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Episode 687 - Captain Dog
1.3k Plays5 months ago
Chris is back from being sick and we're easing back into things with some listener questions this week!
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Theme
00:00:00
Speaker
Clitus, I'm bored. What plaything can you offer me today? He's got one rocket Ajax. To bring back his body!
00:00:20
Speaker
Terminate exit!
00:00:25
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to War Rocket Ajax. This is the internet's most exclusive comic book and pop culture podcast. We are your hosts. My name, back once again, couldn't keep me down, is Chris Sims. With me, as always, is Matt Wilson. Matt, how are you? Chris, I'm okay. I'm glad you're feeling better. It was bad. We'll get into it, but it was bad. I can imagine. I can imagine.
Chris' COVID Experience
00:00:52
Speaker
The one time I had it, Well, we're going to ease back into things this week on the show. We're, we're not going to take it too hard. We're not going to really amp up the speed right out of the gate. We're going to ease right back into things after ah a sick week off and not sick, like sick, sick. Like I honestly thought during
00:01:21
Speaker
the pandemic. This is how fucked up everybody's brain was during the COVID pandemic. I thought we would stop using the word sick as like a positive. I can tell you this right now, having experienced them both, the novel coronavirus ah sure is fucking as strong as Tony Hawk. Pro skater for life, baby.
Listener Interaction and Patreon Support
00:01:50
Speaker
Uh, anyway, we're taking a list of questions on the show this week. So, uh, hopefully, which is ironic. That's taking it easy because these are the shows, the shows without guests are the ones where we have to talk more. Yeah. But they also feel, I don't know. They just feel nice and chill and, and no, no big pressure. Cause I'm hanging out with my good friend, Matt, who I missed quite a bit, uh, last week. Yeah. I mean, we it's it's not like we didn't talk, but we didn't hear each other's voice. I was joking earlier about how ah we couldn't discuss ah my absence because we weren't recording and therefore it wasn't monetized. We have pets making noise. And that's just how it's going to be, folks. Easing back into it. Taking it easy. That means fewer edits, which means more of the content. You the listener crave. That means more pets. And that's just how it is. All right, Chris.
00:02:49
Speaker
we're going to get to listener questions a little later in the show. We're going to hear more about your you're journey with COVID a little bit in a little bit. But before we get to that, we do need to thank our newest supporters over on ah Patreon. And I'm assuming we've got some, Matt, because it was wake up, wake up, wake up the first of the month. You'll find out. Well, Matt, these are the people who I'm going to do it the way I haven't done it in ah in a long time. I'm going to do this original style. You ready? Here we go. These are people who used to have to go down all of the way to 687 gimmick street with a check or a money order to support this show. But you don't have to do that anymore, everybody. That's true. You can just get out your web enabled device of choice and pay as little as a dollar every month at patreon dot.com slash war rocket Ajax.
00:03:41
Speaker
to kick in as little as a dollar a month to help support the show, help us pay those gimmicks they keep sending in the mail called Bills. So what what what was that? 687 gimmick street where you had to take a checker morning order? probably I mean, I guess there was like a mailbox out outside. The post office?
00:04:01
Speaker
Yeah, maybe it could just be a mailbox. There's a mailbox outside the post office. You could go into the post office. There is a mailbox outside the post office, which I guess is also where you could... Can you get a money order at the post office? You can, yes. Is that how that works? You can get a money order at the post post office, yes. The grocery store? Yep. Western Union. if They still have Western Union.
00:04:26
Speaker
But it's the post office. The post office is the 687. You know what's what's interesting is that the zip code. the zip code for all of gimmick street, no matter how long it goes, which it's yeah considerably lengthy street at this point. yeah It's a 69420. I do. That's what it was going to be. I do. That's what it was going to be. Actually that's, that's Eastern gimmick street. Western gimmick street is, is 42069.
00:04:56
Speaker
Melbourne, Kentucky actually has the zip code for 2069. Salute. I think we've looked this up before.
00:05:07
Speaker
ah Kevin Palma. Thank you, Kevin. Sorry, I was looking up where 69420 is. it's in It's in Mexico. Interesting. Yeah. ah We also had some Patreon backers up their pledge to the t-shirt level. and let this be your reminder, T-shirt enjoyers, ah that if you are at the T-shirt level on Patreon and you haven't sent me the size of your T-shirt, you have like a few hours on the day this episode goes up. Because I promised I set a deadline of July 8th, which is the day this episode goes up.
00:05:56
Speaker
to order the t-shirts. So I will give you till like 5 p.m. and then I'm putting in the t-shirt order ah on
Content Delays and Upcoming Plans
00:06:05
Speaker
July 8th. So I hope you listen to this on the day and you get me your t-shirt size in in time for me to ah send your size to the t-shirt printers who will be ah making our t-shirt for this year and have made our t-shirts for the last several years get those sizes in immediately. um As a patron, t-shirt level or otherwise, you get every single episode of all the podcasts we do completely ad-free. Those podcasts are this show weekly, every story ever monthly, comics catch up monthly, movie fighters in the snack situation. All of those shows are made possible by your support on Patreon. um
00:06:47
Speaker
Because of Chris's illness, Comics Ketchup was not monthly in June, ah but we will be talking about those Dick Tracy comics in July. And I don't know if we're gonna do a makeup every story ever or just a really, really long one for July. Ooh, or we could just do a normal one. Or we just do a nor do two normal ones? I don't really know. ah we'll We'll see how it- Or we could just do, we could do like, um like half Like a half-sized one. I mean, we could. We did promise that they have to be two hours long. I did think about suggesting that we do a special ah four-hour, every story ever, where we we promise to review exactly four comic books. That would be very funny. Start the clock.
00:07:42
Speaker
ah ah whatever the kit we'll We'll figure out the every story ever situation given that we weren't able to get it done in June. We may just have to have skipped June, and hopefully you will all let that slide, but we'll work that out. ah Nonetheless, as a patron, you get every single one of those shows completely ad-free. You get, at various levels, ah bonus content, which includes bonus audio that we record.
00:08:13
Speaker
um outtakes that I cut out of the show and put up exclusively on Patreon. ah Bonus writing that Chris and I have both done and ah lately the bit of bonus content that has been exclusive to the Patreon has been a spreadsheet that Chris has been working on for a while ah called Spreadsheet Survivors where Chris is putting down his thoughts about every survivors-like game he has played. So lots of cool stuff over there on the Patreon as far as
COVID Challenges and Recovery
00:08:51
Speaker
bonus content. There's also line stepping privileges for our segments, which currently include Every Story Ever and Thursday Night Raw. And ah there's physical rewards, which include t-shirts. Get your t-shirt for 2024.
00:09:07
Speaker
Send me your size. Come on, folks. Let's get it done. If you are unable to help us monetarily, you can help us out in other ways. One, you can leave us a five-star review on the podcasting app that you use, whatever it may be. And if you can't leave a written review, just hit the five stars at a minimum, please. You can also spread the word about the show, let folks know about the show, ah send them a link to our homepage or to where they can subscribe.
