Across the Omniverse
Your weekly guide to everything cool in the omniverse of TV, movies, comics and more.
CAPTURING BIGFOOT And Derek Update!
You thought we'd be back talking VisionQuest. We thought we'd be back talking VisionQuest. But Derek's movers and internet company had other plans, and so what you end up with is another solo episode featuring a call-in from Derek in his new - and very empty - apartment.
Before that call-in I talk about Capturing Bigfoot, a new documentary on Amazon Prime that debuted at SXSW and is kind of the final nail in the coffin of the Patterson-Gimlin film, one of the most famous and enduring evidences of Sasquatch. I'm n...
VISIONQUEST Episodes 1&2
Everybody's favorite synthezoid, The Vision, gets his own TV show that wraps up the trilogy begun with Wandavision. With a head full of AIs (the good kind, by which I mean fictional), Vision finds his quiet life disturbed by bounty hunter Paladin and the discovery that he just might have a son out there, which he finds baffling. Somebody dies in these first two episodes!
Before that: Mister Miracle and Big Barda are cast for the DCU! Narnia: The Magician's Nephew looks trippy and sends us to Google to look stuff up! And...
LANTERNS: "Dirt and Stars"
It has all been leading to this... but did the rearranging of episode air dates end up hurting the season finale of Lanterns? We find out who killed Hal, but in the process get a few other questions and it's not clear if they're meant to be mysteries or if the show just dropped unclear exposition to move things along. A new piece of the DCU has snapped into place - let's hope there's a season two so that some of the less satisfactory elements of this finale can be expanded upon.
Before that: D...
LANTERNS: "The Jordan Boys' Legacy"
The penultimate episode gives us Hal Jordan's origin, but not as Green Lantern. We learn about Hal's youth and about the fate of his father - which may surprise even comic fans who think they know the story inside and out. Oh, and John finally gets to another planet, courtesy of an Acme brand portal. Plus we dig into our latest theories about who killed Hal Jordan - is it Kerry? Noah? Hal? Jason Ritter? We will find out next week.
Before that: Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story! The Avengers Endgame Encore extra s...
LANTERNS: "Bad Optics"
Rest in peace, Hal Jordan. As the show returns to 2026 the investigation into Hal's murder kicks off in earnest, and there's a visit from a Green Lantern who is actually wearing a costume, Mr. Guy Gardner. Everybody in Rushville hates John and Hal, but what if the killer isn't someone with a grudge after all?
Before that: a spooky story from the Philipines. The end of Warner Bros. Daredevil is donezo. And the eternal question of whether Rick Dalton really did get fat. Don't care about any of that? Skip right to 49:47.
Want y...
LANTERNS: "Lights Out"
Things come to a head in 2016 as Rushville, Antaan's boys and Hal and John clash. Plenty gets destroyed and our leads have a knock down drag out fight. Who will own the ring in the end? And does it even matter anymore, after all that goes down this episode?
Before that: People vs Grodd set photos! Emmy winners! We choose our weapon for a fight! And do The Batman Part II set photos reveal the villain of the movie? If you don't care about any of that skip right to 58:15.
Want...
LANTERNS: "The Weenie"
The show returns to 2016 and the mystery heats up... and gets solved? Will Macon whips it out, Hal Jordan begins warming to John and Hector Hammond kind of sort of shows up. It's not satisfying. However the episode is great!
Before that: Spider-Noir is canceled, Brand New Day is insanely profitable, the Newsboy Legion could be coming, and we discuss which DC heroes go downtown, if you know what I mean. Don't care about any of that (even the DC heroes question?!?) skip to 1:00:00.
Want your questions answered on the show...
LANTERNS: "Outkast"
It's a special origin episode for John Stewart, in which we learn all about why his dad was shooting apples off his head way back in Pilot. And the answer isn't what we expected! Sure, this one halts the momentum the series had built up with the main mystery plot but this flashback is exceptionally good, nuanced and full of incredible character work and acting. So we'll look past the interruption this time but TV shows need to quit doing this.
