Penny Men

Penny Men is the podcast starring Ben, Tom, and Gregory: three experts on cartooning, storytelling, and having a good time! We give a penny for our thoughts, and throw in our two cents, as we tackle new topics and writing pitches every week!

Penny Men is a fiction podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 105 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Penny Men, a fiction show with 105 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #129

  #129 - Rogues' Gallery Roll Call: Iron Man (Part 1)

  Aug 16, 202644 minS1

  This week's Rogues' Gallery Roll Call crashes into the armored world of Iron Man, and the Penny Men immediately derail into catchphrases, Smurf psychology, Rankin-Bass discourse, and the eternal mystery of why Tony Stark ever needed a nose! Ben, Gregory, and Tom dig through the tangled continuity of 90s Marvel cartoons, debate whether the Spider-Man Unlimited future counts as “the future,” and somehow connect MODOK to a floating science war against communism! Along the way: The tragic emotional life of Pepper Potts The rise of War Machine Why the Mandarin is basically “Chinese Doctor Doom” And a surprisingly detailed breakdown of how the original Smurfette comic handled bullying, gaslighting, and makeover culture! Also discussed: The Silmarillion Swamp Thing The Clone Saga Briefcase armor toys Force Works Blackest Night And the realization that every Marvel hero eventually becomes a guy introspectively brooding about his situation! A Penny Man saved is a Penny Man earned...probably!

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  Episode #128

  #128 - Rogues' Gallery Roll Call: X-Men (Part 2)

  Aug 9, 202650 minS1

  In the second hour of Rogues Gallery Roll Call, the Penny Men descend even deeper into the X-Men villain ecosystem—where powers are less “cool super abilities” and more “how annoying would this be in a fight if you actually had to animate it properly”! We return to the Mystique-era Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, re-evaluating Pyro’s extremely conditional fire management job, Avalanche’s controversial “I guess I cause earthquakes?” combat philosophy, and Blob’s unsettling status as either an immovable man or a walking physics problem depending on which comic you read last! Destiny is remembered, briefly, emotionally, and then immediately dismissed again, as is tradition! From there, the episode fractures into a full mutant taxonomy seminar: Why writers love laser beams but hate earthquakes How “absolute defense” powers like Eunice the Untouchable break storytelling math And why certain villains feel less like characters and more like walking encounter design! Then things spiral—intentionally—into Mojo’s dystopian TV universe, where reality is just content, suffering is ratings-driven, and X-Men are basically unionized reality show contestants trapped in a cosmic Vince McMahon experiment! Naturally, this leads to: The Brood (space horror bugs that politely interrupt your main plot) Apocalypse (evolutionary ideology with a gym membership), And Mr. Sinister (doing science crimes because it’s Tuesday)! The conversation then folds time in on itself with Age of Apocalypse, where one teenager’s psychic breakdown accidentally deletes Professor X and reorganizes reality into competing mutant philosophies—Magneto’s rebels, Sinister’s experiments, and Apocalypse’s “survival is a group project” curriculum! By the end, the Penny Men are no longer ranking villains so much as stress-testing the entire concept of superhero storytelling under the weight of too many teleporters, too many psychic teenagers, and at least one man who is literally just television! It’s X-Men lore, but filtered through three guys trying to decide if earthquake powers are narratively lazy or just spiritually offensive!

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  Episode #127

  #127 - Rogues' Gallery Roll Call: X-Men (Part 1)

  Aug 2, 202650 minS1

  Welcome to The Penny Men: Cracking open the adamantium vault and immediately getting sidetracked inside it! In this episode, Ben, Gregory, and Tom kick off a “Rogues Gallery Roll Call” focusing on the world of the X-Men—specifically the villains who define the franchise as much as the heroes do! What starts as a structured breakdown of iconic antagonists quickly turns into a free-associative mutant philosophy seminar with jokes, detours, and occasional comic book accuracy! The crew dives deep into Magneto as both ideological foil and recurring almost-hero, unpacking his shifting portrayals from world-conquering villain to Holocaust survivor shaped by trauma, mutant separatist, reluctant ally, and occasional full-on war criminal depending on the writer’s mood! Along the way, they: Debate Professor X’s moral gray zones The MLK/Malcolm X parallels in mutant ideology And the X-Men’s infamous tendency to turn every villain into a future teammate! From there, things escalate in classic Penny Men fashion: The unstoppable force of Juggernaut enters the chat (and cannot jump, canonically) Black Tom becomes part plant And Sentinels loom as the towering symbol of humanity’s robotic fear response to mutants! The discussion frames them not just as enemies, but as reflections of the same core question: what happens when groups decide the only solution is control? Also featuring: X-Men lineup confusion Brotherhood of Mutants relationship maps Marvel vs. Capcom trivia Existential toy nostalgia (yes, the Sentinel action figure with flying limbs gets its flowers) And at least one moment where the podcast threatens to become an architecture podcast again! It’s part character study, part comic book archaeology, part late-night “wait, does Juggernaut have knees?” energy—and entirely The Penny Men!

