Here are the books Mon's been reading for WandaVision, if you want to check them out.
1. Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch
2. Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch: A Year in the Life
3. Avengers: Disassembled
4. House of M
Ron: Hello and welcome to another episode of Stereo Geeks, where we’re talking about what we’ve been busy with this month. I’m Ron.
Mon: And I’m Mon.
Ron: We’ve been listening to podcasts, reading comic books, catching up on animated TV shows, as well as some food-related programs.
Mon: Let's kick off with something that you've been listening to.
Ron: I'm always on the lookout for a new podcast and I'm always excited when I find one that I just can't stop listening to—The Good, the Bad, the Basic, a podcast for millennials by millennials. This podcast, hosted by Alex and Em, does weekly deep dives into the most popular TV shows of our time. But what made these shows so special, and so memorable that we're still talking about them, years later? Alex and Em tackle shows like Mad Men, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The OC, Dawson's Creek, and examine how they changed the pop culture landscape, so much so that we're still seeing repercussions even now.
I love me a good podcast with lots of conversation, and that's exactly what I get with Alex and Em. The Good, the Bad, the Basic is kind of like a grading podcast, but the way they give context to everything that they're talking about, that's what makes it so fun. And I just could not stop listening to these episodes.
And when I'm talking about deep dives, they really do deep dives. Some of the episodes continue on for an hour, maybe more, and are broken up into two or three installments. That's a lot of information, but then, we’re talking about shows that went on for seven-eight seasons. So, there's a lot to cover.
What makes The Good, the Bad, the Basic such an engrossing podcast is that most of the shows that they're talking about, everybody loves them. But I never really felt the need to watch them. Now, I can listen to what Alex and Em have to say about it and feel informed without actually having to sift through endless seasons of something that I know I'm not going to enjoy. Mad Men, for example, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals. These are shows that have become part of the cultural Zeitgeist, but I just don't want to watch them. Now I know exactly what people love about them and why some people have a lot of issues with them.
I like how Alex and Em give a lot of context to what is happening in the shows. It's not just the fact that these shows were enjoyable for fans. It's more about when and how they were released, and what made them stand out amongst all the other entertainment that was available. The thing is, for us, coming from India, a lot of these cultural references passed us by. Things were different for us at the other end of the world. So, these were just TV shows, but here, they were phenomena. It's great to find out how that came to be and the effects it had on the cultural landscape, especially in entertainment.
If you're looking for a podcast that's interesting, fun, sometimes sarcastic, but very, very honest about what makes pop culture memorable, but also sometimes problematic, The Good, the Bad, the Basic is definitely for you. What have you been up to, Mon?
Mon: Well, we recently rejoined our comic book club, which is now taking place completely online. And the book to reel us back in was HoX/ PoX, House of X, and Powers of X, by Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz, and RB Silva. Now, this is basically the X-Men rebooted, because they had really gone out of control in the comic universe. And every time it seemed like the Marvel editors had found a way to reel them in, they didn't. So, Jonathan Hickman had a plan, and the plan was HoX/ PoX.
I have to say, it is compelling! Because it's such a different tone from what we're used to with the X-Men universe, and it is a nice jumping-on point because for far too long the X-Men universe has been impenetrable, like the Krakoan wall. But with this book, you feel like, yes, I know these characters. They’re in a completely different world and thought process, but at least I can get back in there.
It's tough to really understand whether I like this book or not, because, as much as I like being with these characters, they just don't feel like the X-Men. There’s something so dark and sinister about everything that's happening. It just doesn't feel right. What about you? What did you think about this book?
Ron: I agree that it was nice to actually read an X-Men book and understand where I was. It's been a really long time since I felt that way. The moment we left the X-Men a few years ago, that was it, there was no way back in. I’m glad, in a way, that we've got HoX/ PoX because otherwise we wouldn't be able to reconnect with these characters, and we really do love the X-Men. I don't like the fact that the X-Men come across as untrustworthy in this book. For me, these characters look familiar; they don't feel familiar. And that made me really uncomfortable.
