Comic Belief

If you answer "May the Fourth Be With You!" with "And also with you!" then Comic Belief might be for you! This year we're celebrating this Fandom Feast by asking whether Luke Skywalker isn't, just a little bit, a Doubting Thomas. Come romp with us through the Original Trilogy, and let's kick around why it's so important to have skeptic heroes, and how profound it is when they finally do take a leap of faith. We talk about hope and doubt, sacramental speaking, and what orthodoxy can mean at its best and worst. Wars may not make one great, but right relationship with things bigger than ourselves sure does. May the Fourth be with You!

Hey! Were you worried we were stuck in cryosleep for fifty-seven years?! We're not saying we weren't ... but we gave Mother instructions to alert us if we approached 426. You know -- Alien day? And we woke ourselves up to make sure we got an episode out to honor it! We decide to pick up the thread from one of our earlier episodes by talking about how Alien takes the familiar experience of being in a workplace and turns it both into a space full of horror and an opportunity to band together. We talk about what it's like to be controlled by our job and what freedom means in the face of that. And we give some teaser hints about what's coming next from Comic Belief. Stay tuned, Believers!

Need an Audiobook treat? We recommend Project Hail Mary. It's way up the Comic Belief alley, and it was an award-winning favorite of 2021 for Audible.com listeners. The book has some mystery elements, so this episode has several spoiler tags -- you can hear our pitch for why you should read books by author Andy Weir, then you can hear the basic premise, and finally if you proceed past the spoiler warnings, we'll talk about why this is some great Comic Belief content to review! (Though Megan points out several times that even knowing some of the plot and twists, she thoroughly enjoyed the book. And we make sure not to spoil the big ending!). Suffice to say, if you like playing in the sandbox of slightly-more-sciencey sci-fi, and like characters who can inspire, this is a book well worth reading. And you can, of course, hear about it on a podcast well worth listening to, here at Comic Belief!

After a winter break basically as long as the stewardship of Gondor, we're back to talk Lord of the Rings with guest host (the Right Reverend) Craig Loya! Craig explains what it means to live a "nerd-adjacent" life (if we can even call that living?) and dive into the Lord of the Rings for the first time, books and movies alike. Led by his innocence, we take our own journey there and back again and talk about how the Lord of the Rings story models faith, friendship, and history's call to stand against evil. As a bonus: is your cellphone playing Lord of the Ringtones with your soul? All that and more on the first Comic Belief episode of 2022!

Have you been wandering a cold land hearing whispers that a figure of great dignity was about to arrive and bring great joy and hope into your seemingly endless winter? Why, I'm sure it's our guest, the Reverend Heidi Haverkamp! A few years ago, Heidi wrote an Advent devotional drawing on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, wanting people to have a chance to use its land of imagination and rich imagery to stir our hearts and minds as we draw near Christmas. Please join us in welcoming her as we talk over how CS Lewis's gifts continue to help young -- and perhaps even more, old -- Christians find our way home to a loving God who is both warm and wonderful and also a bit terrifying. We talk about taking sin seriously and taking joy and grace more seriously, and take a few of our own turns wandering in just past the back of the wardrobe. See you there! Heidi's books can be found at the links below! -Advent in Narnia: Reflections for the Season (Westminster John Knox, 2015) -Holy Solitude: Lenten Reflections with Saints, Hermits, Prophets, and Rebels (Westminster John Knox: 2017) -Now available! Everyday Connections: Reflections and Practices for Year C (Westminster John Knox: 2021) - Year A and Year B to follow in Fall 2022 and Fall 2023!  www.heidihaverkamp.net 

Dune. Arrakis. Desert planet. Frank Herbert's 1965 novel has had a really weird journey to the silver screen, but Denis Villeneuve's 2021 remake is an incredibly polished update to the cult classic story. We re-read the book and re-watched the David Lynch version to go over some of the big themes and questions. We tried fairly hard to keep spoilers limited until the very end of the episode, so you should be (mostly) safe to listen if you've only seen Dune Part 1 and don't want to see any big reveals coming from the upcoming continuation. That said, what do we make of Herbert's weirdly dense future humanity, with a struggle set on a denuded planet over the fuel of starships and metaphysical awareness alike? What is good and what is evil in a world covered with a morality as beige as its topsoil? And will Ben and Megan make it through a whole episode without accidentally saying "George Herbert" instead of "Frank Herbert?" All this and more on this week's Comic Belief!

