I missed the schedule for the last one of these two weeks ago due to the fact that I had a week off of work and that’s when I typically listen to podcasts. I did manage to listen to a few over that week, but I didn’t get around to listening to at least 3 episodes of this podcast which I planned on reviewing which is the minimum that I listen to for this series. But I have managed to listen to a few more episodes and so it’s time for another Superhero Podcast Review where I check out a superhero podcast and give it one of three ratings: Subscribe, Selected Episodes, or Unsubscribe. And I’m always looking for new ones out there so if you host, or know of a superhero podcast that I haven’t covered here, let me know about it and it may end up on the next edition.

Talk From Superheroes

The Basics

Website: FromSuperheroes.com / TalkFromSuperheroes.com
Episode count (as of 11-12-16): 41
Episodes listened to: 5
Episodes recommended to me by the podcast: Supergirl (CW), Man of Steel, X-Men Days of Future Past
Release schedule: Weekly on Mondays
Episode Length: 1:00 – 2:00, averaging about 1:30
Audio Quality: Clear
Language rating: R
Spoilers: Yes
Production format: A single conversation between the two hosts and an occasional guest host about a single movie or TV series with a separate intro and commercial breaks.

The Format

Two hosts: Andrew Ivimey and Diana McCallum have a discussion about a superhero movie or TV series and occasionally they will bring in a guest. Andrew is a stand up comedian so there is obviously a lot of humor and comedy involved, but they will still pick apart the films in terms of plot, characters, and themes whenever appropriate. The conversation is broken up by solo sections from Andrew where he will intro the show and talk about their sponsors and Patreon and whatnot. Now, I’m a podcaster myself so I understand the need for sponsors and other opportunities to offset the cost of hosting, but I do have to say that this show is my least favorite style of advertising. There’s nothing wrong with the intro, but the breaks interrupt the flow of the show’s conversation more than most, especially as they don’t allow for the breaks within the conversation itself. Where most podcasts will prepare for postproduction breaks and find their own break point, often even segueing into “and now we’re going to take a quick break”, but Talk From Superheroes has to find the breaks after the fact and as a result, they feel more abrupt and jarring. Update: in recent episodes, they have changed to a live ad read which tends to flow much better.

Comics vs. Movies vs. TV

Most of the episodes on their feed are exactly the types of shows that I look for in one of these superhero podcasts: each episode looks at a particular superhero or comic book movie with a few TV shows and extras thrown in here and there. As is usually the case, I only listened to their movie-centric episodes as that’s what I’m most interested in and the conversation almost exclusively centered on what was actually happening with the movie, with very little talk about the comics versions of the characters. Though there were occasional side-tangents as there usually are, especially in more comedic podcasts, they pretty much stuck to the movie through and through.

The Verdict

One thing that I do have to mention here in the verdict section. I listened to about five episodes, possibly six in the past four weeks, and I will start off by saying that I really enjoyed all of the episodes except for one. Andrew and Diana work great together as hosts, they have good chemistry and bring a lot of humor to their discussion, but also an obvious love of superheroes in general. But one sticking point came when I listened to their V for Vendetta episode. They did not like the movie while I really love it. And I don’t have a problem when someone has a different opinion of a movie, but the way that they ripped into this movie was done in such a way that it made me feel like I was an idiot for liking the movie. I respect their opinion for not liking the movie, but it just really threw me for a loop how much they felt like the film would hand hold the viewer through repeated visual metaphors that someone who took their first psychology class would find really deep – a rough paraphrasing of what they actually said. If I wasn’t reviewing the podcast and was just subscribed, I would have just turned the episode off and listened to the next one. If it was my first episode, I might not have continued, but it was something worth mentioning.

Talk From Superheroes: Selected Episodes