And the other issue that I had with it was that the X-Men has always stood for marginalized communities, but this book seemed to be ignoring the actual marginalized X-Men. So, Storm hardly has anything to do in this book. We get to see, what, one glimpse of Iceman? it's very straight, white, male and I thought we were well past that.
Mon: Yeah, I think one of the things that most of us have realized with the X-Men comics is that as much as they want to represent marginalized community experiences, they don't seem to want to represent marginalized communities. Story-wise, I felt like there was a very distinct divide between HoX and PoX. With the House of X, you really get to know how Professor X is trying to build this safe space for the mutants within the Krakoan landscape. With the Powers of X, it seemed to be all over the place, with different timelines and trying to explain to us how they all fit in, why it's important for us to know these things, and who the central figure is who ties all these timelines together. But I felt like there was more cohesion within the House of X story, and not with Powers of X, which was trying to build this immersive, expansive world, but kinda constantly got lost in it.
Ron: I didn't feel like there was a huge disconnect between the two books. In fact, I couldn't actually tell the difference. But yes, I found myself drawn towards the X-Men’s present storyline, whereas the future storylines or the alternate storylines, I found them to be rather dull. They didn't add anything to the story as a whole. And I felt like I had to wait till the very end of the book to realize why they were relevant. So that kind of took away my enjoyment of reading the book because, honestly, I don't care about these random characters from the future. I care about the X-Men now.
Mon: Yeah, I completely agree with you on that. The art, though, really brings the book alive, doesn't it?
Ron: Pepe Larraz and RB Silva’s art is exactly how I see the X-Men in my head.
Mon: And the colors by Marte Gracia, so spectacular, it was popping off the page. What I feel with this book is that it is exactly what you need to get back into the X-Men universe, but I don't think it's a perfect introduction.
Ron: I think it tries too hard. But at the end of it, you do want more. I see myself picking up the new X-Men series so that I can see what they're doing.
Mon: Yep. Can't wait to get into it.
Ron: If you heard our Detective Mode episode this month, you'll know that animated TV shows and films have definitely become a source of comfort for us during the pandemic. One animated show that I've heard a lot about and finally caught up with this month was Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts. This was such a fun show! I started with the first episode and I ended up watching all 30! No regrets. That was a really good weekend for me. The show follows Kipo Oak, a teenage girl who has spent her entire life living underground. When an earthquake damages her home, she finds herself above ground for the first time, and there are people up here—very interesting people, very strange people, and very large beasts. Kipo makes new friends, shares her knowledge, expands her skill sets, and ends up making a whole new kind of family. This is a very, very fun show. It is so colorful. The music is so good. I just could not stop watching it.
Mon: I started watching it after you wouldn't stop talking about it. And I have to say, it is a delight. The characters are so vivacious, especially Kipo, you cannot take your eyes off the screen because she is just so full of energy and life. And she has this really positive outlook, even though her circumstances should really get her down. But she doesn't. And one of the things that everybody loves about most of these pop culture properties is found-families. Kipo can't connect with her own family because she’s stuck above ground and she doesn't know where they are, so she finds a new family with her friends. Yes, it's a bit difficult for them to all be on board with each other, they don't trust each other, they don't understand each other, but in the end, they're all trying to fight the same fight and reach the same goals.
Ron: And the one thing I love about these new TV shows for basically, young adults and children—they are so diverse.
Mon: And effortlessly so.
Ron: Our protagonist Kipo is half black and half Asian. First up, it's really good to see biracial characters who aren't half white. And also, Kipo has a connection with both her heritages, and that's really great to see. There are queer characters, queer storylines and there's a plethora of intersectionally diverse characters here that makes the show so reflective of our society as it is now, and so much fun to watch. If you're looking for a light, but energetic and very colorful TV show to watch, you could not do worse than people.
Mon: Sticking with Netflix, we have Best Leftovers Ever. If it's not obvious yet, Ron and I happen to love watching food programs and Best Leftovers Ever sounded like something which was slightly different from the usual. The competitors are given leftover dishes which they need to transform into delectable, fancy meals. This is quite different from the usual fair. They don't have a giant pantry; they don't have the best ingredients to work with. It's actually the worst of the worst, but the premise of the show is basically to make people understand that what they've got in front of them, including leftovers. can be turned into something quite special.
