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Hi, I'm Dana Stevens, Slate's movie critic, and this is a Slate Spoiler special podcast on The Avengers, the new Joss Whedon directed, super tentpole Marvel, marvelous.

What do we even call it?

The movie, the movie the summer.

It's a combination of five years of tent pole franchises into a super franchise.

Exactly.

This is like some new word besides Blockbuster has to be invented to encapsulate what this movie is.

So joining me in the Slate studio is Chris Wade.

Hi, Chris.

Hello, podcast listeners.

And you are an associate producer at Slate V, the video arm of Slate.

Yes, I am.

And also very frequently the producer of these podcasts.

So you're actually stepping into the other side of the glass.

It's nice to be out from behind the audio board.

Yeah, you're taping yourself.

You're like, this is a total Chris Wade production.

I'm almost the Aer of this podcast. Yes, especially because you're actually, you are going to end up talking a lot more than me in this one because I had you in because you are enough of a

comic stirred and enough of a Marvel fan to actually be able to talk me through some of the

mythology of this movie. Although I do want to make clear, should there be any sticklers out in the

audience that I have read much more about Marvel than I have actually read Marvel comics.

...