My New Project

As you know, I have gotten a subscription to Marvel Unlimited. As such, I have now read some comics that I never would have had the chance to, and some that I meant to try but didn't want to drop the money on. Since then, my "You must have organization in everything" mentality has taken over and I've now started reading Marvel from the beginning.

No, not from Marvel Comics #1 (although I have read that) but from the start of the Marvel Age with Fantastic Four #1. In order to get this done with a minimum of fuss or backtracking, I'm using The Complete Marvel Reading Order website. A lot of work has gone into sussing out just what issues come where, so I figure it's a pretty decent place to start. Plus, this will keep me out of trouble for awhile.

They've Gone And Done It

For those of you that haven't heard, Marvel Comics has announced that they're going to take a page out of DC's playbook and do a reboot of not only their Ultimate line, but also the main Marvel Universe. I think this is a good thing. As I stated on Episode 2 of The Hammer Podcasts!, there's just too much continuity for Marvel's sliding time scale to contain. I can only hope that they also learn from DC's mistakes and reboot everything from the ground up and don't leave a few titles to stretch over the reboot. In other words, they need a John Byrne's Man of Steel or George Perez's Wonder Woman style of reboot, and not whatever happened with Batman or Green Lantern after the Crisis.

Not that my opinion really matters to them, as I haven't bought a new Marvel comic in at least a decade. Still, I wish them well as I peruse their back issues, but more on that next week.

Trailers

As I get older (this is the last year that "late 30's will appear on this blog's description) I find that I tend more and more to not watch trailers. Oh, I'll watch the first one pout out, as I did with Age of Ultron, Star Wars Episode 7, and Ant Man, but I'm not going out of my way to see anything down the road. There's a few reasons for this.

First is the time it takes. Yes, I know these are short things, but I have so much else going on in my life that I'm not going to go seek these things out. If I'm in a theater and the trailers are on, then I have no choice, but that's also part of the movie-going experience. I'm so far behind on other forms of viewing (I still have only seen the first episode of Constantine, for example) that I have all my TV time booked.

Secondly, there's going to be TV spots. More than likely, I'm going to end up seeing something on these things just by watching my normal TV, so why waste time in seeking them out?

The biggest reason is, though, I'm falling into that "old fart" "Get off my lawn!" mindset. I like what I like and I tend to stick to that. If these trailers get my interest up on the first viewing, that's great. If it looks like it's going to annoy me, then I avoid it. More information with likely not change my opnion too much, one way or another.

Besides, I'm a geek. I'm GOING to see the movies anyway, so why spoil the experience by watching most of it before I'm in the theater?

The State of the Podcast

As my first post of the New Year, I thought I'd look back on my biggest project from 2014, which would be to start my own podcast. Luckily I was able to annoy Scott Gardner enough convince the wonderful guys at Two True Freaks into allowing me on their network, which made my life a lot easier.  I covered a good number of topics, and had a great time doing it. Here's a breakdown of the episodes and how many downloads they got:

Episode 1 - Star Trek

My thoughts on Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Animated Series.

Downloaded 297 times (Rank 177 in 2014 for all Two True Freaks shows)

Episode 2 - Comic Books

How I got into comics and my likes/dislikes.

Downloaded 290 times (Rank 189)

Episode 3 - Mythology

My general thoughts on Mythology and Arthurian legend.

Downloaded 363 times (Rank 79)

Episode 4 - Feedback

Response to various e-mails that I had gotten up to that point. I have since gotten a bunch more, so look for "Son of Feedback" in the near future.

Downloaded 325 times (Rank 135)

Episode 5 - Changes

I was joined by Tom Harris (of Radio Free Asgard) to talk about changes to Thor and Captain America. I think we had quite the intelligent discussion on the topic.

Downloaded 391 times (Rank 52)

This was my most popular episode to date and that's all thanks to Tom.

Episode 6 - Greek Gods

In this one I went more in depth on Greek Mythology, looking at three myths and giving you my opinion.

Downloaded 129 times (Rank 558)













Episode 7 - Role Playing Games

In this episode I was joined by The Irredeemable Shag himself (of Firestorm Fan) to talk about our mutual passion for Role Playing Games.

Downloaded 113 times (Rank 675)

Episode 8 - Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Released on the 35th Anniversary of the premiere of the first Star Trek feature film, Scott Gardner (one of the Two True Freaks) and I talk about our love of this movie and why you should give it a second look.

Downloaded 156 times (Rank 455)

Episode 9 - A Christmas Carol

My very own holiday special. I have only heard good things so far, so obviously the checks cleared.

Downloaded 71 times (Rank information not available.)

Legends of the Superheroes - Swamp Thing

Very graciously agreeing to by my first ever guest, Rob Kelly (of The Aquaman Shire) and I go over this often overlooked movie based on the DC Comics character.

Downloaded 344 times (Rank 107)

Legends of the Superheroes - Batman

This time out I was joined by Paul Spataro and Bill Robinson (of Back to the Bins) for a look back at the Adam West Batman series.

Downloaded 413 times (Rank 35)

My most popular episode to date! As with Episode 5 above, I give all the credit to Paul and Bill.

Legends of the Superheroes - The Incredible Hulk

A loving look back at the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferigno TV show with Chris Weissenborn and Mike Zsiga (of The Ninjaverse).

Downloaded 301 times (Rank 170)






Not too shabby for my first year, if I do say so myself.