Sometimes you can tell that this show is not as polished as the others, because there are times when you're listening to the judges, and there's so much noise in the background that you can't actually hear. The same thing with some of the contestants. For some reason they didn't ADR that or they didn't use a different mic. So that's a little bit distracting.
I will say that whatever we see on-screen seems to suggest that there's a lot less waste, because the contestants are given very limited leftovers to work with. And given that those are the only ingredients they can use, it's not like they can chuck a whole bunch of food if something goes wrong, which is a huge departure from the usual shows where it's like, oh we forgot to put some salt, let's just dump it in the trash. I quite enjoyed it. It is a lot of fun. It’s definitely got the most diverse cast of competitors from all the cooking shows that we've seen so far.
I just think that they have these rules that they don't always follow through. Like, they reiterate in every episode that you should use as many leftovers as you can, but nobody really gets penalized for it. The judges are also really lenient with the competitors. I mean, there's an episode where the judges pretty much eat three different kinds of raw egg, because none of the contestants cooked it properly. That should be an immediate fail, but somehow, that isn't.
Aside from that, the gimmick for ‘Takeout Takedown’? I just don't know. I feel like there's so much work put in to adorn this fridge, according to some kind of theme that we can't see. Us, as the audience, will get one glimpse of some pictures on the fridge or some magnets and that's it. So have they done so much hard work?
Also, with the set—I do love the judge's table, which is three takeaway boxes. It's so cute. But the rest of it? Why is there a giant milk carton there? I don't get it. I feel like they've done a lot of hard work but it's really lost in the execution. And the main host, while she’s great and fun, I just don't get why she keeps singing at the end of each episode. I understand that it may be her schtick but it is just so uncomfortable to watch. So yeah, there's a lot of gimmicks in this series. It is a cute little watch, but I think it needs to be pared down. Lots of editing.
Ron: I agree with all of those points. I do love the set. I love the huge Chinese takeaway box, but it's just there for them to stand in while the final judging is taking place. I feel that there's plenty of room for adding interactive elements, they just haven't done it yet. I'd like to know whether this was actually shot during the pandemic because it seems like we've got a kind of pared down version of whatever they were actually hoping for. But it's fun, nonetheless.
And I do like the diversity of the competitors. And I feel like the technical aspect of how they're transforming the meals was probably the best part of each episode. I do think that they could tone down some of the conversations. We don't need that much sound. We really just want to watch them make the food.
Mon: Yeah, I hope there's another season coming up.
Ron: Though, I am surprised that we need to be talking about not throwing leftovers away. Is that a thing?
Mon: Apparently it is, since this concept is there.
Ron: I'm shocked!
Ron: We've also been participating in our local library’s reading challenge for the year. There are lots of different categories and some of them are driving me a little bit nuts. But one category that I'm glad to say I've managed to complete was ‘somebody else's favorite book’. And I think I may have just found my favorite book. One of our librarians suggested Snapdragon by Kat Leyh. I thought, why not give it a shot? I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this graphic novel, but what I got was some of the best writing I have seen this year.
Snapdragon follows a youngish teenager, the titular Snapdragon. She's looking for the witch in her town, but the witch turns out to be quite different from what she expects. And eventually she starts working with the witch, and it opens up a whole new world for her from the past, the present, and the future. Snapdragon learns so much about herself, her family, and about people in general.
This book is sweet. It is delightfully sweet. It made me smile, and kind of gave me the warm and fuzzies. There were some really emotional moments, as well, which I felt really deeply, but it just made the sweet moments even more powerful. There are queer characters; there's lots of diversity. This is the kind of book that I'm glad I'm getting to read now, but man, I would have killed to have got this book when I was a kid. It was really, really good.
If you can get your hands on it, and it is available in libraries, do read it. It was such a good, warm, full-hearted read.