We really lean into our Books-and-Media season theme this time: John Scalzi's Redshirts is an award-winning novel about what might happen if the "redshirts" on Star Trek ever noticed how often they die in terrible, meaningless ways. Or how the science they do on the show makes no sense. Or how anytime someone's life gets interesting, they're about to snuff it to make a main character's emotions more compelling in response. But if you stay with us past our MAJOR SPOILERS warning about ten minutes in, we'll take you with us through the rest of the book, and talk about the kinds of conversations these ensigns get into, and what they decide to do about the way their fate has been, shall we say, written in the stars. Plus, does Job (you know, the Bible one we always bring up?) count as the first Redshirt, a plaything in the hands of heaven? Come find out, Believers!

I know, I know -- we've covered Alien before. But, turns out, going back to meet the creature all over again is part of the point of film after film after film. We dive into why that is with guest Sarah Welch-Larson (@dodgyboffin on Twitter, etc). She's written a book called Becoming Alien: The Beginning and End of Evil in Science Fiction's Most Idiosyncratic Film Franchise, and she takes us through some of her most fun insights. The book holds up a feminist theological lens to the Alien films, drawing on Dr Catherine Keller's The Face of the Deep to make the case that a little chaos might get us closer to truth than trying to order everything perfectly, and that the unsettling work of the Alien films helps us learn what that's like from our favorite monster from the deep end of space. Are subversive endings a good thing in this series? Is the audience the punchline of Alien Resurrection? Does wandering over and over get us closer to truth than standing still with good answers? Come find out (or wander around wondering with us) on this episode of Comic Belief! But be warned, you might never read Genesis or Job the same way ... Show notes: Signed copies of Sarah's book: https://mzsworldstore.com/products/becoming-alien-the-beginning-and-end-of-evil-in-science-fictions-most-idiosyncratic-film-franchise-paperback-signed   Publisher sales of the book: https://wipfandstock.com/9781725283008/becoming-alien/   Dr Catherine Keller's The Face of the Deep: https://www.routledge.com/The-Face-of-the-Deep-A-Theology-of-Becoming/Keller/p/book/9780415256490

Happy Halloween! Everyone waiting for the next surprise? It's an episode on Lovecraft Country, for us. We had some thoughts, here. A white author tries to write about a black family using the X-Files formula and Lovecraftian horror themes ... then the book gets picked up by HBO for a pulpy series. Do the pieces fit together? We find some favorite theological ideas about names and power, who gets to go adventuring, and whose stories get told, and by whom. There's a lot of Genesis connections, here. We also talk about where white supremacy's power winds up as it loses its grip on the magic in this show, what temptations that carries, and how that stacks up against other ideas put forth by Black Panther or Watchmen. And as is so often the case with a good horror film, we point out where the scariest parts of Lovecraft Country come not from the fake monsters, but the real horrors that get mixed in. Check it out, Believers!

Oh sure, like you didn't grow up wishing you could sneak past a wall into a fantasy land to prove you were worth dating to your crush. No? Just us? We're joined by guest host Ashley Roberts, longtime friend of Megan's (and Ben's) and early-adopter of Comic Belief! She's jumping in on one of her favorite films -- a cult classic with a cast that can only be described as, ahem, stellar. Seriously, Stardust has everything we want from popcorn fantasy cinema. Swords and horses and magic. Big name actors hamming it up as ridiculous characters. Robert De Niro as a sky pirate harvesting lightning. Michele Pfeifer as an immortal witch using her last dregs of youth to cast and curse her way back to beauty. A young Charlie Cox daring to devil us with his acting potential way before he mainlined a Marvel tv series. And ultimately, some fun stuff about growing up and leaving a legacy. Turns out we really ARE supposed to grow beyond the walls of our first village lives.

It could be a Stan Lee comic. Tragic origin, raised in a nearly-hostile orphanage, forced to learn the world's ropes on her own, and constantly fighting off the effects of tranquilizers, Beth Harmon discovers that she has a superpower: she's REALLY good at chess. The Queen's Gambit tees up tons of great themes about a young woman in the 1950's and 60's making her way in a man's world, navigating relationships, and wrestling with addiction. Is she more than her analytical powers? Can she stand against a Russian grandmaster backed by a chess establishment that has the advantage of decades of experience over her? And along the way, is romance a game she's fated to lose? Gambits are a kind of offer in chess: lots of excitement and the possibility of victory, but with a lot more risk along the way, if you dare to take them on instead of playing it safe in the duller, familiar lines. Turns out that Beth Harmon has a chance to play the Gambit we all get offered: to love and be loved in the broken world, and find patterns of victory in its midst nonetheless.