Also: we go into a ton of Green Lantern lore, proving that most of the complaints f...
LANTERNS: "Trust Fall"
Finally, a dong! The second episode of Lanterns has naked aliens, a suspicious town hall meeting, a freeway foot chase, a strange bird and a ton of lore getting dropped on the heads of unknowing normies. We talk about how this show is doing a great job of being something non-superhero folks want to watch while also getting in more nerdy background stuff than almost any other show or movie.
Before that: Tom Holland is rich! Is Batman being blocked by Paramount? Could The Odyssey be making even more money if it left out one F bomb...
LANTERNS: "Pilot"
If you've been listening to this show lately you know that Derek has put his foot down: if Lanterns, the DCU Green Lantern TV show, makes fun of the Green Lantern oath he's gonna stop watching. And in the very first episode of the show someone makes fun of the oath. Will Derek stick it out? Only one way to find out.
In this first ep we get introduced to our characters and experience a ton of lore and exposition, all delivered smoothly and well. The ending is quite the shocker, and we have our t...
Emergency Pod: D23 News Including X-MEN, DOOMSDAY & AHSOKA!
Yesterday was the annual D23 Disney fan convention and Marvel and Lucasfilm showed up with the goods.
First was the announcement of the initial cast of the new X-Men movie, which had both confirmations of rumors and surprising additions. Then we got the trailer for Visionquest, the upcoming Marvel TV series that closes out the trilogy begun by Wandavision and Agatha All Along. There's a new Doomsday "special look," and we're sorry to report it is largely set in The Brown. In better visual news, Ahsoka
X-MEN '97: Survival of the Fittest
Season 2 of the X-Men cartoon wraps up with some death, some life, and Charles Xavier being totally useless. Did the season stick the landing? Can Scott and Jean be parents to an old man? And why does everybody's powers become inexplicably weak when the plot demands it?
Before that: the first five minutes of Lanterns! David Ellison keeps being a dork. Is the DCU in real, no-shit trouble? And how much money can Spidey make anyway? If you don't care about any of that skip right to 1:15:00.
Want your questions answered on the...
X-MEN '97: "Dead Man's Hand"
As the animated series barrels towards its season finale, Gambit is back from the dead and causing all sorts of trouble. The X-Men and X-Force team up to take him down, but is everyone really on the same page? Scott and Jean try to have a tender moment with Cable, Professor X does battle on the psychic plane and Nightcrawler proves that when good guys go bad they really kick some ass.
Before that: live action X-Men news as the MCU's Cyclops has been cast! Is James Gunn's DCU in series trouble, and are there too many S...
X-MEN '97: Savage Land, Savage Heart
This episode is late because I was in the hospital! Don't worry, I'm okay now and I talk all about at the start. But there isn't much time to dilly dally because we have a packed show. Colossus shows up with the terrorist Acolytes, Bishop and Polaris continue their slow burn, and Nightcrawler gets to be a lawyer with the life of a truly awful man on the line.
Before that: Marvel and DC are just canceling shit left and right! There are a bunch of trailers, including ones where Michael B Jordan is handsome, Olivia Colman g...
Emergency Pod: GHOST RIDER & BLACK PANTHER III News!
Marvel's presentation at this year's San Diego Comic-Con gave us two big pieces of news about the studio's post-Secret Wars plans, and we now know the two movies coming in 2028 - Ghost Rider starring Ryan Gosling and Black Panther III with David Jonsson stepping into the role of T'Challa Jr. Plus: a surprise appearance by Ryan Reynolds!
We're back to our regularly scheduled shenanigans after this!
Emergency Pod: LANTERNS Trailer
With San Diego Comic-Con happening we can expect some news to be hitting our feeds, and if that news is big enough we'll put out an emergency pod to talk about it! Today we have the trailer for HBO's Lanterns, the Green Lantern TV show set in James Gunn's DCU. Is this trailer an improvement on what came before? And what might the show do that will make Derek quit it immediately? Listen to find out!
