What Do You Mean By That?
How could Marvel superheroes be real? What are you even talking about?
What if the Marvel Universe was real?
How would people respond? What would a couple of smart guys talk about on a podcast after Dr Doom rips the Baxter Building from its foundation and blasts it off into space? It is all in a day’s work for the Fantastic Four, but what about everyone else who lives in the building? Is their rent going to be adjusted? How will it affect diplomatic relations with the small Eastern European country and Dr Doom controls?
Mike and Ed are reading every Marvel Comic from the very beginning - starting with Fantastic Four #1 on November 1961. After each issue they get on the mics to debate the ramifications of the public events that took place in the issue. The episodes are fully “in universe”. The hosts speak in modern vernacular, but otherwise act as everyday bystanders in the world of the early Silver Age of Marvel Comics. They don’t know Spider-man’s secret identity, but they do know that Thor seems to be the bodyguard for Dr Donald Blake, that Iron Man appears to work for StarkCorp, and Giant Man and Ant Man never seem to be in the same place at the same time.
The hosts talk about the real world consequences of super human action (like when Giganto destroys lower Manhattan) and theorize on what is going on that we do not know about (“If these people got super powers by going into space, shouldn’t we send more people into space to create a super human army? If we don’t, won’t the Russians do it?). The shows explores issues the comics do not normally cover (“Is Iron Man joining the Avengers a good use of StarkCorp shareholder capital?”) and predict what could happen next (“Unstable molecules are likely to be the next big fashion trend!”).
Show notes/newsletter issues cover the big themes discussed in the episode, cover art, a short summary of the actual comic - including the action the hosts might not be aware of - and any interesting facts that might make the issue interesting (like first appearances of major characters). You can read the issue before listening to the shows, but generally it is not needed.
All audio is dropped through email, but you can also listen through any podcast player (the text of the emails are in the show notes, but the formatting can get a little weird, so we recommend reading in your email browser).
If you use a different player and you can’t find the show, you should be able to add it manually through this link.
If you are looking for a specific episode - or episodes about a specific character - we maintain a (somewhat) regularly updated index of all the episodes recorded sorted by character and theme.
In the meantime, tell your friends!
As a great man once said…
Excelsior!
Edward and Michael