Earth-2.net Presents...

This time around Dan and Mike discuss a letter to a lost love (Spider-Man: Blue), a world-changing event (Secret Invasion) and a world born too soon (Marvel 1602).

In this episode of Dread Media, Desmond Reddick celebrates the return of Darryll as they ring in the New Year with two bikersploitation flicks. Desmond and Darryll gush over Stone, the lost classic Australian biker epic. Then they deride the less-than-classic non-film Hell Ride. (Why do some great directors only ever make one film, and then Quentin Tarantino goes and puts his name on any old thing?) Some rockin' road tunes for you this week: "Stone Cold Crazy" by Metallica, "Riders of Doom" by Crom, "Hellrider" by Judas Priest and "Road Rats" by Alice Cooper. Happy New Year! You've still got time to take advantage of a 10% discount at fright-rags.com by using the coupon code DREAD10. Send feedback to: feedback@dreadmedia.net, or 206.203.1213.

In Tales of Suspense #62, Captain America is hired to put on a demonstration of his fighting prowess just so evil men can attack. Wait a minute! At least it's got a villain with a face far smaller than its head.

Having covered the 1966 and 1989 Batman films, James, Ian and Mike are back to discuss the next movie in the Batman franchise: Batman Returns! Steady yourself for three hours of girlish giggling, historical references and potential head trauma. Oh, and there's a movie review mixed in there, too.

Commissioner Gordon hunts down Batman for the apparent murder of Mad Stan ("Eyewitness"), a robot assassin is loose in Gotham City ("Zeta"), fearful parents are sending their teens off to a nightmarish reformatory ("The Last Resort"), Curare is back in town ("Final Cut") and an out-of-work arms developer makes life hectic for Batman ("Armory").

Can you guess which of the following comics Des and Mike vehemently disagreed on? One look at the list should give you a big hint: DMZ #37, Final Crisis #5, Invincible #56, Secret Invasion: Dark Reign and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz #1.

In this episode of Dread Media, Desmond Reddick (with a red nose for other reasons) reviews Elves, the cheesy Christmas horror classic. Then he reviews several new indie comics: City of Dust #3, Nyarlathotep and Remnant #1. DW stops by to discuss Fatal Frame in Brainscan. Desmond talks about snow, hamsters and being right about Rob Zombie all in a whiskey-fueled episode featuring the following Yuletide terror tunes: "It Snows in Hell" by Lordi, "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" by The Browns, "Cold Blooded Christmas" by Jon Lavoie, "There Ain't No Sanity Clause" by The Damned and "Christmas Sucks" by Tom Waits and Peter Murphy. Happy Holidays! Visit our sponsors at www.horror-mall.com and www.fright-rags.com. And make sure you use the coupon code DREAD10 at Fright Rags to get 10% off your order! Send feedback to: feedback@dreadmedia.net, or 206.203.1213.

After reading several e-mails about Rose, Dan and Mike focus on two Doctor Who stories. First up is "The Edge of Destruction," which takes place entirely inside the TARDIS. Then they lament the tragic loss of the seven-part "Marco Polo," the first serial to suffer from the BBC's junking policy. Also, Mike turns embarrassingly red at one point.

With Jenny's cough being no better than before, Mike reads the bulk of the December Previews. Also, some sad news for Star Trek fans.

Someone recently celebrated her 30th birthday, and she's here to talk about it. Also, Ian pops in with his thoughts about Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

In the spirit of the season, Kellen dedicates 2008's final episode of Animezing Podcast to Ken Akamatsu's two-episode OVA series My Santa.

Dan and Mike break format this week; instead of discussing two forthcoming collections and one that's already on the shelves, they cover (and argue over) the two series that made Alex Ross a comic book superstar: Marvels and Kingdom Come!

In this episode of Dread Media, you'll shoot your eye out as Desmond Reddick takes a look at the early career of the legendary Bob Clark. While he covers most of the relevant films rather quickly, he offers full reviews of two recent Anchor Bay releases: Black Christmas (the original slasher film) and Murder by Decree (the film that pits Sherlock Holmes against Jack the Ripper). DW stops by with a review of Clock Tower for the Super Nintendo, and there are tunes aplenty: "Dead of Night" by New Math, "Piano Recital" by Carl Zittrer, "Jack the Ripper" by Mary Shelley Overdrive and "Silent Night, Deadly Night" by The Browns. Visit our sponsors for some last-minute Christmas gifts at www.horror-mall.com and www.fright-rags.com. And make sure you use the coupon code DREAD10 at Fright Rags to get 10% off your order! Send feedback to: feedback@dreadmedia.net, or 206.203.1213.

In this episode, Green Lantern gets his own book after the Showcase tryout, and celebrates the new status quo with a clip show. But since Green Lantern #1 marks a new inker coming onboard to assist Gil Kane, it's a lot better than it appears!

In response to an e-mail, James and Mike cast their version of a live-action Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, then they discuss five episodes from Batman Beyond: "Rats!," "Mind Games," "Revenant," "Babel" and "Terry's Friend Dates a Robot."

Killer tomatoes, rogue heroes, enraged gods, warring rebels and possessed souls all attack in the five comics (Attack of the Killer Tomatoes #1, Savage Dragon #141, Thor: Man of War, Unknown Soldier #2 and Vincent Price Presents #3) Des and Mike discussed this week.

This episode of Dread Media might be less than an hour, but it's jam-packed with goodness. After paying tribute to yet another person this week, Desmond Reddick puts recent rumors of Rob Zombie's involvement with Halloween 2 in a certain light before jumping into a review of James Newman's short fiction collection, People Are Strange. Then he reviews the Welsh coming of age thriller Summer Scars, and the Mexican documentary La Santa Muerte before waxing on and on about future plans for the show. DW also offers up a short Brainscan on Enemy Zero for the Sega Saturn. Tunes included: "Return of the Phantom Stranger" by Rob Zombie, "My Own Summer (Shove it)" by the Deftones, "Take My Scars" by Machine Head, "On March the Saints" by Down and "People Are Strange" by The Doors. Say hello to our new sponsor by visiting www.fright-rags.com and using the coupon code DREAD10 to get 10% off your order. RIP Uncle Forry. And read the Rob Zombie interview transcripts: http://www.earth-2.net/columns/reddick/reel-dread-43-1,

While discussing the title characters of the second Doctor Who story, "The Daleks," Dan puts their cultural impact on British society into perspective, and Mike admits there's a line so geeky even he won't cross it.

Every once in a while you get a dog, and in this episode Tom wrestles with Tales of Suspense #61, where Cap goes to Vietnam to fight a ruthless Japanese Sumo general in his Chinese palace while displaying his gooch. It's a chore, you betcha.

Between some unexpected musical choices, Kellen talks about the recent Chibicon and the premier showing of the event: Detroit Metal City, a death metal comedy.