Henry and Chris have read a ton new issues this week, including a big dose of Spidey and Darth Vader. Then they talk about the new Aquaman, Batman’s next game, Miles Morales maybe starring in a movie. Then we put the spotlight on Gwen Stacy, and explore your answers to the question of the week!
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CAPE CRISIS RECOMMENDS:
Cape Crisis #126 Question: What do you think of superheroes making a rule about taking a life?
Yay for more cape crisis!
As for the Miles Morales issue, I would much rather have Peter Parker in the MCU to start. This is not an issue of race, but Peter has so much more history and a more interesting characterization (IMO) so I think it’d be better to see him show up. Plus, having Miles come first would kind of be like having Dick Grayson start as Batman. If they were to cast a black actor as Spidey (say Donald Glover, though I’d rather someone younger) I wouldn’t give any shits, as long as it was Peter. In fact, the idea of casting a black actor as Peter seems like a much better idea than throwing in a different character behind the mask.
I’m really tired of people thinking you can just turn a white character black, and that isn’t racist.
Black people have to deal with all kinds of casual racism on a daily basis. If they make Peter Parker black, is he going to deal with those issues? Is he going to deal with people saying casual things like, “You don’t act black, Peter Parker.” That’s a question many black men, who grow up in white neighborhoods have to deal with all the fucking time.
Or, and I am guessing this would be the case, he would just be a black actor playing a white man? How do people not realize that is 100% more racist than just using Miles, a character created to be that representation, but not Peter Parker. They have Miles. If they want a black Spider-Man, use Miles.
It’s not the same as Hemidall who is just a Norse God that doesn’t have a daily life in Queens as a black or white person. He can be any race because it has absolutely nothing to do with his character development and character arc over 60+ years.
If you want Peter Parker to be black then you need to change his entire character arc to match what he would have dealt with as a black kid growing up in Queens which would be different than a white kid growing up there. Then you might have just as well kept Spider-Man at Sony, if you are changing his character enough to not even match the comic counterpart.
Luckily they created Miles just for this situation. A great fucking character who is primed for the movies. JUST USE MILES!
I take issue with Henry talking about how little time Peter Parker spent in high school like it’s a bad thing.
I have very little tolerance for teenage superheroes. I find them super annoying.
And I never understood why people always want teenage Spider-man, when Spider-man was a teen for, like, 3% of the time he’s been in publication.
Spectacular Spectacular, Spiderman.
honestly, teenage heroes can be okay. but, I think most people have this weird generalized idea of the world of a teenager. the whole “high school is a crazy big drama waiting to unfold and almost anything can happen” kind of crap. but high school is just less complex than life outside of it. television and movies have just falsely planted this romantic chaoticism in our minds. but also because it’s right around the time when most people start coming into their own, finding out about who they really are and beginning to know what the world is really about. but not everyone and a lot of that comes after high school. so yeah, college era spider-man is probably a much better choice if we’re going down the path of human socio-psycho drama.
Yeah, that’s pretty much my main problem with them.
On the one hand, you have this teen character who spends half his time fighting super villains and saving the city and whatnot, and the other half of the time, he’s arguing with his parents and worrying about who he’s going to the dance with. I just find that nonsense dumb.
And the idea that there are grown-up superheroes that let 15-year-olds go around fighting murderous supervillains is equally insane.
QOTW: honestly sometimes it is an option, i mean, look at the joker? if batman had killed him long ago he couldve saved alot of people also phoenix ate planets she had to die
Regarding Spider-Man in the MCU:
What if they reversed the order so that Miles is the older, original Spider-Man whose death inspires a young Peter Parker?
Civil War needs someone to unmask, but once that happens to Spidey the story options are severely limited. Have Donald Glover play University aged Miles, have him unmask, then kill him in the 2017 movie in a “villains assemble to kill Spider-Man” story arc, then use the end of the movie for Pete’s setup.
Casting someone like Donald would also avoid anybody being irked by Miles dying first. “Miles needed to be older than Peter if we wanted Donald Glover!”
At that point you aren’t even keeping anything consistent with the source material. Might as well just continue the story about Peter’s Dad.
And no one is getting unmasked in Civil War. They have already stated a million times it isn’t about superhero registration. There are no masked heros. If anything it will be about how heros NEED to have a secret identity and I bet Spidey will be the first to decide he needs a secret identity. It will be the reverse of the comic Civil War. I’ll put money on it.
Everything is consistent with the source material save Peter being Spider-Man and dying first. Everything else would remain the same. Uncle Ben dying, Peter’s morals, Peter’s characterization etc.
It would be a genuine shame for Peter to start on Cap’s side for civil war. The relationship between Peter and Tony is one of the most important and most interesting facets of that story.
Registration and accountability are separate ideas, either way. I think you’re probably right, but if you are, I’ll be disappointed.
Oh, and of course I meant for Mile’s to remain much the same beside this change in order and his death.
Instead of Peter’s death inspiring him, I’d love to see something like Miles discovering his Uncle’s identity and trying to make up for his sins as part of his inspiration. If Marvel is planning to go with Miles first, changes need to be made to his origin anyway.
QOTW:
SO I’ve been on a real manga kick lately reading a lot of Naoki Urasawa (20th Century Boys, Monster, Master Keaton) and Neon Genesis Evangelion. We all know Henry is a huge EVA fan, would you guys consider doing a whole episode on the Evangelion show/comic?