00:09:42
Speaker
And that would be a big help too. And also tell them to join our Patreon. We would love that. With that, Chris, it's time for some checks and recs. What do you say? Let's do it. Chris, I think I know what you're checking in with this week. ah How you doing? How you been? ah How have I been? Bad. Yeah. Pretty bad, actually. um Look, Matt, eagle-eared listeners will know that we didn't have a show last week. And that is because, all right, I don't want to brag, but I had the world's most famous virus. Wow. And it sucked. Yeah. It completely sucked. I have managed to to dodge
00:10:34
Speaker
COVID for four years. As far as you know. As far as I know. Well, I think now I think I would know. Well, the thing is, I feel like I like I i had COVID once where it hit me really hard and there was no doubt, right? You're walking the spike run. Leave a message and I'll call you back. But I also feel like there was at least one occasion where I almost certainly had COVID and never had any symptoms. So I think it can hit you in different ways at different times. My ah my wife went on a trip to New York. ah She came home. She was not feeling well. ah But we have tests and we, every time we get sick or or feel like we might be coming down with something, we do test to make sure that we
00:11:28
Speaker
um isolate if it's COVID. She's had it once before. um We tested it. The test said she did not have it. um So I was like, okay, we won't isolate. I'll just, you know, ah I will probably catch this cold in a couple days. But if you know, if it's just a cold, come to find out based on a little bit of trial and error, we had a bad batch of tests from Walgreens. Hmm. But using ah a different brand of tests, we did ah multiple tests and confirmed like, Oh, yeah, we got this is the COVID. So AC was down and it was pretty bad. I think it was probably worse than the first time she had it, um which was also coming back from a trip to the East Coast. Then I got it. And I started feeling
00:12:16
Speaker
like Like I remember when you had it and you talked about how the worst thing for you was like the brain fog. Yeah. Yeah. And just not being able to really like think or concentrate. That is what started it. And then I was like in bed for two days. Uh, and on the third day I moved to the sofa and was on the sofa unmoving for and another day. I was, I was out. And as you said, I couldn't. and like I even told you, ah like the I think it was the Thursday before, because it was Saturday, Sunday, and Monday that I was just like completely out of commission.
00:13:00
Speaker
I told you, I was like, yeah, if I'm going down with something, I don't know. I could use a break from work and maybe I'll catch up on Berserk. That was hubris and I was punished for it. Yeah. I couldn't read anything. I couldn't, I couldn't like, I was like, well, I guess I'll play like some survivors because those are the like least, those are the most smooth brained video games that there are. No, I couldn't, I could not concentrate on vampire survivors. for three or four days. It was that's, that's, that's how it goes. That is how it goes. After about a week, I was feeling better back to work. I'm still feeling really foggy and kind of, I don't have as much focus. Uh, I'm still like getting really, uh, out of breath just from, from taking a biscuit for a WALK.
00:13:55
Speaker
I can't say what it is because she's right here, but I hope you can spell, listener. um it was It was rough, man. For those of you still wondering, and and by the way, our neighbor actually asked, I'm vaccinated. I i tripled up. I am current on all my vaccines. That does not mean you're not going to get it. Yeah. So, ah but but my neighbor, when we, we mentioned it to her, she was like, Oh, are you guys anti-vaxxers? Like, fuck no. Like, why would that be your assumption?
00:14:35
Speaker
i You honestly respect
Merchandise Updates
00:14:38
Speaker
to her because you'd never know. You got to be upfront. You can get it if you're vaccinated. That's the fact that she doesn't know that. is worrisome, but nonetheless. If you do wind up coming to a signing, I'm still planning on doing a signing for the Downset Fight 10th Anniversary Edition. I was actually sick the day it came out, which sucked. I'm kind of like completely unaware of what was going on on that day, ah but I am still planning to do a signing somewhere here in Minneapolis. I will likely be masked for that. So in case you were wondering, still out there,
00:15:19
Speaker
still still Still hanging out the old ah the old COVID-19. Matt, what have you been up to for the past two weeks? Well, Chris, I did take some time during ah your sick break to do a little bit of the behind the scenes war rocket Ajax work. that I don't always get to do ah when we're doing shows and I'm doing editing and you know i'm just I'm just busy. ah And it's hard to you know concentrate on other things. One of the things that has really ah taken a backseat and been on the back burner for quite some time has been keeping our Tea Public store updated.
00:16:18
Speaker
So I uploaded the t-shirt designs from the past three years onto our tea public store, which means you listener can go buy those t-shirts now if you didn't get them when they were our annual t-shirt. All right. So past three years, uh, gimmick street gang gimmick street gang was the 2021 t-shirt. Yes. Gimmick Street gang, ah is the 10 years strong?
00:16:51
Speaker
ah odd Christmas Curse of the Juggalo, was that in the past? That was 2022, because it was the 10th anniversary of Christmas Curse of the Juggalo. The 10th anniversary of Holiday Heat, yeah. yeah ah What was last oh what last year's was was Raw is Raw. WRA is Raw, yeah. Yeah. ah So those three shirts, are all now available on our T-Public store. ah There's a link to our T-Public store on, ah if you go to warrockinajax.com, there's a link. But you can also just go to tpublic.com slash stores slash clitus hyphen media. ah Or you could just go to T-Public and search for clitus media and find our store.
00:17:46
Speaker
Um, so, uh, all of those, all of those shirts are there. And yeah, I think that's, that's very much worth ah going and checking out. Uh, those are, those are good shirts. Uh, and I feel bad that I've not gotten them up earlier, but they are finally up on the tea public store. Honestly, the, the holiday heat one is one of my favorite shirts. not it's It's probably my favorite shirt we've ever done. It is also my one of my favorite shirts that I own. It's great. I wear i wear our t-shirts a lot, but I am especially fond of wearing the WRA's raw t-shirt. That one's also very fun. ah I should wear that to the next wrestling shirt that I go to. You should.
John Wick Series Discussion
00:18:39
Speaker
You should. Those are our checks. Time for some recommendations. What do you have to recommend?
00:18:44
Speaker
ah Matt, you like the movie John Wick, right? I do like the movie John Wick. I still haven't seen John Wick 4, but I want to- John Wick 4 is kind of a weird one. Okay. Ian McShane's teeth in that movie are buck wild. Okay. In what way? he's like in In the way that they are, like, humongous. He looks like a cartoon of Ian McShane. He walked out of COVID with a new set of veneers. Like, caps? Like, they're capped? Weirdly? Like, his teeth are too big now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. and Like, veneers. Okay, I gotcha. I gotcha. Like, maybe he ran into the Joker.
00:19:37
Speaker
Big teeth. Man's got big teeth. Old big teeth McShane. but you look But yeah, you like John Wick. I do like John Wick, very much. And you like the the noblest and greatest of all martial arts, of course. ah Luta Libre and Vascara. I very much enjoy that as well, yes. Free Friday. And I know you like handsome men. Can't get enough of them. I i aspire to that. You aspire to not getting enough of Handsome Men, or you aspire to being Handsome yourself? ah That's the one. That's number two. ah Okay. I've always said I want to be one of the Handsome Men of comics. That's good. ah Straight up Sterenko vibes for me and McShane.
00:20:30
Speaker
It's worse teeth size. I gotcha. Okay, it's like like like the whole like the whole face experience of Ian McShane and John wick chapter four is What anyway? Matt who's more handsome than death Patel? Not many people not many people I would say he might be in the top 10. Yeah. Oh, it's lucky man. You're gonna talk about monkey man Yeah, buddy. I won't talk about monkey man. Yeah monkey man. Oh is essentially, it's it's not, it is a look, I don't want to be reductive. It's John Wick with Dev Patel, directed by David Leech, like so very much, but very much in the vein oh of John Wick. And it's fucking rad.
00:21:23
Speaker
It kicks ass. We ended up, it was like $4 on ah Bookstore Website Prime, Bad Bookstore Website Prime. So we just, you know, kind of got it one night. It's a movie that I wanted to see, but I don't go to the ah theater too often, as you know. I don't love going to the theater. So we just got it on there on a lark when we realized how cheap it was ah and that Furiosa was like $30. And which look, I'm sure it's worth it, but also it's not going to wait in like, in like two weeks. Yeah. You can wait until it's not $30 anymore. Yeah. Um, and that movie was a who start to finish and has some, has some moments in the fight scenes where AC and I were both doing the o reaction.
00:22:22
Speaker
ah Right, right. Hard hitting stuff. But maybe the wildest thing about it is that Dev Patel is Monkey Man in that movie. Because he wears a mask like a luchador and is in this like underground bare knuckle fighting promotion with these larger than life characters. except it's a shoot. And honestly, Matt, honestly, I was kind of watching that going, does depth of tell not know the business is a work.
00:23:06
Speaker
I mean, I guess there are some underground fighting organizations where where it's a shoot. Yeah, I mean, there's, you know, there's, there's a W. Right? Yeah. i do I do like stories about worlds where pro wrestling is real. Yeah, yeah. i i I was going to say those are always fun. I'm checking myself on that. Yeah, you and I have both seen Russell Madness. And red Nash.
