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Episode 697 - WRA All-Star Night (Raw)
1.4k Plays2 months ago
We put some of the moments we've been waiting for on the Thursday Night Raw list on this week's show!
We make our show on Zencastr, and you can too! Follow this link to sign up now!
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts
00:00:00
Speaker
This show is recorded using Zencaster. If you are a podcaster, or you want to be a podcaster, and you want to be able to record remotely, you can do so using Zencaster. They also have hosting options. And you can let them know that we sent you. Follow the link in our show notes, or in the episode description, and sign up for an account on Zencaster now to start recording your own podcast.
00:00:38
Speaker
He's got more Rocket Ajax to bring back his body.
00:00:54
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to War Rocket Ajax. This is the internet's most explosive comic book and pop culture podcast. We are your hosts. My name is Chris Sims. With me as always is Matt Wilson.
Naming Characters in Video Games
00:01:05
Speaker
And Matt, the name that I always give to video game characters when I can enter a name for a video game character is Thalia. Ooh, I like that name.
00:01:16
Speaker
Does that come from anything in particular, or is it just a name you like? It's the name of Dracula's sidekick in Dracula the Unconquered, but Thalia was the muse of comedy. Ah, okay. I remembered it being from Dracula the Unconquered, and I was wondering where that name came from. Yeah, I like i like Greek women's names. If I don't use Thalia, I'll use Penelope.
00:01:42
Speaker
ah sometimes because that's a fun one to say. And as we've mentioned on the show before, I only play as ah women when given the option. So those are my go to names. The exceptions, of course, being the ah persona games, which have dude protagonists, which I just named after Japanese pro wrestlers and common writers. Matt, what do you name your your created characters in video games. So I tend to name created characters, if they're female, which I usually play as women in games with character creators, like by my main go-to character in Elden Ring, um I always name those characters MT. After Marlene? Yes, and if they're male, I name them MW.
00:02:37
Speaker
which are my initials. Yes. On my most recent playthrough of Bloodborne, I had already had characters named MT and MW, so I created a male character in Bloodborne whose name was Handsome Dirk.
00:02:52
Speaker
You know Matt, CJS is right there. That's true. I could use CJS at some point. Just make a Bloodborne character who is very bad at Bloodborne.
00:03:04
Speaker
that see That's really interesting to me because I had the thought while I was thinking of this question today. And I was like, I probably shouldn't say this on the show because I don't know if that's just a me thing. But I did have the thought of like, if you use your own name for a a video game character and you are not a child playing Pokemon, that is that is like such a red flag for me. That's like that's like I'm dialing nine and one. i I don't use the name Matt. I don't get characters Matt, but I so do sometimes name characters my initials. ah But it's yes, that's ah that's a good call. You do have good initials to do that with though, because it's they're mirrored. Yes, yes. They have vertical symmetry.
00:03:51
Speaker
Yes, I would never just name a character Matt, but I do use MW on occasion. But I usually go with MT first, and I usually make that character look like Marlene as best
Excitement for WWE Raw Segment
00:04:02
Speaker
I can. That's so cute. I have made characters that look like ah AC before, but that is that's primarily because I like hot brunettes in glasses. So that tends to be what I graduate gravitate to.
00:04:20
Speaker
Uh, fair and good. Yeah. Hey everybody, we've got a great show for you this week. We are doing raw again. Uh, it is, we didn't do it two weeks in a row, but this is, we skipped one week. They're pretty close together. The raw episodes. We couldn't wait to get to the really, really good stuff we have coming.
Patreon Support and Benefits
00:04:43
Speaker
Oh, i bet i I bet I can guess what it says what you picked from the ah the the your most visited Wikipedia page. List of wwe WWE Raw special episodes. Yes. Okay. Guess what the title of this episode is.
00:04:57
Speaker
Since this is close to being two Rawls in a row, only one week separating them, yeah I'm guessing Raw Super Show. it is We've already done Raw Super Show. Oh, did we already do Raw Super Show? Darn it. Yes. This is WRA All Star Night. That's good. Named for the June 13th, 2011 episode of Raw, which was a combination episode of stars from Raw and SmackDown,
00:05:31
Speaker
which was called- That was a dire time. Dier time. But that was called WWE All Star Night. So this is going to be WRA All Star Night. That's good. That's good, Matt. I'm very excited about it. We'll get to that in a bit. But Chris, before we do that, before we get Raw, we must thank our newest supporters over on Patreon.
00:05:54
Speaker
That's right, Matt. These are the people who are going all the way down to 697 Gimmick Street. Are we only three away from a from a big one? We're only three away from the the next were big round number. The big anniversary special, yeah. Oh, man. but One of these co-hosts is going to die.
00:06:16
Speaker
And it's me in front of just a very large picture of Matt. I mean, it by history, it's me, but ah who could say? Yeah, that's true. That's true. You never can't turn your back on the wolf pack. I know that for sure.
00:06:31
Speaker
Speaking of, you know what's down at 697 Gimmick Street, of course. It's right across the street from the team store and the sports bar that plays all the Gimmick Street good hats games. it's It's part of the larger Gimmick Street athletic complex that does take up most of the nice block. Sure. And this is actually, ah it is ah it is a Matt Fraction Memorial Field.
00:06:54
Speaker
o And that is, of course, where the women's professional soccer team, the gimmick street machines, play. Of course, of course, absolutely. Our two favorite sports, minor league baseball and women's professional soccer. I would love to go see a game there. Love to go see a game there. It's it's tough to get tickets. Yeah, I can imagine. Yeah, because they are, they are I mean, they rule. there's there's ah They're a top-ranked team. And what what could people do there?
00:07:25
Speaker
Oh, right, I'm sorry, Matt. Listers, Matt has no doubt cut out the full 30 seconds of silence as I forgot there was a second part to this bit that is actually way more important. While you're there, while you're logging on trying to get your tickets to go see the gimmick street machines, or the gimmick street good hats, or any of the great sports teams we have on gimmick street in the the in the gimmick street athletic complex, I think Matt, I'm sure you'll remember the name of the basketball team next week.
00:07:55
Speaker
Time will tell. Time will tell. But while you're waiting for those tickets, why not also pop open a little browser tab and head over to patreon.com slash war rocket Ajax, where you can kick in as little as a dollar a month to help us keep doing the show. Help us keep doing all the fun stuff that we do here on War Rocket Day Jax and our associated podcasts like Snack Situation, Movie Fighters, ah the two-hour Every Story Ever specials every single month. And most importantly, for us, help us pay those gimmicks that keeps it in the mail called Bills. That's right, Chris. Here's our newest Patreon supporter. It's not a name. It's
00:08:39
Speaker
a feeling it's a it's a ah place it's a it's a descriptor using a place and it's not a place Matt it's a people our newest supporter is hailing from smacka motherfucker wisconsin ooh i could probably drive there you probably could you probably could yeah i i think they're actually going to play the good hats and the machine Oh, yeah. The smack of motherfucker Samuel L. Jackson's. I get the jeezies.
00:09:19
Speaker
The cows. The but um cows, yeah. Well, thank you, Hailing, for ah for supporting us. If you would like to be like... Would you rather be hailing from or fighting out of? Ooh.
00:09:34
Speaker
I do like fighting out of i do too thank you hailing if you would like to be like this person who clearly wished to be anonymous you can head over to patreon dot com slash war rockcket ajax and kick in as little as a dollar a month to make sure that we do this show every single week that we do every story over specials monthly that we do comics catch up that we do snack situation and movie fighters, all of those shows are made possible by your support. And look, if you want to be anonymous, you don't have to give us your name. You can come up with a funny pseudonym and that's fine. Uh, but we will read it out on the show nonetheless. Yeah. as long as you're You're giving us money. You can do whatever you want. Really? Yeah. but Within reason, don't be weird. Yeah. But you can help us out here. And as a supporter, you can get,
00:10:22
Speaker
episodes of every single one of those shows, I just listed off completely ad free in a special feed on Patreon that's just for you. And also at various levels of the Patreon, you can get bonus content that includes bonus, bonus audio. We've recorded, uh, stuff I cut out on the show, outtakes that go straight to Patreon. line stepping privileges for our segments which currently include Thursday Night Raw like we're doing on this week's episode and every story ever. You can get physical rewards like t-shirts. There's very cool, very fun stuff over there on the Patreon and if you would like to ah help us out there, you can. There's also bonus content like writing from Chris. There was a new
00:11:14
Speaker
castle mania that went up very recently that is great that you if you have the opportunity to go read it you should go read it it is exclusive to our patreon backers so it is both a video game review and a chronicle of a nervous breakdown that I was having doesn't that sound great doesn't that sound like a great thing to read it is if you can't help us monetarily you can't help us out in other ways you can leave us a five-star review on the podcasting app that you use, whatever that may be. You can also just spread the word about the show. Give us some good word of mouth. Let folks know that there's a podcast you like they that you listen to, you like it, and you would like others to listen to it as well. ah That would help us out a bunch too. Tell them about Warlock and Ajax. Tell them to back the Patreon. um Boy. You gotta give. You gotta give.
