School of Movies

X-Men '97 (Season 1)

[School of Everything Else 2026]

This is the best thing Marvel have ever made out of X-Men. That is not hyperbole. Stack up every comic, every animated series, every video game and every movie, and only a handful even come close to this level of both crafted quality and ferocious realisation of evolved central themes.

The original X-Men '92 show ran all the way up to September 1997 with the 76th episode "Graduation Day". The show had suddenly plummeted in quality after a really solid first four seasons when the budget was slashed and the animation switched to the lowest bidder studio possible. Marvel were broke and this was a sorry end to their flagship animated series which in the 90s was really only rivalled by Batman and Radioactive Spider-Man in terms of cultural footprint. That theme song lives in our head rent-free and the MCU have been teasing us with the jingle for years now.

However, this follow-up series that requires no prior knowledge to appreciate, hit the ground sprinting with a voice cast that were a mix of the familiar and powerful new performers, stunning hand-drawn animation and an uncompromising, fearless confrontation of the world that hates and fears mutants, holding up a black mirror to our own.

Guest:

Chris Finik @finmonster09

Fantastic Four: First Steps

[School of Movies 2026]

Finally, after twenty years of half-assed attempts (thirty if you count the Roger Corman production never intended to see the light of day) to bring Marvel's First Family to the big screen, they actually nailed it... mostly.

First Steps delivers not just the Silver Age superheroes, but the era itself, in a gorgeous, memorable, hopeful vision of the Kennedy-Era 1960s (one where racism has been dealt with, and women don't struggle to be taken seriously). This alternate Earth of 828 is put in jeopardy when a version of Galactus (who isn't just a big angry CG cloud) comes calling.

Setting aside a dedicated section to air our misgivings over two crucial factors, (wherein Sharon comes up with one subtle but significant story change that blows me away) this episode brings us closer to Doomsday, where these fantastic folks will play prominent roles.

Thunderbolts*

[School of Movies 2025]

Time for a surprisingly good Marvel that meant a lot to a great deal of people... and still somehow underperformed. This thing was brewing for years, from as far back as the second Disney Plus show, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, back in Lockdown 2021. The original comic premise was simple enough; have a manipulative scumbag assemble a super-team of disguised villains in the absence of The Avengers.

However, this team is only mildly superpowered, and are wildly unbalanced. They're all either prior living weapons or experiments gone badly wrong, most of them have been being used for shady corporate black-ops and all of them are a hot mess, emotionally speaking. Plus the scumbag decides the best thing to do is kill them all off, rather than get their own Avengers.

What we end up with is a collection of disturbed individuals who have to work together as a team to deal with a very specific, exceptionally dark situation with one of their own. It is DC's first Suicide Squad movie from 2016 done far, far better. Let's peel back the surface and dive into the murk beneath.

Next Week: K-Pop Demon Hunters

Quantumania & Brave New World

[School of Movies 2025]

This is three After School Club episodes, trimmed and re-edited into one bumper Main Event show. To begin with you have my initial impressions on what is hopefully the last Ant-Man movie, way back in February 2023, then two and a half years rush by in the blink of an eye and suddenly we're in a different kind of place for both Marvel and the world. Revisiting with Sharon, we delve into how this film was positioned and the bait & switch of the final execution.

Then with Captain America 4, AKA The Incredible Hulk 2, we look at a fictional and freshly recast General Thunderbolt Ross who turns into a giant, red rage-monster and smashes up Washington, yet still manages to be not the worst President ever! These are two of the most egregious cases of the MCU aiming for the middle of the road and winding up making something few could love. Fortunately, their future looks brighter, with a couple of bold new entries for 2025.

Next Week: Thunderbolts*

Agatha All Along

[School of Everything Else 2025]

For a long while we hoped this would be a project from the makers of WandaVision that would see hidden villain Agatha Harkness trying to make amends for her machinations during the Westview incident. By the end of the second episode she's unrepentant and off on a whole new adventure, romping down The Witches' Road with an uneasy new coven in tow.

Like many of you, we drifted away and planned to come back once it was finished, but it wasn't until almost a year after that, when we finally sat down and saw the whole thing... and it's one of our unexpected favourite Marvels.

Never would have guessed they would nail this one. That was quite a magic trick.

Next Week: Quantumania & Brave New World

The Marvels

[School of Movies 2025]

Here is a film we were very excitedly waiting for. We had already been waiting an age for the first Captain Marvel movie in 2019, a project that would have been put into effect had Ike Perlmutter not maintained for years that female-led superhero films wouldn't make money. The thing swept in just over a billion dollars and made a lot of boys on YouTube very cross.

