Midnight Grappler Animals

Ten years have passed since Peter Parker died and made way for the rise of the Superior Spider-Man, and it seems that in the 10 years since, no one's really learned any lessons from the whole thing. What better way to figure out what went right and where things went wrong than to read through the entirety of the first Superior Spider-Man run? Lan and Salt go back through the end of 2012 to halfway...

Ten years have passed since Peter Parker died and made way for the rise of the Superior Spider-Man, and it seems that in the 10 years since, no one's really learned any lessons from the whole thing. What better way to figure out what went right and where things went wrong than to read through the entirety of the first Superior Spider-Man run? Lan and Salt go back through the end of 2012 to halfway...

We've got another bonus for both the true Venomheads and burgeoning Venomites, as we watched both Venom (2018) and Venom: Let there be Carnage (2021) and discussed their geographical accuracies, queer under/overtones, and the experience of watching a movie at 1.5x speed. We also talked about Salt's Twitter misfortunes and the struggles of maintaining a pull list. For access to the complete episode...

Our Month of the Mask has come to an end and while we may be done talking about Riders we still have Ryders to discuss, and 4, or 5, or maybe 6 other characters as well? Who knows. Our math may be off but our reading comprehension has never been sharper as we pore through the pages of several 1960s comics to determine, just what was famed comics artist and infamous objectivist Steve Ditko cooking?...

Lan decided to subject Salt to some good comics for once. Before that, a discussion on one of the wilder Toronto Mayoral Elections in recent history. For access to the complete episode and all our premium episodes subscribe to our patreon: www.patreon.com/midnightgrappleranimals

We did it we made it we're here: It's our last installment of Month of the Mask. To better understand the mind of The Director (Hideaki Anno) we read Moyoko Anno's autobiographical comic Insufficient Direction , a quick romp exploring the unique tribulations of being married to a huge nerd. After that it's our main event, Shin Kamen Rider . The short verdict? Shin Kamen Rider is a film we both lov...

Here's another entry in our "Cesspool" bonus subseries, where we talk about Familial capers, Spider-Man woes, and the horrid state of the current comics industry. Do we have the solutions? Can Midnight Grappler Animals save the comics industry? Tune in to find out! For access to the complete episode and all our premium episodes subscribe to our patreon: www.patreon.com/midnightgrappleranimals

In our third installment of Month of the Mask, we watched two Kamen Rider movies from the mid-00s, Kamen Rider: The First and Kamen Rider: The Next . The movies are notable for their blending of narratives from the Kamen Rider show and manga while bringing new choices and characters to the lore. While there was plenty to criticize in these films with story and pacing issues, we had a great time wa...

In this special bonus episode of the pod, we decided to do a watchalong of two videos to offer our commentary on two of the brightest minds in comics: Grant Morrison and Max Landis, featuring a pre-Guardians of the Galaxy James Gunn. Just kidding, we suffered for around 40 minutes. But before that, let's all take some time to ponder upon our hater origin stories and think about when we first learn...

In our second installment of Month of the Mask, we waged our fiercest debate yet. Shotaro Ishinomori: Greatest comics creator, or best comics creator? We talk Ishinomori’s creative legacy, Japan in environmental crisis, how the Kamen Rider comic differs from the show, and of course: pyramid power. Looking for show notes? Head over to our Patreon to find them: https://www.patreon.com/MidnightGrappl...

In our first installment of Month of the Mask, a 4 part series exploring different incarnations of Kamen Rider Ichigo, we checked out the original Kamen Rider tv series. 'Checked out' may be an understatement, as we watched all 100 episodes of Kamen Rider and a few movies too. We start with how the series came to be, its origins and how those origins are sometimes misunderstood. Next we cover Kame...

Between November of 2021 and January of 2023, Lan bought 16 issues of Marvel's Venom comics, reading none of them but the first issue. We decided to read all 16 issues and talk a bit about the fickle beast that is monthly Big 2 comics, but not before warning our dear viewers of the tow truck mafia hiding in the shadows of your metropolitan city. For access to the complete episode and all our premi...

Here at Midnight Grappler Animals, we ask daring, envelope-pushing questions. But this week, we opted to tackle the live-action equivalent of "Is Avatar: the Last Airbender anime?" with the other (some are even saying greater) half of Mex Flentallo, artist extraordinaire of Holy West , Daniel Irizarri. We watched the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, along with an oft-forgotten Saban show,...

