Needless Things Podcast 140 – Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Join the Needless Things Irregulars for a discussion about the newest entry into the ongoing Star Wars franchise – Rogue One!

Christina's The Best (And Best Attempts) of 2016

By Christina

What did I like about this year?  What did I read or listen to?  Who did I think did it best or worst?  Let’s find out, shall we?  Here is my 2016 year end review!

Devlin's Domain - Immanentize The Eschaton: Best Of 2016

There's only a few more days left in 2016, and while a lot of you are dwelling on the worst, Optimist Prime here is going to break down the best. Well, my personal best that is. Everyone here at Needless Things is doing it so be sure to check out the other "Best Of"' lists being posted this week. I know 2016 has killed a lot of famous entertainers, but as they say, life goes on. For all the crappiness that 2016 may have brought you, it brought me one of the nerdiest years ever. It was so nerdy in fact, that compiling a list of absolute best has been extremely difficult. To remedy this I've added more categories than I originally intended to, just so I can spread the love a bit more. So here we go, The Best of 2016:

Beth's Best of 2016

Oh 2016 I will not be sad to see the end of you. Sure some cool stuff happened along the way, but too many great people keep dying. Not to mention all the horror and madness in the world right now. So yeah, I’m ready to move on. And for once I’m going to try and be positive by talking about the good things that we did get out of the year. Phantom gave us a lot of ideas on what to talk about this week, but I’m guessing mine will look a bit different since I’m not into quite the same stuff as he or our other contributors are (I do not have a pick for best toy line or company). I’ll list my nominees, and follow with my pick for winner along with my reasoning why (just to let you know how this will work). So without further ado let’s talk about my picks for The Best of 2016.

Needless Things Podcast 139 - Christmas in Disney

Phantom Troublemaker talks about Christmastime in Walt Disney World with his family!

Be sure to join the Needless Things Podcast Facebook Group and get in on the conversation for this week’s episode! Let us know what you think!

“Procrastibate” by LeSexoflex.com

You can follow Phantom Troublemaker on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for all the latest on pop culture!

If you enjoy podcasts, Disney, or Needless Things, you might enjoy SupportPhantom.com.

Christmas Break

I'm in Walt Disney World for Christmas break. Consider me on vacation.

Jerry will have something on Thursday and Friday will be a Very Special Episode of the Needless Things Podcast.

Everyone will be back next week with a series of Best of 2016 posts, the idea of which is much harder to convey than you'd imagine.

You can follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to see what happens on my family's Disney Christmas adventure! 

Merry Christmas, everyone!

If you enjoy Christmas or Needless Things, you might enjoy SupportPhantom.com.

Needless Things Podcast 138 – Batman Returns Needless Commentary

Part of an ongoing series – the Needless Things Irregulars gather in the Phantom Zone to provide their own unique commentary on classic genre films!

Comic Book Wednesday – Grimm Tales of Terror 2016 Holiday Special from Zenescope

By Phantom Troublemaker

In this Comic Book Wednesday I’m taking a look at the Grimm Tales of Terror 2016 Holiday Special. It’s available today at your Local Comic Book Shop!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays – it’s time to return to Zenescope’s Grimm world for four tales of Yuletide terror (and one wraparound story)! Each of the stories represents a different aspect of the holiday season; ones that we’re a familiar with. There’s a mall Santa, the office Christmas party, the temptation of peeking at gifts, and caroling. What could possibly go wrong with Christmas carolers?

What's Next for The Walking Dead?

By Beth

I know that hating The Walking Dead is the cool thing now. Phantom has been hating it for a while so he's ahead of the curve. What a trendsetter! I don't hate The Walking Dead. I've put a lot of time into this show, and I really want it to be good. After two 90 minute episodes in a row that gave us probably a total of 60 minutes of decent content though...well I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.

