-hearted and friendly discussion that takes in Matt Frewer's impression of Jim Carrey's impression of Matt Frewer, the most baffling piece of product placement in movie history, and lessons from the Lea Thompson School of Irish Accents. And this week's news section is also linked quite nicely to the main part of the episode, as we look at a present day teen X-franchise-related screw-up with the latest developments on New Mutants. We also say hello to some familiar names in Captain Marvel's casting news, and wonder if Donald Glover has burned all his Marvel bridges. AND we've got a new edition of Comics Corner, as we react to the return of the Fantastic Four! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joe, Seb and James look at the Deadpool 2 trailer, and get suddenly quite excited when they realise who Rob Delaney is probably playing. And a seemingly innocuous bit of Daredevil S3 casting news gets us speculating about a possible adaptation of one of his best ever comics stories. There's also some chat about the Justice League: Mortal picture leaks, and we get around to going a bit deeper on how that Shazam costume is looking and what it might all mean. Are we actually... quite excited about an upcoming DC movie? Is this because our Disney cheques kept bouncing? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when people who are nerds about comic book movies AND nerds about the London Underground get to talk about a comic book movie that has dodgy London Underground geography in it? Well... you get this podcast, basically. But honestly, we do find things to talk about in Thor: The Dark World other than Thornington Crescent. We've also got an unusual news roundup, in that we knew the Infinity War trailer was on the way when we recorded but hadn't actually seen it yet; and another piece of news actually broke live during the record... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You wouldn't think that the simple fact of Hawkeye not being on those Infinity War magazine covers could lead to a fifty-seven minute discussion, could you? I bet you definitely wouldn't think there'd be a song in there, either. Well, Joe and James have got news for you. Actually, that's not true, they haven't got "news", that's sort of the problem. Anyway... enjoy this episode! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Younger listeners may not remember this, but there was a time when if you made a superhero comedy, you were greeted with outrage rather than great reviews and massive box office numbers. But is the problem with Superman III merely that it's a comedy, or more that it's not a very good one? What's more, can Seb find a way to argue that actually it might be the best of the Reeve films? Find out on an episode where we do actually eventually get around to discussing the film, after a news roundup including New Mutants, that Shazam costume, a possible Silver Surfer movie, and Kristen Wiig maybe being a Wonder Woman villain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

James has been driven off the podcast by a baying, pitchfork-wielding mob after daring to criticise [SPOILER REMOVED] on our Black Panther episode. He'll be back next week (maybe), but in the meantime Joe and Seb have regrouped to take a run at the latest comic book movie and TV news - including the continuing phenomenal box office take of that film, Joss Whedon departing Batgirl (lol), a whole load of brilliant Sabrina casting, Adam Strange being the surprise star of Krypton, and some non-spoilery The Tick chatter because we just couldn't wait to talk about how good it is. Plus! What Black Panther spinoff would we each like to see happen? Find out in this week's Pitch segment! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the time of publishing this episode, Black Panther has already taken over $200m at the box office. And we estimate that around 56% of that take has purely been down to Amon Warmann going to see it repeatedly. He joins Joe and James to discuss the film that's already looking like it might be the comic book movie event of a year that also includes Infinity War. As per usual with a new release, there's no news section - so it's straight into a spoiler-free opinion section before we delve into the spoilery specifics. And our regular trio will be back next week to catch up on the news as normal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With an extra week's wait before you get our Black Panther episode, we thought we'd get together for a quick news episode in the meantime. Spoilers: it ended up not being that quick. We look at trailers for Deadpool 2 and Venom (we liked one and not the other, SEE IF YOU CAN GUESS WHICH), the Infinity War publicity's continuing absence of Hawkeye, the Marvel Studios 10 Years photo, the Jessica Jones season 2 trailer, Joaquin Phoenix's rumoured Joker casting, Michael Bay's rumoured Lobo movie, the possibility of Tessa Thompson playing a rebooted Kick-Ass, and Stitcher's Wolverine: The Long Night scripted podcast. And while there's not a pitch segment this time around, you do get to hear which comedians James thinks should play Batman and the Joker. It's probably not the ones you would expect. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Ant-Man and The Wasp trailer, the Metropolis TV show announcement, the ethics of adapting Watchmen yet again, and some Daredevil season 3 tidbits come under the news microscope - and there's also time for a hefty dose of comics news chat, thanks to the announcement of DC's plans for Action Comics #1000 and Brian Michael Bendis assuming control of the Superman franchise. PLUS! Who should Gary Oldman play in the MCU? Find out in the latest new-format Pitch segment! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After our new-for-2018 format changes seemed to go down well, we've made another one by getting rid of Seb! No, not really, he's just on holiday - but that means that it's time for Film4's Michael Leader to once again join us to cover a Hellboy movie, with 2008's The Golden Army. There's also a run through the latest news - but don't forget, if you want to hear more news discussion and the entries in this episode's Pitch segment, you'll have to tune in to next week's minisode... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the first time in the new and improved minisode format, Seb and James join Joe to talk through the latest comic book news. Discussion includes the changes to Fox's superhero schedule, Gambit's latest directorial woes, Flashpoint's new writers, the latest on Shazam, some tidbits from the MCU, and The Tick's Season 2 renewal. All that, plus 'The Pitch' finds settles into its new home on the minisodes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A new year brings some format changes designed to keep the main episodes a bit tighter - so of course this has naturally led to our longest ever episode. But it's The Dark Knight - you didn't exactly want us to run short on it, did you? We also take a look at some recent news including the uncannily-predicted-by-us casting of Kiernan Shipka as Sabrina, some upstairs shuffling of chairs at DC, and (it broke literally as we were recording) finally getting a solo Black Widow movie. The latest news on Gambit, meanwhile, broke just after we recorded - but check in next week for our new-format minisode in which we'll ALL be discussing the news! There's also a slight change to how we'll be handling recommendations and The Pitch from now on (stay tuned to the very end to hear about that), and after three years of explaining to Joe comic book concepts that he doesn't understand, he reckons he knows everything about comics now, so hear us try to prove him wrong. It's the all-new, all-improved, no-but-seriously-they-won't-all-be-this-long Cinematic Universe for 2018! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're back for part two of the 2017 Cinematic Universe Awards - with a brief interruption for a "Man of Steel incident" in Seb's house - in which we run through the remaining awards categories for the films and TV shows we discussed on the podcast in 2017. We also do our customary induction(s) into the Hall of Fame, and there's some selected highlights from this year's Pitch segments! 00:53 - The Howard T Duck Award for the Best Bad Movie 10:12 - Best Supporting Actress 19:55 - Best Screenplay 28:23 - Best Villain 37:05 - Best Song or Musical Moment 45:47 - Worst Film 49:41 - Best Director 60:07 - Best Actress 66:52 - Best Actor 75:25 - Best Film 89:32 - Hall of Fame Inductions 105:45 - Best of The Pitch (2017) 118:56 - Coming Soon... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Because we haven't argued enough in 2017 already, it's that time again: the CINEMATIC UNIVERSE END-OF-YEAR-AWARDS! Or, as Joe has decided to call them this year, "The Cuppies". He's joined by Seb and James to talk through the best (and indeed the not-so-best) of the films and shows we discussed in 2017. As usual, it's a long chat, so we've done it in two parts - in this first half, you'll hear us cover: 02:15 - Best Supporting Actor 11:16 - Best Costume 21:11 - Best Score 28:10 - Best Couple 39:06 - Best New Film 48:13 - Best Hero 61:11 - Best TV Show 73:32 - Best Casting 84:32 - Best Song Come back next week for the rest of the awards, including the coveted Howard T Duck Award, Best Film and new Hall of Fame inductees! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We do get around to discussing Mike Mitchell's 2005 film Sky High eventually - but in truth, this episode is really about the news. We've got nearly an hour and a half of chat as we dive deep on the Disney/Fox takeover (which hadn't been confirmed when we recorded, hence the way we talk about it!), and the trailers for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and (yes, we got around to it eventually) Avengers: Infinity War. Oh, and then in the Pitch segment we have maybe our bitterest civil war to date. It's all happening! 