00:23:46
Speaker
Nash didn't really have pro wrestling in it though. That's true. I guess the Undertaker comic book. Uh, but nonetheless, I, it is a fun idea to wear like fictional store, like kind of like do a power bomb where it's kind of a shoot and a work at the same time. Yeah. I think the, the approach of the, the wrestling is real, but the characters are fake. is an interesting way. like like Do a powerbomb kind of does that where it's like, yeah, like yeah no, like that like obviously this guy, this is a gimmick, but they are fighting for real. Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah but um But yeah, man, he is a full ass luchador in that movie. I have been wanting to see it, and I just haven't gotten a chance to yet.
00:24:40
Speaker
this is what's going to get me to actually watch monkey man. Uh, incredibly worth it. Incredibly absolutely worth it. Uh, it is, it is free on peacock. Wow. Well then if you, if you've got the cock, I mean, of course it is that they've got all the wrestling on peacock. Well, all the, all the w WWE wrestling. Yeah. Monkey man is is a good time. I, I, the, like It's not poorly written or anything, but describing the plot honestly hardly matters. um it is It's a an action movie where a dude is out for revenge and also sometimes he puts on a monkey mask and does ah underground pro wrestling. also yeah That's all you need to know. You'll be interested to know, Chris, that the director of Monkey Man is Dev Patel.
00:25:40
Speaker
Oh, that's right. DePatel is the, right. I forgot he is the director of that, but David Leach did something on it, right? He was a producer or did stunts or something. He, he I'm sure, well, let me, let me look. Jordan Peele. Jordan Peele is a producer. Yeah. Let's see. Let me see. Let me see if I can find his name in the credits here. It's incredibly, ah I actually, I feel bad because I did know this because we talked a lot while we were watching the movie about how many really interesting shots there are for this to be Deb Patel's like directorial debut. Yeah, there's like a really fun like GoPro fight scene in it. David Leach not listed in the on IMDB, but ah I bet there are some John Wick people involved. Well, I'm just a fucking liar.
00:26:29
Speaker
I don't know how I, folks, I apologize, I don't know. Look, shaking off the COVID. Look, sometimes you just, yeah, you get, you have an excuse. You have an excuse for being mistaken. Doesn't make you a liar. It's just mistaken. Just mistaken. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. I appreciate that, buddy. Matt, what is your recommendation this week? Chris, my recommendation is something that you hate ah and that I love. It is the new DLC for Elden Ring, Shadow of the Earth Tree. which is wild.
Elden Ring DLC Insights
00:27:04
Speaker
A wild time. The first thing that happens is you're riding your horse towards this town and there's a giant wicker man that is on fire that kills you instantly. ah Because no matter where you were in the game when you got the DLC, like what level you were or anything,
00:27:27
Speaker
The DLC is intended to be extremely hard because you have to collect specific things within the DLC to make you good in that part of the game. um There are power-ups that you have to collect so you do normal damage in the DLC territory. Also, From Software's games have been influenced by Berserk for 13 years now. actually 15 years now, because Demon's Souls was 2009. And it was very Berserk influenced, as was Dark Souls and basically every game they've made ever since. But Elden Ring- Especially Metal Wolf Chaos XD. Yes. um But Elden Ring decided to just go fully mask off and be like, here's some dudes from Berserk.
00:28:27
Speaker
in the game. And I don't want to say who because it's kind of a spoiler because it is like the final boss of the DLC. But man, it is just Berserk. Like, like the Dragon Slayer has been in from software games and lots of various references to Berserk have been in the games. The fucking Wicker Man is a reference to Berserk. um Because they're giant wicker men in berserk, but this is like Next level this is just from berserk in the pirate captain ever show up in in these from soft games I Don't think the pirate captain ever has ah But ti captain who yes ah but the ah
00:29:23
Speaker
the sword that Serpico has, you know that's in Berserk. That is a pretty cool sword. The Silph sword that makes wind? Yeah, that's also in Castlevania Symphony of the Night. Yeah, yeah. I want to say, you said that I hate it. That's not true. I don't hate this DLC or Elden Ring. I just don't think it's good. ah Oh, okay. Fine distinction. Yeah. Oh, I hate it. It's just bad. And that's what I wish, you know, I wish he would acknowledge it's bad. That's all. um I disagree. i um I finally beat the final boss of the DLC ah yesterday.
00:30:12
Speaker
And um I had been trying to fight him for three days. And I've, I finally did it and it was God, it was so exhilarating to finally do it. Cause that is the hardest boss fight there has ever been in one of those games. Also the first boss of the DLC. Um, initially when you get in there, you're like, Oh, I'm fighting a big lion. And then you see that it has human feet.
00:30:44
Speaker
And then I watched a video by Zuly the Witch, shout out to Zuly the Witch, who was doing great work finding all the background hidden stuff in FromSoft games, who found who took like that character model apart and found that that lion is two guys in a lion suit. Damn, see that does sound pretty good. Yeah. That sounds great, actually. There are two human character models under the lion suit operating the lion that you fight as the first boss in that DLC. That's really good. Because I was going to say, like, oh, you fight a big lion. So they weren't, you know, they weren't satisfied with just having you fight a giant dog in Dark Souls. Like a good puppy.
00:31:40
Speaker
They want you to murder in Dark Souls, a game that you like. i've told I've told you many times about how the whole thing with the dog in Dark Souls is good, actually. Yeah, okay.
00:31:57
Speaker
You're a cat person, I guess. I love dogs. you reunite the dog with its master later in the game. Also, the dog challenges you to a fight and you have to uphold its honor. It would be dishonored if you did not accept its challenge. Nonetheless- You had to kick that dog, right? He did.
00:32:22
Speaker
ah Nonetheless- Couldn't be me. Elder Rig DLC Shadow of the Year tree. ah Unless you're like Chris and you think it's bad, um it is very, very good.
Comics Analysis
00:32:35
Speaker
Those are our texts of Rex, Chris. It's time to talk about some comics. Let's do it.
00:32:42
Speaker
The Textures Choice winner for this week, Chris, is Dr. Strange number 17, which you texted us as a Comic of the Year candidate. And I know why. because it has the God of Dogs in it. Sure does. Yep. Not only does it have the God of Dogs in it, but like the whole setup to the God of Dogs is that back when when humans first domesticated wolves, the the fear of the night was so powerful that it created the Tiger God, because that was out in the nighttime. What was out and at night was tigers that were going to kill people, yeah.
00:33:22
Speaker
which I don't think that's ah evolutionarily accurate, but rad, nonetheless. And so in order to counteract the ah what was out there at night, humans domesticated dogs, and they loved their dogs so much that they made something stronger than the nighttime god of fear, who is Tigris, the tiger god who's the god of fear, and it's the god of dogs. Because dogs are the opposite of fear. That's fucking great. ah This is by Jed McKay and Pascal Ferry. Yes, the God of Dog is the opposite of fear. ah bad i do think I do think we should say he's not the God of Dogs. He's the Dog God. is that i He's called the the God of Dogs. I don't think he's called the God of Dogs. I think he's either called the God Dog or the Dog God. No, in the comic he's called the God of Dogs. Oh, is he called the God of Dogs? ok Okay, okay. Yeah. Sorry.
00:34:24
Speaker
But it's not like he's a humanoid god who oversees dogs. He is a god in the form of a dog who is also the god of dogs. Yeah. And he does kind of have a human body, but he's a dog. He's a good dog. He's got a dog head, for sure. Yeah, he is definitely a sinusophilus. Yeah, he's got like muscles and stuff.
