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The boys take an episode to catch up on some news! Sad news of Marjane Satrapi & Anthony Stweart Head. Important news about DC Blackout,  the Warner Bros/Paramount thing, and AI news in film, comics and in Todd McFarlane’s brain. Oh, and Martin Scorsese is apparantly a chopped unc. That’s what the kids are saying.

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The Mortal Kombat II movie came out… several weeks ago, apparently, but MK Fever is still raging at Zero Issues Central! We finally all saw the movie, so now it’s time to talk all about it! Does it hold up to the mighty 1995 Klassic? What characters and fights were a flawless fatality or a fatal blow to the series? And what of Karl Urban as Johnny Cage? And our favourite character, Cole Young!?

But we’ve got a lot more Kombat to Konversate about! We dig into tournaments as a storytelling function, their long history in comics, games, and movies, and the ever-present shadow of “Enter the Dragon”. We match up some Krossover Kombatants, pitting the MK Krew against comic heroes, then dig into the history of Mortal Kombat comics… which is still mostly Malibu’s 1990s MK line, so why hasn’t anyone else done much with this franchise since? And we have a Casting Call for a whole bunch of MK characters — but they have to be actors from John Carpenter movies! That’s right, we’ve got “Rowdy” Roddy Piper as Johnny Cage! James Hong as Shang Tsung! Keith David as Scorpion! Wilford Brimley as Kano! Ernest Borgnine as Goro! And that’s just the tip of the Event Tower.

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Here comes Daredevil (Born Again season two part two)! This week, we finish up our talk about the newest season of everyone’s favourite blind lawyer/Catholic guilt-haver/guy who might have owned the Ninja Turtles as a kid. And this time, Bry’s seen the show, so he sticks around! Not only that, but he gets to talk about the first half of the season! So, what worked for us? What didn’t? How would we change the ending, and where could the ending that we have possibly lead us into the future? All that, plus the Punisher’s impregnable fortress of two unlocked doors in a parking garage.

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Sometimes they aim big. A comic. A cartoon. A toyline. Video games.

And sometimes that crashes like the Hindenburg. Failed Franchises! That’s what the boys are talking about this week. A slew of bad comics, mediocre toys and forgettable films. Some of them even had an ok aspect, but they just aimed too high. From Jim Lee’s Wildcats, to Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy and a few other gems (or crystals) in the mix. Crystar the Crystal Warrior and Bucky O’ Hare anyone? And somehow we talk about Glenn Danzig and Billy Zane because why the hell not!?!?

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Oh shoot, we missed Mother’s Day! And we didn’t get anything for our Mother Boxes! I sure hope they like podcast episodes… That’s right, this episode is all about the Mother Box, the smartphone that’s also a mom, and a buncha other li’l robot buddies and helpers! We start off with a partial reading and discussion of the essay “‘How Can I Refuse You, Mother Box?!’ Abjection and Objectification of Motherhood in Jack Kirby’s Fourth World” by Annamarie O’Brien for ImageTexT, chat about whether Cyborg should be powered by a Mother Box or not, the life and times of Skeets, Widget, H.E.R.B.I.E. and J.A.R.V.I.S., and the introduction of our own acronym-first robot pals!

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The apocalypse is coming, whether you like it or not! This week, we talk about some of our favourite comic book apocalypses: the time-is-broken Assorted Crisis Events, a small sampling of the Ninja Turtles ends of the world (turns out there are several of them!), and, of course, your standard whoops-we-flooded-the-world trope represented by The Massive. We’ve even got an apocalyptic quiz to start us off!

But even before that, Bry tells us all about Superman: War of the Worlds in the Warmup, which is exactly what it sounds like it is, but even still, sounds like a pretty great book! Plenty of reading suggestions this week, if you exclusively want to read about the end of the world.

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Lightning Strikes Twice!

Another lightning round (continuing from last week) as we have more short topics to blaze through! Kyle gets Bry to give a crash course on Usagi Yojimbo and where to start with that legendary comic series! Merk runs a Mike Mignola Hellboy quiz! 4 questions but they’re tough! Bry gets us going on Nintendo comics, existing, possible and can we have this? Kyle – “What if DC bought Marvel in the 90’s? What if Marvel bought DC in the 80’s? What if the Defenders were the Watchmen?” Merk discusses John Byrne’s fan fic X-Men run being actually published by Abrams Books, X-Men : Elsewhere ! Bry has an animated comic theme quiz! And it’s TOUGH! And who wants to have Cyclops visor headphones? This and at least 4 other things this week on ZERO ISSUES!!

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Spring has possibly actually finally sprung, and that means it’s time for another LIGHTNING ROUND! Before we get caught in a couple of wacky tangents, that is! Topics include: – Do you want to start reading Conan but don’t know where to start? Let resident Conan Expert Merk be your guide into the Hyborian Age and its many forms! – Not one but TWO Mike Mignola topics, in which we discuss “Uri Tupka and the Gods” as well as the overall “Lands Unknown” series, and are later challenged to an All-Mignola Quiz! – With Archie and Oni Press finally crossing (or X-ing) over, what new synergistic Archie crossovers could be next? Archie x Scott Pilgrim? The Sixth Gun? Mind MGMT? Howabout Jughead’s Time Police Meets Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen!? – Hey, remember those “READ” posters in libraries and schools? Let’s imagine what books comic characters would be reading in their own versions! (The Hal Jordan jokes write themselves!) – And lastly, we take on Marvel’s “Acts of Vengeance” with DC superheroes and villains! What if the Legion of Doom swapped foes in the Justice League? Dibs on not fighting Superman!

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Here comes Daredevil, again! This week, we talk about the first half of Daredevil Born Again season 2. Well, some of us do, at least! Look, life can get pretty busy these days, and we don’t always have the time to watch all the prestige television we want. Point is, some of us watched Daredevil, and some of us have opinions.

Plus, it’s National Haiku Day, so before we get to any of that, we present some heartfelt Daredevil haikus. For youse!

 

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Hank McCoy! The ‘lovable’ Beast! You’re up on todays episode of ROAST THAT… GUY… THERE…. over there.

A handful of Hank’s best buddies, enemies, 2 ex-girlfriends and Dr Druid show up for ROAST BEAST!! Who’s got the best takedown? How many reference Beast’s hygiene and peculiar odor? Are we roasting Dark Beast, Lovable Furry Blue Beast or Big Feet Beast? What do his Exes have to say? Tune in to find out!

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It’s April Fool’s Day, and that means it’s time to both discuss and pity fools, in that order! There are many foolish comic-book characters, from the deliberately silly gag heroes and villains (such as Lady Stilt-Man, the Fabulous Frog-Man, and Dracula’s progeny Hell Cow) to the accidentally absurd golden-age and silver-age characters who seem to get more bonkers with every passing day (Turner D. Century, Asbestos Lady and Madam Fatal, anyone?) And what about when comics’ fools get serious, like Michelangelo in “The Last Ronin” or Snagglepuss in “Exit Stage Left”? And let’s not forget weird licensing creations like NFL Superpro and good ol’ US-1!

But first we respond to the passing of comics legend and innovator Sam Kieth, creator of The Maxx and so much more, and reflect on the impact his work had on us as fans and creators.

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