00:12:11
Speaker
He gives. Chris, with that, it's time for
First Wrestling Show Experience
00:12:16
Speaker
some checks and recs. What do you say? Let's do it.
00:12:22
Speaker
Chris, what would you like to check in with this week? Matt, I talked about this last week, ah but then it was in the future for me, and now it is in the past. I had a great time going to see First Wrestling's third annual Saturday Night Show at the Mall of America. Wonderful stuff. At one point, I texted you and Benito um a a picture of Maki Ito and Danhausen ah entering the ring. Yes. And I believe, was it you or Benito who just texted back, regular mall stuff?
00:12:53
Speaker
It was Benito who texted that. well because I don't think he got the significance of what was happening in that moment. Right. He just saw two weirdos in a ring. ah ah you know Okay, so he did get the significance then, is what you're saying? yes I guess, yeah. um That's what it was. But AEW Dynamite was in Lexington this week and Marlene asked, oh, is Benito there? And I was like, no.
00:13:22
Speaker
No, I look, I'm working steadily on getting Benito to play D and&D. I don't, I don't think we can get him into, re like, if we can get that, then we can try wrestling, but I don't think we're going to get him. Yeah. Uh, my response to seeing Dan Housen and Maki Ito and Maki Ito had on Dan Housen makeup, which was, yes oh she she was Maki Housen. Uh, I, my reaction was something to the effect of what an incredible moment, uh, or, or.
00:13:52
Speaker
you know, history being made or something like that. The tape machines were indeed rolling. It was a great show. It was a very, very fun show. Some great wrestling from some of my local favorites and worldwide favorites ah in in that case, particularly. More importantly for me was the fact that I went with our good buddy friend of the show, ah Ted Anderson. hu And it was his first ever wrestling show. Has not watched it on television.
00:14:23
Speaker
got to go see it live as as his first experience with promo wrestling. And being the ah the Virgil to that particular Dante is A, something I'm very well suited for. ah hu And ah B was absolutely fantastic. ah Just seeing someone enjoy it and get it and you know have their first experience at a fun show where everything, ah like I told Ted before we went in and I was like, you are not gonna have any trouble telling who the bad guy is. Like it will be the person who comes out and says the crowd sucks and then cheats. right Which is very funny because ah in the Gito and Danhausen versus Effie and Ally Catch, whose tag team name is Bussy, everyone was a heel sort of.
00:15:18
Speaker
Like the nominal good guys were the, uh, the, uh, idol who flips everyone off and the guy who carries around a jar of teeth. Uh-huh. Yeah. And Effie and Ali catch were fully just being team rocket ah in a way that was incredibly enjoyable. But yeah, like, uh, getting.
00:15:40
Speaker
Seeing someone get it is great. I love that. And I was so happy ah to have that experience of just, you know, sharing a thing that I love with a friend and and seeing them kind of understand it. Ted has expressed interest in watching a little more, so I am gonna send him a list of a couple things to check out. If you've got, if if you are a fan of the king of sports and you are like, here is a match a new person will like,
00:16:08
Speaker
then by all means, ah let me know. If you say the Hell in the Cell match at King of the Ring 98, I'm sorry, you're wrong. That's incorrect. That should not be someone's first wrestling match. Although it was many people's. It was many people's, just like Watch Moon was a lot of people's first comic, that's wrong. Like, God bless you if that was it and you and you're and you're still here.
00:16:36
Speaker
But that is wrong. And I hope that you know that. oh Obviously, you need to watch the I Quit match for WrestleMania 13 first. Duh. That is a good one. That is definitely a good one. um Absolutely. that That was like at the top of my list because I was like, well, I've got peacock. And I'm like, I have excellent news for you. You can watch most of wrestling.
00:16:59
Speaker
ah So yeah, that was super fun. Great time. Always have a great time with first wrestling, not a sponsor, but
Podcast Tech and Device Naming
00:17:04
Speaker
could be. This weekend, I'm actually heading to the of Renaissance fair, which should be fun. I love, I love a Renfest. And I'm sure I would be talking about that maybe with a brand new sword ah next week. Matt, what have you been up to? Well, Chris, I just want to give a quick update from my check from last week about the new computer that I'm recording and editing this and all other podcasts on now. I had said on the show last week that I did not know where the headphone jack was on this machine. I did not think it had one. After scouring it completely, I finally found a headphone jack in this iMac. We had a conversation about it before the episode started. You had an iMac.
00:17:58
Speaker
where the the headphone jack was like kind of along the bottom. I remember when they had that. The last iMac I had, the headphone jack was on the back. Now they have put the headphone jack on these desktop computers on the left side at the bottom of the monitor.
00:18:19
Speaker
in such a weird spot. like It's a weird spot for it. Yeah, it is it is basically touching my wall at at the moment because my computer sits next to my office wall. um it's it What an odd choice for a place for a headphone jack, but there is a headphone jack so I can use my old studio headphones and don't have to worry about it.
00:18:43
Speaker
ah to continue to record. So ah things will continue apace as far as that goes. And I've recorded several podcasts on this computer. All have gone well. ah So ah we're rolling. We're still going. um I also was a little bit worried about the GarageBand settings, but they're all here. They all came over in my time machine import. So Love Time Machine imports. All good. Matt, have you named this Mac, this iMac yet? Well, I always named the hard drive. And for whatever reason, ah every Mac I've ever owned, ah I made the decision, if there's one thing ah I'm good at, it's choosing a name convention and sticking with it. So
00:19:37
Speaker
when i When I got my first iMac, which which had to be in, God, 2006, maybe 2007, I decided that I was gonna name the hard drives after Beatles songs, specifically songs on Abbey Road. So I've had a Mean Mr. Mustard, I've had a ah Polythene Pam, I've had, you know, you can name all the songs. Anyway, this one's called Maxwell.
00:20:08
Speaker
That's good. Like the streaming service from Warner Brothers Discovery, Maxwell. I was gonna say ah you should call it tape machines. The tape machines are rolling. Yeah. That's not a bad thing. I name all of mine. ah I go by like Generations. ah So ah I had all Kirby characters.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla Critique
00:20:33
Speaker
ah for all of my devices and then all wrestlers and so I had like ah two external hard drives a MacBook and a phone that were the four horsemen and then I had ah ah The iPad was dusty and Then now ah my more recent devices are Dragon Ball characters That makes total sense. I've got I got a four terabyte piccolo Sitting right over here nice ah Well, Chris, it's time to make some recommendations. What do you have to recommend? Matt, I haven't done anything new. Great. I don't have a job. So, that's, I mean, I'm doing i'm doing some freelance work. That's been very fun. But, uh, you're falling back into comforts. I mean, I'm less falling back into the comforts and more just still playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Okay. So i mean I guess my recommendation is to the people at Ubisoft
00:21:31
Speaker
Stop putting so much stuff in the game. It's too much. Matt, this thing has a fucking roguelite in it. where you like Where you go into the dream world and it's a fucking roguelite. Like a side scroller? No, like like it's Assassin's Creed, but like you start a run, you get random weapons and powers, and then you die.
00:21:56
Speaker
ah you You take a ah little hallucinogenic potion that makes you Odin. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's very similar to an element from Bloodborne. Was that the ah one of those chalice dungeons? the chalice It's very similar to the chalice dungeons from Bloodborne. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, man. like that's This game didn't need to have that. And of course, I'm gonna do it because you get like cool gear from it.
00:22:24
Speaker
I'm still like maybe 20% of the way through the main story. And I have so many hours in this game. well Let's see. so have Have you just been like judiciously avoiding the main story? I have oh in the last two weeks. i I don't want to say what I've played in this game in the last two weeks, ah but I have 145 hours in this game. Wow. Wow. And yeah, they you can see ah on your map where all the shit is.