Phantom on Marvel – Agents of SHIELD

By Phantom Troublemaker

Since I started the Needless Things Podcast the frequency of my commentary and speculation pieces has been dwindling. I enjoy talking a lot more than I enjoy writing and I enjoy conversation more than I enjoy tossing lengthy essays out into an unresponsive void.

Plus, now that I have paying supporters on SupportPhantom.com (few though they may be) I feel a little more obligated to post stuff there when I am taken with the desire to write.

But every once in a while I still get the itch to post something here that’s a little broader and more interesting than a toy review. Which is why I’m here today.

I want to talk about Marvel – comics, TV shows, movies; everything. Or at least, everything I’m qualified to talk about. Obviously I can’t read every comic book Marvel publishes and right now I’m choosing to read even less than I normally do because a lot of them seem to be terrible. And I’m going to discuss that, too.

Today I’m going to write about Marvel TV. Live action TV, that is. I’m not getting into cartoons because they’ve been around so much longer and also because Spectacular Spider-Man and Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes were so perfect and what has replaced them is, in my opinion, hot garbage.

Superhero Squad was great, too.

This post was originally going to encompass everything – Agents of SHIELD and all of the Netflix stuff – but it turns out SHIELD gave me plenty to go on about on its own. Stay tuned for what might be individual pieces for the Marvel Netflix shows.

Needless Things Podcast 137 - Winter Break: Invasion, Madness, & Hellfire!

Phantom Troublemaker and Head of Research Ryan Schweck discuss the current seasons of Agents of SHIELD, Gotham, and the CW DC shows!

Devlin's Domain - Coherence

Recently I've been obsessing over the Mandela Effect and it's different theories, so this week's installment is inspired by that. Unless of course, you are in an alternate timeline, then for you this will be a review of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. For those of you who are fortunate enough to be reading the Coherence review but don't have any idea what the Mandela Effect is, then keep reading cause it's gonna get weird. It's always weird in Devlin's Domain.

Comic Book Wednesday – Previews December 2016: “Remember December”

If you don’t know, Previews is the catalog that Diamond Comic Distributors use to offer the products they distribute to comic book stores around the country. This is where you can view and order (through your favorite Local Comic Book Shop) comic books, trade paperback collections, t-shirts, books, media, and toys and other collectibles from hundreds of different vendors that deal in geek-oriented merchandise. The genius part is that you actually have to pay for your copy of Previews for the privilege of ordering other things to pay for. It’s like the Ren Fest except without the horse poo smell.

So every month a new edition of Previews is sent out to comic book stores. Contained in the pages within are products that might be currently available or could be released anytime in the next year; but are typically about three months away. Most of this month’s offerings are scheduled to ship in February.

Now it’s time to discuss a few of the weird and/or wonderful items offered in this month’s edition!

Toy Review – Arkham City 1:10 Scale Harley Quinn from NECA

“Over the last few years Harley Quinn has become one of my favorite characters.”

Is a statement that pretty much every comic book nerd in the world would make, except they wouldn’t admit to the “last few years” part. They’d claim she was their favorite from the start.

Don’t get mad at them. It’s not their fault. That sort of thig comes from the toxic environment created by the self-appointed gatekeepers of our pop culture. You almost have to qualify every statement you make about your fandom, lest some hoary hobgoblin emerge from the nerd strata above yours to crush you with their psychopathic, encyclopedic knowledge of the matter at hand, thus proving that your fandom is fraudulent and that they have once again triumphed over a lesser being.

This sort of thing is why I don’t discuss Doctor Who in public anymore.

Phantom on DC Rebirth So Far

By Phantom Troublemaker

I was discussing comics in the Needless Things Podcast Facebook group the other day and our pal Rich said that DC’s Rebirth IS “one of the best things done in my lifetime for comics”. My immediate response was to think that was a bit hyperbolic, but it did prompt me to examine what, exactly, DC has managed to accomplish with their latest publishing initiative.

Needless Things Podcast 136 - Beastie Boys

A very special episode of the Needless Things Podcast dedicated to the Beastie Boys!