Jon and Andrew survived the culling of Thanos to return for Year 4 of this, the world’s greatest irreverently cinematic podcast, the Irreverent Cineastes Podcast!  Obviously, we didn’t start small, but with a movie that’s been 10 years in the making – Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet War Part One!  How was it? Does it live up (or down) to its hype?  What worked and what didn’t? And definitely, there were some things that didn’t: where are the Asgardians exactly?  Are the Wakandans the new Gungans? How seriously uncool would that be?  Can we get some consistency on whether Bruce Banner can remember being the Hulk or not? How freaking great was Thanos? Besides discussing these pros and cons, we also chart what got us to this moment both cinematically and culturally, and the unique set of circumstances that could have allowed something as seismic and significant as the Marvel Cinematic Universe to take root (and much of it has to do with the Internet, for better AND worse).  We again discuss the nonsensical tribalism between DC and Marvel fans, while also pointing out what makes this film so empirically superior to something like Justice League, which tried to tell a similar story and failed miserably (and how acknowledging that isn’t the same as rooting for it).  This episode is, of course, dedicated to the half of our audience lost to Thanos’s application of Malthusian economic theory.  We’ll miss the three of you!  Also, spoilers. Hmmm…should have mentioned that sooner, I bet. Explicit language.

Content Advisory: THANOS!  Lots of Thanos!  Marvel vs. DC, the evils of the Internet, the entitlement of fandom, Steppenwolf is still a shaved chipmunk, Captain Marvel, Thomas Malthus, The Red Skull (and why Andrew geeked our for that despite not being a Hydra-sympathizer), Infinity Stones, Gamora, What is and isn’t fridging, Asgardians, the opening scene, the Black Order, superhero fatigue, Loki, the discipline of Marvel and hey, maybe we can have a break when this is all over?  Some of us like to read, you know?