The Middle of Culture

War. War never changes. And neither does the world after an apocalypse! Or at least that is how it appears in much of post-apocalyptic fiction. That's on the docket this week, after a (what was going to be) brief recap of some recent Marvel Studios topics. First, we talk about *Thor Love and Thunder*, some final thoughts on the recently wrapped up *Ms. Marvel*, and finish out our Marvel talk with reactions to the *Black Panther: Wakanda Forever* trailer. Eden then takes us through the post-apocalypse, framed through the *Fallout* games, as we discuss fiction after the end of the world.

Life sometimes gets in the way. And that happened to us this week. Between travel and being away from home we weren't able to put together and episode that would meet the quality we expect from ourselves. But we will be back in 2 weeks with a great topic courtesy of Eden!

A wet fart. I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. Those two comments pretty much sum up our thoughts about X-Men: The Last Stand. Bad, but not bad enough to be fun, this was a movie that just fell flat in so many ways. It messed with the mythos of the X-Men in incomprehensible and stupid ways, it treated many of its characters very poorly, and is just a dud all the way around. But, it was a lot of fun to talk about. Hopefully, it is fun to listen to us talk about it as well.

Eden loves it, Peter had never even heard of it. Given Eden's love of the book, the siblings decided to read (or re-read) A Bride's Story. Come with us as we discuss this modern work of art and dive into our thoughts and emotions that this book took us on. But here is the most important part: this is a truly wonderful piece of art that everyone deserves to experience.

Some have suggested X2 is the best of the X-Men movies. Braeden and Peter decide to discuss that and put that to the test, watching this hot on the heels of revisiting the original X-Men. And we both agree, higher highs, but trying to cram too much into its run time. Stop by as we discuss this next installment of The Summer of X.

Far flung humanity, a “winner-takes-all” battle with humans and AI teamed up, yet orchestrated by other AI, and lesbian sex all combine to make for a very interesting novella from Thai author Benjanun Sriduangkaew. Braeden is a fan, Peter was unfamiliar until now, and together they discuss this third installment in The Machine Mandate series.

Comic book movies have come a long way in the last few decades. Before the turn of the century, they were often not very good, nor taken seriously. There were exceptions, of course. But X-Men is often included in that group of comic book movies that made great strides to legitimize the genre. Does it hold up though? We decide to jump back in time and see if it does.

There are over 30 entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We bracket them, stack them, let them duke it out, and end up with a singular victor. And the winner just might surprise you. I know it did me.

A discussion of the music so far in 2022 that has impressed, moved and impacted us.

Braeden loves it, Peter has never seen it. We discuss the classic 1995 film "Ghost in the Shell".

We run through a list of FPS games and draft our 5 favorite each.

We pit all Rush live and studio albums against each other to find the final victor.

We discuss the Hugo award winning novella The Emperor's Soul, by Brandon Sanderson.

A conversation on comics, The Incal in particular. We discuss the characters, the art, and even some of the tradition of French comics.

Thoughts about the 2021 version of sci-fi classic Dune

A discussion of our favorite music from this past year.

Introducing The Middle of Culture