X-MEN '97: "Danger.exe"
Polaris gets canned from X-Factor and comes to hang out with the X-Men, where Professor Xavier is not squashing the rumors that he was straight up in love with Magneto. When the Danger Room becomes sentient - and a slinky lady robot! - the next phase of Xavier's dream for mutantkind is born, and it involves operating an LLC.
Before that: a ton of news. A bunch of trailers, including Resident Evil, The Other Mommy, The End of Oak Street and Clayface. Casting news, including Kenneth Branagh playing a goblin. And scuttlebutt and rumors coming from the...
Emergency Pod: AVENGERS DOOMSDAY Trailer
One of the most anticipated trailers of the year has hit and it's... okay? We talk about the two and a half minutes of Avengers: Doomsday Marvel has shown us, and we discuss the fact that Marvel is actually pretty good as sleight of hand when it comes to making us think some things in a trailer are real when they are in fact cunningly edited or even CGIed out. And: is anyone else sick of the Fox X-Men?
Our regular show will return Thursday!
X-MEN '97: Weapon X, Lies and DVDs
How violent should a superhero cartoon be, and does this episode of X-Men '97 cross that line? Wolverine and Morph team up with enemies and expendable characters from the 90s to break into Weapon X and shut it down for good, but what they find inside is bad, bad news. Plus, the Morph loves Wolverine story hits a big turning point.
Before that: it's a newsy-ass week. First look at The Batman Part II! An R-rated X-Files movie! Danny McBride is becoming a Real American Hero! More trailers than you can shake a stick at! Plus: I...
X-MEN '97: Rise of Apocalypse Part II
Don't try to change the past! You only end up making the future you're trying to change come true! Nobody told this to Magneto and Professor X, though, and they their darndest to stop Apocalypse from becoming Apocalypse. Guess how well that goes. This episode has a doozy of an ending - and a mid-credits scene!
Before that: Do we have a Gorilla Grodd cast, and is he the one who spray painted all the dicks? Is Fast Forever actually happening? And what's the worst place your humble hosts have ever lived? All this and...
X-MEN '97 Season 2 Episodes 1-3
It's time to dive back into the 1990s as the second season of X-Men '97 kicks off with a three parter picking up after last season's time-traveling cliffhanger. Some of the X-Men are in a distant future where Apocalypse has taken over the world, some are in the distant past where Apocalypse is having his origin, and some of them are in the present and getting grim n' gritty with Apocalypse's horsemen. Can this season match the excellence of the first, especially with one of the main creatives gone?
Before that: Werwulf trailer, <...
Is Jack Klugman Getting a Sex Change on THE LOVE BOAT?!?
This week we wrap up the two-parter that seemed so promising when we chose it. After all, Telly Savalas built a robot of Isaac the bartender in order to pull off a robbery. This should be a good story! What the heck happened with this episode? We have our own answers.
Before that: The Dynamic Duo plot is revealed! A first look at Tombstone in Spider-Man: Brand New Day! I answer whether or not Jesus Christ had to pee, and I reveal my own Christ-adjacent urination spot! This one has it all. If y...
Telly Savales Makes An Evil Isaac Robot on THE LOVE BOAT
Late in The Love Boat's run the show fell out of step with the culture, but it tried to stay relevant and exciting by taking on-location foreign cruises that were sort of like travelogues. Remember, this was an era when the cast of a sitcom shooting an episode in Hawaii was a major event. This week's episode - which is the first half of a 2-hour TV movie mercilessly chopped with no consideration - brings a great guest cast that includes Telly Savales, Janet Jackson, Susannah York and Jack Klugman, but forgets to actually have anything...
SPIDER-NOIR Episodes 5-8
It gets better! The back half of the first (only?) season of Amazon's Spider-Noir is a marked improvement over the first half, which is a great relief to us. We are left with some questions, chief of which is: is Ben Reilly a really shitty human being? All signs point to yes, unfortunately.
