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Episode 759 - Sounds Like Superman
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We're taking your listener questions on this week's show, including queries about character classes for our pets, superhero media music, the franchise with the best swords, and much more!
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Join the WRA Patreon to help us keep doing the show and get rewards!
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Transcript
Introduction and Zencaster Benefits
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.
Social Media Platforms: Nostalgia and Critiques
00:00:28
Speaker
Titus, I'm bored. What plaything can you offer me today?
00:00:39
Speaker
got War Rocket Ajax to bring back his body. Terminator X-E!
00:00:53
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.
00:01:04
Speaker
Hey, and ah Chris, this week it's it's me who has a question for you. I would love to hear it, Matt. Chris, of all the social media websites that have become defunct,
00:01:19
Speaker
yes You can destroy one current social media website. Twitter. X, okay. And you can replace it with one that has been thrown onto the trash heap of history.
00:01:33
Speaker
How loosely are we are we describing social media platforms? How wide a net can I cast? I think if you wanted to say Webkinz, you could. Okay.
00:01:47
Speaker
Okay. ah Look, I kind of want MySpace back. I thought MySpace might be it. Because I need my friends to know where they literally rank.
00:02:03
Speaker
Yeah. dude the All the other social media sites have been cowards who don't know don't have ranking of friends. like and Instagram has your close friends, but only they know who they are. Exactly. Exactly.
00:02:20
Speaker
and And I will say this, I don't i don't go on Instagram that often, um but whenever I do and like I'm in somebody's close friends list, I always feel really nice about that. It does feel nice, yes. So imagine how nice I would feel if I was in somebody's top eight.
00:02:35
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wouldn't that be great? Being in a top eight again? it would be nice to be in a top eight. I mean, it's it's not nice to be excluded,
00:02:49
Speaker
But it is nice to be included. Well, Matt, you would always be in my top eight. Thanks, bud. But the question is, where would you be? Yes, i would I would constantly be checking to see yeah where I was in the top eight.
00:03:03
Speaker
um Like, you would know, like, uh-oh, I've been fucking up. I would immediately grind TikTok into non-existence. You hate TikTok.
00:03:16
Speaker
Yeah, I do. Yeah. I think TikTok is, and even more so now that it is owned by who it's owned by. i mean, X too. I would get rid of X, but... Yeah, i feel like yeah one that's gott like there's a right answer to which one you would get rid of.
00:03:32
Speaker
But i would I would get rid of TikTok because ah like TikTok, you don't even get to choose what you're looking at. You just allow a fire hose to be sprayed at you. You can just follow people and there is a... like But that's not the prescribed and recommended use case TikTok. that's true. That's true.
00:03:55
Speaker
um What I would bring back is Vine. i mean, that I feel like that's also the right answer. But i don't like I don't know if that's as much of a... I guess it is a social media platform. To me, that always seemed like a content platform.
00:04:09
Speaker
I mean, distinction without a difference, I yeah i would say. But like Vine was the good TikTok. vine bestowed upon us, back at it again at Krispy Kreme. No, Vine was incredible.
00:04:24
Speaker
yeah
00:04:28
Speaker
ah Vine was just funny. You couldn't spread incredible, I mean you could, but not the way you people do on TikTok. You couldn't spread misinformation in six seconds. the way i don't yeah i don't know if like i don't know if Vine lint itself to radicalization As much as everything else seems to.
00:04:51
Speaker
yeah I mean, it could just be... I might change my answer to Vine. if Do you know if Tom's become a Nazi? That's a good question. I do not know. I do not know.
00:05:01
Speaker
I'm just saying, Vine had some funny ones. if Please go watch a Vine compilation on YouTube that includes Back at It Again and Krispy Kreme listeners. but i I think between us, we've got the right answer, which is Vine...
00:05:15
Speaker
ah mary vine Kill Twitter. Fuck MySpace. Yeah. Perfect.
Patreon Perks and Podcast Support
00:05:24
Speaker
We got a great show for everybody this week. We're going to be taking some of your questions, some of your listener questions on the show. So stick around for that when we get to that. But Chris, before we get to ah some listener questions a little bit later on the show, we do have some business to take care of right here at the top. The first piece of business is thanking our newest supporters over on Patreon.
00:05:47
Speaker
That's right, Matt. No, these the people who want to support the show. And you know how they do that? Well, I'll tell you what they don't have to do. They don't have to go all the way down to 759 Gimmick Street. They don't need no kettlebells.
00:05:58
Speaker
All they need to do is go to patreon.com slash warrocketajax, where they can kick in as little as a dollar a month. And that helps us keep doing the show. That helps us do all the fun stuff we do here every week. That helps us do the impending bonus, the go boco, Gordy's bonus content that we said we were going to do.
00:06:22
Speaker
but We are going to do that. We are we are going to do that very soon. ah Don't worry. ah That helps us do the show, but more importantly, it helps me pay those gimmicks they keep sending in the mail called bills.
00:06:35
Speaker
And you don't want take my word for it, Matt. You can take the word of strip law writer Daniel Kibblesmith, who says support the warrocketajax.com boys on Patreon, get the special submission privileges, the ad-free episodes, and help them get to 666 so that Chris can sacrifice Matt to the devil.
00:06:53
Speaker
Yeah, and you can trust Daniel. He's from Hollywood. That's right. He's from Los Angeles. Chris, would do you like to know what's at 759 Gimmick Street? I would, Matt, because one of the things you can do on that Patreon is, look, you don't have to go down to 759 Gimmick Street, but you can, thanks to the Gimmick Street Preservation Society.
00:07:16
Speaker
That's right. We got a few new submissions to the Gimmick Street Preservation Society over the last week or so. And the first one, or the, yeah, the first of the bunch we got is from Tim Pascoe. So Tim has the distinction of saying what goes at 759 Gimmick Street.
00:07:38
Speaker
Tim says, hey, Matt and Chris, my submission to name a spot on Gimmick Street is ah Dave Melzer and Nigel Tufnell's 7-11. A spot that gives you the opportunity to learn how to rate wrestling matches from 1 to 5. 1 to 5. A 7, of course, create amps and create amps that go all the way to 11.
00:08:00
Speaker
That's so conceptual. So yes, okay. I love it. I got a little mixed up in the reading of that. So Dave Meltzer has a five one to five star wrestling match rating system that he has expanded to seven for certain matches, most of which take place in the Tokyo Dome. Yeah, if you've ever heard us say that's seven in the Dome, that's what we mean.
00:08:28
Speaker
um And then Nigel Tufnell obviously has the the amp that Usually goes to 10, but goes up to 11. So um it's the 7-11. um That is very conceptual, Tim. Thank you for sending that in. That level of conceptual humor, that's what makes Gimmick Street such a wonderful place to go.
00:08:50
Speaker
That's right. We also have some new Patreon supporters. ah We've had a few that have um upped their... ah membership in recent weeks, and we do very much appreciate that. But our newest supporters are Ryan Watson.
00:09:11
Speaker
Thank you, Ryan. And Jason. like like the Like the killer in the hockey mask? No, I do not think this is Jason. Oh, like the guy who does the comics where everybody is like a dog?
00:09:24
Speaker
i I don't think it's Jason Voorhees. That I can be sure of. Okay, so it might be it might be Jason who just goes by Jason... I think he's Norwegian.
00:09:35
Speaker
It's not that Jason either, I don't think, but it is it is someone named Jason and and we thank you. We thank you, Jason. Yes, thank you, Jason. If you would like to be like Ryan and Jason and help us out here on the show. You can do it by going to patreon.com slash warrocketajax and kicking in as little as a dollar a month to make sure that we do this show every single week, that we do Every Story Ever specials monthly, that we do Comics Catch-Up monthly. i believe we'll be recording the Comics Catch-Up about Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine number two very soon.
00:10:09
Speaker
And Movie Fighters and Snag Situation when we eventually get back to doing that. All of those shows are made possible by your support on Patreon. As a patron of any level, you get ad-free episodes of every single show that we do.
00:10:22
Speaker
At the $5 level, you get bonus content. We're going to do that Gordy's Boko very soon as well. At the $10 level, you get line-stepping privileges for our segments, which currently include One to Ten of Swords and Every Story Ever.
00:10:38
Speaker
And then at the $15 level, you can join the aforementioned Gimmick Street Preservation Society, To become a member of that elite group and name and address a location on Gimmick Street.
00:10:53
Speaker
Just like the Dave Meltzer and Nigel Tuff 07-11.
00:10:59
Speaker
At the $20 level, you get all of that stuff i said before and a t-shirt. we are we've We've talked about some possibilities for the 2026 t-shirt.
00:11:11
Speaker
Just this week. So more to come on that very soon. If you're unable to help us monetarily, you can help us out in other ways. You can leave us a five-star review on the podcasting app that you use, whatever that is.
00:11:24
Speaker
We would really appreciate five stars, or if they allow it, seven stars. Or you can just spread the word about the show, tell your friends and family, let people know to listen to a podcast you really like, War Rocket Ajax, and that maybe they'll like too.
00:11:40
Speaker
And then they can join our Patreon, wouldn't that be a win for everybody? I think so. With that, Chris, with thanks to our Patreon supporters, it's time for some checks and recs. What do you say?
00:11:56
Speaker
Let's do it.
00:12:00
Speaker
Chris, what would you like to check in with this week? Slug song's too hard, Matt.
00:12:06
Speaker
Slug song's too hard.
00:12:09
Speaker
simply too It's too difficult, and it didn't need to be that difficult. My Steam Deck broke, so I've been unable to finish Hollow Knight Silkson. How far did you get? I got i mean, I put, like, probably... i mean, look, i don't have a job right now.
00:12:27
Speaker
Patreon.com slash WarArcadeAjax. So, it's... it's I can't look up... Well, I guess I can actually look up on Steam how many hours it was. I got to i got into Bilewater, which is a bad place.
00:12:42
Speaker
Bilewater is a bad place, yeah. Yeah, ah I think that was maybe the last new area that I accessed, but I put some time into Silksong. Bilewater is the area of Silksong that is basically Blighttown from Dark Souls, if you...
00:13:03
Speaker
know anything about that. I've got 18.3 hours into Silksong. Pretty good. pretty good yeah that's I think that's a a pretty respectable amount of time. Silksong is about a 50 hour game, I would say.
