Midnight Grappler Animals

In this not new year's episode we discuss Godzilla in Hell, a 5 issue mini published by IDW in 2015. It's an easy read, a book well worth picking up for both the fun concept and the top-tier talent working on each issue. Also, hey, look, we might have flubbed our timeline, and we may or may not have mentioned on mic this episode coming out before 2024 and we just... look, stop yelling at us okay!...

Happy New Year! What better way to start off the year than by finishing off stuff from last year? We're back in the realm of the Spider as we close up shop on the first Superior Spider-Man run (of many) and figure out whether the run kept its stride in the second half or floundered to the finish line. If you're itching for more from this episode (almost half an hour more!), you can access the spec...

We looked back, forward, and inward to consider what was the worst and best stuff we covered this year, as well as asking ourselves what momentous occasions could happen next year. Listen to hear your favorite episodes be sentimentally recounted, or to hear your most hated comics get deservedly shat upon once more. Also, important note from Salt: I somehow forgot to include SGM's White Knight and...

This year for our Christmas episode, we talk about the real reason for the season, the big man himself! What better timing than 3 weeks after its release to put out a review of Godzilla Minus-One? Indulge us as we talk about the historical omissions, themes, and most importantly, feet in this movie, and find out why Gamera is the better Kaiju after all. Questions, comments, or suggestions? Email u...

We did it and we made it, all because of you folks: 50 episodes of this thing. We figured to celebrate we'd go back to the beginning: In our first patron exclusive episode- which you should check out if you haven't already- Lan introduced us to the eccentric and questionably produced Tamil action film, The Legend . Salt figured if we've looked at the strangest offerings of Lan's people, let's look...

We're back with another entry in our longstanding "What Were They Thinking?" series, bringing back series stalwart Serg (@TheeFantomas) as we discuss an oft-forgotten attempt at creating a new hero for a new millennium. What could possibly go wrong when Grant Morrison and Mark Millar create a South American superhero with blonde hair and blue eyes? Tune in and find out. Looking for show notes or a...

In this episode, we find an answer to the long-standing debate over the question "Can you read Pluto without having read the story it's based on?" by watching the show based on the manga based on the original Tezuka Manga. Lan read both manga, while Salt read neither. It goes about as well as you'd expect. Liked what you heard from this preview and want to hear the full episode? Subscribe to our P...

In this episode we enter a world of fantasy, a world experienced by few and a realm that some say only exists in myth: Chicago. We're covering the entirety of Kyle Higgins, Alec Siegel, and Rod Reis' C.O.W.L this time, and figuring out what it means for superheroes to actually have to pay union dues. If you're from Chicago or are a fan of Bozo's Circus, this is just the episode for you. With this,...

We had a whole blurb we wrote for this episode that explains the cover art we picked but that only makes sense if you're subbed to the patreon, speaking of which why aren't you subbed to the patreon go sub to the patreon and then you can understand how we are SO. HYPE. ABOUT. TEMPUS. FUGINAUT. With this brief look into Higgins' non-Power Rangers work, we'll be back next week for Part 5 as we dip o...

It's been one whole year of Midnight Grappler Animals! We certainly didn't think we'd make it this far, but to celebrate, we finally stayed true to our name and discussed wrestling in this 1-year anniversary special. What better way to get into the world of Japanese pro wrestling than with wrestling aficionado JPopp92 himself? After over an hour and change of talking Puroresu, we also reminisced o...

Corporate comics are the past, indie is the future. Back in 2008, this was the call to action stated by famed comics creator Robert Kirkman. While somewhat controversial in its time, what were the actual results of the Kirkman Manifesto? Well, hindsight is 20/20, and The Rob (not that The Rob) is a very rich man, so who are we to judge? So throw away your Spider-Man pajamas and get yourself some I...

A.K.A Kamen Rider Kuuga: Good Cop, Gay Cop After months and months away from our tokusatsu-themed main episodes, we're bringing back Toku Thursday with the next logical step in our journey through the Kamen Rider decades: Kamen Rider Kuuga. Lan and Salt talk about their thoughts on the season, Joe Odagiri's hatred of tokusatsu, and what the Odagiri Effect means. Looking for show notes? Head over t...

