Spider-Man, Spider-Man does whatever a spider can… So if you’re the kind of person who listens to this show, you no doubt know that a new Spider-man movie, Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Probably many of the podcasts you listen to are even talking about it. Well, we don’t want to spoil it, so rather than…
Category: Comics
e430. Tyrant: Dinosaurs and the Evolution of Indie Comics
To a lot of people “comics” seems to mean superheroes. So much that “comic book movies” is the term that we sometimes use for what should properly be called “superhero movies”. This makes sense, given the stranglehold that DC and Marvel comics have had over the American comic publishing industry for nearly a century. However,…
e429. Out of this World: Alien Archetypes in Pop Culture
Aliens are one of the most enduring concepts in popular culture. It makes sense really. If we know there are other planets then it stands to reason that we might wonder what’s on them. There’s no shortage of books, films, TV shows and video games that explore this. So it’s kind of weird that we…
e428. The Supergirl Legacy: The Evolution of the Maid of Might
If you pay attention to the weekly pop-culture media landscape you might be aware that a new Supergirl movie released the weekend before this episode. It performed… somewhat underwhelmingly at the box office. It also had mixed reviews. But is that fair? On this episode Mav, Wayne and Hannah welcome returning guest, comics scholar Anna…
e426. Narrative & Technology (& Narrative) Syllabus Special
A few weeks ago, Mav was talking with friend of the show Joe Darowski about a new class Joe is teaching at Bringham Young University called “Technology & Narrative”. Joe asked if Mav had any suggestions for the course since it seemed up his alley. Well, as it turns out, Mav regularly teaches a course…
e418. PCA Roundtable: Enjoying the Art of Immoral Artists: An Ethical and Aesthetic Dilemma
It’s that time of year again! If you’re a long time listener to the show then you probably know about PCA already. PCA is acronym for both the Popular Culture Association and their annual convention that in many ways is part of the genesis of the show. Last year all of the cohosts attended, but…
e408. Wonder Woman: Boundaries, Bondage, and Breakthroughs
Wonder Woman is almost certainly one of the most enduring characters in all of pop culture. She’s certainly the most famous female superhero of all time. But we would argue that she’s significant even beyond that. Why? Well, let’s talk about it. On this week’s show Mav, Wayne and Monica are joined by returning guest…
e403. Things You Missed 2025
Well here we are at the end of the year 2025; a year that somehow seemingly lasted 147 months. And yet somehow it was really only 12 months and that means we had only 52 weeks to analyze everything that happened in popular culture. Obviously we didn’t get to it all; we never do. And…
e397. All the Frankensteins! (like all the Draculas… but with Frankenstein)
One of pop cultures most enduring properties is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Not only is it often hailed as the first ever science fiction property, it is one of the all-time most adapted characters in film, TV and other media. In fact, Netflix just produced a new version last week. That seemed like a good excuse…