Episode 87: Thankful for the Marvel Cinematic Universe!

 

Welcome all, and to our fellow Americans, Happy Thanksgiving! It's become a tradition here at Planet 8 for us to celebrate and be thankful for some genre-related franchise, and in the past, we've been thankful for Star Trek, Star Wars, and James Bond. This year, we are expressing our love and gratitude for the magnificent Marvel Cinematic Universe -the MCU! Now with 26 films and climbing, not to mention the MCU TV series, we've been blessed with a bountiful collection of films that created a rich, complex, and deeply rewarding experience for the viewers. 

We'll have a conversation about our early experience with the MCU, when we first started hearing about Marvel making an Iron Man film, what we thought of it and how Marvel blew us away with that and the succeeding films. 

Casting has been a big key to making the films successful, and we'll talk about our favorite castings and the ones we thought might have been crazy, but actually worked out really well. 

Of course, no discussion of the MCU would be complete without going around and talking about which Marvel movies are our favorites! With so many to choose from now, it's getting harder to pick, but we do come up with a few. Amazingly, there are few MCU films that we don't like. There may be a few that we like less...but somehow they have kept a high level of quality through the series.

The crew also talks a bit about the latest MCU film, The Eternals, so if you haven't seen that film yet, be warned! And we can't neglect all the activity on Disney Plus - four series so far, and as this episode goes live, the Hawkeye series will be hitting the airwaves in a couple of days! Where else will the Marvel Cinematic Universe go? We can't wait to see.

For the Sensor Sweep, Bob shares information about a book by his friend Norman England, Behind the Kaiju Curtain: A Journey onto Japan's Biggest Film Sets. This book is a personal record of Norman's experiences while he wrote for Fangoria and was able to visit the sets of a number of kaiju films in a professional capacity. He met many of the actors and crew on the films and the book gives you an intimate look at what went on in the Japanese film industry in the 90s. If you like kaiju films, this is a must-read! Ask for it at your local bookseller, or get it at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. 

That's all for us this time. Listeners, we are also thankful for you! We appreciate you listening to us, commenting, subscribing, contacting us on Twitter and Facebook. It's great to feel a sense of community forming around Planet 8. We hope that you and yours are safe and well.

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Avengers Assemble!!

Episode 16: The Pros and Cons of Conventions

One of the great joys of being a fan is attending conventions. Whether you're a fan of comics, Star Trek, Star Wars, horror movies, anime, or all of the above, there's nothing quite like the thrill of going to a con and seeing your favorite writers, artists, actors, and other creators and celebrities. Or maybe you enjoy spending hours hunting down treasures in the dealers room! Sometimes just hanging out with like-minded people can make your day. Cons can provide a wealth of experiences...and while most of them make for great memories, there are also those times you'd just as soon forget!

Larry, Bob, and Karen  discuss the pros -and cons -of cons. Consider this our unvarnished look at something we generally love, but have no illusions about either. We'll go down Memory Lane and discuss conventions both old and recent, from small, grass-roots cons, to large mega-cons too. There are always those experiences you plan, and then there are those ones that just seem to happen - and sometimes, those are the most rewarding. 

For our Sensor Sweep, we look at some Star Trek goodies from a company called Quantum Mechanix (QMX). They make some beautiful metallic insignia badges that are also magnetic, so when you wear them, you won't have to put a hole in your shirt or costume. You can get ones for all the branches (Command, Sciences, Engineering, etc.). They range from about $5-15 and you can get them at their website (https://qmxonline.com/) or look on Amazon.

Let us know about your favorite convention experiences...or your worst! You know where to find us:

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Thanks for Listening!