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Episode 692 - The Bat-Match Beyond
1.3k Plays5 months ago
It's Chris' birthday, and our gift to you for it is that we're taking your listener questions on the show this week!
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Clitus, I'm bored. What plaything can you offer me today?
00:00:10
Speaker
He's got more Rocket Ajax. To bring back his body.
00:00:25
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to War Rocket Ajax. This is the internet's most explosive comic book and pop culture podcast, and we are your hosts. My name is Chris Sims. With me, as always, is Matt Wilson.
Fictional Sports and Fun Ideas
00:00:36
Speaker
Matt, if I could be a star of any fictional sport, I would want to be a star of Kosho, the sumo wrestling on trampolines sport from The Prisoner.
00:00:51
Speaker
That's pretty good. You know what fictional sport I like a lot? Blern's ball. The version of but baseball from Futurama that is unbelievably complicated. Yes. And I believe that that's got like the tether to the ball. It's got a tether. There's a multi ball effect to it. I'm gonna be completely real with you, Matt. Yeah. I think more sports, and perhaps every sport should have multi-ball. I agree. There's also a player who- There should be conditions. It shouldn't be all the time, but when they unlock multi-ball, just shit goes bananas. There's also a player on a motorcycle who tries to drift over all the bases while they explode. That's pretty good.
00:01:43
Speaker
ah ah steroids are mandatory. There's a lot of good stuff. and Right. Good stuff.
Birthday and Support
00:01:51
Speaker
Yeah. gets a lot of Good stuff in Blern's ball. Hey, if you're listening to this on the day it's released, it's Chris's birthday. It's my birthday.
00:02:00
Speaker
And you know what we do on a but fun, wonderful day like this? We give Chris money. We give Chris money, which we'll talk about in a second. ah But we also take questions from our listeners. ah So we are going to be answering some listener questions on the show this week. And that is going to be a fun time. I hope you sent one some number of days ago that we could answer on the show.
00:02:27
Speaker
I hope so. But before we get to the listener questions, Chris, we do have some some business to take care of. The first order of business being thanking our newest supporters over on patreon dot.com. That's right, Matt. Now, these are the people who went all the way down to 92 Gimmick Street. That's right. That's right. 692 Gimmick Street. And of course, Matt, you know what's there. I do know what's it sit at 92 Gimmick Street. If you would do me the honor of saying what's at 92 Gimmick Street.
00:02:56
Speaker
ah Well, I mean, i look, I know it's my birthday, but I think you should do the honor. I don't have a bit for this one. Well, what what's the place you wanted to have a birthday party more than anywhere in the world? That's right, Showbiz Pizza, where a kid can be a kid. Right, which I believe it used to just be either a trampoline park or a laser tag arena.
00:03:21
Speaker
Right. go inside the lore The trampoline park laser tag arena is across the street. And it would have made sense for them to combine it in the building that was the trampoline park. Right. So this must have been this must be a showbiz pizza. This must be a showbiz pizza that used to be a laser tag, an exclusively laser tag arena. That's right. And some, some enterprising business person. Some, some marketing genius. Some marketing genius has purchased the rights of showbiz pizza for this one location from the giant corporate entity entity
Nostalgia and Gaming Memories
00:04:13
Speaker
that absorbed it, Chuck E. Cheese. Right. Which actually stands for
00:04:18
Speaker
entity, comma corporate. A lot of people don't know that. yeah Charles entity, comma corporate cheese. That's right. Uh, but this one is a showbiz pizza where a kid can be a kid. Yeah. One time I got like really depressed. This was, uh, this was, uh, shortly after AC had moved in with me, I got really depressed. And so we went to the local Chuck E cheese.
00:04:43
Speaker
and I played that ah weird Transformers arcade game that I think was either made in Korea and then translated to Japanese and Then to English or it was Japanese and for some reason translated into Korean and then translated into English the Point being it had Optimus Prime going Megatron go to heck ah ah daniel warren johnson feel free to throw that one into your Eisner award-winning oh series. that is That's canon as far as I'm concerned. That is canon. It's as canon as I Am Magneto, Master of Magnet. Exactly, yes. ah Matt, everybody's invited to show up his pizza on gimmick street at 92 gimmick street for my birthday. It's the nicest block of gimmick street, as we all know. You are all welcome, but I would appreciate but
00:05:42
Speaker
if before you got to the showbiz pizza, if you just went to patreon dot.com slash war rocket Ajax, where you can kick in as little as a dollar a month to help the show keep going, help us pay those gimmicks they keeps in another mail called bills and hear about what Matt got me from my birthday. Yeah, you can exclusively hear some bonus content where Chris opens my gifts to him and one of them was a misdelivered item.
