ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Why does Marvel keep getting its comic-book characters wrong?
Noah Vargas sits down with Albuquerque tattoo artist and longtime comic-book fan Carlos Cordova of Stolen Heart Tattoo for a wide-ranging conversation about comics, movies, horror, superheroes, and the current state of Marvel and DC.
The conversation starts with Carlos's work as a tattoo artist and the New Mexico Tattoo Fiesta before diving deep into comic books and their increasingly complicated relationship with Hollywood.
We break down why Marvel seems to have lost some of the magic that made the MCU so successful, whether superhero fatigue is real, and why recent movies and shows often feel more like pieces of a massive corporate universe than individual stories.
We get into:
• Spider-Man and why the upcoming movie has us more excited than Avengers: Doomsday
• Daredevil: Born Again and why Marvel should have simply made a great Daredevil TV show
• The Punisher, Marvel Knights and the return of street-level Marvel storytelling
• Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom and why Doom is one of Marvel's most difficult characters to adapt
• The rumors and leaks surrounding Avengers: Doomsday
• Why Marvel's obsession with nostalgia and "member berries" could be hurting the MCU
• Fantastic Four and why Galactus finally felt right
• X-Men '97, the Fox X-Men movies and adapting beloved comic-book characters
• WandaVision, Ralph Bohner and Marvel's habit of subverting audience expectations
• Black Widow, Thunderbolts and Captain America: Brave New World
• Why Marvel's Disney+ strategy may have made following the MCU feel like homework
• Zack Snyder, Watchmen and the difference between faithfully adapting a comic and actually understanding it
• The Edgar Wright/Ant-Man situation and creative control in Hollywood
• Why comic-book creators deserve more respect from the studios adapting their work
• Evil Dead, horror movies, Crossed, Saw and the limits of gore
• Game of Thrones and what happens when a television series runs out of source material
• A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and the future of George R.R. Martin's world
We also talk about what makes a good comic-book adaptation in the first place.
Should filmmakers stay as faithful to the source material as possible, or should they completely reinvent it for the screen?
And at what point does changing a character stop being an adaptation and become something else?
This is a conversation about comics, movies, nostalgia, Hollywood, storytelling, and why some franchises still feel alive while others feel like they're running on fumes.
GUEST:
Carlos Cordova — Stolen Heart Tattoo
Instagram: @StolenHeartTattoo
HOST:
Noah Vargas
Improvised Intelligence
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And let us know:
Has Marvel actually lost its way, or are fans just nostalgic for the MCU's glory days?