Take our love, take our land, Podcast work is back at hand, Here's a fresh new mp3 You can hear Comic Belief! Shiny, friends! Brand new track! Comin' from a different tack: Buckle up and listen free You might watch it differently ... Welcome back, friends! Megan and Ben are swinging in to Season 3 of Comic Belief with a dive into the cult classic Firefly, with a lot of what we love about it on display. But this isn't just a lovefest -- turns out "take my land" gets a bit awkward when you took it from someone else first and forgot to mention that. We dig into some of the bones of the show that lie in the storytelling of the Civil War novel The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, and where we see Firefly inheriting some of Shaara's limitations along the way. We dive into whether the metaphor gets better or does more damage when Joss Whedon takes some of the sins of history out of it. And we take a pass through how the characters model faith, and where some of Whedon's own suspicions about it might be showing through in a way that stops the show from really giving an earnest voice to people who add a bit of, shall we say, belief to their comics. But is there maybe a saint hidden in there after all? All that and more, polished up and edited for the ride to your next job with your pals. Shiny!

Get ready, Comic Believers! We've taken a good long summer break, and we're ready to get back in the podcasting saddle! Here's a quick reflection on Season Two, and a look ahead at Season Three so you can begin to prepare yourself to wield the incredible force that is upcoming releases from Comic Belief! We keep it short and sweet for you, but the big reveal? On Monday, September 13th, you can't take the sky from us! Thanks for all the support, Believers, and talk to you soon!

Go up to an Episcopalian and say "May the Force Be With You," and we're gonna respond, "And also with you!" We're between seasons 2 and 3, here at Comic Belief, but we didn't want May the Fourth to go by unobserved. We sat down and used this tool to sort out which movies we'd prefer to watch (and you can too!): https://sorta.app/q/1023 and then we sat down to share them and record it live. This is a quicker and lighter romp through a lot of Star Wars memories, with us going over what we think makes the films in our list good, bad, and ugly, with a healthy dash of where the spirituality of the films seems to come out. Because, even on a break, we ARE Comic Belief, after all! The Fourth will be with you. Always. Well. Today.

If you thought the Hulk had it rough, wait til you hear about this guy! All the pressure of restoring balance to his entire metaphysical universe, and they won't let him go on a date with the girl they assign him to protect in a secluded private paradise! Star Wars has a ton to say with Darth Vader, from his first moments as a terrifying obstacle to Luke, through his redemption as a fallen father in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and later (or earlier, from a certain point of view) as a young man who grows up SO CLOSE to the path of all things good and right, only to face a wall of suspicion and rejection there that pushes him into the accepting arms of a terrible corrupter. What's a guy with a tormented free will to do? Come find out as we wrap up Season 2 of Comic Belief! To quote the man himself: "We would be honored if you would join us."

Don't make us angry, Comic Believers! You wouldn't like us when we're ... Well. Actually, we stay pretty pleasant when we're angry. A bit of passive aggression? A dash of frustrated sighing? Sitting up in the middle of the night with the perfect biting retort that we couldn't quite think of in the heat of the moment? Sure! But what we DON'T do is abandon all restraint and release our raging pain upon the world around us! What does it mean to get mad? Who gets to do it? What's "righteous anger," really, and why is it a dangerous idea for the powerful to co-opt? Join us for some Jekyll and Hyde, Plato's version of the reckless soul, Brené Brown's differences between shame, guilt, humiliation, and embarassment, and more! Soothe your own inner angry toddler with the restful reflections of Comic Belief!

Turns out life in TV makes for great TV! Join Megan and Ben as we talk through some of how WandaVision fits together, and some of the great stuff it puts on the table! We assume you've watched the show, so spoilers abound, but we go over some of the comic book origins of the characters AND the storylines that get adapted into the MCU and WandaVision. Want to know where [spoiler] comes from? Or why they brought in [spoilers], and where that might point after that post-credits scene? We've collected some of the big clues! But more than that, we talk through how this stands in as a meditation on grief, faith, and heroic freedom, with just a dash of Plato's idea of the souls of lovers thrown in. We talk about how episode 8 ties things together, and what it has to teach us about life in our real world -- a great example of our core Comic Belief idea that the stories we tell matter and talk back to us. Plus, we wrap up by talking about the good, the bad, and the ugly of having such a polished and planned interconnected MCU. Check it out, Believers!

