Super Zero

Avengers: Age of Ultron is here, and Matt and Alia have questions! Like: Is Thor a nudist? What are twin powers? How do Maximoffs masturbate? And what is the one thing in the movie that Matt definitely prepared Alia for? It's our season finale! Assessments are given, gifts are bestowed, and hidden truths are at long last revealed...!

  Grab your Groots and launch your Rockets, it's go time! We dig into the smash success that proved Marvel Studios could do no wrong, except for its ability to confuse Alia with its numerous characters and situations and glowing magic rocks. What do you do after you control the universe? Can the power of friendship save planets? And why is Disney afraid of girl merch?  Matt has answers, plus we prepare for the endgame of Super Zero Phase One and provide the scientific rationalist case for why Thanos might actually exist. It's an Awesome Mix of James Gunn's 2014 blockbuster, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY!

We are not Sex Bob-Omb! One Two Three Four! We step into the Toronto-based video game mangaverse, and Alia has questions, like: What's a porphan? Who is Pretty-Boy Wright? And why would anyone want to bang Michael Cera? Matt, equally baffled, fights back with questions of his own: What's it like being a twentysomething? What are vegan powers? And what are the vegan police doing on Tumblr? It's a look at a world outside superhero canon with Edgar Wright's 2010 pixelpalooza, SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD!

What's up, Cap? We tackle the First Avenger by way of his second movie, which has Alia wondering: why is this title so misleading? Who is Face Belly? And how many people in this movie are Captain America? Matt has answers around the coopting of American patriotism by the political right, and why Garry Shandling's balls are gross. It's a star-spangled look at the Russo Bros.' first effort for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER!

Warner Brothers followed their successful 2005 Batman revitalization with another major superhero relaunch, this time turning the keys to the kingdom over to Bryan Singer, who confused the hell out of Alia. Now she's wondering: were there other ones in between? Why doesn't jurisprudence work on Lex Luthor? And why is James Marsden always on the receiving end of a cuckolding? It's a tale of broken hearts featuring the Man of Steel as we crack open one of the most beautiful failures in the genre, Bryan Singer's 2006 nostalgia piece, SUPERMAN RETURNS.

THE AVENGERS! Thor! Hulk! Hawkeye! Black Widow! Stellan Skarsgard! Boy, there's a lot going on in this movie, and Alia has questions about all of it. Like: who's Captain America? What's a quim? And what happened to Edward Norton? Matt chimes in with questions of his own, like: who is Consterned Girl? Why do boobs get in the way of a bow and arrow? And do these movies inadvertently create anxiety in the lay-viewer? Heat up your shawarma and grab your infinity stones, it's an hour-long discussion of the biggest comic book movie of all time, Joss Whedon's 2012 superhero sleepover party THE AVENGERS!

Once Marvel got their skin in the mega-franchise game, everyone wanted to play! Including those poor suckers at DC, whose first foray into making a larger (well, larger than Batman, anyway) world was a movie about a green space cop who makes stuff happen with his brain. Ah well. Alia has questions about this whole boondoggle, like: what's with all the human privilege? Is Ryan Reynolds the worst? And will she ever forgive Matt for making her watch this movie? Matt has answers, such as: yes she will! It's time for a ring-fingered tour of 2011's superhero franchise bomb, GREEN LANTERN.

Dave Lizewski has questions, like: how come no one's ever tried to be a superhero? Which, in turn, spurns all kinds of questions from Alia, such as: is masturbation healthy? Why are little girls allowed to kill people but not swear? And how can you jump off an office building in Toronto and land on the street in New York City? Matt supplies some answers which include why Runaways is the best and why Mark Millar's Kick-Ass Vol. 2 #4 is the actual worst! It's a paint-splattered look at Matthew Vaughn's 2010 R-rated superhero comedy, KICK-ASS!

THE MIGHTY THOR! Super Zero finally lands on Matt's favourite superhero and Alia has questions, such as: Thor, really? What's the Super Freezy Box? And can ladies be Thor too? Matt has answers - possibly too many answers - on subjects ranging from why Thor is so magic and wonderful, to why Dutch-angle kiss scenes are great, and how Marvel might owe the entire MCU to Kenneth Branagh. It's a Super Zero double-feature with 2011's THOR and 2014's THOR: THE DARK WORLD!

Friends and listeners, it's time to get Ducked! We take a trip back to a movie that was not only the first movie ever based on a Marvel comic book, but will also likely remain the definition of a Hollywood "bomb" for the rest of time. And once we get past the duck boobs and feather boners, Alia has questions like: What is Howard the Duck's relationship to veganism? And how many frickin' characters are in the Marvel Universe anyway? Grab your duck condoms! It's the George Lucas 1986 extravaganza, HOWARD THE DUCK!

Two whole Spider-franchises have come and gone, and has even one of them gotten the webslinger right? Alia has no idea, but surely swinging from those webs would break somebody's neck no matter what, right? Who's better, Maguire or Garfield? And is that Paul The Sideways Rhino Giamatti? In the wake of the recent Marvel-Sony team-up, Matt and Alia tackle the Spider-movie that slings its sticky strands to the furthest corners of its own mythology: Marc Webb's THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2.  

What happens when a superhero movie isn't based on a comic book, and is maybe directed by the most-hated filmmaker of our time? It's a format-busting episode: what makes a superhero depressed? How lethal is water, anyway? And what's the Spencer Treat Clark connection? Alia and Matt discuss in depth as they pick apart the only cult favourite from M. Night Shyamalan's long and disastrous career, his 2000 non-comic book comic book movie UNBREAKABLE.

Welcome back to the show! We slingshot even further back in time by spinning the planet around on its axis, which leaves Alia dizzy and wondering: what's Kryptonite? Isn't Lex Luthor supposed to be bald? What's the deal with Superman's clothes, anyway? Matt has answers which may or may not include Krypton as a climate-change denial parable, the removal of "America" from "Justice League Of," and the enigma of Superman's supercircumcision. It's Richard Donner's 1978 origin story for the superhero movie itself: SUPERMAN!

You'd think with all the bat-knowledge we dropped on last week's episode, we'd be all batted out, but nope, there's a whole OTHER bat-franchise just waiting to be discussed. Alia knows more about Batman but is confused about Vicki Vale's glasses, the Joker's skin colour, and why anyone would live in Gotham in the first place. Travel back to the Big Bang of superhero movies with Matt and Alia as they discuss Tim Burton's 1989 genre-defining exercise in weirdness: BATMAN.

Welcome to Super Zero! In Episode One, Alia doesn't know a lot about Batman - is he in the Justice League? Was there a League of Shadows in the comic book? What's a batarang? We discuss at length in the context of the modern superhero movie, and get our podcast started just like this week's superhero: with Christopher Nolan's genre-defining gateway drug, BATMAN BEGINS.