00:34:53
Speaker
He has a dog head. And Bats, who is worried about his master, Stephen Strange, calls the God of Dogs to help him remove Victor Strange, which if you haven't been keeping up with Dr. Strange and Blood Hunt, what happened to Dr. Strange's body is that he was overtaken by his vampire brother, Victor Strange. Well, his ghost brother, Victor Strange, who, when Dr. Strange was turned into a vampire, ah Dr. Strange's ghost left his body so that he could keep being Dr. Strange, but that left his vampire body unoccupied, and so his ghost brother, who was also a vampire, who I think is the ghost of a vampire, got up into his vampire body.
00:35:38
Speaker
yeah And so Victor Strange was occupying Stephen Strange's body. So Bats, the ghost dog, that's Dr. Strange's dog, calls the God of Dogs to help him exercise Victor Strange from Stephen Strange's body. And when Bats makes that request, the God of Dogs says, you Bats are a good boy, panel of the year. Yeah, and that's also like his fucking Shazam transformation phrase that turns bats, it du put puts bats in the Avatar state where he becomes the the dog god. Yes, yes. And then ah Victor Strange is like, hey man, what are you gonna do? Like, you gonna fucking tear up Doctor Strange's body? Alright, go for it. um' I'm a vampire ghost.
00:36:32
Speaker
And the bat is like, yeah, I'm a ghost dog. So when I bite you, I'm just biting your ghost. And he dead he bites his ghost and drags his ghost out of the body. He bites his ghost out of the body. Oh, it's good, man. It's so fucking good. And also it is all framed by ah Baron Mordo watching this and Baron Mordo is the narrator of this issue. And basically it's all like, I'm gonna help this dog save Stephen Strange so I can kill him. Yeah. And it's it's all good. It's good. It's extremely good. And I love bats and I love that there is a dog god and that dogs who are worried about their humans can call them the dog god. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. That's really good. And also and also the whole thing of like,
00:37:30
Speaker
humans domesticating wolves because they were afraid of nighttime and the dog could keep them safe. That's, I love that. That's like that. I love it. I love it. I love it so much. Comic of the year contender. Uh, secondary winner of the Texas choice award this week is Batman number one 50 and absolute power tie-in. which let me get this out of the way to start. ah um It's written by Chip. Chip's still going strong on Batman. The main story has art by both Jorge Jimenez and Dennis Cowan, which A, rules, but B, is a weird mix. It's a weird mix, but I think it works. Like given the the kind of
00:38:27
Speaker
nature of that story and the story being about perspectives yeah of Batman. like I think that really works. so ah so Chris, when you texted about this book, you said you were conflicted. ahha I would like to know what the what what is what is making you conflicted. Do you not know already what was making me conflicted, Matt? I have a guess, but I would like to like to hear from you. Okay, ah this is actually in the backup story, ah that is the absolute power tie-in. And that is that ah you find out that ah Batman, ah when he turned 18, he bought the arms manufacturer that made the gun that killed his parents, the gun that Joe Chill used to murder the wins. He bought the arms manufacturer and tore the factory down brick by brick.
00:39:22
Speaker
Uh-huh. Which is a very Batman thing to do. It's a very um very cool and chill reaction to have, which I love about Batman. um But you do find out that the gun that killed the Wayans is the Sims P90? Manufactured by Sims Firearms, okay. Manufactured by Sims Firearms, yeah. Yeah. 1M? I emailed you.
00:39:50
Speaker
I know Chip and I said, hey man, I would never. And Chip said, sorry buddy, it's canon. So it so that was on purpose. It didn't know was on purpose and it was it was it's for me.
00:40:05
Speaker
oh I love Chip. I continue to love Chip. Chip continues to find new ways to surprise and delight me with every issue of Batman. i That was my question the whole time. Like, is it... but Did Chip just reach for a name, or was it very attentional? And now we know. I mean, I don't know... i don't like i I don't know if he went into the story being like, i'm gonna make I'm gonna make Chris responsible for the death of a Wayne.
00:40:41
Speaker
Like I do really like the idea of Bruce Wayne's version of like kind of a tantrum when he's a teenager is buying the gun manufacturer. yeah And you know, you need a name for it and you can't say that he bought fucking Smith and Wesson or whatever. right all right But yeah, like it definitely, my name is is now in there. I mean, it makes you pivotal to the origin of Batman. It does make me ultimately responsible for the creation of Batman, which I do appreciate. But I understand why you might be conflicted as far as, like, your day being on a fictional gun manufacturer. I mean, weirdly enough, it is appropriate considering my oft-repeated stance on parents in comic books, which is that I don't really care about them because they are only there to die. Yes. Yes.
00:41:40
Speaker
Peter Parker's parents do not care. Do not care about Peter Parker. Honestly, don't give a shit about what Uncle Ben did prior to the events of Amazing Fantasy 15. Yes. Don't care about Thomas Wayne. Don't care about George. Sure as fuck don't care about Jor-El. I can't imagine being the kind of person who cares about Jor-El. So yeah, you know what? Kill all the parents in comics. with a Sims P90 automatic handgun. The main story in this issue, by the way, is very good. um It's one of those stories where Batman, by
00:42:21
Speaker
first by his presence and then actually by his actions, like changes a low-level henchman's life. and fixes it and tells him to be better. And that's great. like yeah
00:42:41
Speaker
it's It's not Batman buying crime, but it's Batman like dealing with the the root causes of crime. I've mentioned this before, but when when Chip first got the job writing Batman, I like emailed him and he was like, yeah, I'm going to do a story about why ah Batman doesn't just buy crime. And I was like, haha, that Chip, what a joker. What a funny guy telling me jokes. But he actually has made that like a central thing of his run. Yeah. And being like, no, no, no, like this, like, like, don't worry, he does. And I love that it has like, he has paid that off and thought about that. That's it's still surprising to me that Chip is
00:43:24
Speaker
Like one of the best Batman writers of all time. And one of the best Spider-Man writers of all time. And at this point, one of the best comic book writers of all time. Yeah, he's he's done it. Wild. He's pulled it off. And I shouldn't be surprised because I love Chip and I've been a fan of his for 15 years. But I never would have seen this coming. yeah And yet, and yet. And yet here we are. It's undeniable. And he made you the guy who made The gun who killed Batman. He made me kill Batman's parents. Two steps removed from the guy who killed Batman's parents. Yep. I directly profited from the deaths of the Wayans, which I think is true.
00:44:09
Speaker
All right, we only did two comics, but that's our comic segment. Chris, it's time to now answer some listener questions.
Listener Questions
00:44:19
Speaker
Let's let's do that.
00:44:46
Speaker
All right, Chris, I am going to take our first question from our Discord. And this is actually from a while back, but it was a a question asked just kind of randomly on the Discord. Fuck Mary Kill, the Gathering of Five, the Gathering of the Juggalos, Magic the Gathering. Tough. Tough. ah
00:45:17
Speaker
which Which gatherings are you gonna go with here? I guess I would marry Magic the Gathering. Okay. Because I was, again, looking at that Lord of the Rings set today.
00:45:34
Speaker
And the art's really good. and i But I think I just kind of want to all the art. So, I don't know, maybe maybe I should just like see if there's an art book or a PDF or something. PDF would be great. I guess I'd fuck the Gathering of Five, and I'd and i'd have to i'd have to to kill the Gathering of the Juggalos. All right. Because I'm not going to the Gathering of the Juggalos. There are zero circumstances in which that would happen. My gut says I would make the same choices. Yeah. yeah Well, would you would you marry the Gathering of Five?
00:46:18
Speaker
No, I would marry Magic the Gathering because i need i I need to marry... You got to consider what your life is going to be like, you know? ah You know what I'm saying? You don't think the Gathering of Five would take care of you in your golden years? Nobody remembers the Gathering of Five except us. i i I considered saying I would fuck the Gathering of the Juggalos, but that's a one-night stand you wake up feeling bad from. Yeah. It's interesting that you said that you would marry Magic the Gathering, because primarily what has stopped me from getting the Lord of the Rings set is that I would have no one to play it with. and But here we are. Yeah. i Like, I've always had a sense of, like, I don't want to dip my toes into Magic the Gathering, because I know it's going to become a thing that I can't.
