Superhero Cinephiles

Kelen "B-Hyphen" Conley is back in the seat to discuss the second half of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. In this episode, he and Perry talk about Sharon Carter's development, the wobbly elements of the show's latter three episodes, the significance of Sam taking on the Captain America mantle, and where these characters could go from here.

Perry has an important announcement about the future of Superhero Cinephiles.

In celebration of Black History Month, Kelen "B-Hyphen" Conley returns to the show for another double-feature. This time, he and Perry discuss the first three episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. We talk about its origins in The Truth: Red, White and Black comic, the return of familiar villains like Batroc and Baron Zemo, and Wyatt Russell's portrayal of John Walker.

For one of the biggest Avengers movies ever, it's only fitting that Perry is joined by one of the biggest Avengers fans ever. Van Allen Plexico—superhero and science fiction novelist, fellow podcaster, and founder of AvengersAssemble.net—returns to the show to talk about Infinity War. We discuss how much of a milestone the film was, the fun of seeing these characters interact onscreen for the...

We're back and ready to talk about superhero movies! In this episode, Perry is joined by Jessica Fong of Comic Book Resources to watch and chat about Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. While Perry provides the comic book background, Jessica comes at the film from the perspective of an Asian American and a fan of wuxia and Chinese cinema. You're not going to want to miss this episod...

Our Spidey celebration continues! Revisit Kelen Conley and Perry's discussion of The Amazing Spider-Man 2!

The Spidey celebration for No Way Home continues! Though we're on hiatus, have another listen to Kelen Conley's discussion with Perry about the first Andrew Garfield Spidey film.

We're on hiatus until after the New Year, but to celebrate Spider-Man: No Way Home, listen to our spotlight on the first multiversal Spider-Man film, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse!

Before the superhero cinema boom, there was a smaller trend in the 90s of translating pulp characters into film and TV. This week, Perry is joined by pulp author John Bruening to discuss The Phantom, a kind of bridge character between the pulps and superheroes. The movie's not as bad as you may have heard, but it's not without its flaws.

Before Josh Trank and before Tim Story, the legendary Roger Corman produced the first Fantastic Four film, but was paid to never release it. Now only existing in bootleg copies, Doomed! tells the story of how that film came to be and why it was suppressed for so long. Gordon Dymowski is back to discuss this documentary about the forgotten Fantastic Four.

Superman IV: The Quest For Peace is considered to be the worst Superman film, but returning guest Liam Carrigan is on a mission to defend it as being not as bad as people remember. And Perry takes him up on that challenge with some interesting results.

2000's X-Men was not the first live-action X-Men film. In 1996, Fox attempted to launch a Generation X TV show based on this made-for-TV movie. Amidst the weird use of Dutch angles, the very low budget, and some really bad acting, there are some interesting things in this film, like the best live-action portrayal of Emma Frost and Banshee yet. Perry is joined by Patrick Lagua and Oscar Owens,...

After the one-two punch of X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Fox's X-Men series got a shot in the arm thanks to Matthew Vaughn's Cold War take on the mutants in X-Men: First Class. Looking back on it, there are some oddities about it amidst a lot of good. Justin and Alicia of The X-Wife Podcast bring their X-knowledge and passion to the show this week.

What if there was a superhero parody before superhero movies were big enough to be parodied? Well, that's exactly what happened in 1999 with Mystery Men. Despite having pretty big comedic names like Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, and Hank Azaria attached, it's a movie that's probably not remembered by most. Michael Hale of the KMP Podcast is the guest this week to discuss this forgotte...

Author Bobby Nash joins the podcast to discuss what many consider to be the crown jewel of the MCU—Captain America: The Winter Soldier. As to be expected with two writers, we dive deep into the characterization aspects of this film and the heavy themes it deals with that are even more relevant today than when this movie came out.

All-Star Superman is regarded by many as the greatest Superman story ever published, so to discuss the animated adaptation, Perry is joined by Superman expert (and his former teacher) Bernie Gerstmayr. Listen for a discussion of how the film stacks up against the comic and larger discussions about who Superman is and why he's an important character.

Big meets superheroes in Shazam!, the subject of this episode's discussion. Perry is joined once again by John Bracich to give a brief discussion of the history of Captain Marvel/Shazam, and how this movie managed to perfectly capture the feeling every kid has of wanting to transform into a superhero.

There have been a lot of animated Justice League movies, and in this episode Perry is joined by author Gordon Dymowski to discuss one of the oddest ones of all. Justice League: Gods and Monsters featured Bruce Timm's return to the DC characters, except this Justice League is composed of General Zod's son, Kirk Langstrom, and Bekka of the Fourth World. It's an interesting and somewhat s...

The Punisher's had three movies with three different actors, but none have really hit the target. But this week Ashley Stockdale returns to discuss the one that came closest, and that's 2008's Punisher: War Zone. They discuss the elements from the comics that made it into the movie, why the Punisher's such a hard character to adapt, and Ray Stevenson vs Tom Jane.

It's Morphin' Time! Writer Liam Carrigan is here to discuss Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie. He and Perry share their memories of watching Power Rangers as a kid, wax nostalgic about this movie, and discuss the things about it that hold up (Paul Freeman) and the things that don't (the terrible CGI zords).

It's capitalism-smashing time! Perry and Stacy Dooks of the Fanboy Power Hour podcast embrace their inner communists for the animated adaptation of Superman: Red Son. We also discuss Mark Millar, the mistakes people make in understanding the Superman/Batman relationship, and other assorted diversions.

Fellow Japan-residing Marvel fan Ashley Stockdale makes his Superhero Cinephiles debut to discuss Black Widow. We've got a lot of praise for Florence Pugh and David Harbour, some criticisms about Taskmaster, and talk about how the timing of this movie could have been a lot better.

From best to worst. In the second part of this double-feature, Greg Dunn is back to discuss the last of Fox's main X-Men films—2019's Dark Phoenix. They discuss the issues with the FoX-Men films and why both attempts at adapting The Dark Phoenix Saga were such spectacular failures.

In another double-feature, X-fan Greg Dunn makes his debut appearance on the show to talk about the best adaptation of the classic X-Men story, The Dark Phoenix Saga. It wasn't one of the movies, but the four-part story that appeared in season three of the 1992 animated series! Perry and Greg reminisce over their memories of the show, how it got them into superheroes, how it holds up today, an...

Voice actor David Ellis joins us this episode to talk about the animated Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! We discuss the history of the Turtles, the comic this movie was based on, and how these two seemingly disparate worlds unite in a fun way.