00:13:16
Speaker
yeah oh Not for me! Not for me, buddy. You're done? you You're tapped out? I don't know if I'm done. i don't want to i I don't want to buy it a second time, so I'm not going to get it for a Switch while I wait for my Steam Deck to be repaired.
00:13:32
Speaker
Here's the thing. I was enjoying playing Silksong because, you know, those are well-designed and beautiful games from Team Jerry. Very well-designed. So I was like, oh, well, maybe, you know, it's been several years since I've played Hollow Knight, so maybe I'll just go back and play Hollow Knight a little bit.
00:13:47
Speaker
Hollow Knight's fucking baby school. Hollow Knight, a game that is hard, that is about as hard as I like games, going directly into that from...
00:14:00
Speaker
from Silksong, Matt, like, I didn't die for, like, for, like, ten hours of Hollow Knight. See? You got good.
00:14:12
Speaker
Yeah, but that's the thing. I am that good, and Silksong is still too hard. would say... Because what I got to in Hollow Knight before I died was, like, i I improved my ability to deal damage.
00:14:29
Speaker
I got like little little charms that I could wear to do stuff. Matt, Silksong's too hard. there are charm you've I'm sure you've gotten charms and stuff for Silksong. Yeah, they didn't they didn't help.
00:14:44
Speaker
i mean though That one did that you told me about that lets you take an extra hit, yeah that helped. But i had like getting that was a damn trial. I would say play Silksong when you're able. Play Silksong until you get to the last judge.
00:14:58
Speaker
And if the last judge is too hard for you, then you can tap out. But last judge is like the... For most players, that boss is like the sort of make-or-break moment.
00:15:14
Speaker
Matt, I think the first judge would have been my make-or-break moment, because it's too hard. I think Silksong is a very... worthwhile game that is worth the difficulty. No, look, it's good.
00:15:30
Speaker
But why give Hornet that number of life points if everything's going to do two? Like, that's the other thing. I'm playing Hollow Knight and it's like, things do one point of damage and there's things I can kill in one or two hits at the beginning of the game. Nothing in Silksong dies in one or two hits.
00:15:50
Speaker
I would say there is a ah defensive item you can get in Silksong that makes the two hits into one hit.
00:16:02
Speaker
It's, Matt, it's it's it's too much. It's too much. and And here's the thing. i don't like that it's so hard and punishing and kind of actively hostile.
00:16:17
Speaker
But I do like how mean it is. which is a different thing. Because that game is mean. It is this the the sort of FromSoftware kind of funny.
00:16:29
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's hilarious. You die in certain ways and at certain points and you can't do anything but laugh because it's like it's funny. like like the Yeah, the fake bench, save bench, which there are a couple of.
00:16:47
Speaker
there's Yeah, there's a couple of those. It's funny. I like when it charged me a great deal of money for a bench, and then the machine that brings the bench up was broken. Uh-huh.
00:16:58
Speaker
And so it makes you go through a massive tunnel of spikes two to fix it. that you can't like in you And the nearest save point is very far away.
00:17:12
Speaker
And I was like, that's hilarious. That's so mean. There is there is definitely some of that in the game, for sure. Like, the dungeon master part of me, Matt. gamere Game recognized game.
00:17:24
Speaker
Yeah. You know? Yeah. i i i I like the meanness, but it doesn't have to hit that hard. I mean, that's a fair point. I do think, you know, once you get some some extra some additional items, some of that is...
00:17:42
Speaker
is dulled a bit. But... That's how it goes. That's how it goes. That says you. I i ah formally requested a version of Slick Song where Hornet is not armed with a pool noodle and does not have Mr. Glass disease.
00:18:02
Speaker
And if they were to put that out, like, go ahead like go ahead and call it Dumb Baby Mode or whatever. Like, put a little picture of me personally in a baby bonnet with a pacifier like they used to do if you if you picked like the easy mode in Wolfenstein.
00:18:19
Speaker
Yep. think they still do that in the recent Wolfenstein games. I mean, they have to. They have to. Yeah. Do that if you must. I'll give you $20 for a version of this game I can play.
00:18:33
Speaker
Matt, what have you been up to this week while I have been getting just soundly beaten up by all these bugs? Well, Chris, I have been stressed out. I got a random email from my a health insurance provider.
00:18:49
Speaker
Oh, great. That's always fun. It's always fun. That said something to the effect of, um we can't cover your claim. And it had ah a thing in there, a link that I clicked, and...
00:19:03
Speaker
It took me to a thing that did not seem to indicate anything of the sort. okay So I don't really know what's going on, but um I am bracing myself for um a truly monumental bill um sometime in the next little bit. And this is going to be one of those times where um I ask our listeners for some real-life help. I mean, first of all, patreon.com slash warrocketed.x. Second...
00:19:33
Speaker
If anybody listening to this knows of a like affordable and good like a medical debt consultant or or somebody who could be an advocate ah to help with perhaps denied medical claims or that kind of thing, I might need to contact one in the next little bit.
00:20:00
Speaker
So um if ah if anybody knows about anything of that sort and can direct me to someone who might be able to help with that, I don't know if I'm going to need one or not. um um I'm waiting for perhaps a life-altering bill to arrive. But if that is the case um and and I need somebody in my corner to negotiate with my insurer, let's say, then then Then if anybody has anybody knows of anybody who they can direct me to to help with that, I would appreciate it.
00:20:36
Speaker
That's my check. o oh Things are going great for your boys. Things are going great for your boys. um Anyway, it's now time for some recommendations. Chris, what do you have to recommend?
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Review
00:20:50
Speaker
Matt, I would like to recommend a a filmed entertainment that you can watch On a streaming service. Because I know that you, Matt Wilson, love that shit.
00:21:03
Speaker
I love it, yeah. i I'll watch a filmed entertainment all day. heat Folks, he loves it. who And Matt, this is the brand new Star Trek series.
00:21:16
Speaker
Star Trek. Starfleet Academy.
00:21:21
Speaker
I was wondering about that. ah Because I wasn't sure from like early trailers and stuff whether that was going to be a show I liked very much.
00:21:34
Speaker
Well, here's the thing. It's got a lot to not like in it. it it It felt like Star Trek's CW teen drama. Oh, a million percent.
00:21:46
Speaker
A million percent. Yeah. And it is like it's very like it's very much, like my my thought was, like this is Degrassi in space. Because it is very much like, I guess Starfleet Academy is more like college than high school, but it is very much like teens and young adults in this educational institution, but also like it's Star Trek.
00:22:12
Speaker
And I will say this, it is Star Trek. It's Star Trek as hell. In a way that I do like. Episodic? Yeah, like well, every episode, that there is an overarching plot about the main character's ah mom being missing. His mom, Tatiana Maslany.
00:22:29
Speaker
oh Who's missing. But i don't care about that. Okay. Because that's the thing. I do not care about this main character at all. And that is not a ah knock on the actor.
00:22:41
Speaker
But the character of Caleb Meir... I don't think is an interestingly written character. He's... You know, he's like a ah guy who basically goes to Starfleet Academy rather than going to prison.
00:22:55
Speaker
Space prison. And he's a little too nihilistic, and I don't really care about his mom, and he's an asshole,
00:23:10
Speaker
and i I don't know. like it's I don't like him and I don't care about him. Everyone else on the show I care about a lot. ah Because here's who's in our cast.
00:23:24
Speaker
ah There's ah the main guy, Caleb Meir. Captain Holly Hunter. There's Captain Holly Hunter, who's great. um Because she sits like a gremlin.
00:23:37
Speaker
she like Every time she's in a chair... like She's in the captain's chair of a starship. like curled up like a cat in a cardboard box. And also, in the first of two ah bits of good news for the foot freaks out there, ah there's a lot of Holly Hunter barefoot to the point of people being like, you should put on some shoes.
00:24:00
Speaker
wow And her being like, i don't like wearing shoes. I like to have my feet out. And I'm like, m okay. Holly, you better be getting paid for this. I hope she is.
00:24:13
Speaker
i hope she like I hope she has it in her contract. There's not like Tarantino close-ups on them, but they're in there. yeah Maybe Holly Hunter was like, I gotta to get that WikiFeet rating up.
00:24:25
Speaker
But ah she's very fun. She's a half-lanthanite, so she's 427 years old. blaze it um She's great. Paul Giamatti is a space criminal.
00:24:39
Speaker
okay He's an evil space pirate that hates everyone. I know that the holographic doctor is back. the The homie, Robert Picardo, is back as the doctor.
00:24:52
Speaker
The only science fiction character named the doctor that I give a shit about. Somehow that hologram aged, but I love that. heat Literally in the first episode, he goes, I put an aging program.
00:25:06
Speaker
added an aging subroutine in my program so the people would be more comfortable around me. I'm like, fuck yeah, give me the... like Because I love that when like like Picard was not good, but that bit in Picard when Q showed up, he's like, oh, you got old. I'll get old. And then they stopped using a computer de-aged John Delancey. Hell yeah.
00:25:25
Speaker
But no explanation for Data. No explanation for why Data's old.
00:25:33
Speaker
The Doctor is great. The students are all really fun. There's one girl ah whose name is Sam, who is a ah She's a photonic organism, so her body is a hologram.
00:25:44
Speaker
ah She was created four months ago as a 17-year-old girl. And so she's very fun and new to everything. she you know You know that kind of character type. The the Teen Titans go Starfire.
00:25:59
Speaker
Absolutely, yeah. yeah ah There's ah one girl who's a super overachiever, whose father is a Starfleet Admiral. There's ah like ah Like a rich guy from a tragic who has a slightly tragic past. And then there's a Bajoran girl who turns out to just be the Phoenix. She's just Jean Grey.
00:26:23
Speaker
Awesome. like so it's So it's kind of Star Trek X-Men. It's very much Star Trek X-Men. all right like I don't want to spoil anything for you, but there's a part where the young lady's psychic powers are kind of going out of control.
00:26:40
Speaker
And she says, I know you won't want to be with me after you see this. And then she uses her psychic powers to explode multiple people's brains and save ah the guy's life. and um And I turned to AC and I was like, I know you won't want to be with me. After you see the coolest shit you've ever seen in your life that also saves your life.
00:27:02
Speaker
But I can't touch you. ah But yes, all of those characters I like. The character that I love is Jaden, who is a ah a pacifist Klingon who wants to be a doctor.
00:27:18
Speaker
Oh, Jaden must be in the NBA. Mm-hmm. Check my Blue Sky account for more i got about that. He's great.
