“First of all,” my guest says, already backpedaling two minutes into the episode, “I didn’t know that your intro was going to say ‘pivotal moments in the history of superhero movies.'”
But you take your pivots where you find them, and in this week’s episode of the Superheroes Every Day podcast, that means Steel, the 1997 Shaquille O’Neal epic that uses a spinoff character from the Superman comics to create something beautiful and utterly goofy.
My guest this week is Anthony Strand from the Muppet movie podcast Movin’ Right Along, and Steel is, non-credibly, one of his favorite movies. We dive head-first into the beautiful mess of this movie, talking about jargon generation, incompetent crime decisions, our new gang program, and the trouble with having a romantic story in which the two lead characters can only touch each other by their fingertips.
This is a high-energy episode with lots of enthusiastic recreations of the movie’s terrible dialogue, which need to be heard to be believed.
The podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, YouTube, Overcast, Audible, Stitcher and lots of other places. Come check it out!
Here’s Act 2:
And Act 3:
Next episode:
Batman Forever!
— Danny Horn
Superheroes Every Day 
It sounds like a movie for when you have time to kill and nothing else looks interesting, which means I will probably never watch it.
I will listen to the rest of the podcast because it’s fun and I learn stuff–like Shaq played the Black Superman. Also “Weapons hurt people.” Plus I want to find out if Grandma’s Black and Bleu Restaurant ever happens.
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This is the exact right approach to Steel. Hats off, gentlemen. It occupies such a weird place in superhero movies. I am on Act 1, so I’m not sure you’ll get to the real-life bit of Shaq’s S-Shield Tattoo or his Superman-themed house. Or that he put out some horrible rap albums with a group called “Fu Schnickens”. And a videogame called “Shaq Fu”. He was quite the cross-over superstar for a minute there for a guy who couldn’t hit a free throw.
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The tattoo comes up, but I didn’t know about those other things. I’m now reading about Shaq Fu. We need to start pooling our Shaq knowledge; this can’t happen again.
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I saw Shaq play as a high schooler, and it was like watching the Hulk just brush aside puny humans. And with a one-time interest in the NBA and working in a record store in 1997, Shaq just kept being *everywhere*. But, yeah, his house (I think he’s since sold it) was… something. https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/home/in-pics-inside-shaquille-o-neal-s-superman-inspired-mansion-1.735797
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My friend Justin – who I do mention in one of these episodes as the person I used to watch Steel with all the time back in the day – owns all three of Shaq’s albums on CD. He’s a real dedicated Shaq-head.
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a true Fu-Schnickenite, if you will
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I’m mostly amazed that Shaq seems to pop up in more commercials now than he did when he was playing.
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To be clear:
Steel is one of my favorite good-bad movies, one of my favorite Dumb Fun Silly movies.
It’s not at the top of my all-time list of favorite films.
This was so much fun! Thanks again for having me on!
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Kenner should have had a Grandma Odessa with Falling Souffle action figure in their line. And Slats with a big-ass gun in one hand and a hot dog in the other, with the bling around his neck of course.
I “somehow” missed Steel when it came out originally. I’m sorry that I contributed to the crash of DC movies at this point.
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Sorry, Danny! As much as I enjoy hearing you, it wasn’t enough to overcome the subject matter. 😦
Speaking of which, wasn’t this movie featured on MST3K, RiffTrax, or something similar?
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