Wakanda has given some real heart to the MCU. Why did a superhero blockbuster get nominated for best picture? Because it draws us into some really powerful and joyful human storytelling. Come listen along and help us connect the dots between Black Panther and ideas of liberation, baptism, rebirth, and communities where everyone has a place. And let's just talk about how cool this movie is. Plus, our thoughts on how T'Challa wins the spiritual contest in Captain America: Civil War.   Also, give yourself a serious treat and go back and listen to This Week in Dystopia's podcast on Black Panther from back in 2018 with Dr Leah Wright Rigeur -- we make a ton of references to it in this episode! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/black-panther/id1295862352?i=1000404153997

Today is a good day to die ... of laughter with Comic Belief! We're joined by fellow Episcopal priest, the Reverend Stacy Alan, and her husband, the irreverent John Poole (who takes a break from his own podcast, The Hidden Groove), to do a deep dive on a Star Trek episode. John suggested we talk together about everything that gets put on the table in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Rightful Heir, in which Worf experiences a crisis of faith ... and then has to decide how much truth the Klingon people can handle! Beware, friends: spoilers await! We talk pretty freely about how the Klingon messiah Kahless returns, and what it would be like for this to happen in our own faith traditions (including John reflecting some on the differences in Buddhism). We spend time talking about different kinds of truth. After all, the first duty of podcasters is to the truth! Plus Megan shares her vision of what God's work life and personal life break down to. So tune in to boldly go where thousands of Trek convention panels has gone before ... but never with Comic Belief, friends!  

Friends, this episode is a love letter. We should have waited until February and Valentine's Day, but something we've been doing for our own mental health (see! there's a psychology-season tie-in!) is watching our way through a K-Drama. Korean tv shows are making a splash on Netflix, and Megan got hooked when she realized that watching something with subtitles meant time she really wasn't on her phone. We spent our free hours in the last few weeks watching the 1-season run of Romance is a Bonus Book about old friends thrown together by fate and job prospects into the world of book publishing. Office romances! Secret mysteries! But really, this episode is mostly the two of us talking about how much we loved this, and enjoying a chance to take up something completely different. We avoid spoilers through the first 25 minutes or so, and then give you, dear listener, a stern warning to go watch the show! Even so, if you want to hear us laugh at some favorite things and talk about missing these friends already, listen on!

What's this?! Comic Belief podcasting on something the week it comes out?! No, we haven't been taken over by sinister beings from the Null Realm ... we're just enjoying DC's pandemic-time streaming experiment, since our toddler already demands that we keep streaming her favorite street in New York City full of colorful monsters! Megan and Ben take on Wonder Woman 1984 in a SPOILER FEST of an episode! You've been warned, Believers, make sure you've seen the movie first! Then jump in with us and laugh along with the good, bad, and hilarious that we found in the movie. Plus! How does Cheetah relate all the way back to William Moulton Marston's vision of a perfect society? What goes into making Max Lord the villain for this movie? And is Diana Prince faced with a version of Jesus's choice from the Desert Temptations? We're hiding all the answers inside a certain jet you might have heard of. Come check it out -- it won't cost you a thing!

Tired of sewers? This week we blast back to a galaxy far, far away to recap Rogue One, A Star Wars Story. We celebrate how great the movie is and where this kind of storytelling fits in the bigger Star Wars universe. But more than that, we dive deep into how this is a story about the everyday people of the galaxy, and how they learn to make their lives matter in the face of an Empire. We talk more about what makes THIS group of oddballs so heroic ... their ability to be honest with themselves and each other. And we talk about how this shows people having faith and learning it from each other, even when they aren't the ones who can do signs and wonders. Ready to be one with this podcast and have this podcast be with you? Go ahead and click play, Comic Believer!

Wait, who's this guest?! In an episode that smacks of nepotism, we bring on Ben's brother Peter for a ranging conversation about how different approaches to mental health can respect people's differences. And what's more different than the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?! Turns out, he knows some stuff! You could really clean a turtle shell with all of our waxing nostalgic about a 1990's classic, and how a joke comic went from being a knockoff of a different New York superhero (can you guess who?!) to a movie with a surprising amount of depth about being different on a team, dealing with anger while growing up, and good and bad parenting. Plus, we talk about where and how faith should show up to support people, and how there's no substitute for deep formation in a community. So grab some pizza or pick out your favorite training gear for the dojo, and check out some Turtle Power with us!