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  Episode #126

  #126 - Rogues' Gallery Roll Call: Superman (Part 2)

  Jul 26, 202646 minS1

  The Penny Men continue their journey through the bizarre depths of Superman’s rogues gallery, leaving behind the famous villains and diving headfirst into radioactive weirdos, magical nuisances, and whatever exactly Lobo is supposed to be! This episode covers the physical powerhouse villains like Parasite, Metallo, and Doomsday, while also somehow finding time to discuss evil Phantom Zone cats, a kryptonite-powered dog, and a cowboy outlaw with a robot horse and alien laser guns! The gang breaks down; Why Parasite is one of Superman’s most dangerous enemies How Metallo keeps reinventing himself every decade And why the famous “Death of Superman” storyline mostly boils down to two guys punching each other until editorial says stop! Along the way they explore: Silver Age oddities like magical books from space Superman revenge clubs And villains whose entire motivation is “your existence is medically inconvenient for me”! Meanwhile, the animated series gets a surprising amount of love with discussions of: Livewire Volcana And how the 1990s cartoons quietly created some of Superman’s best modern supporting villains! Also featured: Malcolm McDowell robot body horror The strange appeal of Maxima And why James Gunn apparently dug deep enough into Superman lore to resurrect Lex Luthor’s horrifying protoplasm experiment! Additional topics include: Why every alternate dimension conveniently weakens Superman The tragedy of being a supervillain named “Master Jailer” Comparisons to Rogue and Multiple Man The merits of Black Adam And the realization that Silver Age Superman comics may have contained every possible idea anyone could ever have! Equal parts comic book history lecture and three friends desperately trying to remember obscure alien names from 1978 comics!

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  Episode #125

  #125 - Rogues' Gallery Roll Call: Superman (Part 1)

  Jul 19, 202644 minS1

  The Penny Men finally tackle the impossible question: does Superman actually have a good rogues gallery, or are people just thinking of Lex Luthor and calling it a day? Ben, Gregory, and Tom spiral through decades of comic history discussing why Batman and Spider-Man villains get all the love while Superman’s enemies quietly hide giant robot skull ships in the background! Topics include: The psychology of Lex Luthor Why baldness is the ultimate comic book evil The Silver Age tendency to solve emotional trauma with psychic powers Whether Brainiac is secretly scarier than every movie villain combined And the tragic destruction of Planet Lexor because Lex absolutely could not stop hating Superman for five minutes! Also discussed: Monkey sidekicks Planet of the Apes crossovers Richard Pryor accidentally replacing Brainiac in Superman III Why nobody in comics can recognize Clark Kent And the continuing search for the exact number of iconic Flash villains before you hit Rainbow Raider territory! A surprisingly thoughtful discussion about ego, morality, and power occasionally interrupts the important business of yelling about bottled cities and “space cancer”! Then your Penny People hosts move beyond the household names into the strange wasteland of: Phantom Zone criminals Forgotten Silver Age weirdos And characters who sound intimidating mostly because they have short, easy-to-pronounce names! Tom attempts to explain why General Zod became Superman’s third most famous villain despite barely doing anything in many of the comics, while the group debates the difference between loving comic Zod and loving the movie version from Superman II! Along the way they stumble into discussions about: Evil Kryptonian cousins Incomprehensible alien names And how every Superman adaptation quietly rewrites the mythology! The episode also wanders into broader comic book territory, including why some eras of DC continuity fit together like puzzle pieces while others feel like three different people trying to explain a dream they barely remember! Expect side tangents about: Bronze Age comics Obscure supervillains Comic book power scaling And the eternal comic reader struggle of remembering whether a villain was genuinely important or just appeared in a cartoon once! Equal parts comic scholarship and complete derailment, this episode asks the important questions: how many Superman villains are actually iconic, and how many are just bald guys from space yelling at each other?

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