00:22:54
Speaker
And it's like, well, why would I wait to go get like cool gear? Like, I'm gonna go do all that stuff now. Fair enough. And then I will be better at doing the regular stuff. That does make sense. i got I got people telling me that I need to make some deals to help them establish a kingdom in in Britain.
00:23:20
Speaker
But, ah well, there's there's cool gear if I go fucking dreamwalking, I guess. So Ubisoft, stop. You could put 30% less stuff in these games, easily. And it and gives give people a little bit of a break, I swear. Because here's the thing, it's all good. It's all pretty good stuff. Except the fishing minigame blows.
The Boy and the Heron Film Review
00:23:47
Speaker
one of the worst fishing minigames I have ever played in my life, and rather, I've played a grip. yeah
00:23:58
Speaker
But yeah, unfortunately, that's that's I said it last week, I don't know how people play these games and also have jobs. If you were playing Assassin's Creed, did you also have a job? How? It's shocking and alarming.
00:24:16
Speaker
Honestly, Matt, what is your recommendation? Chris, my recommendation is a movie that you can now watch on the streaming service I mentioned just a moment ago, Maxwell. I wonder if they were a sponsor. Warner Brothers Discovery Maxwell. um It is the the newest. What about CM Punk's favorite streaming service? That's right. Well. Probably Peacock now, huh? Run by his favorite guy. Yeah. Who loves him.
00:24:45
Speaker
Doesn't love him that much, I guess. Not anymore. This is Hayao Miyazaki's purportedly last movie, but that is also what they say about all of them. ah But it is now available to stream on Maxwell. ah Within the last week, it went up on Maxwell, and it's one of the rare times where I was, like, looking to see when this would be available to stream so I could watch it. It's The Boy and the Heron, which is a very, very beautiful film that will make you cry. I don't necessarily even want to get into all the plot details because if the more I say, I feel like the less effective the movie will be. um But I will say this, the movie from the get go is about a young boy who moves from Tokyo to the countryside during World War II.
00:25:46
Speaker
to get away from the danger of the city. And as soon as he gets to the countryside, he is, for lack of a better way of putting it, harassed by a bird, the heron of the title. There's this bird that just keeps bothering him. And- I'm really getting some man versus bee vibes. yes
00:26:13
Speaker
I'm not gonna say exactly what the design of the bird is, but it is one of the weirdest freaks in the history of movies.
00:26:27
Speaker
And do you think, as an American viewer of an animated movie, they're gonna, they're gonna explain something about why this bird is such a weird freak. They don't.
00:26:41
Speaker
Like, I mean, obviously as a person who's seen a bunch of studio Ghibli films, I should have known that there was never gonna be an explanation. They are not in the business of explaining things. They are not. Hey, what's what's what's this guy? What's Totoro's deal? I don't know. He's just there. He's just there. But the thing about Totoro is just like, he just is what he is, right? He's just a cute,
00:27:09
Speaker
the weird creature, right? This bird, okay, I'll say this much about the heron. The heron sometimes looks like a bird, and then sometimes it looks like a dude. Okay? Like, like, explain what you mean by looks like a dude. Like, are we talking like, are we talking like Matt Wilson? Or are we talking like Hawkman? Or are we talking like... I'm talking like Bob Hoskins.
00:27:40
Speaker
That's the weirdest answer you could have given me.
00:27:46
Speaker
Inside the bird is like a dude. I don't know how to parse that sentence. Buddy, okay, I'm glad because I haven't given too much away.
00:28:02
Speaker
It is, it's a fascinating character design. A deeply, deeply fascinating character design. And it is a- When you say inside the bird is Bob Hoskins, do you mean like inside all of us there are two wolves? No. I mean this in a completely literal sense. Okay. All right. Sure. All right. Yeah. It's a great movie. It's beautiful. It's so beautifully weird.
00:28:31
Speaker
It is another Miyazaki movie about a kid going to a dream world, but that rules and is always great. Uh, and it is also like, as I understand it, perhaps it's like, there are elements of other Miyazaki movies that are autobiographical, but this one is the most autobiographical. Like he is the boy.
00:28:59
Speaker
more or less, like it it is very apparent that the boy of the title ah is modeled, his name is Maito, is modeled after him, is modeled after Hayao Miyazaki. It's great, it's beautiful, and ah so, so, so worth watching. So if you've got Maxwell, ah definitely watch The Boy and the Heron. With that, Chris, it's time to talk about some comics, what do you say?
00:29:29
Speaker
I think you've scared me off of watching it. But yeah, let's talk about comics.
00:29:37
Speaker
We have a couple of comics that qualify for texture choice this week, but we're going to talk about this one first because this is a comic you told me specifically to read. Yes. It's got stuff you like in it. It's got stuff we both like in it. It is Avengers Assemble number one.
00:29:57
Speaker
There has been a book called Avengers symbol before this but this is a new volume of it. It's by Steve Orlando and Corey Smith. And it is in some ways it's like a back to basics Avengers book like they're operating out of Avengers Mansion and Captain America is the leader of the team.
00:30:19
Speaker
he's the leader of this team. Right. But I think one of the interesting hooks to this book is that it is about the Avengers emergency squad, which is whoever's around when the shit starts to pop off. Yeah, it's so it is described as specifically Captain America's team. This yeah grouping, which is not the group from the main Avengers book.
00:30:44
Speaker
yeah so Yeah. Which is, it's ah Steve Rogers, Captain America, by the way. Yes, yes, yes. Because all Sam is on the main of Interesting, right? So, like, the team that we get in this issue that's kind of participating primarily in the action is ah Cap, Wasp, ah Photon, Monica Rambo, and Shang-Chi. Right, just those four. The rising and advancing of the spirit. ah But then we get some stuff that we like and some stuff we don't like.
00:31:16
Speaker
uh because while they're off doing a thing like the next gang shows up and uh they're like yeah i guess we're just gonna wait around for the next thing to happen well that's like kind of the avengers on duty they're the rest of the team yeah but i well you know did i did you get what i got from this which is that it's gonna be whatever combination of these characters are around to deal with whatever happens. So like it's not gonna be the same. you know Out of these, what, 10 characters, we're gonna get like different units of like four or five depending. Yeah, I mean, that seems about right, but but the the sense I get is that these are the people that Cap called to be essentially on call. Yeah.
00:32:07
Speaker
So he's got the four that he goes and fights sin with because the villain of the issue largely is Red Skull's daughter, Sin, who, you know, has stolen an artifact that makes her be able to control people and have them experience mob hate. Yeah, she has stolen a magic artifact that also does the same thing that the H-mongers, the H-mongers H-rays do, which is interesting. Yeah.
00:32:34
Speaker
And then yes a group of the rest of the team. The rest of everybody who's on call all show up to meet around a big table at Avengers Mansion. I'm going to say it is it is interesting to me that they are almost arranged in thumbs up thumbs down alternating order.
00:32:56
Speaker
That's true, yes. Around the table. Yes. um But they they're just there hanging out and waiting around for the four who were out on their mission to come back. And so they play a poker game. Yeah. And those characters, ah Hercules, thumbs up. Yep. Lightspeed, Julie Power, thumbs up. Yep. Hawkeye, thumbs up. Although traditionally Hawkeye is an Avenger, thumbs down for me. Lightning.
00:33:24
Speaker
yeah I honest to God do not know who this dude is. i i I sort of had a sense of like, not being totally sure either. Yeah, we've like, i I feel like staying it's living lightning. Yeah, living lightning is what I thought. Yeah, I feel like they've kind of fallen out of fashion. But buddy, between this and those new x men books, we really need a caption with someone's name and their powers. Absolutely. Because Living Lightning is never actually really referred to by his full name. and i Living lightning is never li Lightning is called Lightning once, and that's why I wasn't sure if it was Living Lightning. and i do I do not know him by his costume. so yeah and I feel like if I don't recognize a Marvel superhero, then you need to explain to me who that is. Too obscure. The the other members of the the rest of the team that are introduced, Wonder Man,
00:34:22
Speaker
Big thumbs down. She-Hulk. Thumbs up. And Night Thrasher. Thumbs all the way up. Yeah, Night Thrasher fucking rules. And when Night Thrasher arrives, he's the last one to get there. Oh, man. Night Thrasher shows up and I was like, okay, well, this is the best thing that's gonna happen in this book. This is the best arrival that's gonna happen in this book. He's got this big, like, case that he's carrying with him. And out of it, he pulls like a mid-90s style Avengers jacket. And he's like, we're going to start wearing these jackets, which I did know was going to happen because I've seen future covers for this book where they're wearing the jackets. What I want everybody to do right now is apologize to Steve Epting. And me. I've been saying this for years. matt's but Matt, you've been on this train. For so long. Steve Epting and me.