00:06:13
Speaker
And we figured that out in real time. Yeah. That was, that was a, honestly, a delightful experience. Yes. Uh, that is exclusively bonus content that you can only get on the Patreon. I'll talk more about that in a second. Here are our newest Patreon supporters. I think some of them are returning Patreon supporters. Tim Vargulish. Thank you, Tim. CJ Kral. Thank you, CJ. Alex Hardison.
00:06:42
Speaker
ah i I know CJ and Alex are both ah returning Patreon subscribers because I remember the last time that I went from leverage. So thank you, Alex. And Tim Stevens. Thank you, Tim. If you would like to be like... That's two Tims. Those two Tims, CJ and Alex. You feel like ludicrous with these two Tims.
00:07:08
Speaker
You can go to patreon dot.com slash war rocket Ajax and kick in as little as $1 per month as Chris said to help us do this show weekly to help us do ah movie fighters and snack situation to help us do monthly every story ever specials and comics ketchup, which is coming soon. We're going to be reading the Batman shadow six issue mini series on that comics ketchup.
00:07:37
Speaker
You get every single one of those shows as a patron completely ad-free in a special feed that is exclusive to your Patreon. If you are at the bonus audio level, bonus content level, you also get bonus content on that feed. And as we discussed,
00:07:55
Speaker
We just did some bonus content where Chris opens my gifts, my birthday gifts to him. We also talked a little bit about the video game Animal Well. So if that sounds like something you'd be into hearing more of us, go to that bonus content level and join up at that level. There's also writing exclusive to the Patreon at the bonus content level.
00:08:21
Speaker
that Chris has done. I've done a couple of things there. There's a spreadsheet called Spreadsheet Survivors where Chris is discussing, looking at all the different components of the various survivors-like games that he has played so far. Very cool. Can update and all that stuff soon.
00:08:41
Speaker
That's right. There's the line stepper level at $10, and then there are physical rewards above that. I am sitting in my office right now with a box of t-shirts next to me. Our new t-shirts have arrived. I will be putting them in ah shipping envelopes and sending them out hopefully this weekend. I'm wearing one of the new t-shirts right now, and it's comfy.
00:09:08
Speaker
Oh, that's great. I love this year's t-shirt. They're all good ones. It's a good one. It looks fantastic. And ah we we had to switch t-shirt printers this year. For whatever reason, the t-shirt printer we used to go go with ah didn't ah ever respond to my emails so I will shout out a listener Michael O'Sullivan who ah got in touch said hey I run a t-shirt printer would you want to buy the shirts from us and I said sure and these shirts the actual shirts themselves are so nice so comfortable and the printing looks great so thank you Michael and they should be on the way
00:10:01
Speaker
to everybody at the t-shirt level ah very soon. i will I will get those packed up and shipped off within the next week, if you cannot help us. monetarily, which we understand, there are reasons why that may be the case. 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 podcasting app may be, or you can ah just spread the word about the show, give us some good word of mouth, let your friends know about the show, your family members, and tell them to join our Patreon and give us money. That's a win-win. With that, Chris, it's time for some Jackson Rex. What do you say? Let's do it.
00:10:44
Speaker
Chris, what would
Leisure and Entertainment
00:10:45
Speaker
you like to check in with this week? Matt is my birthday. It's your birthday. Except it's not. Except except we record this on... This is the the biggest possible gap we could have between recording the show and my birthday.
00:11:06
Speaker
ah ah Because my birthday is on Monday when this goes up and not Thursday when we record it. so i It is actually a couple days till my birthday, but I'm already having a nice time. I've already gotten some some nice stuff. ah You got me a fantastic present that i don't I don't want to spoil for the BOCO listeners. That's right. Go listen to the BOCO to find out what that is. It's something you've been threatening to start using and start doing for a long time. And I said that.