Four years and a pandemic later, two Disney Plus monoseries emerged over that time, the celebrated WandaVision, which featured the returning little girl Monica Rambeaux, now an adult and working for Nick Fury, and then there was the underseen Ms. Marvel, featuring the equally long-awaited first appearance of the endlessly charming Kamala Khan.

Electing to bring together these three ladies in a spacefaring adventure was neat, however, as you'll hear from our extensive talk on the structure and narrative, nobody was well-served by the direction this took, least of all the excellent director of Candymen (2021), Nia DaCosta.

Plus, I've forgotten the name of the villain!

Next Week: Agatha All Along

Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3

[School of Movies 2025]

This film began life before James Gunn was abruptly fired overnight, by Marvel. It languished for years through the triumph of Endgame, then the Pandemic, and Gunn's hiring by DC to direct their Suicide Squad sequel. The man who came back to pick up the script had been changed, and while Superman (2025) shows the sheer optimistic joy he's capable of imbuing his projects with, this farewell to the Guardians is a dark, furious requiem of betrayal, loss, bitter conflict and ultimately redemption.

In choosing to make it all about Rocket Raccoon, the secret weapon of the MCU was taken out of the picture. He is attacked by newcomer Adam Warlock on Knowhere home turf, in a failed act of corporate reclamation. His killswitch is triggered, leaving him in a coma and it is up to the Guardians to investigate the Doctor Moreau-inspired High Evolutionary, and find out how to bring Rocket back. This leaves him absent for much of the present-day movie, stuck reliving his tragic past, and the earliest friends he made. These tragic events would twist his future actions into those of anger and neurotic rejection of even his closest companions.

It is unlike any other MCU film, deeply personal and imbued with such vociferous anger that it actually becomes a mess, half hanging onto what was originally intended, half channelling the mixed, spiking emotions of going back to deal with your monster, saying goodbye to your dear friends and moving on to other and better things. The world is better for the confluence of events that led us to getting our new Superman and a brighter future of the DC Universe, but it was Gunn who took the damage, and this film exemplifies that.

Next Week: The Marvels

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

[School of Everything Else]

This one took a lot of consideration. We wanted to separate ourselves from the ragebait YouTubers who decided before it was even out that this was the worst TV show ever made. Even the thumbnail had to be put together in a way that conveys there are problems, but it's not because of BIG ANGRY WOMAN! (Seriously, what is it with basic dudes seeking attention and thumbnails of ladies mid-shout?)

We liked a lot about this long-awaited debut of the onscreen adaptation of John Byrne's reimagined fourth-wall-breaking sassy jade giantess. And the casting for starters was excellent, as was Tatiana Maslany's firecracker chemistry with Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock.

However, there are some deep-seated issues that go way beyond being so meta that you spend the climax of what would turn out to be your only season making multiple gags about how disappointing it is. It's a big old mixed bag, and we will be both ruthless and warm in our honesty. Ladies, gentlemen and all points in between of the jury, we present to you Exhibit S.

Next Week: Guardians 3

The Music of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Vol. 2

[School of Everything Else 2025]

All the way back in 2017 I put together an absolutely EPIC musical journey through the first eight years of the MCU, from Iron Man all the way up to Doctor Strange. So much time has passed since then (cue many gifs of Matt Damon drinking from the wrong Grail) and Marvel has not followed my sound advice about allowing each hero (and maybe a villain or two) to retain a theme that reprises with every subsequent appearance. However, that does not mean there haven't been some truly excellent scores composed, which got side-lined in the clickbaity rush to pronounce Marvel as being formulaic, failing or indeed signifying the baleful death of film.

Here for you now is a compendium of themes and sonic explorations as Phase 3 draws to its epic conclusion and Phases 4 and 5 wend their way from the small screen to the big and back again. I look forward to a third volume of these shows sometime in the early 2030s, when the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Secret Wars and whatever happens with Spider-Man and whatever inevitable soft reboot brings us to a new era of superhero cinema.

