Fun Size Episode 18 – A Nesting Doll of Weird

We continue our talk with Greg Hatcher and dive into the world of comic books and beyond!

We reminisce about Marvel’s 1970s misfit superhero team, the Defenders, and an absolutely batshit tale from writer Steve Gerber that includes stolen brains, absurd body horror, elves with guns, and the soul of an evil wizard trapped in the body of a baby deer!

Plus, we look at the strange turn that comic book scribe Mark Millar’s work has taken in his new series Huck, which is a radical departure from his regularly shocking, cynical and violent stories.

We talk about fan entitlement and the ups and downs of finite vs. ongoing storytelling.

Podcasta la Vista, Baby! Episode 7 – Conan the Barbarian

“Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women.”

Crom, we have never prayed to you before. We have no tongue for it. Podcasts please you, Crom…so grant us one request: grant us a discussion with Greg Hatcher of the Atomic Junk Shop blog! Together we will travel back to an age undreamed of, and discuss the bloody fantasy epic that put Arnold Schwarzenegger on the map: 1982’s Conan the Barbarian!

An adaptation of the classic Robert E. Howard pulp hero, Conan of Cimmeria is a warrior, a thief and a slayer of men. After the slaughter of his parents and tribe by a doomsday snake cult, Conan is enslaved and made into a gladiator. Thus begins his quest for bloody vengeance with sword, and axe and his own bare hands.

Mike Makes a Guest Appearance on the Sci Fi Nomads Podcast!

Mike sits in with Lauren Studley and Dustin Williams of the Sci Fi Nomads podcast to talk about all things Predator!

From the creatures’ roots in the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger classic to their battles with everyone from Danny Glover, Adrien Brody, and even the Alien xenomorphs, we dig into all aspects of franchise.

Are the Predators really the galaxy’s greatest warriors, or just a bunch of rich assholes with expensive hunting gear? Do the sequels hold a candle to the original? Are the Alien vs. Predator crossover film worth watching?

Check it out!

Because Sometimes Life Happens

As the title of this post implies, the complications of life sometimes drive us to make adjustments. Well, life happens.

Oh, don’t worry. Nobody is dying. Nothing is on fire. Nothing is fucked.

But we’ve found that with the growing complications of adult life, it can be a lot more difficult to spend a couple months trying to consume all the media you can find about a pop culture topic like Batman or Star Trek, composing our thoughts in interesting and funny ways, and producing a 90+ minute podcast about it.

We don’t say it a lot, but it’s a lot of work. It’s work we adore, but work nonetheless.

Sometimes it means months of prep work and dozens of hours of writing and research going into our full panel discussion episodes. And it’s time we simply don’t have to produce the panels as frequently as we’d like.

First, the bad news is that for the time being, you won’t see nearly as many full panel episodes of Radio vs. the Martians! as you’ve grown accustomed to.

Starting this month, we will produce approximately three panel episodes a year. We’re going to make them count, and make them good.

Now, the good news is that our monthly “Fun Size” episodes are going nowhere. We will continue to put them out as scheduled in the last week or so of every month.

What this means that you will see a lot more episodes of our sister podcasts Podcasta la Vista, Baby! and Hex & Violence to fill up our dance cards.

For most of the year, expect those two shows to alternate from month to month, only to be interrupted tri-annually for a full panel episode in the classic style.

So, breathe and relax. We’re not going anywhere. Some things are going slower. Some things are speeding up. And at the beginning of next year, expect one giant surprise we can’t wait to share with you.

Thanks for sticking with us, listeners. We’ll make it worth your while!

 

Fun Size Episode 17 – Unforgiven Meets Little Miss Sunshine

We continue our chat with Joe Preti, and give our spoiler-iffic review of Hugh Jackman’s final turn as the mutant superhero Wolverine in Logan.

Have we hit peak superhero at the box office? Can a comic book adaptation transcend being just being a fun, popcorn crowd-pleaser, and become an emotionally potent piece of art? Is it time for the studios to stop bombarding us with constant references, callbacks and post-credit scenes, and just make a compelling story with powerfully written characters and strong performances?

Spoiler: The answer to all of these questions is yes.

Plus, we get derailed talking about Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. And try really, really, really hard to say something nice about it. Oh, boy.

Podcasta la Vista, Baby! Episode 6 – Batman & Robin

Batman_&_Robin_Poster

Allow me to break the ice. My name is Freeze. Learn it well, for it is the chilling sound of your doom!

We slide into our sculpted rubber bat-suits with Joe Preti of the View from the Gutters comic book podcast to sink our teeth into Arnold Schwarzenegger’s infamous comic book movie, Batman and Robin!

Gotham City’s be-nippled champions, Batman and Robin, take some time off from bickering with each other to battle a deadly duo of supervillains. In one corner, Poison Ivy, a hammy ecoterrorist with fatal kisses. And in the other corner, Mr. Freeze, a giant blue Austrian armed with a freeze ray and an even deadlier collection of ice puns.

Fun Size Episode 16 – The Billy Martin Experience

We continue our chat with Kit Laika and Joe Preti, and veer into stories about strange liberties taken during menial high school jobs — and the potential spy thriller plots that can result from them.

We talk about the comics we love, swap nerd stories and the joy of pop culture recommendation. Mike finally takes his comic book fandom into the world of manga, and we might have just invented a very specific baseball fetish.

Plus, Joe really really really dislikes Wil Wheaton, and the entire world must know. Comments can be left below.