We recorded this episode right before our first episode of Gotch Watch, mainly as a means of getting Salt more acclimated to the state of modern Kamen Rider is. Thus, we set out to watch the first episode of four seasons of the show and give our thoughts on them: Kamen Rider Den-O, Kamen Rider W, Kamen Rider Fourze, and Kamen Rider Zero-One. This is essentially a 2-hour-long Episode 0 to our Gotch...

"Fascism is the application of colonial violence to the imperial core" - Robert Paxton If you've heard or read Strange Adventures by King, Gerads, and Shaner, you might be asking, what does this book have to do with 9/11 or the War on Terror? Our guest this week, True Outlaw of Comics Ramon Villalobos also asked this question. Is this story the condemnation of colonialist selfishness King purports...

"What does this mean?" "It should mean something" We had a pretty varied run with the first three episodes of this series, but as we begin our descent towards the finale, we go back to the core thesis of this series. What better way to do that than to look at the work of Tom King, the eminent emperor of post-War on Terror comics? This week brings you the first of our two-part Infinite Justice fina...

"This was once revealed to me in a dream" - Nicolas Berdyaev Last time we looked at comics that came out in the aftermath of 9/11, but this time we're looking at a book that came out in a far more immediate aftermath than any of those other books: the day after 9/11. On 9/12/2001, the first issue of U.S. War Machine came out, written and illustrated by Chuck Austen. We sat down with Austen for a d...

"Arousing deadly hatred simply because they were close to the business of capitalism...of making money...and enjoying freedom." - Jo Duffy The aftermath of 9/11 brought comics creators together to reconcile with what had happened, united by taking their pens to paper. Some bought into nationalism, others questioned the possible jingoism that was going around at the time. In this episode of Infinit...

"Basically, I'm here to announce that we're building Iron Man." - Barack Obama 9/11/01 rocked the United States, and the world was never the same since. 20 years later, and the MGA Department of Defense is ready to launch a counter attack on the comics that were borne of 9/11: Infinite Justice has commenced. And in true Midnight Grappler Animals fashion, when we dive deep, we need to make a multi-...

Lan and Salt head over to Precinct 10 this week for another bonus episode, as we do a deep dive into Alan Moore, Zander Cannon, and Gene Ha's oft-forgotten ABC/Wildstorm comic Top Ten ! Special thanks to our patron Jeffrey B for suggesting this topic, we hope we did it justice! Lan's Alan Moore video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjnatRyjRiM For access to the complete episode and all our premiu...

Our best laid plans got eaten by some mice, some very bad mice!!! Lan suggested we watch Chef (2014), a movie Salt ended up liking, and Lan liked even more. As we analyze the story and themes of Chef , we also end up looking back at Favreau's recent career achievements, as we seek to understand how we can continue to find joy in the stuff we make. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programmi...

We start our new "Water Cooler" series with perhaps our most intellectual episode to date, as described by several scholars. Lan and Salt discuss the various trials and tribulations of getting people into things. Be it figuring out what a good jumping on point is, or figuring out why some things are hard to get into, this episode lets us sit down and work through our feelings on these things. For...

It's been a while but we're back with the third part to our Road to Radiant Black series, covering volume 6 of Boom! Studios' Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and the big crossover event between it and Go Go Power Rangers : Shattered Grid! We discuss taking licensed comics into the realm of event comics, and the lessons these books learned from Big 2 direct market comics. This event marks the end of K...

We at Midnight Grappler Animals don some fancy tuxes as we head into the 2023 edition of the Hellfire Gala for this bonus episode! Once the hottest event in comics, now the smoldering remains of a previously-promising era of comics, Lan invites on guests Tyler and Serg to help break Salt's fall as he dives headfirst into his third ever X-Men comic. Is this Hellfire Gala welcoming to these humans,...

Our first guest and our most recent guest are our first returning guests! on this episode we welcome back the creators of Holy Wes t, Seth Jacob (@SethJacob) and Daniel Irizarri (@DanielIrizarri) as we take a look inside their most recent creation, Holy West #2 , to see how the sausage is made. Process-heads, this one's for you. We also cover the downfall of twitter, and how that affects indie com...

A big episode for those of you that are obsessed with numerology (looking at you, Robbin from The Rehearsal ), but an otherwise powerful bonus episode comes your way! We discuss the Power Rangers 30th anniversary special, Once and Always , and talk about who did and didn't get to show up. We also celebrate our own vindication upon watching the Shin Kamen Rider making-of documentary, with peace and...