Before that: leaked Spider-Man trailer! 24 Jump Street! Two guys who don't much enjoy Oz Perkins movies! And much more! If you don't care about any of that, skip right to 56:15.
After this we have a couple o...
SPIDER-NOIR Episodes 1-4
Spinning out of the blockbuster classic animated movie Into the Spider-Verse comes Spider-Noir, a live action series featuring Nicolas Cage in his first TV role. He's Ben Reilly, a Depression era PI who used to be The Spider, a web-slinging superhero. But when mob boss Silvermane starts stirring up trouble Ben is forced to go back to the swinging lifestyle and deal with a new wave of super powered weirdos. The thing is... should Spider-Man be this old? And can a show be well shot, well written and overall well cast but then dragged down...
Don Knotts Boards THE LOVE BOAT!
Welcome to the calm before the Spider-Noir storm, a calm we're filling with another episode of The Love Boat! This one has multiple stories of people using very immoral deception to find love, Don Knotts being pursued by Julie Newmar, and Isaac the bartender acting like he had a traumatic brain injury before boarding the boat.
Before that: tons of trailers! Some thoughts on the upcoming Primetime, where Robert Pattinson plays Chris Hansen! Early word on Disclosure Day! And so much more. If you don't care about any of t...
Sneak Preview of Our MANDALORIAN AND GROGU Episode!
Not subscribed to the Patreon at the $7 and above levels? That means you're missing out on Watch Men, our monthly deep dive podcast that usually focuses on superhero movies - although we're widening the remit, and that's why this month we're covering The Mandalorian and Grogu. This episode is running in lieu of our weekly Bad Batch, where we usually do our Star Wars chatter, although that show will return next week. In the meantime we're giving you a lengthy preview of the episode - a whole half hour! Don't worry, there's...
THE BOYS Series Finale
One of the most prophetic shows to ever air on television has come to an end. The Boys, which seemed to be somehow parodying the Trump administration in real time, finished up with an episode bookended by funerals and featuring some significant deaths... and the upsetting reappearance of Frenchie, TV's most irritating character. Did the satirical superhero show stick the landing? Did they spend all of the budget elsewhere? Has any onscreen couple had less chemistry than Jack Quaid and Erin Moriarty? We discuss all this and more.
Before that: tons of news! Supergirl
PUNISHER: ONE LAST KILL
Frank's back, and he's brought The Raid and John Wick with him. This special event episode takes place... well, we can't tell when it takes place. Or what exactly is the point. Or why the audio was so screwy. Or what it has to do with Daredevil: Born Again or Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Lotta guys get killed though.
Before that: Sex Criminals! Doomsday trailer speculation! 28 Years Later Part 3 hope! Much more! If you don't care about any of that, skip right to 29:02.
DAREDEVIL BORN AGAIN: "The Southern Cross"
The season comes to a conclusion with a confrontation in a court of law, and maybe it's the writers who should be on trial! This finale is a strange mix of absolutely incomprehensible dumbness and totally kickass dumbness. But it's got a lot of dumbness, any way you look at it.
Before that: a new Planet of the Apes! Why does The Odyssey trailer stink? And is the MCU Spidey unburdened by the death of Uncle Ben? If you don't care about any of that skip right to 49:36.
Want your questions a...
DAREDEVIL BORN AGAIN: "The Hateful Darkness"
Karen's in jail but Daredevil can't break her out - can Matt Murdock be of use? Daniel and BB come to a fateful moment (and she becomes way too annoying), Kingpin deals with jewelry, and Jessica Jones sees Mr. Charles' peepee.
Before that: Is Ms. Marvel in Doomsday? Masters of the Universe drops its dumbest and best trailer yet. What I would tell Francis Ford Coppola if I could go back in time, and a spoiler discussion of the latest episode of The Boys. Don't care about any of that? Skip...
DAREDEVIL BORN AGAIN: "Requiem"
Vanessa Fisk gets buried about thirty minutes after she dies, while Daredevil and Jessica Jones have a convo on one of the ugliest and more boring sets this show has ever given us. As the city begins to boil over because of Kingpin's AVTF, the man without fear and his ultimate nemesis come to blows yet again... but to what end? This episode is getting an A for effort, but how does it score otherwise?