00:27:29
Speaker
He's a lot of fun. I love that there is a there is a rival school to Starfleet Academy, which is also just Starfleet. It's the the war college where they're training all the the like military part of Starfleet, as opposed to the nerds who are going to go around.
00:27:45
Speaker
Where they train the Jim Kirks and not the Captain Picards, if you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There is also a part where they... like one of the parts of the school is named like the the James Kirk auditorium or whatever. And I'm like, don't name anything at that school after Kirk.
00:28:01
Speaker
name You can name plenty of Starfleet shit after Jim Kirk. Don't name anything at the school after him. he cheated. But everybody remembers it. Everybody always brings up the Kobayashi Maru.
00:28:16
Speaker
I mean, look, I'm not going lie. I do love that he cheated at the Kobayashi Maru. He doesn't believe in a no-win scenario. It's so funny that you mentioned the ah the character who has a like a parent who's an admiral and is an overachiever.
00:28:32
Speaker
Because when we were doing Improvised Star Trek, we each came up with three characters that we could play of like varying ranks. you know High ranks and low ranks and in the middle.
00:28:47
Speaker
And I swear that each of us individually had a character with parents who were like high-ranking Starfleet officials that we felt pressure to live up to.
00:29:02
Speaker
That's very funny. i was ah i was a little hesitant to get into it because it's in the the disco timeline, so it's 800 years past Star Trek.
00:29:14
Speaker
Past the next generation. Past the next generation, yeah. Like, it's it's often the, in the like it's like the Legion of Superheroes times. ah But I am enjoying it, and I am enjoying the way that they mess with those plots. There's a lot of really good Easter eggs and references. Stephen Colbert's in it, and ah nothing nothing but love for South Carolina's own Stephen Colbert.
00:29:33
Speaker
And there's one episode that's written by Tawny Newsome, who is also an executive producer on the show. Cool. Uh, And who appears on that show.
00:29:45
Speaker
And that episode is all about Ben Sisko.
00:29:50
Speaker
And that was the one that listener Ben Rowe said, you and AC should watch this one. So we did. And hell yeah, it's all about Ben Sisko. Hell yeah.
00:30:02
Speaker
And it is such a tribute to Benjamin Sisko and ends with like a little title card that says, thank you, Avery. That I was like, oh my god, did Avery Brooks die and I didn't know it?
00:30:13
Speaker
Look, give give people their flowers while they're alive. No, absolutely. Avery Brooks, alive and well. With his incredible voice. And deserves all the all the flowers. So yeah, I am very much enjoying Starfleet Academy. It is it is fully Star Trek X-Men.
00:30:30
Speaker
And I think that's great. Because you know you know two things that I like? like Star Trek and I like the X-Men. There you go. Matt, what would you like to recommend to everybody?
00:30:42
Speaker
Chris, I've seen enough. I've seen enough. I can finally say with confidence that I recommend Lies of P.
Video Game Reviews and Experiences
00:30:53
Speaker
o Now, o now Chris, you you just talked about how you don't really like hard games.
00:31:02
Speaker
As such, I maybe we wouldn't recommend Lies of P to you. Because... Lies of P, the more I have played it, like when I started the game, I sort of was like, oh, I don't know how much depth this combat has.
00:31:20
Speaker
i don't know how much personality these bosses have. i don't like I don't know if the level design is quite there of the level design of FromSoft games.
00:31:32
Speaker
But the more and more I played it, the more I was like, oh, no, no. These people get it. like The Korean developers who made Liza P have clearly played lots and lots of FromSoft games, in particular Bloodborne, and put a lot of loving care and detailed design into making the game.
00:32:01
Speaker
It's not perfect, but it's like a solid B+. plus If you're looking for a Souls-like to play, i would add very, very much recommend Lies of P, if you haven't played it yet.
00:32:16
Speaker
So it's a real B-plus player? it's it's I mean B-plus with like the highest honors. Well, the highest honors, Matt, would be an a Right. But like if Bloodborne is an Lies of P is a B-plus. Because it's got like...
00:32:33
Speaker
like the more you play, the more the bosses, like, impress, impressed me. There's one boss who's just straight up, like, Bane and or the champion of the universe for Marvel Comics.
00:32:49
Speaker
Okay. Like, he is, a like, a huge pro wrestler looking dude who also, like, injects himself with venom to get bigger. Like, he's, it's one of those two-phase boss fights. Mm-hmm.
00:33:04
Speaker
So like once you get like past half of his health bar, he the it stops. There's a cutscene. He gets bigger, and then you have to fight the bigger version. um There's a lot of two-phase boss fights in Liza P. I'm actually currently, I believe, on the final boss of the game, um which I'm working toward beating. and Maybe like on my fourth try.
00:33:29
Speaker
um at beating the final boss um the second phase of the final boss is nuts but still not the hardest boss in the game i think there are other bosses that are are maybe um harder um there's also like lots of choices in the game where like you can give characters like characters will ask you a question and then You can give them an answer, and because you're Pinocchio, even though the name Pinocchio is never said in the game.
00:34:02
Speaker
but Your character is never called by name. He is Pinocchio, but he's never called by name. He's always just called like Geppetto's Puppet, which is an interesting choice.
00:34:13
Speaker
um But ah because he is Pinocchio, you're encouraged to lie with every answer. and i mean that Matt, that that's that's not the moral of Pinocchio.
00:34:26
Speaker
I know that, but um there is a painting of him inside Geppetto's office where every time you give one of those answers, the nose grows. Okay, that's a different story, though.
00:34:37
Speaker
But the nose, like, and then eventually, if that nose grows enough, it becomes a weapon you can use. Okay, that's dope, actually. um um I will say this. I have one major complaint with the game, is and that is that it doesn't play fair with one of the side quests. So there's a lot of side quests in the game. There's a lot of, like, character-based um quests you can go on to, like, get level-up items or, or you know, strengthening items or that kind of thing.
00:35:10
Speaker
And um like Bloodborne or so many other FromSoft games, every time you beat a boss, you get that boss's, essentially that boss's soul.
00:35:22
Speaker
And with that item, you can make either a weapon or a support defensive item. Like there's a guy you go talk to and through him, you can trade in that boss soul for either a weapon or another item. You get to choose which thing you want to use the boss soul to create, essentially. Okay.
00:35:50
Speaker
And I was playing a character with a specific build. I am playing a character with a specific build. It's basically a dexterity build, because that's, on a first playthrough, that's what I always choose, because I prefer to be fast.
00:36:04
Speaker
So... I'm playing a character with a dexterity build. I get this one boss soul, and I choose not to make a weapon out of it because that weapon doesn't scale to dexterity.
00:36:16
Speaker
Come to find out near the end of the game that I had to make that weapon to finish one of the side quests. Like, you have to talk to a character hope while holding that weapon to unlock that side quest.
00:36:33
Speaker
That's bullshit.
00:36:37
Speaker
like thats sometimes you just Sometimes you don't get to see all of a game. That's bullshit. like but To me, that's not playing fair. Because that's an that's an item that I opted not to get in favor of another item that was a perfectly valid choice.
00:36:55
Speaker
And then when I got to that side quest, I couldn't do it.
00:37:03
Speaker
Bullshit.
00:37:05
Speaker
That's what makes it a B+. plus I see. Because say what you will about FromSoft games and how hard they are and how you can get locked out of side quests, because you can.
00:37:19
Speaker
They play fair about it, though. Like, if you get locked out of a side quest in a FromSoft game, it's because you fucked up. o Not because you made a perfectly valid choice.
00:37:33
Speaker
Look, man, sometimes you don't get to see all of a game. Like, for instance, maybe there's a second street in Bloodborne that I'll never know about. I think you should learn about it, and I could show you how to get there.
00:37:47
Speaker
All right.
00:37:49
Speaker
All right, those are our recommendations. Chris, it's time now to talk about some comics. Let's do it.
00:37:56
Speaker
The Texter's Choice winner for this week, Chris, I believe is Batman number seven.
Comics Discussion: Batman and Spider-Man
00:38:02
Speaker
Our second and most important piece of news for all the foot perverts out there.
00:38:07
Speaker
Yeah, Batman gets his feet out in Batman number seven. Batman gets his feet out, and I gotta say, I've read a lot of Batman comics, and I don't remember the last time I saw Batman's feet.
00:38:22
Speaker
Certainly not outside of like... healing up and recuperating in the Batcave. I don't need... I don't... yeah I literally... I've seen... I've read comics where Batman is bare-ass naked, Matt, and I don't remember seeing his feet out.
00:38:36
Speaker
But they are out in this comic. And he is in full costume mother otherwise. Yes. the The whole conceit of this issue is that Batman has been summoned to see the Joker in his in custody ah under Under the care of ah his his new doctor.
00:39:00
Speaker
And this is such a highly secured area. Dr. Zeller is her name. This is such a highly secured area that um he can't even walk with boots on. Yeah.
00:39:17
Speaker
Because the floor is like, there are green tiles on the floor and there are red tiles on the floor and you can only walk on the green tiles. And if you walk on the red tiles, you'll get like electrocuted and die.
00:39:29
Speaker
And and like it's super, super, super secure. And so at one point, Dr. Zeller tells Batman, like take your shoes and socks off.
00:39:40
Speaker
And he complies and he spends the rest of the issue barefoot. i I wish, since they had gone on a date, I wish you would have seen those feet and gone, Bruce.
00:39:52
Speaker
ah think that would have been fun. I've seen these before. We got some pretty good stuff with Joker and and Batman. And again, I've read a lot of Batman comics, and I don't know if I've seen a Joker-Batman conversation quite like this.
00:40:13
Speaker
Well, this is definitely Fraction. This is Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez. This is Fraction definitely trying to present a different take on Joker.
00:40:24
Speaker
Yeah. For sure. While Batman is like, no, he's i he's just the Joker. He hasn't changed. He's no different. Yeah. Which I do like, because I the air i think it is... The easy point of reference here is like Silence of the Lambs, right? Like Joker's in a tube. Yeah.
00:40:43
Speaker
Joker's in a tube and Batman is coming to him.
00:40:50
Speaker
Well, he doesn't know that he's coming to him for consultation about some impending danger. ah But he, he learns that that's what it is. um And, and the big reveal at the end of the issue, spoiler alert, if you haven't read it, is that Joker now knows that he's Bruce. Yeah. Which, which is like an off and on thing. Like it's a, like, Scott Snyder definitely him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah like you know Nice thing about Joker. He's super sane. He can know and forget stuff at random.
