Mars Needs Podcasts #226 - Karaoke Time!

I'm leaving for the airport in 2 hours, so to say that this will be the last post for a while is a slight understatement. It's Dragon Con time, folks, the best time of the year! And to celebrate, I guest on the latest Mars Needs Podcast to talk about the special night of madness we have planned.

I also get to introduce JJ to the magic of Kate Bush before we start waffling about careers and stuff. But mostly, we're just talking about 80s pop hits. Seriously.

To listen CLICK HERE or to download directly CLICK HERE.

Solve This! Live at DragonCon 2012

My favourite panel from Dragon Con last year was the Solve This panel we performed in front of a wonderful audience at the Westin. It was the first time we ever did the show live with people watching so we were incredibly nervous but it went wonderfully and I can't thank the crowd enough for making my weekend.

After some work, I was able to edit the footage from the con that Jon Boutelle took so if you missed it, you can now pretend that you were there!



The show is also available in podcast form (because it is a podcast after all) which you can listen if you CLICK HERE and you can download it directly if you CLICK HERE.

Comics: 21st August 2013

As I'll be leaving on a jet plane next Wednesday for Dragon*Con, the comics section of this site will take a break for a week but don't worry, I'll be back the following week with a catch-up, super-sized edition with the two weeks combined! Excellent.


- X-Men #4
- Written by Brian Wood
- Art by David Lopez

This issue has two different stories running side by side. One is Jubilee taking a tour around her old haunts as a child with her new adopted baby. The other is the team on a rescue mission to stop a plane from crashing. So there is a little bit of everything.

Jubilee brings Logan on her trip. With Wolverine being the Batman to her Robin it's a nice place to go, story-wise, as it both shows how young she still is and also a strong link to her past as she contemplates her future.

The team's rescue mission may seem mundane in comparison to most superhero struggles but it's a great place to show team dynamics and for some of the characters to try and get to grips with how they feel about each-other (i.e. Storm and Rachel Grey's current gripes).

TDMTLTUT: The Golden Girls

This time on They Don't Make Them Like They Used To; I started writing an article for a completely different theme tune but got this one in my head (for the bajillionth time) and considering it's one of my favourite ever themes I just had to start again.

The Golden Girls is a true classic of sitcom television. One of the few shows to be based solely on 4 women, and women of retirement age, it bucked a lot of trends on TV. None of the actors were particular stars, although Bea Arthur and Betty White were both well respected actors and comedians. To say that this show would be lucky to see the light of day now, in a industry obsessed with "young and sexy" talent, would be a major understatement.

Despite all that, or perhaps to spite it, The Golden Girls became a huge hit and it's down to some great comic writing (that stands up to this day) and wonderful performances from the whole cast. In fact, the girls are so good on the show that whenever they have other performers guesting, you can see a real gulf in the quality between the stars and the guests. A lot of the men, who pop up from time to time, are often cringe-worthy in comparison.

My Dragon Con Schedule 2013

The pocket guide to the Con has been released so that means the panels are as finalized as they're ever gonna be. If you have the Dragon Con app for your phone you can find all my panels by searching for the name "Aaron Poole" in the presenters list, but if you're like me and have a dinosaur phone then you can just check my handy list here!

As of right now, I'm doing 9 panels/events but if that should change at all I'll update this post and alert the Twitterverse.

FRIDAY --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What: Make the Bad Man Stop, Part I

Where: Marriott M106 - M107
When: 13:00 (1 hour)

Who: The NeedCoffee crew

Why: This is basically a panel to discuss all the adaptations that Hollywood has planned for your favourite book/comic/tv-show/board-game. There are a ton of us on the panel so it's as meandering as pretty much everything else NeedCoffee.com does!

What: FRED Entertainment Panel-Palooza-Extrava-Thingee-a-Doodle
Where: Hilton Grand Ballroom West
When: 17:30 (1 hour)

Who: Me, Ken Plume, Molly Lewis, Joseph Scrimshaw, Paul & Storm, James Urbaniak, Bill Corbett

Why: Because look at that line-up. That's why. We'll talk about pretty much anything you suggest. Seriously. We'll be pulling topics literally out of a hat full of your suggestions.

What: Need Coffee Presents: Your Weekend Justice Show of Shows
Where: Hyatt Regency V
When: 20:30 (2 hours and 30 minutes)
Who: The NeedCoffee Crew
Why: Because the titles for all these things are getting out of control! But seriously, this will be a big night of fun and games with lots of prizes for the audience and lots of madness on stage.

Weekend Justice #199.9 With a Line Over the Last 9

This week's episode is even more of a mess than usual. The Weekend Justice League were getting together to plan all of our crazy plans for you at Dragon Con so the first half of this episode is chopped up into little pieces as lots of stuff is cut out for secrecy.

It's a full house as I join Widge, Jon, Leigh, Rox, Scott, Serv, Kim, Tuffley, Rob, and JJ as we discuss:

• Derelict snail mail and a review 
• Kenneth Hite at DragonCon 
• J.J. vs. The Gun 
• Geeks vs. football fans 
• Tuffley's research (not a euphemism) 
• When are introductions not introductions? 
• The Care Bear Stare Talk 
• Cabin in the Woods 
• Oh, the White Album 
• The Wolverine (SPOILERS) 
• Elysium 
• More Pacific Rim bitching 
• The New Doctor 
• Somewhat of a D23 report 
• Sean Connery, hirsute man 
• Rock Lobster! 
• Dancing to the Jem theme 

To listen to the episode CLICK HERE or to download directly CLICK HERE.