Before that: trailers for Clayface, Evil Dead Burn and Coyote vs Acme. A strange detour into...
DAREDEVIL BORN AGAIN: "The Grand Design"
Foggy is back, which is good news or bad news depending on how you feel about the character. Either way, he's only back in flashbacks and holy cow do we get some wigs in those scenes. In the present day Michael Gandolfini is living his own Sopranos episode while Daredevil and Bullseye pal around in tunnels. Is it "while" or are they happening at very different times? The continuity in this episode is a disaster!
Before that: new trailers, more Man of Tomorrow casting, and we answer the question of what happens after...
DAREDEVIL BORN AGAIN: "Gloves Off"
Kingpin gets into the ring and he's not holding back, and neither is Bullseye, who kills a bunch of ATVF jerks in a couple of very, very fun scenes. This episode seems to bring Born Again closer to comic book goodness, but why is Daredevil running down the street like that?
Before that: Man of Tomorrow casting rumors, the Defenders on the set of Born Again season 3, the joys of cake and where have all the serial killers gone. Plus: Troop Beverly Hills sparks an argument? If you don't c...
DAREDEVIL BORN AGAIN: "Shoot the Moon" & "Scales & Sword"
How do you get to Red Hook? Somebody tell Daredevil that you take the F to Smith/9th Street and either walk a bit or you can hop on the B61, because he and Karen spend a lot of time in these two episodes trying to figure it out. While they figure it out they meet a cute AVTF agent and tell him they liked his vibe and that's why they tied him to a chair, Kingpin is in a boxing match I guess, Michael Gandolfini continues to be the best actor on the show and Bullseye is carrying...
DAREDEVIL BORN AGAIN: "Northern Star"
The vigilante of Hell's Kitchen is back and this time he's got big Double Ds on his chest. Wilson Fisk is running New York City, the ICE comparisons are probably accidental, and Matt Murdock is living in hiding as the second season of the Marvel show gets off to a bit of a slow start.
Before that: the trailer for the Harry Potter TV show sucks, the trailer for Dune 3 is good, Wonder Man gets a second season, and we talk about our formative genre experiences. If you don't care about a...
DAREDEVIL Issue #1
Before we begin covering Daredevil: Born Again season 2, we figured we would go back to where it all started - 1964's Daredevil #1. It's the first appearance of the Man Without Fear, and it's got his origin, his first outing in costume, and a couple of mentions of his supple body. What's up with that, Stan Lee?
Before that: a couple of obituaries, whether or not Ryan Gosling is a star, and what should you get an edgelord 13 year old for his birthday? If you don't care about that, skip right to 39:43.
...
SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY Trailer Reaction
We interrupt your regularly scheduled life to bring this breaking news report: a trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day has dropped and it's... great? We love it! Hear us talk about it, and whether Rogue is in the darn thing, right now.
V: THE FINAL BATTLE Episode 3
It all ends here, and it all ends kinda quickly. After ten hours of storytelling the V franchise throws in telepathy and starchildren in the last ten minutes, a truly bizarre choice. This episode touches on so many interesting ideas and has time for none of them, and it's a blood bath but few of the deaths are satisfying. But you do get to visit a hot air balloon festival.
Before that: we discuss the 98th Annual Academy Awards! The winners, the losers, the general quality of the movies in 2025. Some people are being really w...
V: THE FINAL BATTLE Episode 2
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Michael Ironside to the show. Yes, one of the great tough guy character actors joins the resistance against the Visitors, playing a guy named Ham. This episode has unexplained surgery, Mike Donovan ratting out a friend and the alien babies are born! It's got everything.
Before that: thoughts on the Lanterns trailer and the history of Green Lantern Hal Jordan, discussion of the Milestone universe and how DC is doing dumb things with it, guesses on who dies in The Boys season 5, and much more! If you don't c...