00:11:39
Speaker
And Matt, I got a little code here for you to redeem. Okay. Online so that we can experience it together. Okay, good to know. So far, good birthday stuff. Enjoying it today also marks my actual first day of fun employment. How's it been? A little weird because I did a bunch of work stuff today.
00:12:08
Speaker
But it was like work stuff for Ajax and apocryphal and some other things. But this morning i was I was eating breakfast and I just like popped open the old PlayStation Plus catalog. Uh-huh. And I was just looking at it being like, damn, I've never played Wild Arms 1, 2, 3, and 4.
00:12:30
Speaker
What if? The world's your oyster, bud. World is my oyster, Matt Wilson. Looking at the God of War HD remaster is like, let's find out. Let's find out about the Kratos' tragic past. Let's find out about ah the QuickTime sex game. There's a part of me that really respects that. and Just in that, like,
00:12:59
Speaker
in the way that like the best comics are dumb comics that feels like it could either be the worst thing in the world or it could be like somebody being like yeah have you ever seen sex in a video game it's it's dumb yeah yeah like no matter how much you love all the characters in those bioware games every time they have sex it's the dumbest thing in the world Every time everyone keeps all of their clothes fucking Dragon Age where Morrigan puts on a bra Like there is a part of me that really respects press the button to do sex good You got it. You gotta put on your sex bra Gotta put on your sex bra. Yeah in in Ferelden you serious? Mandatory baby. Yeah, I'm looking at stuff. I mean, I'm currently still going through Assassin's Creed I
00:13:53
Speaker
ah Assassin's Creed Odyssey, a game that is simply too much game. It didn't have to have all this stuff in it. And I'm not complaining, but I'm also not like... i like I'm kind of chiding Ubisoft for this one, because it really did not have to have all this stuff in it. Yeah, yeah.
00:14:20
Speaker
But yeah, that's ah that's that's what I'm up to, Matt. I'm enjoying my birthday. i'm I'm going to relax. I'm going to catch up on some reading for a little bit. And then ah ah I'm going to write some stuff for ah for War Rocket Age of X. And I might write a thing or two for a little website called the ISB ah because there was a an error.
00:14:43
Speaker
a a WordPress error that I just found out about, thanks to JEdited. And I couldn't figure out how to fix it, so I just deleted everything. So everything I wrote on my website from 2007 to 2010, it's gone. RIP road rage venom. I did download a backup and I did download the entire image folder because I used to manually upload all the images and write all the blog posts in HTML.
00:15:11
Speaker
ah to get them formatted the way that I want because I'm a maniac. So I was able to rescue Road Rage Venom. I was also able to rescue the credits image from the ah movie comics that you used to make. Yeah, I was amazed that you had that. I was also able to just find a bunch of weird, set like without looking at the posts,
00:15:39
Speaker
from my website, which for those of you who might not know, because it's been 14 years since it was a thing, I wrote a comics blog daily from 2005 to 2010, essentially until I got my job writing daily at Comics Alliance. all So there's a lot in there. So I'm just going through these images and the thought that I had The two thoughts that I had more than anything else were, I made a lot of dumb stuff for this. And what was boy the context for this image?
00:16:22
Speaker
and ah But it's been long enough that I look forward to posting some of them on Blue Sky and with no context at all and having a nice laugh with all of you. You sent me a photo of us from 2008.
00:16:34
Speaker
Yeah, I found ah con pictures from like 2008. I think that was the first time we met in person. That was the first time we met. Yeah. I don't think I had any pictures with Benito. I had pictures of me meeting the Homestar Runner guys. The Brothers Chaps. The Brothers Chaps, which I think Benito might have taken that picture.
00:16:57
Speaker
ah But I found a picture of of me and Betty from like 2010, I think. Just a lot ah lot of stuff. Yeah, I'm i'm redoing the ah the ISB so that I can direct people to it if they want to pay me money to write words. ah Right now all there is is there's just like a bio page and then there's a page where ah with links to where you can buy some of my comics. And if you haven't read Dracula the Unconquered, I just went ahead and put it up free. ah So those are on there now too. Enjoy them.
