Marvel's Wastelanders: Doom - Podcast Rankings and reviews

I’ve read an ABSURD amount of fantastic four comics. I’ve followed doctor doom’s entire history. I’ve read every panel Valeria Richards has been on. As an ENORMOUS fan, this podcast was practically MADE FOR ME. It was SO GOOD! On the whole they seemed in character and added really interesting developments, and I LOVED this podcast. It’s so fascinating how all the comics I’ve read technically did occur in the past - and that this is almost the true finale of it all! I love this podcast and I can’t preach about it any more. Best depiction of doom & Valeria’s relationship I’ve EVER seen.

One of the best of the Wastelander series, tied with Black Widow as my favorite. Even though I'm not very familiar with the Fantastic Four series, this podcast gives you enough background throughout the story to know what is happening and why. And Dylan Baker is fantastic as Doom!

The depth and competency of this series’ writing is astounding. The MCU seriously needs to employ these folks if they haven’t already. Also, PLEASE bring back the Wolverine podcast with Richard Armitage - I’d love a third season of that.

I want to be kind to Marvel audio dramas, because they’re trying something cool and I want it to work. But it doesn’t work. Podcast format is telling with no showing, and comic book characters/storylines are built fundamentally around being shown. And that’s just one glaring reason why this show misses the mark.

More problematic is the writing. You can’t write a character smarter than yourself of course, but the writers for this show must not have heard about that. It stars Doom and Valeria, two characters who are supposed to be among the very smartest people on Earth. Yet their story is completely predicated upon everyday mistakes and gaffes. It’s not even a tale about the satisfying sting of hubris revealed, it’s just dummies being dumb while saying they’re smart. It falls so flat that the characters, despite the voice actors trying their best, sound like whiny losers throughout.

I do think you should listen anyways, because I do think Marvel is gonna keep making these and eventually figure out how to make them good. We just ain’t there yet.