00:35:23
Speaker
Apologies. Jackets, baby. Jackets are back. Man, they look great. The other important thing from this issue, and the thing that you first texted me about, is that this issue begins an arc that involves the Serpent Society. And what you texted me is, Groonies are back, baby. Yeah, baby. Groonies are back. The Serpent Society is back in business.
00:35:49
Speaker
Now, this hierarchy of the so Serpent Society is very interesting. It's not just that the Serpent Society is back that made me go Grunies are back. It's that the Serpent Society is back and Sidewinder has a bunch of thought bubbles about how much he hates everybody else on the team. Well, he's not in charge. Because he's not in charge! Grunies are back, baby! It's, it's Viper. Pit Viper. Sidewinder is like,
00:36:16
Speaker
better when I was running it. Yeah, Sidewinder is like interrupted mid complaining. Which is it also interesting because in the Groody, Sidewinder retired and now he's back. If you remember seeing him without his mask on, Sidewinder was old as shit. Yeah, he's like at least mid fifties. Oh, what a great, what a great time. Jackets,
00:36:42
Speaker
Groonies, Night Thrasher. Yeah, this is the kind of nostalgia I am here for. Up next, we are going to talk about ah Time Waits, number one, which, yes, before we started recording, we already made the joke about Tom Waits. Yeah, we we both did impressions. Matt's was good. Mine was a little more like Current Frog. This is by Chip Zdarsky and David Brothers, writing our old coworker, David Brothers. Yeah, a friend of the show.
00:37:13
Speaker
And of us. Former co-worker, friend of ours, ah all around ah great dude David Brothers. The art is by Marcus Toh and Marvin Sainapar, I think it is. Or Sianapar, it might be. This is a fantastic first issue were that does that thing that first issues do sometimes where you know, something that you aren't aware of is going on in the background from the start, but it's not clear just yet. And then the more you read it, the more you realize and you more, you come to understand it. And what is happening in this book is that the lead character blue who now is trying to live like a kind of regular suburban wife life with his wife, who is the sheriff and
00:38:05
Speaker
with a child that they're considering adopting, used to be like a black ops agent on a team. And he is living those two parts of his life kind of simultaneously. What you think is happening is that he's having like flashbacks to a mission that went wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is actually happening, which is like very much I mean, you know, it is it is essentially the premise of the book and in the title. So I don't think it's, I don't think it's a really that much of a spoiler. It is at least implied that due to the fact that he's a time traveler, he's like kind of living those moments at the same time. Right. Yeah. Uh, in, in different parts of his relative life, uh, which is very, very fun. Uh, and a ah really good set up for like,
00:39:03
Speaker
Like it is just mechanically a really good way to reveal the story. Yes. And there's another twist that is not about that sort of thing. Um, but it involves at the very beginning of the book, you see blue trying to figure out how to garden better.
00:39:27
Speaker
And at first that that just seems like a character thing, right? Where he's trying to, like, have a hobby. Yeah, it's a very mundane thing. It's the most mundane thing you can do, is garden. Not a judgment. And then it becomes very relevant to the plot of the book as the book goes on. Yeah. Yeah. In a really, like, fun and interesting way. um I was... ah I think what you texted me was, unsurprisingly, David Brothers and Chivazdarski wrote a really good comic. Yeah.
00:39:57
Speaker
um Which yeah, like no one should be surprised at this. ah And I was not surprised by it, but I was like, the most interesting thing to me was that kind of mechanical way that the story was set up. And like, yeah, of course it is.
00:40:16
Speaker
Here's a couple dudes that I know for a fact think a lot about this stuff. Absolutely. Also, let me give big, big props to the art team on this book. Oh yeah, it looks great. There's a sequence in here where Blue makes a red velvet cake. Something I have done many times. And it is such good art of a guy making a red velvet cake. You've made a red velvet cake many times. Many times. Never made one for me, man.
00:40:47
Speaker
I could. it's It's a different kind of red velvet cake. It's my grandmother's red velvet pound cake. I mean... I mean, I'm not a fool, Matt. I wouldn't turn down grandma's red velvet cake. ah I've made it for my mom on multiple occasions. Who loves it? The question I have about this book, more than any more than anything else, is Why's that one guy got a big Mickey Mouse on his shirt? That's a great question. um I had the same question. He's the baker that he works with to make the cake. yeah He's got a big Mickey Mouse on his shirt. I feel like that is an inside joke. I feel like it's it almost has to be. Yeah.
00:41:33
Speaker
I guess we'll see. We'll see as the story continues, as the book continues. But this first issue is Absolutely. Great, great stuff. It's very good. Yeah. Uh, one last book that we're going to talk about is Wolverine. Number one, the new Wolverine. Number one, part of the X-Men from the ashes, uh, line. And I let me say straight up from the start, it's good. Uh, it's by a solid and Ahmed who is a writer. We both like, we've read a lot of books by solid and Ahmed that we like.
00:42:08
Speaker
The art is by Martine Kokolo with colors by Brian Valenza. And largely I did enjoy this issue a lot. It is about Wolverine out in the wilderness. He is like trying to find himself again. So he's spending time with a pack of wolves.
00:42:31
Speaker
He does like to do that. Yeah. And, uh, Nightcrawler has to like come and find him to ask him to like, kind of come back into the fold. And as that is all happening, uh, Wolverine is being tracked down by cyber. Oh shit. Cyber's got adamantium arms, Matt. He sure does. And so of course it all culminates in like a big fight between Wolverine and Nightcrawler and cyber. Um,
00:43:01
Speaker
where Nightcrawler gets hurt and Wolverine sort of has to choose between dealing with cyber or say like going back and helping Nightcrawler. And then it ends with a bit of a twist where cyber sort of gets leveled up. How can you get leveled up past having adamantium arms, Matt? You got to read the issue, but all of that is good. I think all of that in the issue is good.
00:43:28
Speaker
I have no idea. I hate to say that this, but I spent the entire issue wondering, how does this line up with what Wolverine is doing in the Uncanny X-Men series? Because in Uncanny X-Men, he didn't go off into the wilderness on his own. He's hanging out with Rogue and Gambit. Right? Right? and know So, like, is does this take place before that?
00:43:56
Speaker
Where does this line up in the timeline?
00:44:00
Speaker
theres no all the All you need is one editor's note box to be like, this story takes place before Uncanny X-Men number one. And I'm good, right? I know that this is like, that is a very much like a wizard did it, uh, like, you know, stereotypical nerd, uh, complaint, but like also this is like, it is a line of books that are meant to all go together and, and kind of be read together.
00:44:25
Speaker
Oh, hold on. Wait, wait, it's it. I take it all back. It is on the title page on the title page. It's there is a note on the title page that is so hidden that I just saw it that says this story takes place prior to X-Men number one and uncanny X-Men number one.
00:44:47
Speaker
All right. well So I asked and answered. I am so glad I caught it just now, but it is. I did not see it until I was flipping through the book just now. Um, it should have been in a more conspicuous place. Matt, can I be real with you? Please. I don't think comics should have title pages. I liked it when they had recap pages. he Here's the thing. I don't because you know what that is. but That's a page that's not comics. That's true. That is true. You could say that about letters pages too.
00:45:17
Speaker
And, you know, I think letters pages have their value, but like, you could put all that information. They used to put it all on a page of comics. But you know, like, you know who who loves like title page hickman is that love a title page? Is that a beef you got with Hickman? I mean, look, this does not reach the level of beef. Okay.
00:45:42
Speaker
but i But look, I do think Hickman makes the title pages... Part of the story. A more engaging part of the book's visual identity than a lot of them do. A lot of them just say, like, fucking Wolverine by these guys. Yeah, that's true. i There's some title pages that work better than others. Yeah, man.
00:46:02
Speaker
This one, each boy, I'm so glad I saw it because I was gonna look quite the fool, having said that there was no editor's note, but it is hidden. like You would not know to look for that. I'm sure there were lots of people who read this book and never saw that editor's note. Here's an interesting thing about that to me, is that that, to me, says that They know that that is useful information for this version of the story that is is in a comic, that like a single issue of a comic, but that is not going to be in the paperback. That's true. I do feel like not putting that on a story page where it would be more visible is a choice to not have to take it off of a story page when they put it in the paperback. They just won't put in that that title page. Yeah.