00:17:28
Speaker
An incredible gift. What have you been up to ah in this celebratory week of your good friend, Chris? Well, I did something that you would approve of, I think, Chris. And that is I've been rewatching. I've been doing this for a while, but I've really ramped up the pace of rewatching Star Trek The Next Generation. Oh, hell yeah. Which i'm I'm watching it with Marlene, who is seeing a lot of these episodes for the first time. She's seen some episodes of Next Generation here and there, but there's some episodes she's seeing for the first time. So we watched the episode that I infamously called my favorite bad episode, The Game, the other night. Oh, is that's that's the one where um Riker gets so horny that it nearly kills everyone on the Enterprise?
00:18:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's the one where you see many members of the crew's O face. You fully see Bev. Bev has an O. Oh, yeah. Riker does too. It's a climax. Yeah, yes. If you don't know the episode, Riker goes to Risa and brings back this VR game that he
Recommendations and Reviews
00:18:50
Speaker
described as looking like a tuba on a checkerboard. Jonathan Brakes did, which is correct.
00:18:55
Speaker
um The graphics for this game are primitive. Apparently it makes you feel like euphoric orgasm, and then it um also makes an alien race control your mind. That episode is all over the place, and I contend that it is bad, but it is my favorite bad episode.
00:19:14
Speaker
It's something, bud. It's something. AC is also watching Next Generation with ah with someone, and i was but she was like, yeah, I'm just going to skip. like um ah We watched Encounter at Farpoint, but I think I'm going to skip everything up to season three. And I was like, Space Irish. You've got to watch the episode with the Space Irish. It's legit. The worst episode of the series, hands down.
00:19:37
Speaker
We, we, okay, so we skipped, we started with season three. Cause I was like, no, that's where you should start. The first two seasons of what is arguably my favorite television show yeah are excreble. I was like, let's start with season three. And then if we want to go back to the first couple of seasons, we can. So we watched all of seasons three and four. And then Marlene was like, let's go back to the early episodes.
00:20:02
Speaker
Even the bad ones. I want to watch even the bad ones. So we watched them all. And a lot of those episodes are just boring, especially in the first season. In season two, there are some good ones. Measure of a Man's in season measure of a man business season two. yeah But there are also episodes in season two that are so bad. They're among the worst of the series. And the one with the Space Irish is the worst. Because it's not just bad. It's like,
00:20:31
Speaker
morally questionable at best yeah that's a rough one anyway the uh the space irish one is the worst episode that i would consider to still be watchable The one with the one with Troy getting space pregnant, which is a leftover script from the 70s because a writer strike happens in oh season two. That's right. It was it was a leftover plot from what was it called Star Trek phase two. Yeah. know Yeah. That is, I think, the worst script production acting
00:21:12
Speaker
morally the worst episode of the of the series but the space irish one the space irish one you can at least watch with your mouth hanging open at how that happened on television yeah the the space irish one is i think it's worse than than the child which is largely boring but i could see how you could think it was the worst episode of the show nonetheless i took my point about my next generation rewatch, I just want to say this. If you decide to watch Star Trek The Next Generation on Paramount Plus, the most fun thing to do is anytime a character on the Starship Enterprise says something to another character, like a villainous character on the show. And what Marlene and I have discovered is that, like,
00:22:10
Speaker
Okay, yeah, the Romulans are bad, the Ferengi are bad, the cardassians the Cardassians are legit, like occupiers, so they're very bad. But the worst people on the show and the people you hate the most are anybody who talks about data as a thing. Yeah. And that includes Dr. Pulaski. No, Dr. Pulaski is the dogshit worst. Yes.
00:22:38
Speaker
And anytime anybody gets got and like gets told on that show, it is always fun and always funny to say out loud, get his ass every time. Like Dr. Pulaski calling data data.
00:22:56
Speaker
and Data saying that's not my name anything. That's not my name. and She's like, what's the difference? And he goes one of them is my fucking name. Yes that' it That's a perfect example of what you say get her ass. Yeah. Yeah It's great that episode with uh, I believe it's called the most toys the one the Sol Rubinek Yes as the guy who collects data that episode so fucking good like to this day. Oh It's it's really good. And it's also that That episode ends with Data lying. Yeah, that episode ends with Data committing premeditated murder. And then lying about it. And then lying... Data doing what Jason Todd does in Batman 424. It's incredible. Yes. Next Generation Rewatch, highly recommended. ah Very fun. All around. ah Time for some recommendations. Chris, what do you have to recommend? God, now I just want to recommend episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation. No shit.