1.     The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (‘Louisiana Hero’ by Henry Jackman)

2.     Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (‘Dad’ by Tyler Bates)

3.     Spider-Man Homecoming (Michael Giacchino)

4.     Thor: Ragnarok (‘Main Title’ by Mark Mothersbourough)

5.     Black Panther (‘Wakanda’, ‘Warrior Falls’ and ‘Killmonger’ by Ludwig Goransson)

6.     Infinity War (Alan Silvestri)

7.     Captain Marvel (‘Main Theme’ and ‘All Fired Up’ by Pinar Toprak)

8.     Black Widow (‘Yelena Belova’ and ‘Natasha Soars’ by Lorne Balfe)

9.     WandaVision (‘Opening Themes: 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s’ and ‘End Cretids’ by Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez and Christophe Beck)

10. Loki (Natalie Holt)

11. Shang Chi (Joel P. West)

12. Eternals (Ramin Djawadi)

13. Moon Knight (Hesham Nazih)

14. Ms. Marvel (Laura Karpman)

15. The Marvels (Laura Karpman)

16. Spider-Man: No Way Home (‘Forget-Me-Knots’ by Michael Giaccino)

17. Wakanda Forever (Ludwig Goransson)

18. Guardians Vol. 3 (‘Guardians vs Hallespawn’ / ‘Into the Light’ by John Murphy)

19. Thor Ragnarok Reprised (‘Twilight of the Gods’ & ‘What Heroes Do’ by Mark Mothersbourough)

20. Daredevil (John Paesano)

21. Jessica Jones (Sean Callery)

22. Luke Cage (Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad)

23. Iron Fist (Trevor Morris)

24. Werewolf by Night (Michael Giacchino)

25. Quantumania (Christophe Beck)

26. Agatha All Along (Christopher Beck)

27. Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man (The Math Club)

28. Deadpool & Wolverine (‘Bye Bye Bye’ by NSYNC & ‘Like a Prayer Battle Royale Mix’ by Madonna)

29. Avengers: Endgame (‘Portals’, ‘The Real Hero’ and ‘Main on End’ by Alan Silvestri)

The Music of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Vol. 1

[School of Everything Else 2017]

NOTE: This is an archival episode from many years ago. 

Recently the excellent YouTube series Every Frame a Painting asked members of the public if they could hum any of the music from the Marvel films. Unsurprisingly they couldn't come up with anything. There are a few reasons for this, that I go into on the show, but this presentation right here is crafted to allow everyone to explore the music that has come so far. We laser-focus on the core melodies, the hero themes that were left by the wayside as the series evolved and we showcase the wide range of actually rather brilliant musical moments that have punctuated the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Join me for an epic, three hour musical journey, run through the filter of my brain. By the end, if I've done my job, you'll be able to hum at least one piece of Marvel music.

1.   Marvel Logo (Thor: The Dark World)
2.   Back in Black – AC/DC (Iron Man)
3.   Mark II/Driving With the Top Down/Gulmira - Ramin Djawadi (Iron Man)
4.   Iron Man - Black Sabbath (Iron Man)
5.   Main Titles - Craig Armstrong (The Incredible Hulk)
6.   Thunderstruck - AC/DC (Iron Man 2)
7.   Black Widow Kicks Ass/ I Am Iron Man – John Debney (Iron Man 2)
8.   Shoot to Thrill – AC/DC (Iron Man 2)
9.   Prologue/The Compound/Forgive Me/Thor Kills the Destroyer – Patrick Doyle (Thor)
10.   Walk – Foo Fighters (Thor)
11.   Main Titles/Farewell to Bucky/The Star Spangled Man/Triumphant Return/Captain America March – Alan Silvestri (Captain America: The First Avenger)
12.   Main Titles/Helicarrier/Avengers Assemble/A Promise/End Titles – Alan Silvestri (Avengers Assemble)
13.   Live to Rise – Chris Cornel (Avengers Assemble)
14.   Main Titles/Can You Dig It? – Brian Tyler (Iron Man 3)
15.   End Titles/Into Eternity – Brian Tyler (Thor: The Dark World)
16.   Lemurian Star/Project Insight/The Causeway/To the End of the Line/Taking a Stand – Henry Jackman (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
17.   Soundtrack Medley (Guardians of the Galaxy)
18.   The Kyln Escape/Groot Spores/Groot Cocoon (Guardians of the Galaxy)
19.   Age of Ultron Theme – Danny Elfman (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
20.   Escape - Roger Ayer (Ant-Man)
21.   Ant Man Theme – Christophe Beck (Ant-Man)
22.   Plainsong – The Cure (Ant-Man)
23.   Siberian Overture/Ancestral Call/New Recruit/Closure/Cap’s Promise – Henry Jackman (Captain America: Civil War)
24.   Sharks Don’t Sleep – Dean Valentine (Civil War Trailer)
25.   New Marvel Fanfare
26.   Strange Days Ahead/The Master of the Mystic End Credits – Michael Giacchino (Doctor Strange)