00:41:19
Speaker
I like the thing I like most about fractions. Batman is that Batman talks more like a normal person. He's still recognizably Batman, but this entire comic is Batman going, you're wasting my time. I don't care.
00:41:35
Speaker
Like whatever mind games you're trying to play by summoning me here. Like I know how you work. I don't care what you're doing. yeah and And then when the Joker's like, well, somebody's trying to kill you. He's like, yeah, somebody's trying to kill me every day. I'm Batman. Yeah. I loved that. Like there's a bit where a Joker goes, I asked to see you for two reasons.
00:41:56
Speaker
The second reason is a secret. And it just comes to Batman raising an eyebrow and going, great. Love secrets. And it's like, he's so done with this dude. And I love that yeah for him.
00:42:09
Speaker
There's one moment where like Joker says, ah you know there's there's danger coming to Gotham City. ah ah Something dangerous is in the offing.
00:42:19
Speaker
And then Batman's like, yeah, something dangerous is happening in Gotham City. Excellent tip. i'm I'm done with this. Bye. Yeah. The whole thing is Batman being like, I know why you did this. like i know I know why you wanted me to come here, and you wanted this guy to give the message. Because you want him to get found out, but there's going to be another one that you don't want to get found out.
00:42:42
Speaker
like We've been through this with Harley Quinn. I think it's a really good interplay between Batman and Joker in a way that I haven't really seen before, but in a way that really harkens back to The way their relationship works in like the Morrison run, right? Yeah. Where yeah Batman and Joker don't really fight in the Morrison run.
00:43:11
Speaker
Like, Joker's barely in it. They kind of have battles of wits. or Yeah. But when Joker talks to other people about Batman, it's like, this is what it is.
00:43:25
Speaker
it's It's like, no, no, no, you don't understand him. I get him. Yeah. the the We're the only people who really understand each other. Yeah.
00:43:35
Speaker
And I like Batman being like, look, I know, like, Dr. Zeller, I know that you're concerned for your patient, but like, I know all the shit he's doing. What's really interesting is, like, this could absolutely be a version of Joker who has found some kind of equilibrium and clarity in the situation that he's in. Because like there's one point where he goes like, oh, no, no, no, no don't ever let me out of this tube.
00:44:02
Speaker
yeah I'm exactly where I should be, and i was I was wrong when I was out of here, but now I finally see everything clearly. And like it it really does feel like this like treatment has changed him.
00:44:18
Speaker
Yeah, and of course Batman's making jerk-off motions, essentially. But Batman could be 100% right. and He could be, this could all be a trick. Yeah. and And so I like the way that it plays and it builds to that last page. And ah I did unfortunately read this digitally, so I didn't get the full effect of the gatefold.
00:44:39
Speaker
ah Which I can still tell you, it's beautiful. Yeah. I can still tell you Jorge Jimenez fucking crushed it on that one. Cooked with that one, bud. Like, Batman and Joker, all of a sudden you don't really know where either of them is standing?
00:44:56
Speaker
Yeah. Like, Bruce seems surprised on this last page. But is he? or is like And is Joker actually telling him something? like i i like the I like the interplay here with these characters a lot. And also, again, not it's not me.
00:45:14
Speaker
It's not me, I assure you. Like, it just gotta ah just got a hand like let you know. Not me. I don't care. But if you want to see Batman's feet. And I think what really makes this issue, like, how you can tell that this is great is that this is mostly just two characters talking.
00:45:32
Speaker
Yeah. And it's, like, an incredibly compelling, gripping issue of comic books. So, Batman number seven, good shit. Yeah. it Literally two characters standing on opposite sides of a glass tube.
00:45:47
Speaker
talking to each other for 20 pages and it's beautifully drawn and beautifully paced and beautifully laid out. Like, yeah, excellent. Uh, next up, I want to talk about, um, amazing Spider-Man number 23, which is part two of death spiral.
00:46:05
Speaker
Now, would you like to just read the text that you sent me and Benito? Uh, well, let me get to that in just a second. Um, first, I have two main points I want to make about this issue, which, you know, um, is, is a fun issue. Um, there's, there's, it's a Spider-Man venom team up, uh, where they, they take on, um, lady octopus and, uh, shocker for a while.
00:46:31
Speaker
Uh, Very fun issue, um but two things. If you're looking for two things, you will get them in this issue. One is overt, direct ah ah references to Maximum Carnage.
00:46:44
Speaker
ah That's always what I'm looking for, Matt. If you loved Carnage's graffiti... Carnage rules? In Maximum Carnage, this is a comic you're going to love. Hell yeah, hell yeah, hell yeah.
00:46:58
Speaker
um This is by Joe Kelly and Ed McGinnis, by the way. And, man, Ed McGinnis, I never would have really pegged Ed McGinnis as, like, a great Spider-Man artist. Or, like, somebody I would have been like, man, he should really be on Spider-Man.
00:47:12
Speaker
But, fuck, Ed McGinnis is great on Spider-Man. Yeah, man. Like, the the shit the shit that he has done on Spider-Man over the last few years has all been so good.
00:47:23
Speaker
Like... Unbelievable. yeah I love it every time Ed McGinnis is on a Spider-Man book. um But I will verbatim read the text I sent to you and Benito.
00:47:36
Speaker
um This is the second point I want to make about this issue. If you were curious about whether Aunt May still fucks, don't worry. Amazing Spider-Man 23 has you covered. That's the real death spiral.
00:47:47
Speaker
Yeah. Specifically, ah there's a part where she is ah sitting with her her new fiancรฉ, Ricardo.
00:47:58
Speaker
And ah they're talking about um you know moving in together. And Mae says, we're both ready for a relationship and not getting any younger.
00:48:12
Speaker
And Peter goes, you look at pretty lady. Yeah. And me goes, well, yes, that's all the whoopee. Gives me a youthful glow. And then Peter does a spit take.
00:48:25
Speaker
I was absolutely expecting on the next page for her to like say whoopee meant something different from what she said, but she does not. Man, that's... Buddy?
00:48:38
Speaker
Aunt May, look, Aunt May gets it.
00:48:43
Speaker
ah Not even Aunt May can get it, because she clearly does. This is like her fifth fiancรฉ. Oh, yeah. was Ben Parker. Ben Parker. Octavius.
00:48:57
Speaker
ah john are ah Jay Jameson. Jay Jameson. Nathan Lubinsky. Yep. And now this guy. And now this guy. She gets it. She gets it.
00:49:08
Speaker
High demand. High demand for Aunt May. ah Finally, we're going to talk about DCKO number five, which closes out the series and does a lot of what you would expect.
00:49:21
Speaker
Like, the that this is ah Scott Snyder and ah Javi Fernandez. You know, ah spoiler for the previous issue, Lex Luthor won the tournament, ah but then he didn't really win because...
00:49:39
Speaker
ah Superman was actually in a pocket universe the whole time. Yeah, Superman was under the ring. Yeah. Superman was under the ring. Just like Batman was under the ring, Superman was also under the ring. And then Superman, like, I hate this comparison because I don't want to compare Superman to a person that we know is terrible.
00:49:59
Speaker
But as a character, Superman does a full Hulk Hogan match. In this. That's true. Where he's getting beat up and then he does the you know he's walking around shaking and then Darkseid won't stop punching him. And he goes, you!
00:50:15
Speaker
And then boom! Super big boot, super leg drop. But imagine that Hulk Hogan... Imagine a match where Hulk Hogan, while he had his opponent down on the mat, ready to to pin him,
00:50:31
Speaker
instead stepped out of the ring and then called in the whole locker room to win instead. yeah Well, i mean, that would never happen. Because that's what Superman does.
00:50:42
Speaker
That's what Superman does here. Yeah, no, it's very fun. It's very fun. But it is like, I'm reading this going, this has the exact pacing of a Hulk Hogan match brackets positive. The way that this ends things, the way that this leaves things is very interesting, though, because Superman kind of goes away for a while.
00:51:02
Speaker
Like, he doesn't die. He explicitly says, i'm I'll be back. I just got some stuff I gotta do. After beating Darkseid. And then there's a whole lot of setup for
00:51:19
Speaker
essentially absolute crisis. Uh-huh. So, it's that's gonna be fun. it's a It's a wild ride, man, and it's but it's kind of fun. it's I mean, it's very fun. It's very fun. Yeah, it's fun.
00:51:34
Speaker
um I appreciate how this this event got in and out in five issues. I'm here for that, for sure. Absolutely. Yeah. um Yeah, absolutely. ah Clearly an absolute clash is coming soon.
00:51:55
Speaker
All right, that's going to do it for our comics review segment, which means, Chris, it's time to take some listener questions. Let's do it.
00:52:12
Speaker
Chris, our first question comes to us from our Discord, from Senor DopeDogDeLaVega, who wants to know, what's the franchise with overall the best swords?
00:52:24
Speaker
oh
00:52:27
Speaker
I mean, i I thought you would have an immediate answer. Well, I mean, like, the franchise with the best swords, or the franchise with the most best swords?
00:52:38
Speaker
the but the The best swords overall. I think as a whole. I mean, the thing. Okay, like, Berserk has a perfect sword. It's got a 10 out of 10. Yeah.
00:52:48
Speaker
yeah And it's got that cool sylph sword. It's got the sylph sword, which is also very cool, yeah. And it's got the the the the sword made out of beylets. yeah That's true. It's got the sword of actuation.
00:53:01
Speaker
Yes. So that's three. But the rest of the swords in Berserk are just kind of like, you know, they're swords. Castlevania's got like a hundred swords in it. And like, probably... I can't believe you didn't go so straight to Lord of the Rings. Well, lord well that's what I'm saying. Lord of the Rings has Under Ilf.
00:53:20
Speaker
It's got Glam during the Foehammer. It's got Orcrist, the Goblin Cleaver. It's got Sting, which I did say would count as a sword, even though for a Tuller, for the race of capital M men, it would be more of ah a dagger.
00:53:35
Speaker
But in the hands of a hobbit, it's a sword. So it's got Sting. Those are all pretty good. i mean, those are all really good, honestly. But again, it's like, that's that's like four really good ones.
00:53:50
Speaker
i like I don't know. like do you Are you saying you think it's Lord of the Rings? Because I don't think that's a wrong answer. No, I'm saying i thought you would say it was Lord of the Rings.