We decided to sit down and talk shit about various things in the comics industry and community. Listen to us ramble for the better part of an hour about the real plague of Indie comics: Airport Thrillers. For access to the complete episode and all our premium episodes subscribe to our patreon: www.patreon.com/midnightgrappleranimals

"There comes a time in every comic reader's life where they find themselves asking "What the hell were they thinking?" while reading a comic. This time we did exactly that while reading two of Sean Gordon Murphy's books: Punk Rock Jesus and Batman: White Knight. Take a stroll down Agony Lane as we talk about these two cursed comics. Questions or comments about the show? E-mail us midnightgrapplera...

We're back for Part 2 of The Road to Radiant Black , our Toku Tuesday subseries where we try to piece together the path that led to the creation of Radiant Black and answer the question: Is Radiant Black a tokusatsu comic? This week we've got 4 volumes of Higgins' Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers to cover, with a looser format for a bonus episode. Thanks for voting on this episode! You can vote for o...

In the early 90’s, Toei made a trilogy of three standalone Kamen Rider movies. Dubbed the Showa trilogy because of their aesthetic tribute to the Showa era, these not-Showa movies offer three varying takes on Kamen Rider. Join us as we discuss Kamen Riders Shin (not that Shin, the other one), Z-O, and J; as well as the inimitable influence of Keita Amemiya on the Kamen Rider franchise. We had a lo...

Lan shows Salt The Legend (2022), Salt's first Tamil movie. The Legend is a bizarre publicity vehicle for Saravanan Arul, a business heir and now an 'actor'. Full Episode available on www.patreon.com/midnightgrappleranimals . Follow Lan on Twitter @LanTweets Follow Salt @SaltMBank Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/YnHTnNd3mS

We're diving into para-politics again. We're deciphering James Tynion's highly-regarded Department of Truth , a post-Trump spiritual successor to The X-Files about a government organization sworn to combating misinformation. We ask what works, what doesn't, and why. Let's take a crack at what forces are really driving our supposed reality, and whether the cosmology of Tynion's book is fit to grapp...

Released in 1985, Pulgasari is North Korea's first and only kaiju movie. Made through an unlikely collaboration between North Korean actors, a South Korean director, and a Japanese effects team, the film was only released outside of the DPRK years later. Kim Jong-il soon disowned Pulgasari due to the 'defection' of Shin Sang-ok, the film's director. Supposedly due to the efforts of some Japanese c...

The big 10 , we made it to ten episodes folks, and to celebrate we're doing more podcasting. This time we're analyzing the narrative, aesthetic and political contributions Frank Miller made the to the DC canon. We take the entire Miller Bat-saga into consideration in this conversation, but the majority of our analysis is comparing and contrasting two works: Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Ret...

Due to a last minute guest cancellation we had to scramble to find a new topic to talk about. As Lan continues to introduce me, Salt, with these Radiant Black -related books, we found ourselves today reading Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. This is a sub-series within the Toku Tuesday sub-series, we're calling it the Road to Radiant Black. In these episodes we'll be looking at the books that inform...

What the hell were they thinking? That’s what we found ourselves asking as we read the comics Kill Your Boyfriend and Vimanarama . Both books are written by Grant Morrison with art by Philip Bond, and published by the now defunct Vertigo Comics. In this episode we are joined by Serg, aka @TheeFantomas to try to answer that question. The revelations we find are strange, embarassing and goofy, or as...

We take a look at the creation of the Ultraman franchise and how that history informs the newly released Shin Ultraman film, then review the original Ultraman show, as well as Daicon Film's Return of Ultraman and Ultraman Vs. Kamen Rider . Daicon Films Presents Return of Ultraman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DccY2560nW0&t=38s Ultraman Vs. Kamen Rider (subbed by Lan): https://revilarksubsns...

In our first MGA episode of the 2023, we were fortunate enough to be joined by True Comics Outlaw Ramon Villalobos of The Mex Flentallo to discuss Alex Ross’s recent release, Fantastic Four Full Circle . Lan and Salt spend the first part of the episode catching up after the extended holiday break. Lan asks some philosophical questions about where we’re going, but if you want to cut to the chase an...