00:46:52
Speaker
Let me just say, i then ah this issue's good and I liked it. Okay, so Matt would like to retract everything other than this issue was good and I liked it. That's right. All right, Chris. It's time to get raw, so let's get raw. Folks, on behalf of Matt Wilson, I would like to apologize. His views do not reflect mine.
00:47:12
Speaker
there was no training or dreaming of me and my bra lived like a man but i'm animal bra Folks, what you... didn't just hear was me opening up the spreadsheet that has all of the raw moments, seeing the Golden Age Human Torch killing Hitler, and then laughing for a solid minute remembering that scene. Yes. Ow! Ow! Don't tell anyone! God, that's good. That one, like, the fact that that is still giving me such joy kind of makes me want to put it at the top of the list. like It is pretty fucking good.
00:47:48
Speaker
All right. We teased it last time, Chris. It ah is a submission from Scott Medlock. Our first Raw submission for this episode from Scott Medlock is from Batman 419. And it is when Batman has the K.G. piece caught in the Batrope and then Beast cuts off his own hand to escape. ah Yes, I'm familiar with it. ah I'm quite familiar with the events of 10 Nights of the Beast.
00:48:14
Speaker
ah Again, another Jazzy Jim Starlin classic. Yeah, man. Yeah, man. oh Which that I know that on our Discord, ah we prompted a lot of discussion about Jim Starlin and Jim Starlin's shortcomings as a as a Batman writer. I believe what I said was that I would not put Jim Starlin in the top 10 Batman writers of all time. I don't know if I put him in like the top 25.
00:48:43
Speaker
However, I would put him number one on the list of Batman writers that I read when I was six years old. How about writers of KGBs? Writers of KGBs, he is at the top. It's Starlin, then Scott Snyder, then I believe Marv Wolfman was the one who came up with the NKVD man. Yeah. Which also hilarious.
00:49:10
Speaker
Ten Nights at the Beast is a wild story to begin with. The KG Beast kills 113 people in this story, whilst trying to kill Ronald Reagan. That's how you know this is like a immediately post-crisis DC comic story, is because someone shows up and kills like 100 people, and Batman's like, damn, this is a problem.
00:49:39
Speaker
He blows up a plane. He blows up a plane. That's, he gets like, he gets, he gets a lot of them with the plane. Yeah. But he also like poisons an entire like dinner. I think in this issue, uh, he is this, no, this is not the issue where he poisons the entire dinner. Um, he straight murder some dudes with a fire ax, which is raw as hell. The reason this seems even more fully maniacal than it is, is because of the coloring on this issue. And I'm not, I'm not sure who the colorist was. Uh, Jim Apparo did the pencils, uh, DeCarlo did the inks. Uh, I don't, I don't know off the top of my head, the colorist, I don't believe they were credited, uh, not on the cover at least. But at one point, the, the KG beast is
00:50:33
Speaker
ah basically caught with like a rope around his wrist. And he still has this fire axe in his hand. The colorist is Adrian Roy. Oh, it's Adrian Waugh? Adrian Waugh, yeah. Who's usually very good. I would say like nothing like no shade at all. Everybody's got, everybody's got one. This is clearly meant to be a metal cable.
00:51:01
Speaker
It's colored as a rope. yeah It's colored brown, so it looks like it is just a rope. um And we do also see KGBs cut through it with an axe earlier. The idea here is that is that the beast isn't gonna be able to cut through the cable in a single hit.
00:51:29
Speaker
so he just cuts through his own wrist. What it looks like is that he looks at the cable, looks at his wrist, and goes, I know what's gonna shake this motherfucker up, and then cuts off his own left hand, just to prove a point. So to give a little bit of an idea of the spatial aspect of this, Batman chases KGB stuff onto a roof.
00:51:56
Speaker
There is a cable going from one roof to the other. KGB takes his axe and ziplines down the cable with his axe. And Batman's like, no, I'm not gonna, he's not getting away that easy. So Batman ziplines down just with his hands. He just grabs it and tries to zipline down the cable. Well, he has gloves. He does have gloves.
00:52:21
Speaker
So as he's trying to zipline down the cable, KG Beast chops the the cable a bit with the axe, but doesn't totally sever it. ah he's he knows that if but But if he does get through the cable, he's going to fall. So he sets up a charge, like a chart like little plastique, to blow the cable on the other end so that he'll swing toward KG Beast.
00:52:51
Speaker
So he does. Oh, and KGB, like his hand gets like wrapped up in the cable. Yeah. And after, after the plastic goes off. Right. And Batman is like, okay, he's caught up in the thing. All I have, he literally says, all I have to do is hang here until the police arrive. He's, he's caught yeah because he's tangled up in this rope and he can't get out of it. He's not gonna be able to chop through it in time.
00:53:15
Speaker
Now, we did just see KGBeast straight effortlessly murder two armed cops as, you no, I'm sorry, three armed cops as they were shooting at him. So Batman is really putting a lot of faith in those dudes to be able to tackle ah the Beast. I mean, like he's he's putting a lot of faith in the beast being incapacitated by being one-handed and having to hold up the weight of Batman. Yeah, still with a fire axe. Yes. The key to understanding all of Jim Starlin's run on Batman is that it's all him. It's so post-Dark Knight Returns, you know? And this is his version of, like, Batman fighting the mutant leader, because, like, there's a whole thing about, like, he can't beat KGBs. KGBs is too strong, which is a
00:54:04
Speaker
It is weird a thing to see in Batman comics of today as it is to see in Batman comics of then, right? Yeah. Cause like, no one's stronger than Batman. Come on. Like, we know this. But this is Batman trying to play it smart. And so like, it's it's his whole thing of like, yeah, all i like I don't have to fight him. I can't beat him in a fight. All I have to do is just hack like, wait here. Just hang on this all on this ah cable.
00:54:35
Speaker
KGB's cutting his own hand off is like, you've never seen Batman give you a what the fuck face. This is Tim Robinson as Batman. So by cutting off his own hand, not only is KGB's able to escape, which we see him running off, holding his, where his hand used to be bleeding on the ground, right? But it also makes Batman fall. Yes.
00:55:06
Speaker
So like Batman he is able to like catch himself of course before he hits the ground, but oh it it enables him to get away and distracts Batman long enough that he can't come after him. um So it is a pretty like tactical move in addition to being like, whoa, what the fuck? I mean, all of which could have been accomplished with him cutting the rope.
00:55:35
Speaker
But he would take it would take multiple whacks at more time. It doesn't look like it should. like that's what makes this That's what puts this one over the top for me, is that in the story, it's him you know cutting off his arm to escape a trap. you know and that's Look, that's tough. That's tough. In in my reading of it,
00:56:00
Speaker
based on the coloring, based on on the art, it is KGB's going, well, I could cut the rope, or I could get wild. I could fuck up this guy's whole mind. Yeah, this guy would play in mind games.
00:56:23
Speaker
KGB's loves to have fun, King. That's what always does it for me, is that this is like him making a conscious choice of like, Yeah, I'm not gonna, like anybody could cut the rope. I'm the KGB's. I don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck, I'm an anybody killer.
00:56:43
Speaker
And then he goes and gets ah gets his left hand replaced with a gun. Sure does. Because it's the 80s. Sure does. And it's comics and that's what you do, baby. And also Ronald Reagan's is and is in the next issue. Yeah. Because it's the 80s. Because it's the 80s, baby.
00:56:58
Speaker
And also Batman beats him by ah not quite putting him in a hole, but they go into a sewer and he he bolts up. He basically cask of Amontillado's KG Beast. Yeah, which again is like, I think, you know, the actual best part of the story, as intended, is that part because that's the part where Batman's like, yeah, I don't actually have to beat you in a fight. Because KG Beast is like, all right, you've got me cornered. Let's fucking go. And Batman's like, no, man, I'm just gonna close this door. And then you're gonna be down here. Yeah. And
00:57:34
Speaker
It is not in this story. It's it's not until that sequel story that I, again, I think it's Marv Wolfman that anybody's like, yeah, yeah, Batman called the cops. Batman didn't just leave the KGBs down there to starve to death. yeah So, I mean, it kind of was Batman putting him in a hole.