00:00 - Intro/Explain a Concept 05:43 - News 92:12 - Movie Discussion 120:55 - Recommendations 125:29 - The Pitch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While we wait for Joe to catch up with reading the million or so comics we've recommended over the last month, Seb and James have gathered for an hour-longrun through a bunch of recent news. We discuss Jude Law's casting in Captain Marvel, Lizzy Caplan's casting in Gambit, and the ongoing fall-out from Justice League's wet splat of a landing. We also take a look at what's going on in TV with the recent launches of Punisher, The Gifted and Runaways - and then it's a bit of a deep dive into some of the major comics news at the top of Marvel and DC. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We unite our very own League, as Joe and James discuss Zack Snyder (and Joss Whedon)'s long-awaited DCEU team-up movie: Justice League. Yes, that's right, we said Joe and James - not Seb. Seb is definitely not on this podcast. We've left him out of all the pre-publicity, so of course he's not on the episode, even though he was present for the recording session. If he's on the episode, we'd have said he was on the episode, right? 00:00 - Intro/Explain a Concept 09:40 - Spoiler-Free Discussion 25:37 - Spoiler-Filled Discussion 110:31 - Recommendations 117:48 - The Pitch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We come from the land of the ice and snow From the midnight sun, where the hot springs flow The hammer of the gods We'll drive our ships to new lands To fight the horde, and sing and cry Valhalla, I am coming! Yes, it's our Thor: Ragnarok episode. Slightly late for the UK release, but just in time for the US one! If you somehow haven't seen it yet, then listen to the first half an hour or so for our spoiler-free opinions; everyone else, listen on as Joe, Seb and James take apart what is clearly the outright funniest MCU film to date but try to figure out if there's much else going on beneath that. And argue about Valkyrie. 00:00 - Intro/Explain a Concept 10:50 - Spoiler-Free Chat 35:00 - Spoiler-Filled Chat 123:00 - Recommendations 127:28 - The Pitch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's a rare two-hander this week, as Joe and Seb discuss Brad Bird's 2004 Pixar classic The Incredibles - including Seb's recent brush with one of the cast members! There's also a look back at some recent news, including New Mutants and Justice League trailers, and a brilliant obscure factoid that means Gore Verbinski's Gambit movie is definitely fated to happen. 00:00 - Intro / Explain a Concept 10:45 - News 29:50 - Movie Discussion 106:38 - Recommendations 110:20 - The Pitch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joe catches up with a trailer-heavy news fortnight before diving into Seb and James' heavily metatextual Unbreakable-inspired comics recommendations: Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee's The Sentry, and Grant Morrison and Chas Truog's Animal Man: Deus Ex Machina. 00:00 - Intro 01:28 - News 09:38 - The Sentry 16:38 - Animal Man: Deus Ex Machina Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special bonus episode of Cinematic Universe, James is joined by Film4's Mike Leader for some (broadly) spoiler-free discussions of two comicbook related biographies which previewed at the 2017 BFI London Film Festival: My Friend Dahmer, adapted from the graphic novel of the same name, and Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, which explores the interactions of the trio of polyamorous radical feminists who created Wonder Woman in the 1940s. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's the film that kickstarted a cinematic universe of its own - we just didn't know it at the time. We look back at a superhero classic - but was it ever correctly pitched that way? - in the shape of M. Night Shyamalan's 2000 thriller Unbreakable. In the news section, Seb and James give their reaction to the CW's announcement of a Dark Archiverse Sabrina spinoff; and in a longer-than-usual introductory segment Joe gets caught up with what's been going on at DC and Marvel lately. 00:00 - Intro/Explain a Concept 18:03 - News 30:55 - Movie Discussion 95:00 - Recommendations 103:53 - The Pitch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Minisodes are back! Joe catches up with some of the latest news, before catching up with the recommendations from our Sin City and Iron Man 3 episodes - that's Sin City: Booze, Broads and Bullets; Criminal: Lawless; Tales of Suspense #50; Invincible Iron Man annual #1; and the TV series No Heroics. 