Mon: Now I can't wait to read that!
Mon: So, like every other comic book fan on the planet, we are diligently watching WandaVision. So, in preparation for this show, I decided to deep dive into some Vision and Scarlet Witch comics.
Here's what I've been reading in the run up to WandaVision. Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch: A Year in the Life, Avengers: Disassembled and House of M.
These are all varied takes on these two characters. The first two Avengers collections are from the 80s. So, the writing is very different from what you will be used to in the comics that you read now.
As you can imagine, back in the 80s, it was very copy heavy, because the text would be describing the world, it would be describing the thoughts of the characters. Half the time the dialogue was the action that the character was taking, instead of leaving it to the reader's imagination. We also have to take into account that even in the 80s, the medium of comics as a storytelling tool was quite different, which is why the approach to how you told the story was very verbose.
So, going into Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch, and Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch: A Year in the Life, take into account that there is a lot of turgid writing that you have to go through. It is a slog. Also, there are a lot of asides and subplots to do with other characters which are atrocious. Oh my god, especially Avengers: Vision and the Scarlet Witch. It's an experience.
A lot of the first part of the book has to deal with Mantis and Moondragon and their history of becoming these magical creatures. And the only reason they're in here is because at one point Mantis was making moves on Vision, and that's when he realized that there was only one woman in this world for him, that was the Scarlet Witch. That one moment—which is, by the way not in this book, it is just alluded to in this book—that is the reason why Mantis is playing such a huge role in these pages. And you're like, ‘why?’ I'd rather just read about Vision and Scarlet Witch, but no. It's a lot to take in and it becomes so obvious that the writers are desperately trying to pad up the page count by putting in all these other subplots.
When you read these two collections back-to-back, you actually won't see much of a difference in the art style, but the writing, definitely. Bill Mantlo, who wrote the first collection, and Steve Englehart, who wrote the second one, have completely different approaches to the two characters.
Essentially, both books are about the love story between Vision and Scarlet Witch. It’s very cute. They are so besotted with each other and they really see each other as human beings—as people—whereas everybody else looks at them like oddities.
Vision being a synthezoid and having a mechanical voice, he just never seems to fit in. Scarlet Witch, for loving Vision and being a magical mutant, also doesn't fit in, but they've found each other, and they stick by each other. And it's adorable. It really is adorable.
With Bill Mantlo’s work, it's very action heavy. With Steve Englehart he purposely wanted to make a domestic drama. He decided to move away from the regular themes of bigotry that was a part of X-Men comics. He seemed to want to write more of an optimistic vibe. But also, he really wanted to delve into the domestic life of Scarlet Witch and Vision. And honestly, a A Year in the Life is so much better for it.
The soap opera part really works. Like, I dig it! I'm not even joking, I'm not the kind of person who is into soap operas, but it really worked in this book. In fact, every time they moved away and there was some action, I was like ‘no, please!’, because the domestic drama is so compelling.
And it's within this universe where people are married to Inhumans who live on the moon. People believe that some superhero is their father, turns out he isn't. In fact, their father is a supervillain. One man seems to find not only a brother, but he finds a mother, and he has another brother who is trying to kill him. It's amazing. It is really a lot of fun.
Just keep in mind that when you're using these older books, Scarlet Witch doesn't do very much. She has minimal page time. She's a damsel in distress a lot, but A Year in the Life has these moments where she will suddenly use her powers to save the day, and it’s great.
And in A Year in the Life, along with all this other soap opera drama, Vision and Scarlet Witch not only get married but they also decided to start a family. And it delves into how their life revolves around this new change.
You know what I like about it? They’re so happy to be starting a family. It's not like there's a lot of strife or ‘oh my god!’. No, none of that. Vision is really happy. Scarlet Witch is really excited. It’s really cute.
So imagine going from all this lovey-dovey drama on to Avengers: Disassembled, which is all action, all pessimism, all darkness and bleakness. Let's just think about the title—Avengers: Disassembled. Just ponder that for a second.
