Original Air Date
- May 29, 2025
Part 1 Begins
Heroic Opening Song (3:14)
- “One Call Away” by Charlie Puth
- A great Superman song I didn’t get to play on last week’s show
Super Show ID 1: Superhero Smash (0:30)
- You’re listening to Superhero Smash
- Featuring “The Best in Superhero Music and Comic Book Lore”
- I’m your host, Dr. Gian Pagnucci, a.k.a. The New Professor X
- Focusing on current superhero movies and popular culture events
- All summer long, I’ll be playing great music about superheroes as well as music that is featured in superhero movies and shows
- I’ll also be talking about comic book history and heroism
- And you can rest assured that no matter how much super cool stuff I talk about during today’s episode, you don’t have to worry because this is a NO SPOILERS show!
- Superhero Smash is aired exclusively on WIUP FM 90.1
- Contact me, the new Professor X, via email: SuperheroSmash3000@gmail.com
- I love to hear from the Legion of Superhero Smash Fans!
Heroic Audio Episode Theme: The Thunderbolts (1:00)
- You can still catch Marvel’s new film Thunderbolts* if you hurry to theaters now
- Thunderbolts* is still playing this weekend at the AMC Waterfront 22 Theater in Pittsburgh, and it is well worth driving to see
- Thunderbolts* is the newest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and it is the best film since Avengers: Endgame
- The film is action packed, funny, and very moving
Heroic Instrumental Theme Song (3:28)
- “Thunderbolts*” by Son Lux
- Son Lux is known as an American experimental band
- They also did the soundtrack for Everything Everywhere All at Once which one an Academy Award for Best Picture
The Superhero Smash Comic Book Vault (4:00)
- The Comic Book Vault sound effect (0:12)
- Each week on Superhero Smash I like to crank open the doors to the Superhero Smash Comic Book Vault and share with listeners information about a collector’s item classic comic books
- The Thunderbolts first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #449
- Publication Date: January 1997
- Publisher: Marvel Comics
- Written by Peter David
- Art by Mike Deodato Jr.
- Approximate Value: $95 on eBay (CGC graded 9.2 on a 10-point scale)
- Who knows, maybe some lucky listener has one of these valuable books comics resting quietly in the attic, just waiting to be rediscovered. You’ll want to do a search, but not until today’s episode of Superhero Smash is over
- The original Thunderbolts team featured a flamboyant group of heroes:
- Citizen V (a patriotic hero like Captain America)
- MACH-1 (a high-tech powered hero like Iron Man)
- Techno (a hero who had gadgets a bit like Hawkeye’s trick arrows in the comics)
- Atlas (a gigantic hero like super-sized Ant Man)
- Songbird (a hero with vocal powers like DC’s Black Canary)
- Meteorite (a mystical hero like Doctor Strange)
- The team appeared to fill the gap after the Avengers were declared dead during the Onslaught Marvel Comics storyline (Onslaught was a psionic-powered super villain)
- The original Thunderbolts story has a big surprise to it, but, of course, Superhero Smash is a no spoilers show, so you’ll have to get the Thunderbolts graphic novel if you want to learn that twist
Super Song 1 (4:54)
- Since this episode is about the Thunderbolts, I’ll be featuring lots of thunderous music
- Let me start with, “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC
- This song was featured in trailers for Iron Man 2
- Back Issue Bin: Iron Man was featured on Superhero Smash way back in Issue #6 of Season I
- I’ll also give a quick shout out to my fans out in the Philly area who especially love this song
Part 1 Ends (@17 minutes)
Part 2 Begins (@17 minutes)
Super Show ID 2: Superhero Smash (0:30)
- Listen on WIUP FM 90.1
- Featuring the best superhero music and comic book lore in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the DC Cinematic Universe, and our U-niverse too!
