Springfield’s favorite menace trades his skateboard for spandex in Bartman Meets Radioactive Man, and somehow the result ended up on both the NES and Game Gear. Whether it’s justice or just pure mayhem, this is one crossover nobody asked for but we’re glad to have anyway.

But Chris can’t do this along, so he’s joined by the always enlightening Tommy Proffitt from Distant Echos and Lee Carvallo’s Podding Challenge. Together they unravel what happens when cartoon superheroes meet 8-bit hardware and common sense takes a vacation.

So grab your cape, your slingshot, and your best “Eat my shorts” energy, because things are about to get weird, nostalgic, and slightly irradiated. Just like Bart would’ve wanted.

Learn such things as:

How has The Simpsons secretly wormed its was into your everyday life?
What happens when you have such a character driven franchise and use hardly any of them at all?
Were the Radioactive Man comics just a testing ground for future characters?
And so much more!

You can find Tommy on Bluesky @awkwardcomma, and his podcasts Distant Echoes and Lee Carvallo’s Podding Challenge.

If you want to be a guest on the show please check out the Be a A Guest on the Show page and let me know what you’re interested in.

The next episode is going to be Sailor Moon Another Story, so get your thoughts ready and over to me if you want to hear them in the show.

If you want to help support the show check out the Play Comics Patreon page or head over to the Support page if you want to go another route. You can also check out the Play Comics Merch Store.

Play Comics is part of the Gonna Geek Network, which is a wonderful collection of geeky podcasts. Be sure to check out the other shows on Gonna Geek if you need more of a nerd fix.

You can find Play Comics @playcomics.bsky.social on Bluesky, @playcomicspodcast on Threads, @playcomics on YouTube, or the Play Comics website.

If you want to hear Chris talk with Karrington Martin about the lessons we learned from children’s media and how crazy it is that we’re supposed to just forget about that now that we’re adults, then Sugar, Spite, and Everything is Fine is probably something you should check out.

A big thanks to The Glitter Jaw Queer Podcast Collective and Gender Pop for the promos today.

Intro/Outro Music by Backing Track, who still wears Bart Simpson underwear.

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Read transcript

Bartman Meets Radioactive Man with Tommy Proffit (Lee Carvallo’s Podding Challenge, Distant Echoes)