Gobbledygeek

This week on Gobbledygeek, Arlo has Pokémon fever! That's right, he has become one of the hordes of mindless zombies trawling their backyards and local establishments for Japanese pocket monsters via the Pokémon Go mobile game. Then, Paul reports live from San Diego Comic-Con 2016 (sort of)! He and Arlo give their scalding hot takes on footage from Wonder Woman, Justice League, and more! They get into the icky, misogynistic controversy surrounding the new animated film version of Batman: The Killing Joke! Is all of this a ploy to get you to actually listen to the next episode in our year-long Four-Color Flashback series analyzing Matt Wagner's Grendel? Why, yes! Yes, it is! No one cares, but this week, the boys dig into the bold, bizarre, brazen "Incubation Years," collected in Grendel Omnibus: Vol. 3 - Orion's Reign, pp. 10-112! It's good, we swear!

Next: after a week off, Paul and Arlo return to discuss the first season of AMC's Preacher adaptation. What's that? You haven't watched Preacher yet? Go watch Preacher.

Can you dislike Paul Feig's Ghostbusters reboot without being a woman-hating, frothing-at-the-mouth MRA cave troll? Well, Paul and Arlo sure hope so. While championing the concept of a female-led Ghostbusters movie and praising the comic abilities of the girls in gray--Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones--the boys deconstruct the problems not just with this film but modern mainstream comedies in general. They also dig into how this film's story breaks the mold set by the original movies, its attempts at social commentary, and its action- and CGI-stuffed climax. Plus, Paul delves into Stranger Things and reminds us he used to train Pokémon.

Next: it's Grendel time again, which means it's time for us to badger you--or anyone!--to read along with us. Our Four-Color Flashback exploration of Matt Wagner's epic tale continues with "The Incubation Years," collected in Grendel Omnibus: Vol. 3 - Orion's Reign, pp. 10-112.

The Geek Challenge. It's a time-honored tradition: Paul makes Arlo watch some silly '80s cheesefest, Arlo subjects Paul to a stuffy revered classic. Everyone loses. In the interest of restoring some spontaneity to this well-worn custom, this time Arlo forces upon Paul perhaps the cheesiest movie of the '80s, Y.K. Kim's 1987 cult "classic" Miami Connection, in which a group of power balladeers do battle with cocaine ninjas; while Paul finally makes Arlo watch 1956's Forbidden Planet, a retro-futuristic take on Shakespeare's The Tempest and a legitimate classic of the sci-fi genre. Once again, the boys try to get at what makes the other tick and just what makes a great movie anyway. Also, you'll never guess the very tenuous connection between the two films. No, really. You won't.

Next: there's somethin' strange in your neighborhood, and it's Paul Feig's distaff Ghostbusters reboot.