00:57:51
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's it is a version of it. Yeah, for sure. But it's it's so like, it's so post Dark Knight. And that it's like, what if Batman outsmarted a bad guy instead of out fighting him? That was so cool when he did that to the mutant leader. It's like, well, yeah. Yeah, it was was like yeah, he's a smart guy. yeah All right. All right. Give me a give me a give me the spot for KGB's cutting off his own hand. I love it, Matt. It's great. Because it's like,
00:58:21
Speaker
like you imagine like an almost Gotham scenario like where all the villains are sitting around and Joker's like yeah man like I I like you know killed Robin and and all this stuff and KGB's like I chopped my own hand off just to fuck with him And everybody else would be like, that's weird. And then Joker's like, well, I mean, I could probably do better than that. And then Joker goes and cuts his face off. Yeah. God. He's always and so extra. Yeah. He's got a, you know, he can't, if not for that, this would be the most fucked up thing any villain had done with themselves to freak Batman out. That's true. Uh, all right. Is it more raw than Storm stabbing Kaliso in that knife fight?
00:59:09
Speaker
I, that's tough because it is like, I do think it, I think it wins the battle of most unexpected. Sure. Because it's, it, no one would do that. No one would unnecessarily chop off their own hand, right? That's true. like yeah Not unless the Necronomicon got up in there.
00:59:39
Speaker
But that's not necessary. That's not necessary. That's very necessary. Yeah. But like, yeah, like the storm thing is like, this is such a unique thing because I think the, the most like, the thing that really sends it over the top for me is something that I think is very unintentional is essentially a mistake, you know? A coloring mistake. Yeah. And, but like, I think it works.
01:00:08
Speaker
i I... I don't know, that storm scene's really good, man. It's really fucking good. I'm gonna say no, it's not as good as that. Okay. Better than Hellboy snapping off his own horns. No. And I feel like Wonder Woman blinding herself with Medusa Snake Venom is the intentional version of this. Yeah. And Trunk's whipping Freeze's ass in front of Freeze's own dad is better.
01:00:37
Speaker
I would say this... You know what? I would say this goes probably between Nova punching an eyeless in the face so hard that he can pull all his guts out. Okay. And Anton Arkane finding out how long he's been in Hell. So the new number 21. Yeah. Okay. No one draws reactions like Jim Apparo, man. That's true. And Batman watching this dude... Batman watching this man get his own hand off.
01:01:08
Speaker
What the fuck? Like you want to see, you want to see the panel where he, like Jim Gordon comes and like pulls him up and Batman's like, did you see that? That dude's a freak. That motherfucker cut his own hand off. Jim. What the fuck? All right. That's the new number 21. Our next submission is from Chris Kaiser.
01:01:36
Speaker
cut It is from Final Crisis number six by Graham Morrison and J.G. Jones. It is the scene in which Batman confronts Darkseid with the gun and the radon bullet that was previously used to kill Orion. Radion, not radon, the silent killer. Radion, yes. Getting a single shot off before the beams of the Omega sanction close ah close in on him and he says, gotcha.
01:02:05
Speaker
Chris, you left out, I mean, he sent us the page, but, uh-huh. Batman's line before he takes the shot, where he says, try me. Yeah. That yeah gets me going. Yo, everything that Batman says in this scene is like the hottest shit Grant Morrison ever wrote for Batman.
01:02:31
Speaker
That man's saying, I made a very solemn vow about firearms, but for you, I'm making a once-in-a-lifetime exception. That owns.
01:02:42
Speaker
Can you outrace the Omega sanction? The death that is life? Try try me. ah o Yeah man, and he did it! He outdrew, he outdrew the Omega sanction. He did. Oh, yeah, no, this is, this is the shit. This, this rules. This, this also has, this also has Batman saying, which might be the best example of that, the use of that. I,
01:03:17
Speaker
I mean, Batman enters the scene saying, you shouldn't have shot Orion. Yeah. And he shouldn't have, because now Batman's got the bullet. ah But before that, he says, Darkseid, you look like I feel.
01:03:34
Speaker
ah Is this is this where he has the ah Oh, yeah, after he says but before you I'm making a once lifetime exception, a gun and a bullet, Darkseid, it was your idea. Yeah.
01:03:45
Speaker
Oh, got him. Get his ass, Batman. Oh, no, this is great. like ah yeah I think I've told this story in the show before, but I once asked, um but back when I was in my 20s and I was working at the comic book store, I was talking with Chad Bowers, who I would co-write many comics with. yes I said, hey, Animal Man. He can...
01:04:12
Speaker
basically get the powers of any animal, right? And Chad was like, yeah. And I was like, right, so because all like animal life is connected with the morphogenetic field, right? And he was like, yes. I was like, okay, Kryptonians are animals. Can Buddy Baker tap into the morphogenetic field and get the powers of a Kryptonian? And Chad thought about that for a second and said,
01:04:39
Speaker
Yeah, he could, but that would have to be the last issue of Animal Man. Absolutely, yeah. Because once you do that, like, like what like what are you going to do? Oh, I can bite you as hard as a crocodile? Like, I would just turn into Superman all the time. And I feel like this is Morrison writing the series finale of Bruce Wayne. Is him is him saying, oh, yeah, no, I don't use guns.
01:05:09
Speaker
But for you, the god of evil? Yeah, all right. What I've always found fascinating is after he shoots Darkseid and says, gotcha, and then the Omega Sanction catches up to him, there's that two page spread of Batman being hit by the Omega Sanction, right? Yeah. The death of his life. The death of his life. Yeah.
01:05:37
Speaker
And in that art, that J.G. Jones piece of art, I don't think Batman in comics has ever looked more like Adam West. No, he super does. He absolutely does. Yeah. And I love that. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Yeah, man. It's good. It's good as hell.
01:06:06
Speaker
I'm only guessing that J.G. Jones drew that page because there's a bunch of other credited artists in the issue. Oh, that's a J.G. Jones page. I think we can safely say that the double page spread of Batman dying was probably J.G. Jones. They probably were like, hey, why don't you work on that one and we'll get Marco Rudy to draw some nails.
01:06:29
Speaker
I mean, well, it might be a Carlos Pacheco page. It could be a Carlos Pacheco page. But it looks like a... I think it's J.G. Jones. That's a J.G. Jones page. That's gotta be. Yeah. Yeah, man. It's great. The Omega sanction. That's the death of his life. That's where he sends you back in time to die over and over again. Chase you down with the hyper adapter. You know, the demon Barbados? Who is also the hyper adapter, yeah. Yeah. Who is Simon Hurd?
01:06:59
Speaker
Who is Mangrove Pierce? The actor. The actor. Who is not Thomas Wayne. No. Yeah, this moment owns bones, man. It's it's up there. No, it, um, it, uh, it fucks. This moment fucks. It really does. A gun and a bullet. It was your idea.
01:07:25
Speaker
Like literally everything, every single thing Batman says is the coolest fucking line of dialogue. A thing that I think people don't realize is Craig Morrison's like really good at writing Batman. Yeah. Like really good at writing Batman. Yeah.
01:07:41
Speaker
And this, again, this is the series finale of Batman. Okay. It's the series finale of Bruce Wayne because this is like the last, like this is the last shit Bruce Wayne does before he's sent back in time. Like Dick is Batman after this. This, this is the last thing Bruce Wayne does before he has to go through a reset. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like we actually see him back in caveman days at the end of final crisis, but that's true. But I mean, that's cause we all know that like, Hey, to be continued.
01:08:11
Speaker
God, what if I got to be continued on my tombstone? that i I'm sure someone else has done it, but it would be good. I mean, it should be on, it should be on Grant's, if if Grant ever dies. if If Grant doesn't just ascend into the, yeah the like, meta-consciousness. Yeah, um Grant's tombstone's gonna have something about energy on it. Yeah, here's the problem. I will not be continued.
01:08:47
Speaker
i' I'll just get you're wrong Batman Robin will never die. That'll be on my tombstone. That's pretty good. Yeah, that's pretty good What if I just got Bob Kane's tombstone and replaced Bob Kane's name with mine? That's very funny Batman Bruce Wayne Chris Sims. They're all one on the same. You know what my tombstone is gonna say? ah Matt Wilson is dead. I have always my joke has always been Uh, here lies Matt Wilson. He was pretty okay.
01:09:16
Speaker
and But now I want my tombstone to just say, next time, baby, next time. See, that's good because that also didn't happen.
