Moderate Fantasy Violence #8 - A Wave Of Your Massive Blue Smurf Hand

I'm going on holiday very shortly so can't spend too long endlessly talking about myself on the internet, but the eighth episode of my pop culture talky podcast with my friend Alastair is up now and you can see more info on the podcast website, or I'll paste the description and an audio player in below.

Or if you want to just cut to the chase, download the file here!

Right, I'm off to York. Probably some pictures on Twitter or Instagram or something if you like that sort of thing.

It's our eighth episode, the fourth to feature a major superhero movie! But at least there isn't another one until Suicide Squad in August! We start with X-Men: Apocalypse (3:22), then move on to cape-free TV comic adaptation Preacher (23:34). After all that, we finally watch an all-original film, namely horror-thriller Green Room starring Patrick Stewart as a Nazi (43:21).

And then we leave the realm of narrative entirely for our recommendation feature, as Alastair suggests the Cammell Laird Social Club album by irreverent post-punk band Half Man Half Biscuit (53:27).

Spoilers abound, especially for the X-Men movie. Beware! And if you enjoy the show, do review us on iTunes or tell your friends!

I finally read Age of Apocalypse - Was it like a smaller Secret Wars?

Just recently, I crossed another item off my list of stories to read on Marvel Unlimited - I rattled through the X-Men: Age of Apocalypse mini-epic. I don't know what spurred me to go for that precise one, but after the fact, it seems topical - after all, Marvel are about to pull an Age of Apocalypse on their entire universe with the mega-massive Secret Wars event.

That's before we get to next year's X-Men: Apocalypse movie, which probably won't adapt this storyline but might, and recent DC event Convergence, also an AoA-style move, albeit shorter.

So it seemed a good time to talk about it, maybe discuss how these new events are using (or abusing) the legacy of Age of Apocalypse. Spoilers follow for twenty-year-old X-Men comics!

X-Men: Days Of Future Past - "Open Mouth. Insert Wolverine."

This week, I went to see X-Men: Days of Future Past, a movie attempting to properly fire the X-Engine back up for their cut of that sweet Avengers money. There are millions of characters in the X-Cupboard, after all, and they were among the first entrants in the current run of super-movies.

So, hell, do a comeback, why not. But, oddly, this isn't a reboot or straight continuation of the excellent X-Men: First Class prequel. Instead, they're bringing back cast and director from the first two films and mashing everything together into an epic time travel story.

Wow. That's so comic book. I'm totally on-board. But will it be a good movie?

WARNING: Full spoilers throughout. And the ending is impressively weird, so if you've somehow avoided ruining it for this long, I'd keep going until you see it.

Comic reviews: The Wake! X-Men! Many A True Nerd!

Two comic reviews on Many A True Nerd today...

First up, a joyous swing into the mainstream with Marvel's X-Men #1.

And, slightly off to one side:

New underwater horror series The Wake #1 from DC/Vertigo.