Season 5, Episode 28: Ms. Marvel (Or, YAAdults)

And now, a very special episode of Marveling at the Movies.

San Diego Comic Con 2022 brought a whole wave of announcements of MCU Phase 5 and Phase 6 in Hall H, and Matt and Alexis did not pay attention. Out of the kindness of his heart, Matthew catalogued all of the information and uses this episode to tell his friends all about all the cool things they'll be watching together in the future. And by that, I mostly mean we argue. That's why you listen to the show, right? To hear people that clearly like to record themselves getting into fights?

The Marveling at the Movies gang watch Ms. Marvel. And, look: I know what you're thinking. "Why is this episode so long?" And... If this is your first episode of the MATM podcast, yeah, OK, maybe this is not the best place to start if you don't like 2.5 hour long arguments. This podcast is longer than Thor: Love and Thunder!!! BUT, if this is not your first episode of MATM, then you will probably not be surprised why exactly the gang spends 30 minutes arguing about just one topic. It's honestly kind of ridiculous. But we don't really edit this show, we kinda just toss it all out there for you to absorb so... uh, have fun.

The gang goes to see Thor: Love and Thunder. It's an overall confusing experience; Matt and Alexis typically love Thor but aren't necessarily excited (which is weird), and Matthew knows too much about the movie not because of trailers or anything else but because he's read all the comics (which is unlucky -- but to be fair, when's the last time we did more or less a straight adaptation?). So maybe this is one of those "defy expectations" moments. Or maybe not. I don't know. No one reads this part, right? I'm kinda just vamping to fill out characters.

In the latest episode of Marveling at the Movies, the gang watches the new Doctor Strange movie. Also, they forget everything they said in the pre-show because the distance between recording the pre-show and post-show was really long this time and done for Matthew's convenience (because Matt and Alexis are hard to schedule -- sometimes you'll book Matt for a post-show right after the movie and he'll agree but then later ditch you because he wants to go watch horses race and wear fancy hats or whatever, so Matthew and Alexis have to go bowling and awkwardly dance around any discussion of the movie that might be content worthy!). Anyway, how about that Doctor Strange film, eh?

In the latest episode, the gang discusses all 6 episodes of Moon Knight. It's a character Matt has zero familiarity with and Matthew has way too much familiarity with, as well as one that Alexis kinda enjoys -- so where does everyone land on the enjoyment spectrum? The answers to that and more may surprise you.

In the last episode of 2022, the Marveling at the Movies crew watches all of Hawkeye. That's it. Not 6 individual episodes, just one (1) super long episode. Will this work? Is it too long? I don't know, you're the listener, you tell us. And besides, there's no new superhero anythings until March or May or whatever, so it's not like you don't have plenty of time to listen to a 2+ hour podcast.

The gang watches the last superhero movie of the year. And, look -- normally I feel like we wouldn't NEED to issue a spoiler warning, but just FYI this is a RECAP PODCAST so... y'know... spoilers abound.

After putting it off for a while since Alexis never ended up seeing the movie, we hit the inevitable point where we had to watch Black Widow... not because we finally convinced Alexis that she should, but, y'know, Marvel has their whole "connected universe" yadda yadda. So we did the only thing that made sense to do: put Alexis in the hot seat and gave Matt the week off. Does this count as a spoiler for this episode? I don't think anyone reads these blurbs I write up so I assume I'm safe to ruin what's "special" about the episode, but if you DID read this before listening and I ruined the surprise... uh, sorry. Email Matt and demand a refund.

Matt, Matthew and Alexis return for a chat about Eternals. The mood is tepid on this one in the pre-show, but who knows, maybe things turn around in the post show? But who knows with this group. At the very least, we will definitively answer: is this the worst movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, worse than Thor: Dark World? (Well, Matthew doesn't even think Dark World is that bad, so, looks like we're off to the races on this one.)