00:47:15
Speaker
Like, Imagine the Gathering feels like a thing that you either don't know anything about at all, or you are completely obsessed with. Yeah. Or it's kind of like your life now. There's no middle ground. See, that's the thing about these new sets that they have, though, because they're like, specifically for beginners that are like, Hey, do you like Lord of the Rings? Do you like Assassin's Creed? ah first Or Fallout? And I'm like, yeah, I do like those things, but I don't know if I wanna fuck with this this whole thing. that's But if I did have someone I could play this Lord of the Rings, just the Lord of the Rings ones with. That's always the conundrum. That's always the conundrum. No, Matt, you would have to be Sauron. That's not a problem for me. Yeah, I didn't think so. You're like, yeah, he's the Lord of the Rings. Yeah. He's the guy in the title.
00:48:11
Speaker
And he does not shout power. Sauron. Sauron. Sauron. Morgoth. Mordor. Anyway. Badur.
00:48:26
Speaker
ah Jeff Parker on Blue Sky wants to know, is Chris better? I'll take my question off the air. ah Mostly, yeah. I'd say I'm about, I'd say I'm about, honestly, probably 85%.
00:48:39
Speaker
And that's ah that's a C plus or a B minus, depending. That's that's as good as I feel most days, about 80. Well, I mean, that is, that's that's adjusted. That's great. Oh, I see. I gotcha. BobbyBadTakes is asking a question that is appropriate to BobbyBadTakes. You ever think Bruce Wayne should be allowed to kill certain characters? No. No. No, what? No.
00:49:09
Speaker
Which certain characters do you mean? Like annoying people? Yeah, like the Joker? It's always the Joker. ah All right. I mean, like, look, look, you have to work backwards from the assumption that we want these characters around so that we can keep doing more Joker stories. And everything you come up with after that, it is a backwards justification for that. But at at its heart, that's what it is. Do you not want any more Joker stories? Yeah. Yeah. Because if so, well, you're Julie Schwartz in 1969.
00:49:51
Speaker
And we know how that turned out. We do know how that turned out. ah Another one from Blue Sky from Ovejis is, what are your midnight run convenience store go to snacks? Well, I don't have any anymore. Like not even, like you, there's nothing you would like on a road trip that you would like be like, I'll pick this up at the convenience or even, even though your habits have changed. On, I think I can actually on a road trip still fuck with, um, at least part of my, one of my go-tos, which was, uh, bugles and Slim Jims. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bugles and a spicy meat snack. Cause you make the Slim Jim wear it like a little hat and then you eat it and it's pretty good, honestly.
00:50:38
Speaker
That does sound pretty good. That does sound pretty good. Like I don't allow big bags of Hot Cheetos in my house anymore. um I just can't live that life anymore. But if I'm on a road trip, John Wick over here, you know, I'm getting Hot Cheetos. Put them in the, put them under the cement in the basement. That's right. But you know, I'm getting Hot Cheetos on a road trip at a convenience store. I'll tell you what my go-to snack is now. What's that? That's a sugar-free jello vanilla pudding. Okay. Which is actually not bad. Yeah, I could fuck with that. Some stuff, you know, they put the aspartame in it or the Stevie or whatever, and it's very obvious that it's in there. Yeah, I hate it. It's pretty good. I hate that shit. I hate it when you can really taste fake sugar. Yeah. That's one of the reasons why I never liked diet coke.
00:51:34
Speaker
The best soda for that that I have found because I've like, I've forced myself to start drinking more sugar free soda. If I'm going to drink soda, the sugar free cherry Pepsi tastes good. Cause you know, I'm down with the ah the zero sugar, Dr. Pepper with cream soda these days. That's, yeah that's what I like. yeah Hey folks, did you know we're old? Let me tell you what is a surprise gas station snack though. And what is honestly like the midnight snack I would pick up at a gas station. Like if I was at a gas station at midnight, the thing that I would be tempted to like, absolutely buy. It's those it's the little bimbo pound cakes. Mmm.
00:52:29
Speaker
The pancasitos? Mmm. Because let me tell you what is a low-key, great snack treat. Poundcake. Yeah. Yeah. And they just sell little tiny ones in a package from Bimbo Bakery. yeah I believe you will find a kindred spirit ah for for that feeling in One David Brothers. Yeah. Yeah. got Matt, we should go on another road trip together. We should. We, um, I guess we both eventually, like fairly soon we'll have things to take to a comic convention. So maybe we should figure out a comic convention we're going to go to. We should. Cause let me tell you the last time we took a road trip together, it was a miserable time. Yeah. Uh, for reasons that had nothing to do with, uh, the companionship, which was fully delightful.
00:53:28
Speaker
Well, you and me just going on a road trip together was great. Maybe like, I don't know, maybe we drive to Rose City Comic Con or something and ah do it. Okay. Well, if if we do that, I would rather start from here than from Asheville. Oh yeah. Well, I would, I would drive to you and then we drive together. That's a, that's a bit of a, that's a hike. Or maybe I would do either one, i but, uh, but I don't know that's why that's what popped into my head, Rose City Comic Con, but ah ah yeah.
00:54:03
Speaker
Just a thought. What's the next con that's gonna have a pazone? I don't think they have those anymore. Well, damn, we're still here. We certainly haven't been and invited to any. Certainly have not been invited to any, no. Matt Fiction from our Discord wants to know, which well-known historical figure is actually a Starfleet captain having misadventures? Gabriel Bell not included. I feel like this is a real landmine. It is a huge landmine. Because there are so few good historical figures. No one in history is good. for Almost no one. Almost no one. That's why they had to make up Gabriel Bell.
00:54:52
Speaker
Uh, geez, I don't know. um I'll say, ah ah ah oh, what's his name? um The philosopher who ah pretended to be a dog. Is that Diogenes? Benito, was that Diogenes text me? Yeah, but Benito will know. ah
00:55:13
Speaker
He was one of the founders of cynicism, Diogenes. Yeah, di Diogenes of Sinope. That guy had some real, some real war vibes.
00:55:26
Speaker
I've been watching the first season of Star Trek The Next Generation. It sucks. It is largely boring, yes. There's some wild shit in there though. Yeah, the space Irish? The space Irish. like they They encounter so many weird hippy dippy cults in the first season. Yeah. ah And Picard is wildly out of character. Yeah, yeah. Just the thing about the Space Irish is you watch that episode and you're like, even in 1980 sets, like 1987 is much too late for this. Oh yeah. There's also the whole thing. There's that they go encounter that, uh, that race that like has their planet hidden and they can't have kids. So they kidnap all of the enterprises kids.
00:56:22
Speaker
Edge, edge. The reaction to that is not like, fuck these people. It's like, well, we gotta figure out what's- Is it Caribbean like, good? I mean, a little bit. It is a little bit. I don't get chittledritten. That episode really hammers home that he doesn't like children. ah Hot Spring Summer from our Discord asks, which do you think holds more narrative impact? First page splash, last page page splash, or the two to three double page spread? I...
00:56:53
Speaker
Love a double page spread, but I am on record as saying I think they should be retired. I don't think people should do double page spreads anymore. ah Because if you are reading your comics digitally, they don't work. unless Unless... Well, if you're reading your comics digitally on like an iPad, they don't work. Yeah. Yeah. ah I would say I i prefer... I mean, this is tough, but I do think I prefer to have the...
00:57:25
Speaker
Well, I like to have an opening double page spread and then like ah like a climactic action or like an opening splash and then a climactic action scene splash. Like I'm specifically thinking about like more about stuff that I've seen in manga and how like I want that establishing shot or even that silver age style like like title page splash which I've always thought were really cool. Uh, but I, when I, when, you know, I do primarily read comics where at some point somebody's going to get fucked up. Right. Yeah. Yeah. i That's what I want. I want it to happen in a, in a full page. I have a particular affinity for a final page splash because I think it can be really effective.