- Check out pagnucci.org and click the big Superhero Smash button
- Or email Professor X using the address SuperheroSmash3000@gmail.com
- I love to hear from the Legion of Superhero Smash Fans
- If you are enjoying today’s show, you can catch more Superhero Smash on Thursday mornings at 11:00 a.m. all summer long on WIUP FM 90.1
The Winter Soldier’s Thunderbolts 1 (5:00)
- The wikipedia entry on the Thunderbolts shows at least 11 different versions of the team
- Luke Cage and Hawkeye both led the team as did Wilson Fisk, Norman Osborn, and Baron Zemo, so the team has had quite the wide ranging mission
- Most relevant to the new movie is the Winter Soldier’s version of the team
- The Winter Soldier is also known as Bucky Barnes
- When Captain America: Brave New World (which I also highly recommend), came out in February 2025, we learned that Bucky had won a seat in Congress representing Brooklyn
- Back Issue Bin: Captain America: Brave New World was featured on Superhero Smash in Issue #37 of Season II
- At least in the MCU, there are good people in Congress who are trying to help people
- Bucky’s team is featured in the new Thunderbolts* film
- The team consists of
- The Winter Soldier
- Yelena Belova, who is the Black Widow’s sister, and was featured in the excellent Black Widow film
- Red Guardian/Alexei Shostakov, father to Yelena and her sister Natasha
- Taskmaster, who was also featured in Black Widow
- Ghost who was featured in Ant-Man 2
- U.S. Agent/John Walker who was featured in the Marvel series Falcon and the Winter Soldier
- And, of all things, a guy named Bob
- It’s a team of down-on-their-luck heroes, rejects who are basically B-list superheroes
- And that’s what makes the film so great
- These are every day heroes with lots of real world problems who are very relatable to viewers
Super Song 2 (4:54)
- The trailers for Thunderbolts* featured a great song
- “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” by Starship
- Starship of course is famous for the song “We Built This City”
- The Vinyl District actually ranks “We Built This City” as the 2nd worst song of all time in Michael Little’s article “The Absolute Worst 100 Songs in Rock History”
- Of course, in that same article he lists John Lennon’s “Imagine” as the worst song of all time because he feels the song is too idealistic even though many people rank it as the greatest song of all time
- I think what Mr. Little needs to do is start listening to Superhero Smash to get his musical tastes recalibrated!
A Super Love Interlude (5:00)
- Usually on Superhero Smash I like to future a superhero romance, like last week’s Superman and Lois Lane feature
- But this week, I’m going to talk about a different kind of love, parental love
- Now as my loyal listeners know, Superhero Smash is a no spoilers show
- So I don’t want to give too much away
- But I will say that one thing I really enjoyed in Thunderbolts* was the father/daughter dynamics in the movie
- Like all kids, Yelena feels that her dad, Alexie, is just an embarrassment
- This seems to be how all children seem to view their parents
- In fact, my son Loughlin always says that he wants to do his own radio show called Superhero Slam to correct all of the mistakes on Superhero Smash
- To which I say, “Mistakes? What mistakes?”
- But while I’m talking about hi, I better give a shout-out to Loughlin who is streaming Superhero Smash all the way in Kyoto, Japan, which is why he is not able to assist as Musical Engineer for the show this summer
- At any rate, like most parents, Alexie has his problems with his daughter
- But what is really great is the way he just revels in his daughter’s accomplishments
- Alexie cheers Yelena on at the top of his voice, and he doesn’t care who hears
- Alexie is a great dad, or at least trying to be a great one
- Alexie is played perfectly by David Harbour in a comical tour-de-force performance so different from this extremely serious role as Chief Jim Hopper on the Netflix series Stranger Things
- Along with his problems parenting, Alexie also struggles to find respect as a superhero, even though he is the Russian version of super soldier Captain America
- Unfortunately, unlike Cap, the Red Guardian is seen more as a joke than as a hero, even though he is extremely strong and has a heart just as big as Steve Rogers’ (maybe even bigger)
- All of which leads to our next great song
Super “Love” Song (3:58 + 2:00)
- “Russians” by Sting
- When Sting released this song in 1985, the Cold War between Russia and the United States had been going on for 40 years
- Fortunately, just weeks before the song was released, Russia had gotten a new President named Mikhail Gorbachev who helped to successfully bring an end to the cold war
- “Russians” is perfect for Alexie and Yelena’s story which shows how much the Russians do love their children
- But also, sadly, the song is more relevant than ever
- I was distressed to hear talk yesterday about World War III related to the leaders of Russia and the U.S. trading social media barbs about the war in Ukraine
- And, in fact, Sting has just released a new version of his song
- It’s called the “Russians (Guitar/Cello Version)” if you are trying to find it
- I like both versions, but figured many listeners may not have heard the original which is slightly more up tempo, but check them both out
- In a 2022 interview with Variety, Sting said, “I’ve only rarely sung this song in the many years since it was written, because I never thought it would be relevant again. But, in the light of one man’s bloody and woefully misguided decision to invade a peaceful, unthreatening neighbor, the song is, once again, a plea for our common humanity. For the brave Ukrainians fighting against this brutal tyranny and also the many Russians who are protesting this outrage despite the threat of arrest and imprisonment – We, all of us, love our children. Stop the war.”