I found the conversation about the upcoming Batman game interesting. I have 9 year old son and thought Arkham City’s T rating safe enough for him to play. However after 20 minutes of Catwomen being called a bitch and massive clevage at every turn I had to turn the game off. I appreciate that the new game’s rating won’t mislead parents into what they are getting. Most kids still get into comics around elementary school age it is difficult when the only comic game that doesn’t make me squirm as a parent starts with Lego.
Just remember that you’re child is likely to see those things eventually. It’s up to you if you want to explain it to your child or potentially let your child be mislead.
I was playing Grand Theft Auto at 9 years old. Not because I had bad parents, but because my parents had already matured me to the ways of the world and I was intelligent enough to understand that GTA is a game and not something I should desire to imitate.
I don’t live a bubble and assume kids are exposed to stuff at an early age. I personally just don’t want to be the one exposing it. I had more of an issue with consant demeaning language. I grew up on 90’s x-men so massive cleavage is just what happens to females in comics.
For fuck’s sake, Antista. Were you going out of your way to cheapen an attempted moment of respectful tribute, by loudly eating into the mic and continuously dropping tiresome “California medicine” references the whole time?
At least this is consistent with your stated, and insatiable, need for attention.
Another fun episode. I just had a question for Henry, which is based on your comment about how Ditko drew a spindly and awkward Peter Parker – how do you feel about how Olivier Coipel draws him now where he’s basically a male model?
The show’s great, it got better since episode 100, more heartfelt. Speaking of which, do you see the possibility of an openly gay major character being part of the MCU? My heart and money’s on Bruce Banner.
Will y’all ever talk about “comic book” TV shows? I feel like there is a lot of potential discussion missing while shows like Arrow and The Flash are airing.
Question for Chris: Did you ever check out the soundtrack companion to the Life and Times of Scrooge comic? I posted a message on the forums about it almost a year ago:http://www.lasertimepodcast.com/forums/?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=2290
Question for Henry: Have you heard of the indie comic “Circles?” It’s a gay themed “slice of life” style comic about six friends living under one roof (three older, three younger). It’s a really good comic that, sadly, only ran 8 issues. But, here’s the catch – it’s a furry comic, which means it is literally about a bunch of “gay furry shit…” Still, I highly recommend it. – https://www.rabbitvalley.com/department_1107_0_0.html
Next time you complain about fans not liking a change to something, remember how you complain about star wars.Keep up the good work though.
QOTW: The no kill rule was good for spider-man and bat-man, but as each writer tries to up the ante with world shattering villains who commit genocide for shits and giggles, it becomes pretty stupid.
QOTW2: Is there/could there be an rss feed for the articles and videos? I’d definetly read more if I could easily check if there are new ones.
One more question if there’s time – For Chris and Henry – if you could write a comic book based on a pre-existing property (comic, movie, book, or tv show) what would it be? and if there’s a little but more time – what would be your pitch?
Question for the panel: You seem very cynical about cartoons just being advertisements for toys, no matter what effort goes into making stories and everything to make them somewhat enjoyable even if you don’t get into the toys. Why aren’t you more cynical about white, male superheroes being turned into minority versions of the same hero? What is the value of changing an established hero into something that some readers might not like, instead of coming up with totally new characters? From some points of view using the existing characters’ popularity to push diversity seems like a cynical push by publishers to pull in new, minority readers. Do the established characters who get changed really do better than characters who start out as minorities in the first place? And even if the sex or nationality of a character doesn’t change, what do you think of new alter egoes taking over heroes’ identities? Is it just “handing over the mantle,” just something that comics do, to carry on the popularity of a character and sort of introduce a new one, without having to think of everything again?
Hi Henry. I don’t have a question I just wanted to say I love you guys. I’ve been a fan of you guys since the beginning of TalkRadar. I can’t put into words how much TalkRadar and the Laser Time shows have meant to me over the years. I owe much of my sense of humor to you and started watching wrestling a few years ago because of how much enthusiasm Henry had when he’d talk about it.
Question: Ok, I just thought of one. This is more for Chris. Are going to do another commentary pack any time soon? I’d specifically like commentary on more shitty movies. The Godzilla commentary was my favorite. It was hilarious how you guys just kept talking about 911. May I suggest watching the 1997 Spawn movie.
Can someone tell me if the Aquaman talk in the show is positive or negative?
To some up Cape Crisis’ many thoughts on Synder-DC Movies:
1. Henry does not like Man of Steel primarily because of the senseless destruction in the climax in which Superman doesn’t save many people and then resorts to killing.
2. Chris enjoys Snyder on occasion and movie spectacle in general but mainly agrees with the first point.
3. Batman vs. Superman is a good move but keep it to just the title characters and don’t rush in the whole Justice League in the same movie.
4. Marvel is unafraid to present their heroes in costumes that are more or less very similar to their comic book equivalent, which is a bold move considering it might be perceived as goofy following the Burton and Singer comic book movies of the past.
5. Henry seems to prefer Wonder Woman to have a brighter costume and is not as attached to the bright colors of Aquaman’s classic comic book look.
6. This has not been outright stated but my general feeling is that Chris and Henry want, like most of us, a good Batman vs Superman movie that at least addresses the climax of Man of Steel and that the Synder of Dawn of the Dead shows up and not the Sucker Punch Synder.
QUESTION FOR YOU GUYS:
If you could make a pitch for any Marvel or DC property as a film, and got the creative reins for it, what would you do? (Don’t necessarily have to direct it, but come up with a premise/ cast/ crew)