01:09:28
Speaker
It's also, um are you gonna have a tombstone? Because i I have stipulated and said before that you I do want you entombed alive in my grave. That's right, yeah. So that we so that you can edit the podcast in the afterlife.
01:09:42
Speaker
I guess i I will have a small tombstone put- Yeah, next to mine. Yeah, yeah. Is this better than Batman digging his way out of his own grave? No, Batman digging his way out of his own grave is the coolest shit that's ever happened. Okay, is it better than- I mean, it's obviously not the coolest shit that's ever happened because there's two things above it, but it's still pretty good. Is it better than Are You Man or Fiend From Hell?
01:10:10
Speaker
That's tough. I think I don't think it's better than Magneto putting the red skull in a hole. Okay. Cause that's so good. It's, it's really good. Like that's such a like, Hey, fuck you, man.
01:10:28
Speaker
Fuck you. You're just going to go in this hole now. It is, it is the greatest indignity. Yeah. I think it goes above storm and Kalista though. This is like, this is like,
01:10:43
Speaker
The leveled up version of Storm and Kalisto. Yes. Because it is the only time Batman should use a gun. Right. It's Storm stabbing Kalisto is, you forgot who I am.
01:10:58
Speaker
Batman and Darkseid is, I'm going to make an exception for you motherfucker. Which I think is rawr. Yes. Chris, our next submission is from Daniel Sylvester.
01:11:12
Speaker
And I'm just going to go ahead and say this. yeah If it's just up to me, number one. in Interesting. Interesting. Oh, okay. Is this one of the ones that we've been waiting for that I said we would not stop doing this segment until we got it? Absolutely, yes. Okay. Daniel writes, in honor of Matt's berserk reread, I'm submitting the moment where Skulldite breaks through the eclipse.
01:11:40
Speaker
Yeah, ah that's number one. It's the raw shit that ever happened. Yeah. I can't dispute that. Because the worst thing is happening. Uh-huh. The worst thing is happening. I was actually thinking about that scene recently, because I think about it all the time. Yeah, because you think about it all the time. Yeah. And I was realizing that, like, we've we've talked about how it's like,
01:12:09
Speaker
You can put rape in your story as long as it's as good as berserk. Yes. Right. Which means no one else can do it. Which means no one else can do it. But I'm thinking, I was, I was thinking about what, like the whole thing of like a woman is being used as an object to inspire the hero to be a hero, right? But in this particular case,
01:12:38
Speaker
it's not just It's not just that that's happening with Guts. Yeah. Because Guts is there with his arm inside a demon's mouth, watching this happen, watching Griffith destroy years of camaraderie, of work together, of being part of a team, of friendship and admiration.
01:13:09
Speaker
And he's also thinking, this happened to me. Yeah. Well, that's, we talked about this when we really did our deep dive into, in, into the golden age. It's happened to all three of them before. Right. It's happened to guts Griffith and Casca. I mean, Griffith is the exception because he, he, he was abused.
01:13:39
Speaker
but he did it as a way of advancing himself. Well, it's, it's like three different kinds of, of thing, right? yeah Where Griffith is, Griffith is coerced,
01:13:57
Speaker
I guess, like for, for lack of a, of me knowing a better term for it, but like there is a thing of like Griffith has been used to satisfy someone else's desire against his will. Yes, but there's an element of Griffith. Because Griffith is always thinking about how he can i'll raise his status. Yeah. Thinking that this is a way that he could raise his status. Yeah. and And there's definitely a thing in there where where're you get the the feeling that like, Griffith is like, well, I was willing to go through this.
01:14:40
Speaker
Yeah, so it's it's it's almost like a Harvey Weinstein situation, right? Where it's like, there's this there's an idea of like, do this for me, I'll do something for you. Yeah. um Which doesn't like, do not mistake that I'm trying to say that that's a better situation in any way, it's not. It's just a different kind of situation. No, I think you and I are both pretty staunchly anti femto of the god hand. Yeah.
01:15:11
Speaker
Uh, Guts was sold out by his father figure. Yeah. And now Casca, Casca is being used by Griffith. Like this is, this is an exertion of power. Yeah. Casca, who was sold by her family. Yes. To a nobleman. And when he started to us assault her, Griffith saved her. Right.
01:15:43
Speaker
It's, it's so like, just that element of it is so layered. And it's like, yeah, if you can be that thoughtful and complex about it and spend the amount of time on it that Kentaro Miura does, then yeah, sure. Go for it. Like, you're not gonna. You're not gonna, Brad Meltzer. If I were to teach a class,
01:16:10
Speaker
about how to tell a story. And the people, and and I knew the people in the class could handle it. And I was trying to tell, peep them about the notion of catharsis. I would just show them, I mean, I would make them read all of Berserk probably, or all of the Golden Age. But in particular, I would say, when you see that eclipse start to crack,
01:16:42
Speaker
in the panel where the God, you know, it's, it's way far back. The God hands on its hand. They're watching all this happen.
01:16:53
Speaker
SLAN is talking about how it's beautiful. It's all that humanity is, right? And then just in the background at the very top of the panel, the eclipse is up there and it's starting to crack.
01:17:09
Speaker
And then that's, that's the fucking tattoo I want. I should get it. You should, you should absolutely get it. You know where I'm going to get it. Uh, uh, on your face, like, um, the game.
01:17:26
Speaker
Now that would be, that would be raw. Uh, no, where I want to get the eclipse tattoo, the eclipse cracking tattoo is on my inner left forearm.
01:17:42
Speaker
because that's the arm that guts loses. e That's good. That's good. um So yeah, that's happening. there The moon explodes. Yep. And then I think it cannot be discounted, at least in this discussion, for our purposes.
01:18:09
Speaker
that the Skull Knight is the baddest-looking motherfucker of all time. And, it like, he's appeared in the book before this, but only to kind of show up and talk, right? Yeah. Up to this point, he's only ever showed up and talked to Guts, and kind of given Guts a warning about something, and called him Struggler. Yeah.
01:18:35
Speaker
and i Can't remember if before this we've gotten a little bit of the like rivalry between skull knight and ah We've seen skull knight like watching him. Well, there's there's skull knight and us for a tuzad. Yeah, they have a rivalry I don't remember if that's established here or after the eclipse because they do it. They definitely have an encounter after the eclipse but this establishes that like When Skull Knight fights, he is fighting the strongest god characters that exist. So when he bursts through that eclipse, which shatters like glass and rides in on his armored horse. Yeah, which again, if you don't know what the Skull Knight looks like, he's a skeleton in armor
01:19:34
Speaker
it's like he's a big old dude in a skeleton with a crown and armor and a shield and a sword and his shield has a rose with cross thorns under it and his sword um i don't think we know this yet in the story but later you learn that his sword is made out of baillets which are the things that make apostles, which are the demons in Berserk. Yeah. But he's stolen from demons he's killed. Yeah. He is the most metal looking motherfucker. So what the first thing he fucking does after he bursts through through the eclipse and it shatters like glass, he goes straight for the leader of the God Hand, the dude with the exposed brain and the the ah big open mouth void is his name.
01:20:30
Speaker
He goes straight for Void and tries to just stab right through his fucking head. Yeah. And Void use this his doesn't move, uses his power to like open a portal over his head that makes the sword come through and attack so so that the Skull Knight is attacking himself.
01:20:55
Speaker
which the skull that blocks with his shield. Yes. <unk> It's cool as shit. It is ah like, the I don't know that I've literally in my life ever seen a better crafted like sequence than, than the eclipse. Like for all its horror, it is like,
01:21:22
Speaker
It is perfectly constructed comics. It is the... I can't think of a better example of Catharsis in a story. Yeah, man. You know? Like... It is... Like, when he comes through... Because also, we haven't talked about this, systematically we've seen every member of the band of the Hawk die. We've seen... Oh!
01:21:51
Speaker
in horrible ways. Yeah. Yeah. Like these characters we that we've spent chapter after chapter after chapter getting to know and like even the ones who kind of suck have a sort of, you know, charm to them. And we've just watched them all die horrifically. Guts and Costco are the only ones left.
01:22:23
Speaker
And like some of them die in like heroic ways. ah I am specifically thinking of... ah God, I'm blanking on all of their names right now, but... The guy who then gets hollowed out? No, no, no, no. that's You're talking about the big guy. Yeah. I'm talking about ah Judo dies heroically, because he saves Casca.