Episode 29 – Vertigo Comics

“Magic’s just when you trick the universe into believing some incredibly outrageous lie.”

Mike and Casey hop into Chas’ cab for a journey to the realm of Dreams, because it’s time to go on a road trip across America. Our traveling companions, librarian Kit Laika and Joe Preti from the View from the Gutters podcast.

This month we dig into the Vertigo line of mature-readers comics from DC. From its inception with Karen Berger’s editorial work with Alan Moore on Swamp Thing in the 1980s through massive hits like Sandman, Preacher, Fables and 100 Bullets, we dissect some of the most influential, critically acclaimed and popular comic books of the past thirty years.

Is Vertigo dead, even if its spirit for creator innovation and quality live on at other publishers?

Music: 
“Main Theme” from Constantine (2014) by Bear McCreary

Previously titled: “Make Comics Great Again”

Black Ops Episode 4 – Death is Kinda Stupid

In a bonus “Black Ops” episode, we sit down with Sean Duncan and Sam Mulvey to dig into the concept of immortality.

From Doctor Who to Highlander, we look at the trope of the ageless person who mourns their own lack of death and ask each other, is the trope of sad immortal nothing but bullshit?  Shouldn’t never dying actually be pretty great?

We get into armchair biology, the continuity of consciousness, loneliness, the ability (or inevitability) of change over time, theological questions, muse on transhumanism and the ability to opt out of immortality at any time.

Does death serve any useful purpose? Are we really the same person throughout our lives? Would you really want to live for thousands of years. Would you really be sad or grumpy if you had all the time in the world? Aren’t vampires really kind of stupid?

Who, truly, would want to live forever?

Mike Makes an Appearance on the Hands Free Football Podcast!

Even though he knows next to nothing about sports, our good friends Dave and Carol Brouillette have invited Mike to join them on their Hands Free Football podcast!

Mike mostly asks questions about the game, and test the limits of the hosts’ Seattle Sounders fandom with weird hypotheticals. And finally, we talk about a 1981 soccer movie starring Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine and Pele…where they do battle with Nazis.

Really?

Check it out!

Fun Size Episode 15 – The Internet Needs to Have Its Mind Blown a Little Less Easily

Mike and Casey continue their conversation with our friend Sean Duncan, and dig into the weird worlds of author pseudonyms and young adult fiction — and the frenzied moralistic panics the latter can provoke. And in the process, we unpack Mike’s decades-long grudge with ending of the Chronicles of Narnia.

Plus, we look at a possible insane New Year’s Resolution to watch 365 new movies during the next year, and try to give a spoiler-free review of Rogue One. And we ask ourselves, is the Star Wars universe really as versatile as we hope it is?

Plus, Sean shares what is sure to to be the most unpopular opinion ever voiced on our show, and he awaits your hate mail.

Podcasta la Vista, Baby! Episode 5 – The Last Stand

“Not in his town. Not on his watch.”

We’re back, folks. And so is our favorite Austrian ass-kicker. We join our young friend Sean Duncan to dig into Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first starring role in ten years, 2013’s The Last Stand.

Sheriff Ray Owens has left the life of a big city cop to retire as a small border town’s chief lawman. But when an escaped cartel super-criminal in a Corvette and his gang of mercs make a run for the Mexican border through his town, Owens, his inexperienced deputies and a local gun nut are the only thing standing in their way.

Mike Makes an Appearance on the View from the Gutters Podcast!

Mike sits in with the folks from the View from the Gutters comic book podcast to dig into the first two volumes of Image Comics’ latest series by Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, and Jordie Bellaire: Injection.

When a secret think tank made up of two scientists, a detective, a super spy and a wizard-in-denial crunch the numbers and see that imagination, innovation and human advancement is heading toward stagnation, they take a radical step to fix it, and in their hubris, may have irrevocably broken the universe.

It’s got super science, malevolent pixies, ancient folklore, feral artificial intelligences, human ham sandwiches, gun battles and some of the most wonderfully biting and funny dialogue around.

Check it out!

Join Us for the 1st Annual Captain Picard Day!

There won’t be a new episode of the podcast this month, as Casey and Mike are taking a short break for the holidays…but they want you to join them!

That’s right! We’re hosting what we hope will be a new annual holiday tradition by the 24th Century! We’re hosting a little holiday get-together in honor of Captain Picard Day!

If you’re in the Seattle-Tacoma area, come meet the Radio vs. the Martians! guys and join us in raising our glasses to one of Starfleet’s finest commanding officers,  the player of one mean flute, and role model to children everywhere!

We’ll eat! We’ll drink! We’ll use salty language! We’ll talk endlessly about nerdy stuff and do Patrick Stewart impressions!

WHERE: 

Doyle’s Public House   

208 St. Helens Ave South
Tacoma, WA. 98402

WHEN:

Saturday, December 17th

2:00pm to 6:00pm

RVSP here if you’d like to join us!

Fun Size Episode 14 – Who Doesn’t Want to See Dwayne Johnson Punch a Hippo?

dwayne

In a wide-ranging conversation, Mike and Casey talk about whether Jabba the Hutt’s little monkey-rat creature, Salacious Crumb, is a person or a pet, and dig into the sort of bullshit rumors and urban legends that we both fell for in the pre-internet world of our middle school years.

We get into the recently-released Doctor Strange, and the question of diversity in the Ancient One’s casting, and well as the dearth of strongly written villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

And finally, Mike really really wants to cast Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson in the next big cinematic blockbuster based on a children’s board game.