00:54:00
Speaker
Okay. Because I know how much you love those swords. i Buddy, I do love those swords. You know I love those swords. I'm all about those swords.
00:54:11
Speaker
Yeah. But, i mean, you know, Legend Zelda has the Master Sword. And it's also got a bunch of other really cool swords. Sure.
00:54:23
Speaker
So... It's hard to say. Like, I think in terms of, like...
00:54:30
Speaker
i don't know, man. Like, what what has... What has the... What has the best swords? Are we talking about what has the best sword?
00:54:43
Speaker
Or are we talking about what has the most good, like... most good... what What has the best swords on balance? like Yeah, like it's we're not talking about what has a 10, we're talking about what has the most 9s.
00:54:54
Speaker
What has the best average? Yeah, like like, you could say Final Fantasy, but that's wrong. Because even though Final Fantasy has a whole bunch of great swords, it also has a bunch of swords that suck shit.
00:55:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, like... Like, if we're looking at Castlevania, we've got the Alucard sword. That's a good one. We've got the Sword Familiar. That's a good one. We've got the the Heaven Sword. That's a good one.
00:55:23
Speaker
and it's got the Crosaigrim, which is, of course, perfect. Like, all of those are are pretty solid. Okay, so it sounds like you're leaning toward Castlevania. But that's the thing. is It's got the sheer amount of swords in Castlevania. It's huge.
00:55:37
Speaker
Yeah, those swords are not good. And not even something like fucking Bleach, you know? Yeah. I'm going to so safely settle with Berserk for this reason.
00:55:49
Speaker
Berserk itself has at least three really good swords. Also, Casca's sword is cool. It's started iss not a 10, but it's a 7, probably. Griffith's sword is also cool.
00:56:04
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, yeah. So that's like five cool swords. Yeah. And then like some of the incidental swords are not so good. Some of them are. like a like ah Nosferatu Zod's sword is very cool.
00:56:22
Speaker
The swords of you know various bad guys. Have we talked about how wild it is that that dude's name is Nosferatu Zod? Have ever like sat down and really discussed that?
00:56:34
Speaker
i I wonder what the original Japanese is for his name. I wonder if that's a direct translation. It's gotta be. yeah It's gotta be.
00:56:45
Speaker
um But, you know, i Not only are the swords in Berserk great, by extension, they have influenced every sword in every FromSoftware video game. Because there is no...
00:57:06
Speaker
influence that is clearer or more direct than Berserk's influence on Dark Souls and the associated video games.
00:57:17
Speaker
So, by by goodness of sword and by influence, I would easily award it to Berserk. I'm looking, and I think it might be Zelda. Okay. Because I feel like Zelda has a lot of swords, and it it kind of has no bad ones.
00:57:36
Speaker
Unless you count a lot of the like breakable weapons from
00:57:43
Speaker
Tears of the Kingdom, Breath of the Wild. And Breath the Wild. Yeah, I mean, look, that's true. But also, I'm looking at at this, and I'm thinking about you know the Master Sword, obviously.
00:57:55
Speaker
The Biggeron Sword. The Fierce Deity Sword. The sword on the box for Zelda 1. That's a good sword. There's like a great fairy sword, I think.
00:58:05
Speaker
the ah so The goddess sword. that's The goddess sword is another great sword design in a different way than the master sword is a good sword design, and they're kind of the same sword.
00:58:19
Speaker
Spoiler warning. The four sword looks cool. Ganon swords look cool. the The swords that Zelda has in like Twilight Princess look cool. there's There's no... Outside of the breakable stuff in Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, there's no like sword in Zelda that's the bad one. Yeah. Yeah.
00:58:43
Speaker
Yeah. Like, even the even the wooden swords That you get first thing in Zelda. It's pretty cool. Yeah.
00:58:53
Speaker
Okay. ah ah like i It's got... like I think it's it's got the numbers and the quality. Because I think it's it's by and large got like it's again it's got like the most sevens.
00:59:08
Speaker
Alright. I think we've settled. We've settled. i say Berserk, you say Zelda. Pedro Valor on our You say berserk.
00:59:19
Speaker
That's right. Pedro Valor on our Discord wants to know, have you cooked any new recipes lately that you've enjoyed? No, I have not. ah I've been depressed.
00:59:32
Speaker
So I have not been doing a lot of cooking. The cooking that I have been doing have been like comfort recipes like the bean soup recipe that I like to make. But that's not new. That's not new. That's not new at all. That's like my go-to.
00:59:44
Speaker
Okay. But you do like it. I do want to get back into it, but I do need some like easy recipes. Yeah, i've I've been in much the same boat. i have I have cooked some stuff at home, but it has all been easy because i have had to do most everything around the house up until maybe two weeks ago.
01:00:09
Speaker
When Marlene could actually like get up and wheel around on a scooter and and do some stuff. um I did make a pasta dish that was... i was happy with how well I made it because i don't I'm not usually the one here who cooks pasta dishes. It wasn't anything like new or special either. It was just like pretty you know standard issue pasta with...
01:00:38
Speaker
with you know sausage, Italian sausage, meat sauce, and that kind of stuff. um So yeah, unfortunately, no no great shakes, new recipes for either of us because 2026 has been, has been quite the year so far.
01:00:56
Speaker
Things do keep happening. Rattlesnake Kate on our discord wants to know, have you ever started imagining a song playing while you read a comic? Oh, all the time.
01:01:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. if If I'm reading anything with any Mortal Kombat character in it, like that DCKO crossover that had Scorpion and Sub-Zero in it, ah I'm going to think about the Mortal Kombat theme song, obviously.
01:01:27
Speaker
If they had any sense, they would have done a remix Of that song with all the people in DCKO. And it would have been like Superman.
01:01:41
Speaker
Batman. Luther. Annabelle. From Annabelle.
01:01:49
Speaker
Joker. Red Sonja. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. And then there would be like a QR code where you could scan it and and listen to it.
01:02:05
Speaker
While you read. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Yeah, that would have been smart. you know, like, the the obvious answers are, like, like stuff like ah Blue Monday. They used to have, like, the, like, what song is playing in this scene, like, as a footnote.
01:02:19
Speaker
And so you could imagine it if you knew it. Unfortunately, a lot of times when a comic has, like, a playlist, an accompanying playlist, that playlist is usually in the back matter, so you see it after you're done. Yeah, but but Blue Monday would put it, like, in, like,
01:02:35
Speaker
Again, as footnotes. Yeah, that's that's smart. yeah But like yeah, if I'm reading a Kyle Starks comic, I might hear Eye of the Tiger in my head or something. It's funny to me that that's what you think of when it's a when it's a Kyle Starks comic.
01:02:52
Speaker
I mean, certainly like Sex Castle. Like... I feel like every time I read a Kyle Starks comic, I'm just hearing ah the live version of ah Long Tall Sally constantly on a loop by Jerry Lee Lewis. It's pretty good.
01:03:08
Speaker
On Blue Sky, we have a question from Michael Haida. Who is the most underrated comic book writer right now, and the same for artist?
01:03:19
Speaker
I would say most underrated is Ty between Chris Sims Matt Wilson. Yeah. oh Artist? I don't know.
01:03:30
Speaker
I feel like people really... Like, people like Al Ewing, but I feel like people don't get excited for Al Ewing books like they should.
01:03:42
Speaker
i mean, yeah, Al Ewing is made like probably the best writer in comics right now. Like, I don't i don't know if But it's hard to say that he's underrated, because like... You know, Immortal Hulk was hugely acclaimed. ah Sure.
01:03:56
Speaker
Like, Mortal Thor is is wild. ah the thing i don't I don't see people talking about Mortal Thor or, like, other Al Ewing books.
01:04:09
Speaker
should We talk about them. We talk about them, but, like, I feel like people don't... I don't know. I think i think Al Ewing... I would call Al Ewing underrated. i don't i don't know how.
01:04:22
Speaker
i mean like in the I don't know if any rating of Al Ewing could be accurately good. Because the thing about Al Ewing is the range. You know?
01:04:33
Speaker
To do Mortal Thor, the same dude did Immortal Hulk and Metamorpho. And that's wild. And the the current Venom series.
01:04:46
Speaker
Yeah, like three more different books you could not imagine. Yeah. ah I don't know. like
01:04:55
Speaker
I think this is maybe a function of of kind of the type of comics that I like. because you know i do I do mostly read mainstream superhero comics, but like Fraction's rated about about right.
01:05:08
Speaker
you know Al Ewing's probably rated about right. Jason Aaron's probably rated about right. Teenie is rated about right. I do think i do think Kelly Thompson... should be more in the discussion ah of like best of all time.
01:05:22
Speaker
um I mean, I think, I think absolute wonder woman has finally gotten her pretty close. Yeah.
01:05:33
Speaker
Like it's universally agreed that absolute wonder woman is great. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like it's, it's phenomenal. Yeah. And like, I think that's like, that's, that's,
01:05:49
Speaker
I think if you're writing an absolute book, you're probably about right. you know You're probably rated about like you should be. Maybe the most underrated artist and writer ah is is the creative team of Absolute Martian Manhunter.
01:06:03
Speaker
Yeah. Because... that like That's a fucking masterpiece of a book. Like, Dennis Camp... like I've read a lot of other stuff by Dennis Camp lately.
01:06:16
Speaker
and like Dennis Camp is really good. yeah like yeah Everything I've read by Dennis Camp is is like top-notch stuff. and like I don't know, Javi Rodriguez might be rated right. yeah but i don't like I don't know. I feel like that guy's a superstar.
01:06:42
Speaker
it's it's It's really hard to say because I feel like, you know... ah I feel like I probably... I'm... It has not been our full-time day job to be, like, comics critics in a long time.
01:06:59
Speaker
Yeah. and So I feel like I probably don't know who, like, the the most underrated a person in comics is that I would be way more on top of if I was doing that. I mean, you know, we so we still do this.
01:07:13
Speaker
i think... ah and we're at a point where we know what we like, but we don't know as much about what other people like right now. yeah Which is actually kind of nice. Yeah.
01:07:26
Speaker
yeah like i mean I would be curious. you know I'm always open for ah for somebody to be like, oh, hey, like this person's doing great work. and And I know there are people like that out there. like um oh Who did ah ah Dark Patterns? Because that was fun.