01:22:53
Speaker
Like he holds off demons while they're trying to kill Casca. Pippin is the big guy who gets hollowed out. Yeah, which that was, that's some of the scariest shit. That one's heartbreaking. Yeah. Yeah. Corkus is the one like you're kind of supposed to hate, but you can't you kind of end up liking him. Yeah. I mean, he's like an asshole, but you don't want to see him get got wow like on a mountain of severed heads.
01:23:21
Speaker
ah So like, you've also seen all of that happen. Rickert doesn't die, but he doesn't go into the eclipse. Yeah, Rickert's not there. Yeah. I mean, Rickert does not have a good time. Oh, no, he has a bad time. At this moment, but everyone in Berserk generally has a bad time. That's true. But God, God, yeah, it's number one. Like, it's unbelievably raw.
01:23:51
Speaker
Yeah. Cause like, cause like it should be, it should be the happy ending, right? Like Guts came back. Guts found out his friend was in danger and he came back and they rescued him. But it's, he's, he's gone. But he, did yeah, he doesn't have a tongue or tendons in his arms and legs. Yeah. Them getting there and like seeing what happened to Gr- like,
01:24:22
Speaker
It's so good because it's like, it's not, again, i like as you said, nothing about what Griffith does is justified. But Griffith is, Griffith goes through so much that like, yeah, of course he's fucking broken. Like, of of course he's a monster now.
In-depth Analysis of Berserk
01:24:50
Speaker
Cause he was never like,
01:24:53
Speaker
he was not on stable footing to begin with. And then like the, I mean, admittedly the like third worst thing that happens in Berserk happens to him. Yeah. Yeah, but it's, it's bad. It's bad. And yeah, ah for a book that opens with the main character, um, the fucking a big titty demon woman and then shooting her with his gun arm ah hu and then go into a bar.
01:25:19
Speaker
By the time it's a couple years in, Berserk has a really good grasp of like subtlety and nuance in in terms of like sexuality and and its relationship to violence. I think it gets there pretty quick. It does. I mean, like yeah Guts and Casca, when Guts like freaks out the first time that they that they sex is likely they have sex, yeah is like such a really good scene. it's Oh, it's I mean, there's a whole...
01:25:50
Speaker
There's a a Lady Emily video that gets into that and also the Super Eyepatch Wolf video, both like talk about how incredible that scene is. Yeah. I mean, the fact that you see like, if you've only seen like highlights from Berserk, the fact that you see Guts like uncontrollably weeping while describing his trauma and the way that he's repressed it, like you would not expect that from that book.
01:26:17
Speaker
unless you've, you've read it, in which case you'd be like, yep, that's what happens in berserk. People have a bad time. And then they, and then they go to various extremes to deal with it. Yeah. Um, yeah, no, this, uh, I mean, we're talking about all the stuff around it, but the fact is skull night crashes through the fucking moon. Yeah, man. And breaks it like he's fucking Steve Austin. He, he breaks through the fucking moon. Like he's fucking Steve Austin entering at WrestleMania 13.
01:26:45
Speaker
And then he, he, the first thing he does is try to stab the void in the brain. I'm going to tell you this. If they do that new berserk anime and they dub it and they don't get Steve Austin to do the skull knight.
01:27:02
Speaker
Well, speaking of anime, you're fixing to exist in the interstice. Let me, let me also say this. Let me talk about the anime for a second because This doesn't happen in the original 1988 Berserk anime. Yikes, that's fucking grim. It is. Like, the way that the... Or 1997, I should... ah The way that the 1997 Berserk anime ends is Guts cuts off his own arm, his eye gets stabbed out, and he's still just watching it happen. Cut two credits.
01:27:45
Speaker
then after the crash yeah Then after the credits, there's a brief shot of him as the black swordsman walking out of the blacksmith's house.
01:27:58
Speaker
but that you know You can't end it there. They did. you can't know You can't do that, bud. But for years for me, that was the end of Berserk.
01:28:11
Speaker
Or like, there's a whole first episode, the first episode of the anime is a very quick adaptation of the Black Swordsman arc, which lets you know that somehow Guts lived through it. But that's kind of it. And so for me, for years, that was the end of Berserk. So then years later, when I finally read the manga and I see what happens,
01:28:42
Speaker
That's life altering. I just I cannot understate how much this scene is about all of this both supernatural and personal and like realistic.
01:28:59
Speaker
awful stuff happening. It's like every kind of like it's fucking monsters and and ghosts and fucking people's relationships and abuse and like all that and it's all happening and it's like the worst thing. And then the moon explodes and a fucking skeleton knight with a sword shows up and is like I'm i'm fixing to kick some ass.
01:29:28
Speaker
Yeah. And it's like, it and nothing's cheapened by that. It's just like, fuck yeah. And this awesome dude who you've seen a few times before this finally does some shit, too. Like, it's just, man, it is absolutely masterful. And then he tells Guts, hey, your life is gonna suck. Also, go see my ex-girlfriend.
01:29:55
Speaker
He does do both of those. He literally does that. And then he kind of like hangs around a little bit. And then he goes away. Yeah. Then he comes back and it's also one of the coolest things that ever happens. Well, he comes back ah when when Guts gets the Berserker Armor. Yeah. and It tells a little story. Yeah. he comes Well, I'm talking about when he comes back ah during the um the ah the Eclipse The false eclipse created by the egg-shaped apostle. Oh, right. Yeah. Where ah Griffith is reborn as the absolute without equal. Yeah. Yeah. Which we were talking about that the other day, too. How his nickname is the absolute without equal after he talked about how his only friends can be his equals. Yeah. Yeah. Berserk's fucking great.
01:30:49
Speaker
Yeah, man, he ah doesn't have any friends anymore. No. He just has a bunch of fucking freakos.
01:30:59
Speaker
Number one. Number one. Yeah, number one. Yeah, sorry, all other comics. That's the coolest shit that's ever happened. And we talked about it ah until we were out of time. Yeah. I did not want to stop doing this segment until we at least got that. Yeah.
01:31:17
Speaker
There's so many other things from Berserk we can also add to the list, but we at least got this. Yeah. Damn. Coming in at the new number one. The Skull Knight crashes through the Eclipse.
01:31:33
Speaker
I guess we, instead of an issue number, I think we would say that's like, uh, I think it's, I think it's volume 13 of Berserk. It's wild that, like, the rawest thing that happens in any comic doesn't involve the main character of the comic. I mean, he's there. He's there. He gets saved by the Skull Knight. What volume is that? Thirteen. I honestly love it, though, in stories where, like, there's a hero who's like a tough guy. But then there's another dude who's kind of like
01:32:11
Speaker
not always around who's a tougher guy, who saves his shit for the really, really important moments. Oh, but if you like that, let me say you about a little thing called Dragon Ball. Yeah, I know. You're going to dig it. You're going to absolutely love it. All right, that's got to do it. We only got three added to the list, but they were three big ones.
01:32:35
Speaker
Yeah, there's a reason that, like, I think we were both, like, we both saw that $3,000 skull noise statue and we're like, well? Well. Well. That could be a car or. Or this statue. Uh, we've got some, some other good ones coming, uh, next time. So. I don't, I don't know if there's anything better than that, but we'll see.
01:32:59
Speaker
No, I don't know that they're gunning for number one, but but there's good stuff coming.
Listener Interaction and Closing Messages
01:33:03
Speaker
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01:33:25
Speaker
Email us, warrocketpodcast at gmail dot.com. You can also follow us on Blue Sky. We're there at warrocketajax.bsky.social. We're on Tumblr at warrocketpodcast.tumblr dot.com. You can ask us listener questions there. Our website is warrocketajax.com and is every episode of the show we've ever done. warrocketwiki.com is the fan run repository of information.
01:33:52
Speaker
about this show, War Rocket Ajax, you can find a lot of interesting stuff there, including the good hat. If you want to find me and my stuff, go to MattDWilson.net. That's where 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. That is my website. It's got exactly one thing on it right now, but it also has links to other things that I do, including some comics, including like some dramas you can read for free if you want to.
01:34:23
Speaker
What a deal. the the best The best deal there is. It'll only cost you your time. Thanks for listening, everybody. Yeah, thanks for listening. This is a fun one. ah Until next time, don't forget Black Lives Matter. Trainers rights are human rights. As are abortion rights. Drag is not a crime. Cops aren't your friends. But we love you. We love you.