00:58:23
Speaker
as a reveal slash teaser for the next issue. yeah But I feel like a lot of those don't feel earned. they only They're only good if they're actually fully earned. yeah um But I think they're actually the most effective when they're earned. They aren't always. Our next question comes from Patrick O'Duffy, the boss dog. Love that guy. Who says, we all know you Ajax boys love some D-list Marvel and DC villains, but who's a D-list villain that just fucking sucks? Most D-list villains suck. Yeah. Most of them only show up once or twice and then never show up again. Buddy, Doughboy ain't never getting over. Fucking Doughboy.
00:59:14
Speaker
like Like... Like, most D-list villains, there is a reason. Right? Like... I think... I think... I think what we like is losers. More than we like characters who suck. I think that's a fine distinction, but yeah. Yeah. The enforcers are great, and the enforcers are also losers who have will never win a fight and have never won a fight.
00:59:46
Speaker
And that's kind of what makes him great. I think the worst D-list villains are the ones who you are told repeatedly, this guy is cool and tough. Yeah. When all evidence shows otherwise. Yeah. I will say, I'll say this for free. ah You and me and Benito in our ah our group chat, we're having a conversation the other day and I found out that that new Batman cartoon has Anamana Pia in it. It sure does. And I was like, well, darn, I was kind of looking forward to watching that.
01:00:25
Speaker
ah Like, you know who sucks? You know who's a great example of like, they suck, but you are continually told that they're cool? Deathstroke Determinator. Strong and good. I mean, yes, but I don't think Deathstroke is D-list. Like, Demo Goblin.
01:00:43
Speaker
Yeah, Demogon kind of sucks ass. Yeah. Yeah. Like, just because you made him more extreme doesn't mean he's a better character. Oh. I mean, you know, honestly, Carnage is not great. Carnage is not great, but also I would not call Carnage D-list either. I don't think I'd call Carnage D-list either, but Carnage is a character that they told you was strong and cool. Yeah, yeah. And just, like, isn't. And is unbearably one note. Yeah. That's why I hate Carnage. Yeah. I mean, I don't hate Carnage, but Carnage does suck. There's nothing else to him.
01:01:26
Speaker
He's just a bad guy. i Oh, look at this guy. He's a cool murderer. Fuck off. I don't i don't need to hear that. but you You can't sit there and tell me you weren't excited about the flame. Oh shit. Spoilers. ah Sorry, everybody. Spoilers. That was the most interesting he's ever been. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. ah All right. I think we gave some examples there. CJ Kral from our Discord wants to know, which do you prefer? Space pirates, space barbarians, space bounty hunters, or space princesses?
01:02:03
Speaker
Space pirates, probably. When I hear space pirates, I think of the space pirates for Metroid, who were not traditional who are not traditional pirates. No. Yeah, like Ridley and them, yeah. um I think As far as like actual characters, I gotta go space bounty hunters. I kinda feel like Space Pirate does include all of those things, right? i They're all sort of a variation on that, yeah. Like like Han Solo isn't a space bounty hunter or a space barbarian. He's more of a space pirate. Yeah, he's a space pirate. He's a space pirate.
01:02:48
Speaker
Hey, I watched some of that new Star Wars so show that has Manny Jacinto in it. Uh, what is it called? The Echolite? The Echolite, yeah. Yeah. Apparently people were like, people were like surprised that Manny Jacinto was hot. They were like, Manny Jacinto is hot now. He's always been hot. What the fuck are you talking about? Like, yeah, he like that's the whole deal. He was very handsome on The Good Place. Yeah, he's extremely good looking. What are you talking about? Weird. I don't know, I'm making up people to get mad at now. Anyway, yeah, I think, like you can be a space pirate and also be a bounty hunter, I think. Or a princess. I would say space princess plus one of those other things. Space princess barbarian? Fuck yeah, Dejah Thoris. Yeah, that is, that's like the real, that's the real sweet spot. That's where the money is.
01:03:38
Speaker
What's not included in that list is Space Cowboys, which is kind of falls under Space Bounty Hunter, but I just always think about Cowboy Bebop, CU Space Cowboy. They're bounty hunters though, right? Yeah, but they're bounty hunters, yeah. yeah But i yeah, da Bounty Hunter is probably what I would go with. Tails to Enrage. on our Discord wants to know, since you're both working on being fighting game guys, did you have any thoughts on Terry and my becoming the first guest characters in a Mainland Street Fighter game? When I saw that trailer that showed that Terry Bogart is going to be in Street Fighter VI, I was like, fuck, I might buy Street Fighter VI. Yeah, I like I've kind of wanted Street Fighter VI because it has like,
01:04:30
Speaker
It has like a single player campaign that takes place in Metro City. Yeah, i that's that's a turn off to me. but like I'm excited about that.
01:04:43
Speaker
but I'm very curious, why is that a turn off for you? i i i I think it's the notion of playing a single player campaign in a fighting game that has where you have to use fighting game controls.
01:05:02
Speaker
Also, just what I've seen of it did not look especially appealing to me, but I could be prejudging it. Interesting. I thought it was because you're Mad Gear Fuffa Fuffa Life. No, i I am not. I'm not i'm not Mad Gear Fuffa Fuffa Life. ah i i do I don't condone that gang's actions. It's pretty wild that there was a dude named Sodom. I remember, I remember being scandalized when I was like six or seven years old that there was a character in that game named Damned. Yeah. Damned and Sodom. I was like, I can't believe, I can't believe they they could name it that. Damned? Do you think, I feel like we could easily do a ranking
01:05:57
Speaker
of characters whose names are also cuss words. And I would say, right now, Damned is number two behind Fuck Tarkington. Did you know that Damned's first name is th Thrasher? Thrasher is a different guy, though. His name is Thrasher Damned. Maybe Thrasher's looks like a common name in Metricity. It must be. It must be.
01:06:28
Speaker
Oh, apparently. Okay. Damned was known as Thrasher in the Western console ports of the original Final Fight fight arcade game due to censorship of the original name. Hmm. Okay. Yeah, that that makes sense. Cause I was trying to remember if he was damned on the Super Nintendo. He was th Thrasher. I do not think he was. I think ah Mario was like, no, no, no, no, no. We can't, we can't say we can't say D on the NES. and on a mighty final fight?
01:07:02
Speaker
Nintendo's for families, everybody. Nintendo is for families. Nintendo, like like Dom Toretto, is for La Familia. Here's a question from Kitty Hawk on our Discord. Per the Super Mario Bros. movie episode of Movie Fighters, you both said you had experiences of being trapped under a heavy thing. Do you believe this experience has subconsciously impacted the way you feel about when Spider-Man does the thing, becoming a form of wish fulfillment in how you hoped to have the strength and interior force of will to free yourself of the heavy thing confines? Matt, there's a couple things that I really want to say about this. Alright. One, I do not recall this conversation. Nor do I.
01:07:49
Speaker
And I am trying to think of a time in my life when I have been trapped under a heavy thing, and I can't. So I don't know what I was on about. I have certainly been trapped under a heavy thing in my life. I mean, I've certainly, you know, like, I've been, been you know, at the gym and and had to, you know, had had to not I had to get the the plates off the bar when i ah my eyes were a little bit bigger than my bench press and stomach. Sure, sure. i i had a I definitely had a scenario when I was a little kid where I was climbing up the dresser and the dresser fell on me. Were you trying to get books? No, I was just climbing. Okay. Same thing happened to me. I was trying to get the books from the higher shelf. Okay.