00:00 - Intro/News 09:05 - Sin City: Booze, Broads and Bullets 17:51 - Criminal: Lawless 24:12 - Tales of Suspense #50 26:22 - Invincible Iron Man Annual #1 ("The Story of My Life") 32:00 - No Heroics Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In one of our most fair and balanced episodes ever, we try and give both sides in the Iron Man 3 Mandarin debate a fair hearing. No, just kidding: if you don't like that twist and this movie, sorry, but chances are this one ain't going to be for you. But listen anyway, because we might persuade you, and we don't insult your point of view THAT much, honest. Elsewhere, we react to some late-breaking (it literally happened as we recorded the pod) X-Force news, and give some time over to reviewing the first half-season of Amazon's The Tick. 00:00 - Intro/Explain a Concept 10:55 - News 27:24 - The Tick mini-review 44:49 - Movie Discussion 128:58 - Recommendations 137:51 - The Pitch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Walk down the right back alley in Sin City and you can find anything... like a brand new episode of Cinematic Universe! Joe, Seb and James reunite to discuss Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller and (sort of) Quentin Tarantino's 2005 adaptation Sin City. There's also some reasonably lengthy discussion of DC's Joker movie news, and also an update on our brand new revised Patreon structure! 00:00 - Intro/Explain a Concept 04:25 - News 32:45 - Movie Discussion 108:18 - Recommendations 116:13 - The Pitch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yes, we're back! To whet your appetite for the next full episode (which should be landing in your feeds very shortly after this one) Joe is back with a roundup of some of the latest news, and looks back at the comics recommended in the wake of our Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Valerian episodes: David Micheline and Mark Bagley's Amazing Spider-Man: Lifetheft; Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley and Stuart Immonen's Ultimate Spider-Man #111 ("The Talk"); Gerry Conway and Gil Kane's The Night Gwen Stacy Died; and Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mézières' Valerian and Laureline Vol 8: Heroes of the Equinox. 00:00 - Intro/News 13:15 - Amazing Spider-Man: Lifetheft 17:08 - Ultimate Spider-Man #111: The Talk 20:10 - The Night Gwen Stacy Died 27:04 - Valerian and Laureline Vol 8: Heroes of the Equinox Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Were you one of the five people who actually saw Valerian? If so, you might enjoy Joe and James talking about it, since it was actually, you know, pretty good! Yes, the impromptu Cinematic Universe summer break is over (sorry about the break in service!) and after the last episode saw us with FOUR voices for the first time, we've gone back to the slightly more intimate setting of a two-hander for this one (which is mainly because Seb hadn't got round to seeing the film by the time of the recording and nobody else in the world seems to have cared about it). There's also a roundup of some news that hopefully won't be TOO out of date by the time this episode actually makes it to you, and we'll be back on a normal schedule over the next couple of weeks! 00:00 - Intro/Explain a Concept 11:23 - News 34:56 - Movie Discussion 106:40 - The Pitch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Well, we had to get to it eventually, so here we are: The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The film so epochally bad that we had to get an extra guest - Rhys Williamson - to talk about it with (although that might also just be because Joe was at his house for the recording). As you know, we always try to look for the positives in films - and with this one, we think we managed to find three or four. There's also a brief run through some recent news, but because we covered so much on our recent SDCC roundup special, we've got an extra special bonus for you: James has interviewed legendary Batman: TAS voice artist Loren Lester (Dick Grayson) to promote the new Batman and Harley Quinn movie! 00:00 - Intro/Explain a Concept 08:28 - News Summary 18:41 - Loren Lester interview 28:02 - Movie Discussion 112:17 - Recommendations 118:19 - The Pitch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's a mega news roundup as Joe and James convene to look through everything that was announced, revealed and rumoured at this year's San Diego Comic Con. So listen on for the latest word on all things DCEU, MCU, Flarrowverse, Fox, Valiant, Riverdale, Spawn... well, basically, as much as we could cover before our voices ran out! And we'll be back next week with our next regular episode, on (shudder) The Amazing Spider-Man 2... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Phew, it's been a little while since we had a "Joe reads comics" minisode for you - so here's a catchup from the Dredd and Spider-Man: Homecoming episodes. That's the classic Dredd stories The Dark Judges and The Day the Law Died (and yes, we maybe didn't explain this to Joe beforehand but we know that "John Howard" and "T.B. Grover" are pseudonyms for John Wagner and Alan Grant!); the first two volumes of the Miles Morales Ultimate Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli; and Amazing Spider-Man: Civil War by J. Michael Straczynski and Ron Garney. There's also a roundup of recent news, but we've steered clear of SDCC stuff as we'll be covering that with a bonus episode later in the week! 00:00 - Intro/News 16:42 - Judge Dredd: The Day the Law Died / The Dark Judges 27:52 - Amazing Spider-Man: Civil War 36:54 - Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (2011) Vols 1-2 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