01:07:44
Speaker
Oh, Dan Waters? Yeah, Dan Waters. But again, I'm learning about that from a fucking 12-issue Batman book. You know? Is it possible to be underrated whilst doing that?
01:07:57
Speaker
Great question. Yeah. don't know. Okay, here's our next question. This is from Tedly, Ted Anderson, on our Discord. What kind of Pokemon-themed furniture would you most want in your house? Well, I've got that big Snorlax that you can use as a beanbag chair.
01:08:15
Speaker
Okay. So I've got that one. Is there something else you would want? in like like for like I I love watching stuff like Pokemon Concierge, which is great.
01:08:33
Speaker
And like seeing all the little Pokemon-shaped stuff, Squirtle-shaped Squirt bottle and and and stuff like that. I want all of that.
01:08:46
Speaker
But i I feel like... i mean, a Snorlax bed would be great. ah
01:08:58
Speaker
I don't have an answer to this. i don't know. i mean, like... i think, like, Magikarp throw pillows would be nice. To have the house. think that would be fun.
01:09:10
Speaker
I've got like a little stuffed Pikachu that is essentially a throw pillow in my office. That's great. so But I don't really have an answer as to like some other thing I would want.
01:09:22
Speaker
Look, as soon as we stop recording, i'm about to start playing Pocopia. And I'm sure there's some weird Pokemon furniture in that that I'll be excited about. so
01:09:32
Speaker
Doc Whiskey on our Discord asks, How do you feel about wrestlers using a finisher made famous by another wrestler? um Yeah, everybody does that. Everyone does that.
01:09:45
Speaker
That's everyone. <unk> I'll tell you what, I'll never call it the RKO. It's a diamond cutter. That's a diamond cutter, baby! Yeah, it's... It's not really feasible anymore to invent your finisher out of whole cloth.
01:10:07
Speaker
yeah Although, the One-Winged Angel... I don't think anybody's ever used Kenneth Omega's finisher before. Probably not. No. But I mean, I saw a, saw like a, ah I know you hate TikTok, Matt, but I saw like a little yeah clip of an interview from, uh, with MJF where he was talking about that. Um, what is it? The heat seeker that he does where he's got you hung up on the ropes and does a pile driver, which he took from Adam Cole, which he took from Adam Cole.
01:10:34
Speaker
yeah And then when Adam Cole came to AEW, he was like, Hey man, sorry, I stole your finisher. And I'm cool. was Like, that's okay. I stole it from this other guy. And he stole it from Teddy Hart. So, like... it originated from Teddy Hart? It originated from Teddy Hart, apparently.
01:10:51
Speaker
so like, there are a few people, like... I know he's not a good person, but, like, Nova was one of them. ah Who was, like, a real, like, innovator and and was doing new moves all the time. But, like, everybody... Like, wrestling...
01:11:09
Speaker
Like comics and like D&D, I feel like wrestling is one of the art forms where you are both encouraged and expected to steal.
01:11:18
Speaker
Or, like like, Kevin Owens got bless ah a blessing to use the stunner. Well, he said he started using the stunner because he figured if Stone Cold was ever going to come back and have another match, that it would probably be with the guy who did the stunner.
01:11:31
Speaker
So he was, like, manifesting. And you know what? It worked. And it worked! It worked. And I think, like, you know... Like, the stunner's a perfect finisher for Kevin Owens.
01:11:44
Speaker
But, like, especially if the wrestler who made it famous is retired, like, if if they're not using it anymore, you know, go for it. Yeah. Is what I say. like Like, I don't think you should, like, it does not bother me that Company Man Punk stole the the go to sleep, you know? That doesn't bother me. I mean, it bothers Kenta. but It bothers Kenta.
01:12:11
Speaker
But it as ah as a viewer, as a fan, it doesn't bother me. I think it's only bad if you take somebody else's move and then do it poorly.
01:12:23
Speaker
Oh, like Company Man Punk. Like Company Man Punk or like The Rock doing the sharpshooter. The Rock doing the sharpshooter. But that's like a whole other situation, you know?
01:12:37
Speaker
Man, his sharpshooter sucked shit. Absolute garbage. And it's like, it's not hard. Like, that's not a hard move to figure out. Yeah. Like, you could watch it, you know?
01:12:51
Speaker
You could watch it, but ah he ah The Rock always did it poorly. yeah and And, of course, The Rock stole the bookend. Correct. Yeah. Yeah.
01:13:04
Speaker
that's that is If we had a wrestling podcast, my thing would be referring to finishing moves by their most obscure versions. like You'd be like, like yeah, you know i mean you know Kevin Owens wanted to wrestle Stone Cold Steve Austin, so he started doing the Whipper Stamper.
01:13:20
Speaker
Or the Chart Buster. I would just always refer to stuff by if if there was a WCW name for it, that was different from the wwe WWE name, that's the one I'm saying. So you would be calling it the Chart Buster?
01:13:36
Speaker
Yeah, the Chart Buster, the Scorpion Deathlock, the Stinger Splash, uh, you know, any of those. That's another thing, is I i once saw, like, an interview with, uh, with Sting.
01:13:52
Speaker
And they were doing a thing where like, you know, like, basically, like, word association. Like, I'll just say a guy and you say what you think of them, or whatever. And, uh, The guy said, Bret Hart. And Sting just paused for a minute and went, great finisher. And I was like, yeah. Yeah, man.
01:14:16
Speaker
Barely Sushi on our Discord. um I don't know. Has a question that might touch a nerve, but I do think it is an interesting question. Okay. I don't like that.
01:14:26
Speaker
What classes... Would Harrison, Coffee Cup, Biscuit, R.I.P., and Eleanor in Dungeons & Dragons? Okay, Coffee Cup is a rogue.
01:14:38
Speaker
Because Coffee Cup's out here doing crimes. Breaking out of but jail. Breaking out of jail. I went to the bathroom earlier tonight, Matt, and this dog like got up, knocked everything off a side table, and stole an empty milkshake cup.
01:14:54
Speaker
And it's like, what? I was gone for five minutes. Biscuit, I think, is Barbarian. Yeah, that that tracks to me. that track because look i don't know if it's still this way in in the new 5th edition, but Barbarians used to not be... like By default, you were illiterate ah in 3rd edition, and you know Biscuit couldn't read.
01:15:18
Speaker
Yeah. But we loved her for it. we loved her for i no I love Biscuit. ah I'm going to say Harrison is a bard. ah Because he he's not as loud as he used to be, and he is on anxiety drugs now, but he still can belt out some some some loud meows when he feels like it.
01:15:40
Speaker
And I always remember the time that I had him, i had to like put him in a carrier and take him on the bus to take him to Marlene's aunt's apartment for her to watch him while we went on a trip.
01:15:58
Speaker
And there was another guy on the bus. like Harrison was in his carrier meowing. And a guy on the bus was just like, that cat's voice. You should sing opera. definitely a bard. Not wrong. not wrong I'm going to say that Eleanor is a straight up fighter.
01:16:23
Speaker
She is bold. She is an incredibly bold cat. like She will roll up and just like attack a bag full of cookies.
01:16:37
Speaker
And not give a fuck. ah We have to keep sweets away from her. like We have to hide them in the microwave. Or she will break in and start chowing down on them.
01:16:54
Speaker
I'm going to say Eleanor is a fighter. Okay. but That tracks. That all tracks. Yeah. Let's see. G.I. Jolene on our Discord wants to know, if DC had ever put out a Christmas album from Batman and the Colorful Characters of Gotham, who do you think would sing what?
01:17:17
Speaker
Hmm. ah Now, Jolene has some some guesses. okay these These are three that Jolene thinks are locks. um Harley and Ivy would sing The Holly and the Ivy.
01:17:32
Speaker
yeah Catwoman would sing Santa Baby. That's exactly right. That, I think, is is correct. But I think it would be slightly changed to be a song about stealing things.
01:17:46
Speaker
Yes.
01:17:49
Speaker
And I think it would be about like Batman in a Santa costume. Yeah. um And then Two-Face, all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth. That's that's good.
01:18:01
Speaker
I think Penguin would sing Deck the Halls. that That makes sense. Because I think you'd get like... like
01:18:09
Speaker
I like it. i get and like it ah I think, you know, I mean, like Batman, the obvious, like the obvious answer for Batman is Silent Night. But I think that's too obvious.
01:18:23
Speaker
Because like, I don't think Batman, I don't think Batman's going to sing Sleep in Heavenly Peace, you know?
01:18:32
Speaker
But there's not a lot of, there's not a lot of Christmas songs about fighting, except for Merry Christmas, I Don't Want to Fight Tonight. Which would be pretty good, I think.
01:18:44
Speaker
I think the Joker would sing Jingle Bells, but that version with the altered lyrics about the Batmobile losing a wheel.
01:18:55
Speaker
Yeah, i mean, he does that in Batman the Animated Series. And him getting away. He does he does do that in the Animated Series. Yeah, he does do that. Yeah. He does that in Batman the Animated Series. I liked it when I was listening to Friends to the End today, matt and you were talking about Saw 2, and you were like, this is just like that one episode of Batman the Animated Series, and I was like, hell yeah it is. And and i think our other two friends were were silent.
01:19:28
Speaker
So it goes. So it goes. So it goes. Yeah, Batman got in the safe. Yeah, i'm I know. The Riddler didn't know how he did it. Riddler didn't know how he did it. He was like, how'd you do it? And Batman was like, I'm not telling you.
01:19:43
Speaker
Fucking weirdo.
01:19:46
Speaker
Any other thoughts on who's singing what song? oh Let's see. I think... Mr. Freeze, Winter Wonderland. That's a good one. Or Let Us Know.
01:19:58
Speaker
Either one, yeah. Who would do... Who would do... The the controversial... ah ah Maybe It's Cold Outside. I think that's a more fun choice for Harley and Ivy.
01:20:13
Speaker
Yeah, that would be fun for for the two of them. Yeah.
01:20:19
Speaker
And it doesn't, it wouldn't have like creepy undertones. Like if the Harley and the Joker sang it, it would have like absolutely creepy undertones. Yeah, you don't want, you don't want the, yeah, no, absolutely not. But I think if Harley says say what's in this drink, that's a legitimate question for Poison Ivy.
01:20:35
Speaker
True. True. Because it could be like, I don't know, just some organic mushroom. I think Damien is singing like Fairy Tale of New York.
01:20:48
Speaker
I saw Mother Kissing Santa Claus. That would be good as well, yes.
