In what has become an annual tradition around Verbal Brew HQ, we sit down to take a look back at the things we’ve played, read and watched over the last year. We nominate our favorites of the year and reflect back on some of the other things that were a little less favorable.
We look back at a number of games from the past year including Batman: Arkham City, Rochard, Sanctum, Minecraft, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Dead Pixels, Portal 2 and L.A. Noire.
Television (24:56 – 35:41)
We also look back a number of TV shows from the past year including Sons of Anarchy, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Torchwood and Episodes.
Movies (35:55 – 54:47)
We wrap up our year in review by discussing some of the year’s films that we enjoyed (and some of those that we didn’t) including The Muppets, X-Men First Class, Drive, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Cowboys Vs Aliens, Thor and Captain America.
On this week’s podcast we take a look at this summer’s third Marvel super hero movie, Captain America: The First Avenger as well as the film Cowboys and Aliens.
Captain America: The First Avenger (01:28 – 19:14)
Captain America: The First Avenger is the origin story of Steve Rogers, a volunteer for a military experiment that turns him into a super soldier. The film is directed by Joe Johnston and stars Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Hugo Weaving and Tommy Lee Jones.
Cowboys and Aliens (19:27 – 43:27)
Cowboys and Aliens is about a man who wakes up in the desert in 1873 to discover aliens are abducting the local residents and he has a piece of alien technology attached to his arm. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, the film stars Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde.
I recently had the chance to check out a screening of the new animated series Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Produced by Marvel Animation. the series tells the story of the Avengers, ahem, assembling for the first time after a number of villains have escaped from various prisons maintained by SHIELD. The first two episodes, Breakout Part 1 & 2, deal with the villains being freed from the Vault, the Cube, the Big House and the Raft simultaneously by an unknown force. Our heroes main concern comes in the form of Graviton who has been imprisoned for the last 10 years on the Raft. Following his defeat the heroes decide to come together as a team to stop the remaining 74 villans still at large.
In initial two episodes the team consists of Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, Ant Man and Wasp. Captain America is in the credits so I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before he joins the team and Hawkeye makes a cameo in one episode as well. With 74 villains to fill the role of bad-guy-of-the-week as the series plays out, it opens the door for lots of faces from the Marvel Universe; from the more common such as Dr Doom and Abomination, to the more obscure and downright silly. Someone much more familiar with the comics than I will probably recognize all kinds of cameos that occur in the first episode.
Overall it’s a pretty cool show. There is a fair amount of humor in the show but it’s more subtle and not done in a slap-sticky way. It will definitely appeal to kids but at the same the stories are sophisticated enough that adults will find plenty to dig into. It will certainly feel familiar if you’ve been a fan of the numerous direct to DVD movies that have come out in the last few years. If you want to get a feel for the series, there are 20 micro-episodes that tell stories leading up to the series premiere. Or check out the trailer below.
Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes premieres Friday October 22 on Teletoon in Canada and also airs on Disney XD in the US.
This week on the podcast we’re looking at two different properties brought to us from Marvel. Planet Hulk, the animated DVD release which was recently released and Captain America: Reborn which just finished up it’s six issue run. Plus the boys share some tales from their trip to the Hal-Con sponsored screening of The Wrath of Khan.
the Planet Hulk DVD (02:05 – 18:01 )
Captain America Reborn (18:19 – 40:15)
and some discussion on Hal-Con’s recent screening of The Wrath of Khan (40:31 – 50:51)