00:23:54
Speaker
Matt, I actually have ah a something that was sent to me by a publisher to review that I i wanted to mention because it is directly... it is It is at the end of my alley. It's already gone. it's made It's made the turn. It's gone all the way up. It's up my alley. I see. It is the Dungeons and Dragons Mimic Treasure Chest notebook set.
00:24:20
Speaker
ah It is a a pack of five mini notebooks ah that are about the size of a moleskin or field notes, but they're ah pretty thick and they're perfect bound. We got lined, lined dots, grid and grid. ah So unfortunately two line notebooks, which are my least favorite kind, but I do love a dot notebook and a grid notebook.
00:24:43
Speaker
each of which is decorated with a classic D and&D monster. We've got the ah the beholder, the black dragon, the displacer beast, the lich, and the owlbear. ah In a ah little box that is a treasure chest that is actually a mimic. ah If you know me at all, you know I love notebooks. If you have ever played D and&D with me, you know that I love mimics. And making mimics things,
00:25:13
Speaker
that that will vex you. I remember playing D and&D with you and ah presenting you with a room, and I remember you going, are there mimics in D and&D? Because you were only familiar with them from video games? Yeah, yeah. And I think it was like, I think it was L Collins was like, yeah. And you were like, okay, let's leave that alone. I love those guys. Mimics are all over ah the Dark Souls games. boom Yeah. I like in a Dragon Quest where they're called Canna Boxes, o which is pretty good. But yeah, i love ah I love a Mimic, I love a Notebook, and they're really nice too. um It's also ah the the retail price on it's like $27.99 according to the object that I'm holding in my hands, ah which for
00:26:08
Speaker
Five pocket-sized notebooks is actually like pretty good. it's It's a nice little bit of notebooks in a nice little bit of ah of presentation. Not to like sound like I'm reading ad copy, because I'm actually not. This is just what I actually think. Great gift for anybody who likes D and&D. You can always use more notebooks. And it's always fun to have like a little mimic thing. And once you use the notebooks, you can use the box for dice or whatever. It's really fun. I really like it. I want to say thanks to, oh I think it's Penguin that makes this and sent it over.
00:26:48
Speaker
But yeah, a fun little thing that you can get ah for your favorite dungeon master, unless your favorite dungeon master is me, because I already have it. And I'm a very good dungeon master, so it's fine if I'm your favorite. It is? What is your recommendation for the people?
00:27:10
Speaker
My recommendation is a game that came out a while ago, but I only just started playing it because I got PlayStation Plus again. Chris, you were talking about looking at the PlayStation Plus catalog. Dude, can I recommend Wild Arms? It's not Wild Arms. It is it's it is not in the Wild Arms series. Oh, okay. It's Yakuza Like a Dragon. Oh, hell yeah.
00:27:34
Speaker
which i started playing because I was like, okay, I'm finally gonna play and enjoy one of these Yakuza games. Because I have tried. I started Yakuza Zero. I think I played a little bit of Yakuza Kiryu. Like other games that have come up as like PlayStation Plus games. And I don't dislike those games, but for whatever reason, with almost all of them, I just like fell off. I just
00:28:06
Speaker
stopped playing. I wasn't the biggest fan of the combat systems in those games. And then I had heard that Like a Dragon does like turn-based RPG combat. And I was like, okay, let's give that a try. So I started playing Like a Dragon. It starts very slow, like so many JRPGs too.
00:28:30
Speaker
um There's there's so little of you actually controlling your character for like the first four hours of the game ah but I have gotten to the part where it really starts like ramping up and getting good and I went through I've gone through some dungeons and It is straight up and it's so funny that the game just continually name checks Dragon Quest Because all the mechanics are just straight-up Dragon Quest mechanics Yeah, no it is It is exactly Dragon Quest, which is so weird. And I love that you picked the Yakuza game that's not like any of the other Yakuza games, but except for its own sequel. I did it on purpose because, like I said, I bounced off the other Yakuza games that I've tried to play. So I was like, okay, I know this one's different, so let's let's see how it goes.