01:20:57
Speaker
And he literally doesn't understand what he's looking at. Yeah. Yeah.
01:21:04
Speaker
what What Christmas song would Dick sing? Is there a Christmas song about, like, like what's, the like, Backdoor Santa, maybe? that that i think that's too explicit for Dick Grayson.
01:21:18
Speaker
He makes his run about the break of day, Matt.
01:21:24
Speaker
Like, what's what's the most himbo Christmas song? I think he would sing Christmas at the Zoo by the Flaming Lips. That's fun. I like that. Yeah, and it seems like the kind of thing he'd do. <unk> We'll have to think more on this, but I like i like this as an idea. i like the the thought of a Gotham Christmas album.
01:21:43
Speaker
who's gonna Who's gonna sing ah Peace on Earth, Little Drummer Boy? That's gotta be Ra's al Ghul and Batman. Yes, I like that. I like that.
01:21:57
Speaker
and um And everybody sings Do They Know It's Christmas? Of course, yeah. um Travis O. Boozen Comics on Blue Sky says, I was listening to the February Every Story Ever and y'all were comparing Night Quest slash Night's End to the Groonies and John Walker cap.
01:22:16
Speaker
Have y'all ever thought about what a Batman cap a Malcolm character would be like? Probably be really good at fighting. Probably be really good at fighting. Um,
01:22:28
Speaker
the amalgam i mean you know the The Amalgam characters were ah Batman and Wolverine.
Superhero Amalgamations: Capes and Claws
01:22:37
Speaker
And who who was Captain America? Super Soldier. was It was Captain America and Superman.
01:22:43
Speaker
It was Captain America and Superman, that's right. And it was also Batman and Nick Fury because it was also Bruce Wayne, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Oh, that's right, yes. um And what would you name the Amalgam Batman character?
01:22:58
Speaker
character. I think that's really tough because I feel like they're there are like a lot of like physical similarities, but there's not a lot of character motivation similarities. right like They're very different as people.
01:23:15
Speaker
So it's it's difficult to... like i don't i don't know if it's accurate to say that Batman isn't an idealist. Because I do like a lot like like like I do think a lot about you know the idea of, like oh, i I need to create Batman. I need to create the new kind of man.
01:23:35
Speaker
the new guy. you know the new guy The new guy just dropped and it's me, Batman. But like there's an idealism to Steve Rogers that I don't think meshes with Batman's whole deal. like Captain America is not meant to strike terror.
01:23:52
Speaker
Now, he might... Because, you know, if you're ah if if you're a Nazi. But, like, Batman ends up being, like, a symbol of hope, and I think that's good.
01:24:05
Speaker
But, like, Batman is meant to strike terror. Like, Batman is meant to prey on the superstitious cowardly lot, and Captain America isn't. And I feel like that's a very, like, it's a tough one to to reconcile.
01:24:19
Speaker
I mean, argu hopefully arguably Wolverine and Batman are Equally different.
01:24:27
Speaker
Wolverine kills people. I mean, yeah, Wolverine kills people, but Wolverine... But, I mean, Matt, Wolverine's a samurai. True. True. Wolverine's got the soul of a samurai, buddy.
01:24:45
Speaker
It is wild that Wolverine and Batman got put together when Wolverine just has knives on his hands. Yeah. Let's see. That was Dark Claw. That was Dark Claw, yeah. well is I'm trying to think of a clever name of a Cap Batman amalgamation.
01:25:03
Speaker
And i' i'm I'm coming up short. I think I would just call him like The Knight. Starwing or something like that? I would just call him The Knight. Because, you know, Captain America is designed to be a modern day knight. That's where he why he wears the scale nail.
01:25:19
Speaker
yeah yeah And has a shield. And I think that is you know like that that works. But i don yeah from a character standpoint, I don't think I can get my my head around it.
01:25:31
Speaker
Well, ah on on a different tip, what would your U.S. Agent Azrael amalgam be like? Obviously, U.S. Azrael? He'd be a piece of shit. Yeah. He'd he'd be like a weird trad-cath. Yeah.
01:25:49
Speaker
Like a weird trad-cath weirdo. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what he would be. Yeah. He would be, he would absolutely be like, like, I know Jean-Paul Valley is like, has been in the Order of Saint-Dumas like his whole life, right?
01:26:09
Speaker
Well, sort of. Sort of. But the the the the combination John Walker-Azriel-Azriel character would absolutely be a an adult convert to Catholicism. One million percent.
01:26:27
Speaker
He would like volunteer to be brainwashed. the For sure. like That's the thing. is ah ah fucking The John Walker Jean-Paul Vallee John Paul Volcker volunteers to get brainwashed.
01:26:43
Speaker
like He gets radicalized on social media. For sure. And then he just shows up. U.S. Angel would be his name. U.S. Angel is very good. yeah U.S. Angel is very good.
Flash Gordon and Costume Critiques
01:26:56
Speaker
Another question from Blue Sky from Molly. Molly Arts. Despite the title of the podcast and the musical stings and everything, I don't think I've ever heard you guys talk about the Flash Gordon movie. When was the first time you saw it and what kind of impression did it leave?
01:27:10
Speaker
I saw it for the first time probably when I was around 20. think I was working at the comic book store at the time. so it's probably I was probably 20 21. And it owns.
01:27:24
Speaker
It's great. like i love yeah i like I love it. i was first exposed to the soundtrack. Which you know goes along with the movie in such a way that you can...
01:27:38
Speaker
like you if you've seen the movie, it's very easy to visualize what is happening based on the soundtrack. Uh, but it's also like, you kind of get the flow of the movie just from the music. And obviously the, I mean, we both love that album. Like that album's great.
01:27:55
Speaker
Uh, but yeah, like, I think it's great. Like fucking, fucking, uh, uh, why can't remember James Bond's name? Timothy Dalton.
01:28:07
Speaker
Timothy Dalton. Yeah. Timothy Dalton. In there? Voltan? Ming? That rocket? That's great. Oh, man. The rocket.
01:28:17
Speaker
that we Look, we do love War Rocket Ajax. We do. i i have to, for for listeners who have come to the show since I've been co-host, which has been for way more of the show than not,
01:28:35
Speaker
um I was not the original co-host of this show. The original co-host was Eugene Ahn, who went on to have a rap career as Adam Warrock.
01:28:48
Speaker
But like I wasn't part of the selection process of the name of the show, or the music stings, or any of it. like That was all huge. um But I do happen to love the Flash Gordon movie.
01:29:02
Speaker
from 1980. I saw it when I was a kid. like It was one of those movies, though, that I saw a lot of parts of movies as a child without seeing the whole thing, either because I caught a little bit of little little bit of it on TV and never saw the rest, or um i had an aunt, have an aunt, who when I was a kid would just like tape things for me And then i would watch the tapes and like the tapes would sometimes have like incomplete ah movies or other things on them.
01:29:42
Speaker
A lot of it was just like cartoons and stuff or kids shows that she would tape off TV. But some of it was like um bits and pieces of movies. And I remember one of those tapes had like some of the Flash Gordon movie on it.
01:29:57
Speaker
But I don't recall it being the whole thing. um But I only had, like as a kid, like the faintest recollection of that movie.
01:30:08
Speaker
I remember liking it. i remember liking the like freeze frame that it ends on. When the music goes, yeah! Yeah, the one our show ends on as well. The show one our show ends on, but like you know Flash Gordon jumps into the like toward the camera and then just freezes.
01:30:25
Speaker
And then Freddie Mercury goes, yeah, yeah it's great. um But I i vaguely remember that kind of stuff from the movie, but I didn't remember a lot of like details about the movie or plot stuff. So around the same time, around 20 I remember like digging it up and watching it again and actually finally like taking in everything that happens in that movie. And and being reminded of how much um Flash Gordon is a football player in that movie. He's very much a football player. Flash Gordon quarterback New York Jets, man.
01:31:05
Speaker
Yes, in a way that he is very much not in almost all other Flash Gordon media, to where like he uses football to like fight Ming's soldiers in that movie. Yeah, the connective tissue between the Flash Gordon movie and Batman 66 is not difficult to find.
01:31:26
Speaker
For sure. For sure. It was before the period a few years later when everybody was embarrassed ah of Batman 66.
01:31:38
Speaker
Which led to so many of the decisions of Batman 89, which is campy in its own way, but people didn't know that at the time. Don't, Matt, that's a whole different question. You're going to get me started on this. That movie's silly as hell.
01:31:51
Speaker
Just in a different way. i i For reasons ah involving my day job, I dug up some like Batman 89 behind-the-scenes footage, or making-of documentary.
01:32:09
Speaker
And they talked to this costume student designer for Batman 89 who was just like, well, of course we were going to make the costume all black. Of course we were going to make it rubber. Because what else were we going to do?
01:32:24
Speaker
oh Put tights on the outside of his pants? And it's like, motherfucker. Fuck off like Like, that looks any less silly.
01:32:37
Speaker
Like, that being the overriding... ethos of superhero movies until, like, seriously, the 21st century.
01:32:50
Speaker
Well into the 21st century. Well into the... thousand Yeah, like ah like, Iron Man was... Like, he he he could look like Iron Man in Iron Man because it was armor, right?
01:33:03
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And then, like, gradually over time... characters could actually look like they do in comics. But it took such a long time for people who make movies to stop being embarrassed about what superheroes look like.
Anime Highlights and Superhero Themes
01:33:21
Speaker
Yeah. Like they like they didn't... Like those X-Men suits didn't also look dumb.
01:33:31
Speaker
You know? Ugh. Ugh. Yeah, I love the Flash Gordon movie. ah SP Trashcan on our Discord wants to know, is anime good sometimes?
01:33:44
Speaker
Yeah, man. Yeah. I got two anime tattoos. Three. I got three anime tattoos.
01:33:52
Speaker
That part at the end of Evangelion where they all clap and say, congratulations, Shinji. That's good. Do they really do that? I've never seen Evangelion. That's like it is like if you were like, yeah, that part in Sailor Moon when they sail to the moon.
01:34:11
Speaker
ah It is part of the ironic ending of Evangelion. ah Where they all clap and and say, congratulations Shinji, you did it. oh yeah man what like do you about Goku going Super Saiyan?
01:34:28
Speaker
That shit's good. It's pretty good.
01:34:33
Speaker
I was thinking about the opening credits music to Berserk, the 90s Berserk anime, today. i will so Here's the thing. I will say the Berserk anime in particular is good sometimes.
