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New podcast, recorded on Easter Sunday because we are just that dedicated to bring our opinions to you on a regular basis. You can now click on that sexy little box up there to listen to it, or your can go right here and do it the old fashioned way. Be aware that we start off with a big conversation about comic books, so if you don’t care about that, skip ahead like 22 minutes to hear me complain about Lost some more.

There’s no news this week, partially because I don’t think anything actually happened but also because we were hit with the end of Blackest Night, the long-awaited (by me, anyway) return of Stargate Universe (I don’t understand why it’s called that), another mediocre episode of Lost, and the triumphant return of Doctor Who. At least in the U.K. If you are in America, you can see it on BBC America in two weeks. But we’ll be way ahead of you by then, you hippie.

In our new podcast we spend a lot of time discussing casting rumors for the new Captain America film, news that put the Internet into a tailspin (which side of the Internet is the back side?) last week. The names on the list are a little surprising, and I would bring up the age-old adage of “no one thought Michael Keaton would be a good Batman, but he was,” except none of these guys are Michael Keaton. Although if they do a Blue Beetle movie, Krasinski would make a hell of a Ted Kord.

Listen or face the consequences!

The latest episode of the Zero Room is live! We did our best this week to keep things on a happy positive note but as you might imagine we do get a bit snarky, especially about the art that accompanies this post. This was Doug’s Worst Thing Ever this week. If the title MASS EFFECT 2 were not emblazoned on top it is massive letters it really could be any action game or movie or TV Show or cartoon or breakfast bar. I suppose that there’s an established brand for Mass Effect, but really, is this the best EA could do? I’m not entirely sure what anyone is looking at or doing in the piece, but hey there’s a big smoking gun, a girl in what looks like an uncomfortable pose and an Alien! Ship it!

Also here is my Worst Thing Ever this week, the trailer for WWII in HD from the History Channel. In pixelated Standard Def. I suppose it was just a good week for marketing fails.

I just spotted this today on Yahoo! movies.  As a massive GL fan I can’t help but to be giddy about this kind of thing.

There’s an HD Version here.

Sound effects are harder to incorporate into the show than I anticipated. I find myself constantly looking at the laptop figuring out what the best sound could be, which causes the show to have these odd little hiccups that don’t quite work. Of course it doesn’t help that I look across at Doug’s face in fear of what hellish sound effect is going to roar across the headphones. I should take relish in it, but I feel kinda bad. This is not to say that I’m going to stop right away, but I will keep refining the process a bit more before I throw in the towel.

I’m really happy with our talk about Final Crisis and remarkably unhappy about the reception that it has received across the internet. It seems to me that we should applaud when a marginalized medium, like comics, tries (and IMHO succeeds) in expanding the storytelling powers and scope. We should, as fans, stand up and cheer from the rooftops. Comics are not films, TV shows or novels and because of that we should not impose the same limitation and story structures that those other mediums have.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

We just posted episode twenty-eight of the podcast, which as usual includes a lot of talk about the weeks news. One of our topics this week was about the two big comic book events from the “Big Two”, DC’s Final Crisis and Marvel’s Secret Invasion. In there I make the comment that could be described as follows.

Secret Invasion is to The Iron Man Movie as Final Crisis is to The Dark Knight Film.

Heady words indeed. As I tried to point out in the podcast, I certainly don’t think that Final Crisis is as good the The Dark Knight, nor do I think that Secret Invasion is as good as Iron Man. What I do think though is that SI is perfectly happy trying to be a summer blockbuster with just about as much depth and character as a Michael Bay film, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Meanwhile, Final Crisis is attempting, not altogether unsuccessfully, to create a substantial and deep narrative within the framework of men and women in brightly-colored tights.  That is no small feat and while it may not always succeed, I think it’s worth applauding the effort of trying something different.

Oh and here’s some wacky Crispin Glover Trailer goodness.

I saw this great cover for the Doctor Who comic from IDW and just felt I had to share. Ben Templesmith is a great artist. Everything from him that I’ve seen allways has great character and a singular unique look too it. For more check out his great work on the Warren Ellis book Fell.