Because it's about time someone did!
The "Count_Zero Is Super Late To The Party" Post
I'm coming in to the podcast super late, and been listening from the first episode. I've been at a good pace (currently I'm on episode 72) - and I figured rather than jumping into the comments super late on the site (which is often the sign of a spammer), I'd start a thread here, in the grand tradition of the LTTP (Late To The Party) threads on another site I post on (the RPG.net forums).
So, Episode 72:
First off - about the smoke. I had the "joy" of being in Spokane during the fires for Worldcon last year. Thankfully, I had the pleasure of being in a hotel that had a sky-bridge linking it to the convention center (and which didn't have the hospitality suite), so I didn't have to go out into the smoke that much. Anyhoo, as bad as the smoke was in the Valley, it was worse in Spokane - and it got worse as the convention went on and the fires approached the city. Here's the view out of my hotel room on the day I arrived:
Here's how it looked on Day 3 of the con:
Filk Guest of Honor Tom Smith wrote a parody of Eric Clapton's "Cocaine" about the convention titled "Smoke-ane" which was pretty funny.
Moving on with the episode itself. The quip about flying cars somewhat amused me because I've been reading some old Silver Age issues of Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD (pre-Sterenko). In there, one of the common place SHIELD gadgets is a flying car - technology that I don't think appeared in Marvel very much after the dawn of the Bronze Age (though they kept the Helicarriers, because why wouldn't you), and which I think stayed forgotten until the debut of Lola in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD.
The other thing that came to mind - the Juggernaut serving as the distraction to Black Tom Cassiday's heist got me of Die Hard 3 - and now my head-canon casting for Black Tom Cassiday is 1980s-early 90s Jeremy Irons.
Anyway, I'm enjoying the show and I'll probably pop into this thread and post additional observations as I make my way through the show. I know that once you reach X-cutioners Song, there's a particular line in there that didn't stick out in my mind when I first read it in late Middle School, early High School, but which now feels like a clunker, solely to another piece of fiction I'd viewed between the first reading and now.




You're actually totally welcome to post in the episode comments as well--I don't know how active the discussion in any of those will still be at this point, but M and will will both see 'em, and I know there are other folks who check back now and again.
Good to know (though I admit I couldn't have done the comparison photos of the smog in spokane on the Episode comments). As I get closer to being caught up, I'll get a little more involved on the episode comments, as those may be more active - and I wouldn't mind spurring a little more activity here.
I would love to see some more activity here but it's a little problematic for most of us to find the time to relisten to old episodes of the podcast to get the context of your comments.... Still i do want to hear your opinions on things and see you more around here both generating and engaging in threads.
And just to make it clear if it seems like I'm telling you you need my promotion to post anything here it's not what I aim to do and I'm sorry if came out that way. You do you😉 (but a little context would be nice)
I will endeavour to provide more context to what I'm referencing in the future.
Episode 107: Regarding the description of Demon-Possessed New York
Continuing with the trend of "Count_Zero Contextualize Comics with Anime and Manga" [1] (ruining the alliteration) - what happens to New York in Inferno (and to a certain degree leading up to Inferno) reminds me a lot of a fairly recent anime by the title of Karas - a action/supernatural horror superhero anime which is based around the concept of cities being living things and the "Karas" being supernatural heroes that regulate the health of the cities by dealing with evil youkai (called Mikura) who screw up the spiritual health of the city.
Anyhoo - the conclusion of the short OVA series - the Big Bad of the series, an Evil previous Karas turns the city of Shinjuku[2] into a massive demon which kills tons of people in ways that remind me of the descriptions of this arc. Between this and some other anime I've seen (or read desciriptions of) which take cues from Late 80s and 90s X-Men, I wonder if, in spite of all the poo-pooing I've encountered from some (but by no means all) anime fans of superhero comics (and the 90s X-Books in particular), if Clairmont's run on the X-Books and its aftermath had a significant influence in comics outside of the US?
[1]which also was occurring in the comments on the site.
[2] Why is it always Shinjuku? Karas, Demon City Shinjuku, The World Ends With You...
Episode 86: Forge's exchange with Ororo (Believe in yourself because I believe in you): Two points related to anime that have stuck in my brain. First, Forge's speech gives me a real Gurren Lagann "If you can't believe in yourself, then believe in the me that believes in you!" vibe (which is fine). This in turn lead me to my observation about the song "Before My Body Is Dry (Don't Lose Your Way)" from Kill la Kill (which was animated by some of the principal animators from TTGL), which is that song (and in particular the chorus) fits perfectly with any moment of female empowerment and self-actualization in fiction - particularly superhero fiction.
(It makes sense with how the song is used in context in the show - Kill la Kill that is.)
Episode 87: The Angry Claremontian Narrator got remarkably Glados there. Also, Google Chrome Auto-Correct knows "Claremontian"
For Episode 75: I made a comment on the site, but I don't want to necessarily multi-post on that blog post, so, I'll give any further thoughts here.
Related to Thor paying for use of the forge in Pittsburg using the Rhinegold: First off - I've watched Wagner's Ring Cycle, both staged as an opera and adapted into an anime by Leiji Masumoto. If I've learned anything from those, it's that the only thing to do with the Rhinegold is to leave it with the Rhine Maidens where it belongs. Not to mention you really don't want to accept the Rhinegold in payment, because by accepting it you forswear all love for all time forever (even familial love - which is why Fafnir slew Fsolt, and felt no remorse for it - just turned into a dragon to protect his horde, especially the Rhinegold).
So, I'm not sure which is more supervillainous - Thor taking the Rhinegold from the Rhinemaidens, or paying someone with it.