Ryan McNeil
Runtime
82 minutes
Show Contents:
0:00 Introduction
2:42 Know Your Enemy: Hillary Butler
17:00 The New Slang: CAPTAIN MARVEL
53:00 The Other Side: Hillary and Ryan talk further reading after Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s new film
Thoughts from your host…
This week feels like the culmination of something.
If you listen to this show, odds are pretty good you know a thing or two about me. If you know a thing or two about me, odds are pretty good that you’ve noticed me working one particular superhero more and more into my day-to-day. If you’ve noticed that, odds are you might well have wondered why.
Superheroes have woven their way in and out of my life for as long as I can remember. Sometimes my interest in them waned for long stretches; sometimes they were seemingly all I could talk about. The medium of comics (and the adaptations they would eventually spawn) found ways of speaking to me when I needed some speaking to…
…the same way the right song can mend a wounded soul, or the right dish can taste like home.
Five years ago, when I first heard that Marvel Studios was making a movie about a character I knew in name-only, I grew curious. I started reading, and reading, and reading. I discovered a complicated character that had been flying under the radar for forty-five years, and grew more and more fascinated with every passing month.
I saw myself in her flaws, recognized her weaknesses and mistakes, and felt encouraged that she could rise above them. My whole life, I’d been enamoured by tales of gods…heroes steeped in altruism. I knew I couldn’t be these icons, but it never stopped me from trying. Now here I was seeing someone whose powers I certainly didn’t have, but whose weaknesses sometimes echoed my own…and whose example of determination I could follow.
Reading lead to talking. Talking lead to suggesting. Suggesting lead to identifying.
A million conversations, a whole lot of merch, and a few dozen tweets later, I’m not about to say “Thanks, That Was Fun”…but this movie, this episode, and this week feel like some sort of expanse that a long trail in the woods has finally brought me to.
I’m a lucky dude. I’m lucky that I was here to witness such a joyful character evolution. I’m lucky that I have friends and family that don’t mock me for my obsessions, and sometimes even encourage it, and I’m lucky that I have a platform where I can give my passions true perspective…instead of just yelling “She’s So Cool!!” over and over for years.
If my obsession has annoyed you, I apologize. If my obsession has made you curious, I’m happy to take you further down the rabbit hole. If it’s something in-between, I thank you deeply for letting me be me and not making me feel silly for my love of books with pictures.
This weekend, this film, and this episode are the culmination of something…but certainly not the end.
Links Mentioned on Episode 218:
Pop Culture Detective’s video essay “THE CASE AGAINST THE JEDI ORDER”
Hillary’s Twitter feed can be found here. Comments and feedback are welcome, and thank-you very much for listening.
Enjoy!
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