What happens when nerds become heroes? Your hosts might be far too timid for wild adventures, but not-so with Peter Parker! Ben and Megan dive in to what changed for Stan Lee that let him crack open the Marvel universe -- and maybe comics writing itself? -- with a different kind of protagonist. Is Spidey less-super, more-hero? Is he more real than reality? Did Stan Lee so love the world that he sent for us a Spider-Man? Swing right into this episode and find out more!

"This is Halloween! This is Halloween! Falala, la!" Happy Haunted Day, Believers! We've been spending some time feasting with the King of supernatural suspense and horror, and are happy to share our thoughts on some tales of Derry'ing-Do! Why are we drawn to what scares us? How do you break free from a cycle of fear? What does it mean for ordinary things to become extraordinary tools to help us fight evil and build communities? And of course ... why clowns? Here's some ear candy that you don't have to do any tricks for -- enjoy!

We're copying the pun from Dr Travis Langley's book, Batman and Psychology, which gave us some insight ... but mostly this is just a fun chance to dive right in to the mind of Batman. What drives him, and why does he drive us? And is there a better way than Batman's? Find out on Comic Belief! Plus: which villains do we love the most! And what church did Batman grow up in? Wild speculations are here for you, Believers!

We're back, Comic Believers! We're kicking off Season Two with a special prologue mini-sode. We spend some time talking over what we had fun doing in Season One and then introduce the theme that will run through our episodes in Season Two. And that theme is ... [Spoiler Redacted]!! We're excited to focus in on characters through the theme of [Spoiler Redacted], and we've got some fun episodes planned! Stay tuned as we start releasing episodes this fall, holding up what's fun and what's deep in the fantastical stories of fiction!

Ben and Megan wrap up season one of Comic Belief with Captain Marvel! Keep your head on a swivel, Patriarchy, because she's coming for you! Need a quick guide to which Captain Marvel is which (including the DC ones)? We've got it! And you won't believe some of the stuff this character is put through in her pre-MCU comics. We dive into what it means to have Marvel's first female lead spend most of her movie without her memories, and talk about the war and refugee themes, along with the powerful question of who gets to be your "family of choice" because they love and take care of you. Plus -- if you listen VERY carefully -- have a cameo appearance from our very own Flerkin, Jonesy, who is CONVINCED that she didn't get enough dinner (spoiler: she did). Comic Belief will be on a recording hiatus for the rest of August, 2020, so keep your eyes peeled in September, Believers, as we launch Season 2!

We're joined by the Reverend Deacon Jess Elfring-Roberts to talk Wolverine! She shares why he's so easy for so many of us to connect to, and what's really going on with the so-called loner who seems to keep helping others connect to the team they need. How much depth can there be to a guy who seems to want to just scratch the surface of his relationships? Come find out on Comic Belief!

We're publishing this one early on Thorsday ... Does your Comic knowledge need some en-lightning? We do a quick pass covering the Norse origins of the god of thunder, a quick word on who Stan Lee thought would win in a fight between Thor or Hulk, and then it's off to the MCU races to talk about the big ideas around Thor, Loki, and the Avengers! What is worthiness? What's in a throne? And is Taika Waititi, in fact, the greatest director ever? All this and more as Comic Belief bicep curls our way into double digit episodes! Show Notes: Need more Vikings? We mention and heartily recommend The Saga of Bjorn, which can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV5w262XvCU ... it's the one ending we don't spoil on the podcast, so enjoy!

We're joined by the Reverend Julian "J.Kwest" DeShazier, Chicago pastor and emcee, to talk faith, art, and true ways forward in this issue! We hit the spoilers pretty immediately on HBO's Watchmen (you've been warned) and talk about what it means to be a hero ... and where the presence of God comes from, as we take on some of the big ideas from a big show, and think on what it means to hear them again and take their challenge to us seriously six months later in different American events. And we get into what it means for art to be good and honest, and how hiphop holds to that standard. J.Kwest and BreevEazie make up Verbal Kwest, which just released the Lovkwest album, and we talk about where it's lifting up some of the same points -- you can hear part of their track "Lean on Me" as our outro this issue, with special thanks to Julian. Enjoy, friends! Show Notes: Check out Verbal Kwest's album on Spotify or your favorite platform! https://open.spotify.com/artist/6QJfuXIrDiCpAc97EMLJfg You can learn more about Julian's work as a national advocate, speaker, and emcee at https://www.jkwest.com/ We reference a panel discussion on Watchmen with Dr Robichaud, Dr Woodly, Dr Rigeur, and Dr Lebron; you can hear the audio here on Dr Robichaud's podcast: https://www.podbean.com/ew/dir-pa9dp-954b24d Dr Robichaud and Dr Lebron also have a conversation about Watchmen here: https://www.podbean.com/ew/dir-enqkc-821e483