01:08:39
Speaker
And... What was that? It was just okay. I was just saying okay. You said okay. like I wasn't trying to big time you, Matt. I was trying to be like, I was a smarter baby than you. I didn't mean for it to be dismissive. It was just okay. um
01:08:59
Speaker
This is not being trapped under a heavy thing, but there was a time when I was like four years old when I got zipped up in a suitcase. um
01:09:09
Speaker
where ah that was a very formative moment in my life for sure. I i think so many of my actions and thoughts are motivated by ah that one time I got zipped up in a suitcase when I was like four. ah That tracks. Yeah. ah ah The other thing that I will say about this is, well, I cannot remember the physical action that I may have been referring to. we've We've all had the experience of being trapped under something. For some, a lack of education might be our heavy object. For others, shyness. For Spider-Man, it was
01:09:58
Speaker
ah Heavy object. It was machinery. Yeah was machinery ah That's very true. That's that's very insightful and true. I mean I do I do think that it is a very Like universal experience Yeah, and it's like that that is the that is the magic of superhero comics that I think you and I find both appealing, that we've talked about a lot, is that superheroes operate on a metaphorical and literal level. Yes. Where everything is heightened and literalized. Like, when I realized that all of Spider-Man's villains were like old people who are trying to fuck with his world,
01:10:44
Speaker
And he's a teenager and he's like, fuck you, old man to everybody. Like that really clicked for me that like, oh, there is a, like, Spider-Man might be the most metaphorical character.
01:10:59
Speaker
There's also the metaphor of many Spider-Man villains of like, he's a little animal and they're big animals. Yeah. A lot of metaphors in Spider-Man. And it's all like taken to its biggest possible extreme. like Even if you look at if you look at Uncle Ben, like we've all had like, oh geez, I said some dumb shit to my mom. you know or Or to a friend. And it hopefully that person was not then gunned down by the Sandman. you know But we've all had that moment of,
01:11:39
Speaker
of being glad we could take it back, you know? Very much so, oh yes. Whether it's with friends, whether it's with family, but like, that's such a common teenage experience. But also like, even going to the current run, like the Zeb Wells run that you and I like so much, Peter just kind of flaking out and dropping off the grid and being a weird dick to all his friends, because he's going through some shit that he can't really explain. The metaphor there is very obvious. Yeah, yeah. Like, Spider-Man's the most metaphorical topic character. There's literally, like, a dude whose job it is to talk shit about him. That he has to pretend he's okay with. And he is not okay with it. And one day, Jonah's gonna get his. Stone ColdHCC on our Discord asks,
01:12:39
Speaker
How come people always brag about the number of zeros in their paycheck? I'd brag about the nines. Well, that's because Stone Cold gets $9.99, man. That's right. That's right. That would be the ultimate power move, right? To be like... Stone Cold should be bragging about the number of 316s in his paycheck. But wouldn't it wouldn't it be the ultimate flex to be like, oh, and my paycheck. Just nines. You call me George Sink. That is such a specific reference. Local jokes get local work, Matt. I know.
01:13:24
Speaker
ah Chris Kaiser on our Discord asks, have either of you ever been recognized out in public by listeners of the show? If that happened, how would you want it to go? Um, I mentioned this, uh, when I did the, uh, the wizard LARP, the wizard school LARP, uh, a couple of years ago, I was talking to someone and, uh, they, they helped me out with, uh, like a minor problem I was having. And I said, uh, I said, Oh, but thank you so much. That was a like, I really appreciate that. And, uh, they said, uh, I really appreciated the invincible super blog. And I had not outed myself to this person at this moment.
01:14:04
Speaker
they just knew. And I was like, oh, thank you, that's very nice. And that's all about as like, other than that person then handing me a $20 bill, that's about as good as it can go. Yeah, I don't think I've ever been recognized outside of a space where I was identified as me. But I don't know how anyone would know because this is an audio medium. I don't know how anyone would know just by seeing me that I was hosting the co-host of this show. what do you think is a phrase that i What do you think is a phrase that I could say that listeners of this show, like if I'm in the if i'm in the coffee shop, listeners of this show could recognize me from hearing it?
01:15:05
Speaker
Uh, let's see. I think if you were like, go on down to whatever you were going to tell somebody to go on down to. If I was in the, uh, if I was in the, the Starbucks and I was like, Hey, uh, you know, I turned to my wife and I'm like, Hey, can you help me pay for this gimmick? They keep sending the mail called coffee. You think that that would do it? I think so, I think so. I think if you i think you this could easily happen to you if you were at a restaurant or at a coffee shop or at some place of business and you gave a patented Matt Wilson, all right. It could be an all right or it could be a that's right. That's right. i think that I think if I said that's right in a particular way, it would be like,
01:16:02
Speaker
a Manchurian candidate activation phrase for some people, for a very limited group of people. Oh, no, the amount of people is extremely limited, Matt. I would say this amount of people is defined by its limits in many ways. But yeah, I mean, almost all of the times I've interacted with people who listen to the show and would know who I am, I've been in a nerd space where I was probably like at a table with my name on it, so. Yeah, you've been in a pazone. I have been in, as far as I know, the one and only pazone. Listeners, tell us what phrases you think, if you heard us say them in the wild unexpectedly, you would recognize as things we say. No, I think if you and I were together and I said, what do you say? And you said, let's do it.
01:17:03
Speaker
That's something I see every episode. yeah yeah all right My wife has said ah with you as always is Matt Wilson to me before, which I think is fun. That is very fun. Nothingjerk on Blue Sky says, like the Dorito Taco Bell and Cheez-It Pizza Hut, what snack collaborations could you imagine good or horrific and how will Ritz Cracker finally get in this game? Uh, somewhat similar to our, uh, convenience store run question. I feel like Hot Cheetos are already like permeating these spaces, but in an unofficial way. Like I was just recently talking to someone who was talking about going to a like a place that sold like kind of like
01:18:03
Speaker
Not exactly gourmet corn dogs, but like higher end corn dogs, I guess. Where one of the corn dogs that this place sells is like breaded with Hot Cheetos. All right. Interesting. So I feel like Hot Cheetos is already on the cusp of that. Okay. Yeah, I mean, like, like, especially since, uh, Flamin' Hot became a brand. Yeah, yeah, very much so. Like, Flamin' Hot is such an NWO. It expanded way too long. It's not too big, and you thought it could be its own brand, and it really shouldn't be. I, I, everything that I've tried that's Flamin' Hot that's not Cheetos is not good. Yeah. Like, I tried the Flamin' Hot Cheddar and Sour Cream Ruffles.
01:18:59
Speaker
And you would expect those to be good, but they're not.
01:19:04
Speaker
So um I am, I think there's an extremely good chance of getting some kind of savory liquid, like a soup or like, or, or some kind of like hot sauce adjacent thing that you would be expected to drink through Takis. A Taki shaped object. So like a Taki straw. Yes. like Like I'm thinking like savory bubble tea, which sounds wretched.
01:19:45
Speaker
But like, But you get what I'm saying? Like like like Taco Bell is gonna put out, you know, the bubble taco, and it's gonna be... Bubble Tico. Yes. And it's gonna be a nasty, savory liquid that you suck through a taki. That's interesting. Or a tikito. That's interesting. Much to think about. Also, I'm kinda surprised This is that's that's my option one. My option two is to to talk about how to get Ritz crackers in the game. I know that you can buy like Ritz crackers that are little peanut butter sandwiches. I know you can do that. You can. Yeah, I'm surprised that they haven't done a like, this is a jar of peanut butter that just has w Ritz crackers in it. Then you can eat with a spoon.
01:20:44
Speaker
I don't know. I think the crackers would get soggy very quickly. I'm not like I don't think it would be good. But I'm also intrigued. But I think like a like, I think that's kind of the closest you could get to having like a warm ice cream. Which again, doesn't sound good to me. No, but it is an intriguing thought. Certainly an intriguing thought. Much to think about. Daniel Kibblesmith on our Discord has a response to Matt Fictions question about Star Trek captains. Okay. Which is, what fictional character outside of Star Trek would you want to see as a Star Trek captain? This is such an interesting question. Star Wars is such a weird property. Star Trek, do you mean? Star Trek, sorry. The reason I said it, I was talking to AC about this and she was like,
01:21:41
Speaker
why aren't there any, oh, oh, because we were watching the Star Wars show, Acolyte, and we were she was looking stuff up on Wikipedia and ah talking about how like stuff came from the RPG that there that is now being incorporated into these things. And she was like, how come there isn't a Star Trek RPG? And I was like, oh, there is, there's several. It's just that none of them are good because that's not how Star Trek works.