- Alas, that was 2022, and 3 years later Russians and Ukranians are still dying in this horrible war
- Stop the war, please. We all love our children!
Part 2 Ends (@40 minutes)
Part 3 Begins (@40 minutes)
Super Show ID 3: Superhero Smash (0:30)
- Listen on WIUP FM 90.1
- Featuring the best superhero music and comic book lore in the MCU, the DCU, and our U too!
- Check out pagnucci.org and click the big Superhero Smash button
- Or email Professor X using the address SuperheroSmash3000@gmail.com
- I love to hear from the Legion of Superhero Smash Fans
Long Lost Hero: The Winter Soldier’s Origin Story (2:00)
- The MCU films tell us a little about the origin of the Winter Soldier
- “The Story Behind Bucky’s Groundbreaking Comic-Book Reinvention as the Winter Soldier” by
- In the comics, Steve Rogers was devastated by Bucky Barnes’ loss
- Bucky died when he and Cap tried to stop a plane that had a bomb on it headed toward New York City
- Cap tried to save Bucky as he fell from the plane, but couldn’t catch him, so Bucky fell to his death (in the movies Bucky fell from a train)
- This was the same incident in which Cap fell into frozen water and went into suspended animation for 50 years, leaving World War II behind and ending up in our time
- This was a character defining moment for Captain America
- In fact, when Cap woke from suspended animation in Avengers #4, his first words were “Bucky–Bucky! Look out!” as he relived that tragic momen
- Thus it was extremely shocking to readers when, decades later, Ed Brubaker revealed in Captain America #6 from (2005) that Bucky didn’t die
- Instead, Bucky was captured by the evil organization HYDRA
- HYDRA brainwashed Bucky, turned him into the Winter Soldier, and forced him to kill many innocent people against his will
- As played so well by Stan Sebastian, Bucky Barnes is haunted by what he sees as his past sins
- Even though he fought the brainwashing and wasn’t acting of his own volition, Bucky nevertheless feels the weight of those awful deeds
- That’s one of the key parts of Thunderbolts*, trying to make up for your past deeds
- Each member of the team has faced their own trauma
- What helps them get past that trauma is having other people’s support
- They become, brother in arms, as the saying goes
- And here’s a great song by that same title which, like Sting’s “Russians,” also has an anti-war message
Super Song 3 (6:59)
- “Brothers in Arms” by Dire Straits
Thunder Songs (1:00)
- Hope you enjoy the thunder at the opening of that Dire Straits song
- Since Thunderbolts* features a character named Bob I would have loved to play a Bob Dylan songs about rain, especially since he has so many great ones like:
- “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”
- “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35”
- “Shelter from the Storm”
- “Buckets of Rain”
- Those are all classic songs, but they pretty long and I’m running out of time
- And I figured I can’t possibly do a Thunderbolts* show without playing the next song
Super Song 1 (3:07)
- “Thunder” by Imagine Dragons
Super Show ID 5: Superhero Smash Season III Continues Next Thursday @ 11:00 a.m.! (2:00)
- Listen on WIUP FM 90.1
- Featuring the best superhero music and comic book lore in the MCU, the DCU, and our U too!
- Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel: Western Heroes
- Next week the Lone Ranger rides again!
- You can checkout my website, pagnucci.org, and click the big Superhero Smash button to learn more about the show and upcoming features
- Or email me, the new Professor X, using the address SuperheroSmash3000@gmail.com
- I love to hear from the Legion of Superhero Smash Fans
- If you are enjoying today’s show, you can catch more Superhero Smash on Thursday mornings at 11:00 a.m. all summer long on WIUP FM 90.1
- And remember, while Superhero Smash is about the exploits of amazing individuals,
- “You don’t need superpowers to be a hero. The only thing it takes to be a hero is the courage to do what’s right when someone needs your help.”–Gian Pagnucci
Heroic End Credits Song (7:15)
- “Riders on the Storm” by The Doors
- Enjoy the Thunder and the summer rain
Part 3 Ends (@60 minutes)