So, this book and House of M are both written by Brian Michael Bendis. I read them in the wrong order, which, in a way, did me a favor because House of M is not half as accomplished as Disassembled.
For the most part, Disassembled seemed to be just action. The Avengers are having the worst day of their lives—every possible bad guy seems to have returned from the dead, or has come back in droves. They are being kicked when they are down and then kicked again. What is going on? They do not know, they do not understand. And then suddenly the ball drops, and they cannot believe what is happening to them and who's behind it all.
Somehow, this book gets these weird emotional beats so right. I was just gobsmacked. There is this one character death that is less than a page, but it really made me stop. It t actually made me wonder why more comics don't have this kind of heft when creating these game changing moments. But I won't get into too much, don't want to spoil it for you in case you haven't read it.
This book precedes House of M. That deals with the fallout of what has occurred within this timeline. The concept of House of M is brilliant. Reading it so many years later, I can really get behind what they were trying to do. The execution, on the other hand, is very flawed.
When you have a character like Scarlet Witch, who can wield so much power, and you insist on making her emotionally unstable, mentally unstable and really under the thumb of either her brother, or her father, it doesn't make for the best kind of read.
The moment people try and examine alternate realities, or fantasy worlds, it has to make some modicum of sense. It needs to be plausible.
I feel like with X-Men comics, this is often an issue. There was a time when X-Men: Age of Apocalypse took place—and I’m not saying that was the most accomplished book in the world—but I can imagine what it was like to go straight from reading your X-Men, and then the very next issue, they are unrecognizable versions of themselves.
There have been so many attempts after that, to create a world which is about the X-Men, but not placed in this world. It is a fantasy, it is somebody else’s version of perfection, of reaching the ideal goal, and House of M really tries hard to create this alternate, fantasy world, but it's so silly that it doesn't make sense.
And the best part of this book takes place in the last part of the last act, and that's it. It ends. So, to find out the replications of what happened here, you need to go and find yet another collection. It’s a bit frustrating.
Ron: But the question is, has it given you a better understanding of what we can expect in WandaVision.
Mon: I feel like there are a lot of elements of these books, and probably a whole load of other books, which are informing how WandaVision is creating its own world. What I will say is that it seems like the creators of WandaVision are doing their best not to fall into the trap of recreating any of these, especially not House of M. What I like about comic book adaptations, especially the ones that we've had in the MCU, they've taken these comics, they've taken the central concepts and premises of these properties that we love, and really run with it and made them something better.
I feel like WandaVision is trying to do the same thing. We know that Wanda is super powerful, and we can see just how powerful she is in every episode of the show, but how unstable is she? Is she unstable at all? And can we understand this character, despite any of her actions.
That's one of the things that I feel like House of M may not have tried hard enough to do—to make her sympathetic. In Disassembled, they did do that with the central bad guy in that book, they tried to humanize them, they try to understand them. So, I think the show will do the same thing, but it is its own beast.
But I feel like a lot of people have addressed the fact that in the MCU, Wanda and Vision don't have that much screen time. Their love story doesn't come across as that epic because people who are watching only the films may not understand the volume of history that comes with creating these characters, to bring their love story to life.
You and I, of course, have read off it and read some of the comics. When you read some of these collections in total, you really get it. You feel that sense of devotion, of longing, of understanding each other, and the TV show is really coasting off of that knowledge.
Even if you haven't read these books page by page, just your understanding of how committed these two characters were to each other, and how challenging it is that, in the comics, they constantly were torn apart. It gives you a new understanding when you go into watching the show.
Ron: That's quite a lot of dedication to the craft, Mon.
Mon: Thank you. I should be commended for reading those.
Ron: It sounds like quite the exercise!
Ron: Well, that's what we've been doing this month. What have you been busy with? We'd love to hear from you.
You can find us on Twitter @Stereo_Geeks. Or send us an email [email protected]. We hope you enjoyed this episode. And see you next week!
Mon: The Stereo Geeks logo was created using Canva. The music for our podcast comes courtesy Audionautix.
[Continuum by Audionautix plays]
Transcription by Otter.ai, Ron, and Mon.