01:34:48
Speaker
it's It's good sometimes, yes. But only that one from the ninety s um The Golden Age movies are all right. And then that Berserk series, the more recent Berserk series, is trash garbage. Do not watch it.
01:35:06
Speaker
It's a tough watch. Yeah. And not in the way that you want Berserk to be a tough watch. Because look, in the best circumstances, Berserk's a tough watch.
01:35:18
Speaker
True. True. I'm seriously thinking about not reading comics anymore and just reading Berserk again. But I'm also reading a lot Lone Wolf and Cub, and that comic's bonkers.
01:35:30
Speaker
i'm I'm skipping over some other questions, because this is probably going to have to be our last one. um This is from Teach on our Discord. What's the best theme song attached to a piece of comics or superhero media?
01:35:50
Speaker
i'm I'm so tempted to just say the John Williams Superman theme. Yeah, like that but that's also what I was thinking. Because it's like... it It's perfect. Yeah. like It's so perfect that they can't stop using it.
01:36:03
Speaker
Yeah. like Other superhero theme songs... like Other superhero franchises have gotten new and different theme songs. Look, I think Second Best is the fucking ah soundtrack from...
01:36:19
Speaker
the The Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies. Oh, good because a hero will save us? No, no, no, no, no. Not that. not I'm talking about the score. yeah talking about I'm not talking about like the actual like licensed soundtrack. But like the Danny Elfman score to um those Raimi Spider-Man movies is really good. like Go back and listen to the music in those movies. It's it's great.
01:36:46
Speaker
Yeah. And memorable. I can hum the theme music to the Spider-Man. It's
01:36:56
Speaker
like... It's good. i mean ah On the Danny Elfman tip, the Danny Elfman X Shirley Walker collab of ah the Batman 89 theme that because and the way it was altered into the Batman the Animated Series theme. And the fact that the Batman the Animated Series ah score has different themes for each of the villains.
01:37:18
Speaker
Yes, I think I actually think the music in Batman the Animated Series is better than the music in the Burton movies. Even though the theme, the like the Batman theme from those movies is great.
01:37:34
Speaker
But like overall, I think the music in Batman the Animated Series is better. Yeah, no, like easily, easily. Like, i love I love the... I do love the the the score to Batman 89. That's a great album. And also, there's an entire fucking Prince album about Batman 89.
01:37:53
Speaker
That's the one thing that I will say unassailably great about that movie is the musical choices. Yeah. um But yeah, like, Shirley Walker's work on Batman the Animated Series is killer. Yeah, no, it's... it it Like... Is phenomenal.
01:38:07
Speaker
Yeah. But I feel like the, like... Yeah, man, that John Williams theme, that's what Superman sounds like. Yeah, man. i like Again, like they can't get away from it.
01:38:20
Speaker
Yeah. like It's funny, because they ditched it for Man of Steel, but like it's in every other Superman. It was in Superman 2025. Yeah. Because you know what? cause Which i like, because you It ain't fucking broke.
01:38:33
Speaker
Yeah. So I generally, I love Superman 2025. And I've liked, I liked the Batman. You know, I like, I like some of the DC movies. i I do think the Marvel Cinematic Universe, by and large, was pretty fucking good.
01:38:52
Speaker
Like, honestly, like, I think it accomplished something genuinely incredible. I could not, I could not hum the Avengers theme music if you put a gun to my head and a check for a million dollars in front of me. Yeah.
01:39:10
Speaker
i could I could probably think of it. it's It is the only MCU... Is that it? Yeah. but but but but but but but yeah but It's kind of nothing, man. like No offense.
01:39:27
Speaker
It's kind of nothing. it's It's fine. it's It's certainly the only mcce youth theme music that I can think of.
01:39:40
Speaker
you know i think I think the Marvel movies really should have used pop music. That's the one thing that I will say that I don't like about Starfleet Academy is that there's like a lot of pop music cues in it, and I don't think those ever work in ah in Star Trek.
01:39:55
Speaker
Not even sabotage? not even so i Matt, you know I hate those movies. you know You know that I have strong feelings. I think the Marvel movies should just, like... I think Iron Man really set the tone, and I think they should have kept that up. Because, you know, they they did the... like The Spider-Man movies used the 60s Spider-Man theme, which is also pretty good.
01:40:17
Speaker
And used a lot of needle drops. Yeah. um And the Guardians movies. Yeah, the Guardians movies, I think that worked out really well for them. Needle drops. But, like, yeah, it's it's not a thing...
01:40:31
Speaker
In all of them. And maybe it ought to be. That ah Star Spangled Man with a Plan song from Captain America the First Avenger is pretty good. Honestly. Pretty good.
01:40:41
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it's it's of a piece with no dames from Hail Caesar. True. But, like, it's not as good, but it is of a piece with that, and I think that's great.
01:40:55
Speaker
I think it's, I mean, I think it's gotta be the John Williams Superman theme, but...
01:41:00
Speaker
There's some other good ones. That is music designed to make you feel an emotion. Yeah. guess most yeah music is, but that is like... It's like scientifically calculated.
01:41:11
Speaker
I don't even love Superman 1978. Oh, i I don't like... I kind of hate that movie. I do love Superman 3, though, and I watch Superman 3 all the time as kid. Yeah, Superman 3 is the best of those.
01:41:26
Speaker
If I hear that John Williams Superman theme...
01:41:32
Speaker
I'm gonna like well up a little bit. It makes you want to like stand up, right? Yeah. Yeah. yeah It's fucking great. It's what Superman sounds like. It's what Superman sounds like.
Music in Animation and Film
01:41:47
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I think the Batman, i think the Elfman Batman theme accomplishes almost that. Just like I think that Elfman Spider-Man theme from the Raimi movies almost does that too. Yeah. But They're not quite as iconic as the the Superman theme. that That slow part from the B-TAS theme, where he stands up. okay oh should That shit slaps.
01:42:16
Speaker
but When the lightning crashes. Oh, you're talking about when he stands up and like faces down the crooks on the rooftop? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah yeah The B-TAS theme is like top-shelf shit.
01:42:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's good, man. Like, there's certain themes from certain episodes of Batman the Animated Series that I will never forget. ah The theme for this episode, The Forgotten. The Forgotten, yeah. Hell yeah. hell yeah Hell yeah. but bla
01:42:56
Speaker
And then ah the theme from the episode Joker's Favor. ah Yeah, that's that's the Joker leitmotif that you get from that that shows up as the... tutor to do to do do do dooooooooo twooo But but i'm I'm talking about the one
01:43:13
Speaker
for yeah the but bu but but but yeah but bu but up yeah that's just that's shit's good ma'am yeah Shirley Walker, man. shirley walker Shirley Walker. And there's a video that everyone should go look up. It's on You ah you Yourself, Cathode Ray Tubes.
01:43:33
Speaker
um Where Shirley Walker talks about the philosophy behind that song. And she's like, yeah, it's a call and response. it's It's something bad's happening, and that's why it's in minor key. And then Batman shows up, and it's in major key.
01:43:48
Speaker
And it's like, fuck yeah, Shirley, you get it.
01:43:53
Speaker
ah
01:43:55
Speaker
what What a great... what ah what a Talk about underrated. Shirley Walker. All-timer. All-timer.
01:44:02
Speaker
Like, did so much. Morn you till I join you, Shirley Walker. Shirley Walker, Andre Romero. Or Andre Romano. the the The most unsung heroes.
01:44:15
Speaker
Like, thats that's a real if-you-know-you-know. Yeah. But... ah Unsung heroes of of DC animation. i remember i on Friends to the End, I was like, hey, why is the music in the Final Destination movie so good?
01:44:31
Speaker
And then I saw that Shirley Walker did the music for him. Yeah. Yeah, man.
01:44:37
Speaker
ah Anyway, um i I do want to do one last question because it's from Stone Cold HCC, an i account that exists only to ah ask questions on Warlock
Closing Thoughts and Social Messages
01:44:47
Speaker
and Ajax. Great. Is there anything wrong with an old lady tapping her dear son on the bottom just to show she loves him? He's such a sweet boy, Mrs. HCC.
01:44:57
Speaker
I mean, I guess that... Mrs. HCC, I think you would agree that like we should all only be touched in ways that we want. So, if Stone Cold... If there's consent... If Stone Cold has told you, hey, I'm uncomfortable with that, like I think you've got to not do it.
01:45:15
Speaker
But if you're both cool with it, yeah think for it. ah But also, like you know there's a line. I mean, i I probably wouldn't do it in public. You know? you know a little its A small little tap.
01:45:29
Speaker
little tap on the butt? Football players do that. I don't see any reason why they couldn't. um Just, you know, if if Stone Cold is like, hey mom, i'm I'm a little too old for that now. You gotta knock it off.
01:45:45
Speaker
Yeah. Definitely. definite That's going to do it for this listener questions episode. If you would like to send us a listener question, you can do it at our email address, which is warrocketpodcast at gmail.com. You can also send us listener questions on Blue Sky.
01:46:02
Speaker
We're at warrocketpodcast on Blue Sky. um You can also send questions to Tumblr, warrocketpodcast.tumblr.com, or You can join our Discord and send us questions there in our listener questions channel.
01:46:16
Speaker
That you have to be invited to become a member of, but if you ask us nicely for an invitation, we will get you one and you can join there and be part of that community, which is a great a great place for WarRocket Ajax fans.
01:46:29
Speaker
Our website is warrocketajax.com. It has every episode of the show we've ever done. Warrocketwiki.com is the fan-run repository of all the information you could want or need to know about this show, Warrocket Ajax.
01:46:40
Speaker
If you want to find me and my stuff, go to mattdwilson.net to find links to my comics, my books, my other podcasts, and my social medias. Chris, where can people find to you? Everybody can find me by going to the-isb.com. That is my website.
01:46:54
Speaker
It has links to everything that I've written and a link that you can click to send me an email if you want to give me money to write more things.
01:47:02
Speaker
I'm unemployed. Do it, folks. You should do it.
01:47:09
Speaker
We'll be back next week. Maybe with a guest? We'll see. We'll see. Until then, folks, do not forget Black Lives Matter. Trans rights are human rights.
01:47:20
Speaker
As are abortion rights. Drag is not a crime. Cops aren't your friends. Fuck ICE. Free Palestine, we love you. We love you.