01:22:11
Speaker
like fair enough Like, you don't actually want to have a space battle in Star Trek. yeah like The whole point of Star Trek is is to do a thought experiment, is to have an allegory. And I don't know what role you would do to mechanically convince the ah Frank Gorshin that racism was bad. So it's tough to figure out what movie kit like what other characters you would put into that because it like it's such a weird and unique kind of Specific story that works as a Star Trek story, you know, yeah, it's Star Trek is unlike any other fiction It's in many weird ways
01:23:06
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's a lot like a lot of mid-century sci-fi, but it kind of subsumed those things. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting. i I'm trying to think of, like, what what fictional character would be effective as a Star Trek captain. I do have my answer. Okay. Having said all that. Okay. Dominic Dometoretto. That is fascinating. Born leader. I mean, he kind of is a Star Trek captain, isn't he? he's He's a born leader, but he's also, like, kind of a philosopher. He certainly has his own philosophy of of life. The street always wins, man. That's the thing about street fights. The street always wins. Could be some shit, James T. Kirk said. Easily. Absolutely. Absolutely. Hmm.
01:24:02
Speaker
I feel like there's, I feel like it would be fun to have like a really outside the box answer to this. Like somebody who is like a clear problem solver, but who isn't like an action hero in any way. You know what I mean? Okay. The problem is I don't know who that would be. Like weirdly, My initial thought is like, Lorelei Gilmore. Matt, you just took years off my life.
01:24:47
Speaker
She has a way with people. I would honestly, a shot for shot remake of Wrath of Khan. Yeah. starring, uh, uh, what's her name as Lorelei Gilmore? Lauren Graham. Lauren Graham as Lorelei Gilmore as Captain Kirk and Alexis Waddell as Rory Gilmore as Khan. So there are nods. I'm just going to keep on hurting you. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to leave you as you left me buried alive.
01:25:27
Speaker
Where you lead, I will follow. Fucking biggest heel on television. All right. Here's a question from Wiki on our Discord, and we've only got time for one or two more questions. Do you guys have any favorite stand-up comedians you've been enjoying lately? I did watch um John Green's special that was on Dropout, the The Pissing Out Cancer, which was very fun. like i didn't I didn't know he had done like ah like stand-up or or anything like that. It's it's more like stand-up than a one-man show, but it is like very one-man show-ish in a lot of ways, ah if that makes sense. But it was yeah very enjoyable. Honestly, the last stand-up specials I've watched, aside from Marlene's,
01:26:22
Speaker
which I think we could both recommend. Highly, yes. oh Were ah Baby J, the John Mulaney special, where boy does he not talk about stuff that you kind of wanted to talk about. I mean, he does and he doesn't, but yeah. He talks about a lot of stuff. He doesn't talk about some stuff that honestly, it's none of my business to know, but I'm very curious about it. he touches on it but that's about it yeah yeah yeah um with that and like the uh like the alley wong specials which are also like very good like those are the ones i can remember actually watching alley wong was great um i haven't watched a ton of stand-up specials in a while partially because
01:27:13
Speaker
for a long time there, I was just going to stand up shows all the time locally, because Marlene was doing them a lot. um And so I didn't necessarily want to watch it on TV. ah There are a couple of specials that I have had some interest in, um but that I have not watched. ah So yeah, I have not been keeping up with like, recent stand-up specials all that much, to be quite honest. Feel free to give, uh, give me, uh, some recommendations. I don't want to be extreme, but I realize you would probably be fine with it. Yeah.
Speed Running Discussion
01:27:51
Speaker
Yeah. I would love some recommendations. Uh, all right. One last question. And I think we got to wrap up. Um, this one is from Uzi on our discord. If you were going to learn to speed run a video game, which would it be? I can get through Mario world pretty fast.
01:28:09
Speaker
Okay. Like, not like speed runner fast, but like I can get to the star road and then to the to Bowser's castle like pretty quickly if I want to. um
01:28:25
Speaker
I oh really enjoyed the Jaden Animations video about speed running a rhythm game, hu ah which is very funny. oh But I think like you know honestly, simply in the night, just because I would like playing that one a lot, and I know a lot of the ways to to cut down your time on that one. But I also wouldn't want to do... The thing that stops me from being like into speedrunning is that i I don't really want to do tricks. You know?
01:29:07
Speaker
Yeah, I've never wanted to, I actually don't love the like Elden Ring speedruns where you have to glitch out the game to do it. Like to me that's, it's not that it's unfair, but it's just not like fun to me. Like glitch stuff is not but very, especially fun for me. Yeah. I would, I would like to see how fast I could get through symphony than I like playing it the normal way. But like, I don't want to have a a wolf knock me through the part where death takes all your equipment away so that I get to keep it. Yeah. um I would i a like to play the game. The game that I would want to speedrun is the game that I've been trying to speedrun my whole life. ah Punch out. I don't think I'll ever get there because it's
01:30:09
Speaker
Like once it gets difficult for me, that part is always difficult is always going to be difficult for me. um But if I were going to learn how to speed run a game, Punch-Out is the one I would want to do it with for sure. Mike, the original, you know, what was Mike Tyson's Punch-Out? That became Punch-Out, starring Mr. your Dream. Yeah, so we'll punch out for the n NES, but not the arcade one. Not the arcade punch out, which I do not like. I've always enjoyed the idea of arcade punch out more than the actual game. Matt Wilson's out here like vodka drunkinski? I don't think so. Soda Popinski? Thumbs up. Jordy leaning forward. Yeah, exactly.
01:31:02
Speaker
um
Engagement and Promotion
01:31:04
Speaker
All right. I think that's going to have to wrap us up, uh, for this listener question special. If you would like to get in touch with us, send us a listener question by email or otherwise, uh, get in touch. Uh, you can email us at our email address, which is war rocket podcast at gmail dot.com. We are also on blue sky at war rocket, Ajax dot B sky dot social. We are on, uh, discord. We've taken a lot of questions from discord in this episode.
01:31:33
Speaker
um You can join our Discord by invitation. ah Just ask us nicely for an invitation to our Discord and we will provide you with one. And you can join that community, which is a lovely, lovely place full of beautiful people. Oh, we're also on Tumblr at warrocketpodcast dot.tumblr dot.com. Our website is warrocketajax.com. It has every episode of the show we've ever done, ah dating back Too long. Don't go back and listen to those. ah You don't need to listen to those. You'll be fine. WarRockitWiki.com is the fan-run repository of all the information you could ever need about WarRockit Ajax, so go check that out. If you want to find me and my stuff, go to MattDWilson.net. There, you can find links to my comics, my books, my other podcasts, and my social medias. Chris, where can people find you? Everybody can find me by going to the-isb dot.com. I should update that.
01:32:26
Speaker
But that's where you'll find all the stuff that I do. Hey, ah Downset Fight, 10th Anniversary Edition is out now. It's a beautiful, full-sized hardcover, ah bigger than the original printing. ah The original printing was kind of like halfway between comic-sized and manga-sized. This is a full comic-sized hardcover ah with a beautiful new cover. So even if you already have Downset Fight, it's worth getting. oh Definitely pick it up if you can. I would appreciate that a lot. And we'll see if I can maybe sign a copy or go to a convention or something and we'll find out if you can pick it up that way too. oh But it would mean a lot to me if you would would ah give it a read if you haven't already or even if you have. ah Makes a great gift. Fully self-contained graphic novel. My wife re-read it the other day and told me Darius Rucker High School is still really funny.
01:33:21
Speaker
ah It is. I told her I think that was Chad's. But it's it's still in the book and it's still good. Yes, go get that book.
Conclusion and Announcements
01:33:31
Speaker
It is ah well, well worth reading.
01:33:36
Speaker
ah That does it. We'll be back next week with another show with a guest. With a guest, no less. One of our friends is coming by to talk to us about a new comic. ah Very excited about that. Very excited for you to hear it. So please be here for that. But until then, do not forget that Black Lives Matter. Trans rights are human rights. As are abortion rights. Drag is not a crime. And cops aren't your friends. But we love you. We love you.