Ender's Game has been a sci-fi classic for decades now. We welcome our first guest co-host, Matt Richards, to help us understand how author Orson Scott Card draws on his faith from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to create this beloved hero, and spot some of the other places where Mormon theology and principles shine through around empathy, leadership, and love. Matt and Ben essentially "met" through a board-gaming podcast, and Matt holds a local position no less sacred than Director of the Choir, so you KNOW he's speaking authoritatively as he offers insights with the clarity of Ender and the empathy of Valentine, now ready to transmit by ansible to your favorite podcast! Got questions or comments? Send them on to @comicbeliefpodcast on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, or use ancient technology to e-mail us at comicbeliefpodcast@gmail.com. Talk to you soon, Believers!

A long time ago, in a pre-fame era far away, a nobody named George read the work of a myth analyst named Joseph Campbell. That book, called "The Hero with a Thousand Faces," inspired the steps Luke Skywalker would ultimately follow in Star Wars: A New Hope. Join us as we unpack the 17 steps of the Hero's Journey with Luke, and talk about how Campbell believed that hearing a story invited us along so we could grow up and become adults who live without fear!

Do androids dream of Comic Belief? They do this episode! We were happily on our way to an episode called Thou, Robot when we decided Blade Runner deserved its own show ... and wound up convinced that Blade Runner 2049 just might be perfect. What makes a person human, and who gets to decide? Was Adam the first android? Are humans guarding our own heavens against the Babel-towers of our creations? And does Deckard's love story with Rachel work on a human level ... or even a replicant one? And what about K and Joy in Blade Runner 2049? Spoilers and speculations abound, so enter at your own risk!

May the Fourth Be With You! In time for the unofficial Star Wars holiday, we release some thoughts on Han Solo. Does he have any faith, or has the galaxy dealt him such a bad Sabaac hand that he refuses to believe in any mystical energy field? Who would he be in the Bible? What are his Myers-Briggs letters ... and what SHOULD they be? Why do personality tests work so well on fictionverses? A bit of comedy and a lighter episode, and we reminisce about some of our favorite behind the scenes legends about Harrison Ford and Han Solo. Enjoy, Believers!

After taking a publishing hiatus through Holy Week for some reason, we're back, with another Mega-Issue! We barely do Justice to a hero in this League, but we were impressed by how much cool background stuff there is to dig into with this heroine-made-from-clay. From Herodotus to CS Lewis, from Ancient Greek to the Fifth Element, we have a blast connecting a lot of dots to the heroine of love and peace. Plus, Megan and I took Wonder-Woman-Creator William Marston's DISC-Theory personality inventory, and reveal our results to each other on-air ... can you guess who's Dominant, Inducing, Submissive, or Compliant in our pairing? Come listen, for the love of goddess!

MEGA-ISSUE! Hi Believers! Megan and Ben here, bringing you over 70 minutes of content on this one! Alien. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility, and WE admire this film! But what lifted this one above all its creature-feature peers? Why are the traumatic misadventures of Ellen Ripley so compelling? What is it about THIS monster that we fear so much? And at the end of the day, which species from the franchise comes out on top? Who does Ellen Ripley remind Ben of from the Bible ... it's not (just) Jesus this time! Find out more in our first hour-plus MEGA-ISSUE of Comic Belief!

We kick off season one the way Marvel kicked off the MCU: talking about Iron Man! What's Tony's real superpower? What does it mean to take responsibility? Can anyone put on the suit and be Iron Man, or do you have to be Tony Stark? Is Tony, at the end, a Christ figure for the MCU? Who won the Marvel Civil War in the movies? All that and more in this issue, Believers!

Hi there Comic Believers! Megan and Ben here, and we wanted to say "Hello!" with an episode that tells you a bit about us. Why a podcast about faith themes in comic book movies? Tune in to tag along on our "Irreverent Search for the Reverent" as we tell you OUR Origin Story, and a bit about what makes us tick. Welcome to a podcast for anyone who had a great rambly conversation on a road trip about your favorite fiction. This is Origin Story!