These are the kind of days Cinematic Universe was made for: a brand new Spider-Man film! James and Seb, possibly the world's Hardest To Please Spider-Man Fans, weigh in on this momentous occasion - but is Joe even harder to please with this one? Tom Holland's similarity to Michael J. Fox, Michael Keaton's general brilliance, the quantum state of Jon Watts' existence, and yet more arguments over who was actually the villain in Civil War - it's all here. As usual with new films, we do some spoiler-free opinions (more spoiler-free than the trailers were, anyway) before giving you fair warning on our EXTREMELY LONG and spoiler-filled chat. 00:00 - Intro/Explain a Concept 15:22 - Spoiler-Free Discussion 37:06 - Spoiler-Filled Discussion 131:31 - Recommendations 139:08 - The Pitch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Given that we so often present a British perspective on American icons, we thought we'd get an American perspective on a British icon - and so The AV Club's Caroline Siede joins us once more, to discuss Pete Travis (and Alex Garland)'s 2012 adaptation of Dredd. We cover surprisingly feminist villains, unfortunately topical social housing issues, and Karl Urban's peerless chin acting. There's also a roundup of recent news on X-Men: Dark Phoenix and the first Black Panther trailer. 00:00 - Intro 03:10 - Explain a Concept 09:36 - News 31:47 - Movie Discussion 93:15 - Recommendations 96:53 - The Pitch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are you tired of talking about Wonder Woman yet? No, us neither - so here's Joe to look back at the comics recommendations inspired by the movie: Wonder Woman by George Perez vol. 1, and Wonder Woman #600. There's also, as usual, a run through some of the most recent comic book movie and TV news - although don't forget you can now find us covering a lot of this stuff in written form too, by heading over to the newly-minted CinematicUniverse.com! 00:00 - Intro / News 14:45 - Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #1-7 22:33 - Wonder Woman #600 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman. All the world is waiting for you, and the power you possess. In your satin tights, fighting for your rights, and the old red white and blue. Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman. Now the world is ready for you, and the wonders you can do. Make a hawk a dove. Stop a war with love. Make a liar tell the truth. Wonder Woman. Get us out from under, Wonder Woman. So yes, there’s a pretty big film out this week, and it seems to have gone down rather well. But if you’re not sick of hearing about it yet, then Joe, Seb and James have got a whopping nearly-two-hours of chat about it. And further more, we’ve got a VERY SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT regarding the future of Cinematic Universe - but you’ll have to wait until the very end to hear it. It’s exciting, though. Honest! 00:00 - Intro/Explain a concept 06:58 - Spoiler-free discussion 35:14 - Spoiler-filled discussion 112:28 - Comics recommendations 118:51 - The Pitch 126:46 - SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s a very special mini bonus edition, as we’re making an ANNOUNCEMENT regarding the future of Cinematic Universe! But what is it? You’ll have to listen on to find out. That is, if you haven’t already read us talking about it on Twitter or whatever… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joe starts by discussing the sad news regarding Zack and Deborah Snyder's departure from production of Justice League, with a further news roundup before looking at last week's X2-inspired comics recommendations: Chris Claremont and Brent Eric Anderson's God Loves, Man Kills; and Mark Millar and Adam Kubert's Ultimate X-Men vol. 1. Timecodes: 00:00 - Intro 00:41 - News 20:09 - God Loves, Man Kills 32:00 - Ultimate X-Men Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We hit another of those Undisputed Classics, as our Wolverine-chronological trawl through the X-universe takes us onto Bryan Singer's 2003 film, X2. But does the film still hold up to modern eyes? And more importantly, what the hell is the thing called, anyway? These questions and more are settled by Joe, Seb and James, who also run through some of the big recent headlines - including Mega City One, new Hellboy and Robert Zemeckis potentially directing The Flash. But not Tom Hardy as Venom, because that broke after we recorded it. Timecodes: 00:00 - Intro/Explain a Concept 04:17 - News 30:42 - Movie Discussion 97:19 - Comics Recommendations 102:34 - The Pitch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There's a humungous hour of chat from Joe this week, as he catches up on some pretty hefty comics recommendations from our Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 episodes - to wit, The Ultimates, Astonishing X-Men, Rocket Raccoon and Maximum Security. Plus there's a catchup on a particularly TV-heavy news fortnight. Timecodes: 00:00 - Intro 01:03 - News 15:49 - Maximum Security 24:33 - Rocket Raccoon 32:45 - Astonishing X-Men 40:12 - The Ultimates Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.