Comics: 14th August 2013

- Saga #13
- Written by Brian K. Vaughan
- Art by Fiona Staples

SAGA IS BACK! OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!

It also has the advantage of coming back from it's short break with the title of "Eisner Award Winner Best Series" on it's cover.

Seriously, if you're not reading this series you're not allowed to tell people you're a comic book fan. You should take yourself outside and flagellate yourself until your tears wash you clean.

This month, the family tries to come to terms with losing one of their own and once again find themselves in trouble when they touch down on a planet in search of their favourite author.

Meanwhile, The Will is still walking the line of being our villain/the lovable rogue we root for. It's complicated, yo.

The Drive In Of Doom - Scott Pilgrim

This month's commentary is for the damn near perfect Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Both myself and JJ are huge fans of Edgar Wright and considering this is the movie that solidified his genius within Hollywood, you can imagine how highly we regard it.

We forgot to come up with a drinking game this month. Probably because I was drinking throughout the commentary. So a good one is to drink every time we mention how it's hard to do a commentary for a good film. That should get you pretty buzzed.

To listen to the commentary CLICK HERE or to download directly CLICK HERE.

Aaron's WWEport - HHHistory Repeating

HHH has a terrible habit of putting himself into matches where he isn't needed.

This week on RAW Paul Levesque once again announced himself as the special guest referee for the WWE Championship match at Summerslam. This is the match between WWE-poster-boy John Cena and the-hottest-thing-in-the-business-right-now Daniel Bryan. A match that the fans are ravenous for (especially since John's current elbow injury gives Bryan a good chance of taking the title), a match that almost sells itself. But now they've added the pointless stipulation of HHH being the guest referee. Does this sound familiar at all? Well it should.

Two years ago CM Punk absconded with the WWE Championship after beating John Cena for it. During his absence the WWE crowned a new champion once again in John Cena. When Punk returned, with the title, a decider was created for Summerslam 2011. The match sold itself, right? Punk was the biggest thing in wrestling for years after THAT promo earlier in the year. The buzz after his disappearance with the title was epic. The fans were salivating at the prospect of these two guys meeting in the ring again. The PPV tickets were being snapped up like a Sharknado.

Cue Triple H. Making himself a wrench in the works, Paul decided that this huge match for some reason needed him to make it better. And not a single person understood why. Just watch and tell me why this match needed him.

Comics: 7th August 2013

- All New X-Men #15

- Written by Brian Michael Bendis

- Art by David Lafuente

Love is in the air and it's not who you would have expected.

Bendis seems to be having a lot of fun with the teen X-Men and is writing them as true teenagers too. Full of emotional turmoil and reckless abandon. This issue features kissing, trips to the fair, and breaking things. Can't get much more teenage than that.

With the Battle of the Atom cross-over event looming, this is probably the calm before the storm. Weather-storm might I add, not Storm-the-X-man. And with future X-teams confronting current and past ones, it's going to make writing this thing an even bigger pain in the arse.

Thanks, Bendis.

- The Manhattan Projects #13

- Written by Jonathan Hickman

- Art by Nick Pitarra

I don't know if it's the cold I have, or the crappy day job I've got, but something has me particularly cranky today as I write this. I mention it, as my disposition may be affecting my feelings towards these comics.

I just couldn't care less about this issue. It was such a transitional story. Maybe it's because I don't care too much about the characters. They're mostly horrible people. Maybe it's because the madness of previous issues has desensitized me. Who knows.

I will point out though that I didn't expect to see JFK doing lines of cocaine off the oval office desk. That's something worth paying for, right?

Word-A-Week Vocabulary Vlog #50: Agraffe

This is it, folks. The last episode of Word-A-Week season 2! Big thanks to everyone who helped out with word suggestions and an even bigger thanks to anyone who actually watched the thing. I love you in 50 different ways.

Tease Me, Baby! - Thor: The Dark World

The second trailer for Thor 2: Asgardian Boogaloo was released today. The movie comes out on October 30th this year and will be the second post-Avengers film.

There has been a change of director since the first Thor. Kenneth Branagh has been replaced by Alan Taylor, a director who has worked primarily on television. He's worked on Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Sopranos, and tons more shows but he has only made 3 movies previously and none with the kind of budget that this film has so it will be considered a step up for him.

All the principal cast return, along with a few additions, and with a late release date like it has there shouldn't be much competition in the box office. Can't fail, right?

Right?

50 Days Of Dragon Con (Day 27) – Questions And Answers

Jon and Leigh over at theuniquegeek.com invited me back for another 50 Days of Dragon Con podcast. We answer a couple questions for those who are going this year and I talk a little bit about what I'm looking forward to doing.

It's normally only a short podcast but we somehow managed to blabber for 45 minutes. I guess the excitement is starting to creep in for this year. Plus, I do so much at the Con with Jon and Leigh, we're inclined to natter about it.

To listen CLICK HERE or to download directly CLICK HERE.

Comics: 31st July 2013

- X-Men #3
- Written by Brian Wood
- Art by Olivier Coipel

I'm glad to see that, admittedly only 3 issues in, this is going to be a fun series. Lots of action, great characters, and some good dialogue.

I'm going to make one of those flagrant, unfounded claims that the internet is so famous for. I think that Wood is going to catapult Jubilee back in to the type of popularity she enjoyed in the 90s and hopefully, while he's at it, sort out this whole vampire thing of her's. You heard it here first, people.

On a much darker note; Coipel is leaving the book and... (DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN) David Lopez is coming in. So... meh? But I won't write anything off just yet. As long as we don't see the typical over-the-top lady bodies that comics are infamous for then I'll be happy.