00:29:27
Speaker
and I'm having a lot of fun with it now. i it It took me a while to get into it like it so often does with ah with you know RPGs, JRPGs in particular. um But now I'm really having fun with it. So ah i I will recommend it. I'm only maybe, I don't know, 40% through the game, something like that.
00:29:55
Speaker
but It's fun enough that I feel pretty confident in saying it's a wreck. so Yeah, I can co-sign that as well. My only question for you is, have you gotten to any of the summon attacks yet? No, I have not done that yet. ah I'm looking forward to that, though, for sure. They are full-ass bonkers. The game is pretty bonkers as it is. i One thing I like about it more than the other Yakuza games, which it's not to say that they're super totally serious, but they're more serious than like a dragon and like a dragon is unafraid to be silly. And I like that about it a lot. The other Yakuza, the Kiri Yakuza games have this weird thing of being very serious until they're not serious at all. Yeah. Yeah. And, and you're,
00:30:54
Speaker
very intensely competing against children in a slot car minigame. But like, that I kind of love that about them because there's a really good ah ah Super Eyepatch Wolf video about this, ah that Kiryu approaches everything the same, whether it is a life or death matter of honor, ah where he's gonna rip his suit off and reveal his yakuza tattoo, or like,
00:31:23
Speaker
playing the weird, bug-themed, hot lady wrestling game? and i I like Yakuza. Same to him. i I think I like the character of Ichiban more than I like the character of Kiryu. I hate to say. I'm as well shocked and honestly disappointed. Alright, those are our checks on Rex Krius, which means it's time to talk about some comics. Let's do it!
00:31:52
Speaker
The winner of the Textures Choice for this week is uncan the new uncanny X-Men number one, because, Chris, you sent me a screenshot from the book ah with Wolverine being called Blades, and and he has told, I knew you'd come, and you go, Matt Hardy has ruined that phrase for me.
00:32:18
Speaker
Yes, everyone who says that is now broken whoever they are. Yeah. Ah, Wolverine. I knew you'd come. I knew you'd come. It's Miguel who says it in the issue. Broken Miguel. Broken Miguel. Here's the thing about this. It's by Gail Simone and Dave Marquez. ah Two people we like a lot.
00:32:45
Speaker
Yeah. And it's not a bad issue. I think it's better than the first issue of the Adjective List X-Men. Almost definitely. I would agree, yeah. I'm still not totally on board with whatever this is, though. I feel like... I think that I have identified my weird old man-brain problem here.
00:33:13
Speaker
which is that I think these would be fine if it was, this this would be fine if it was uncanny X-Men number 647 or whatever it is. Yeah, that would be fine. And I feel like X-Men is the same way because yeah, it's ah it's a new direction. And yeah, I want new directions. I want books that exist in a superhero universe to acknowledge continuity and acknowledge what they're doing and and why they're there.
00:33:43
Speaker
oh But if it's going to be a new number one, I feel like both of these books are at least assuming that you know what's up with the X-Men already. Yeah. And I'm reading it. And again, I liked the issue. I thought, uh, this is honestly some of my favorite Gail Simone dialogue in a really long time. And I, I'm a, I love Gail's dialogue. I always have aside from rogue.
00:34:14
Speaker
overusing y'all because she uses it in the singular. Yes, agreed. I mean, look look, now you know how how everyone from any other country felt for the 17 years that Chris Claremont was on that book. Tovarish.
00:34:34
Speaker
it's all like it's It's fun, it's zippy. I actually like wrote like giving rogue the motivation to be like, no, we should be the X-Men. Yeah. And we should be like doing superhero shit. Like that part of it I thought was really good. But I'm like, they need to be playing basketball or baseball. Or, you know, if you're if you're If you want to get to like what the soul of the X-Men should be doing in their first issue laser tag at the mall um That I've heard that that's the best way to kick off an X-Men series is to have laser tag at the mall in the opening sure ah But like I was like, yeah like This doesn't feel like it's the start of anything partly because they ain't playing basketball.
00:35:25
Speaker
Well, I mean, there's not and there's no explanation of what Rogue's powers are. That's true. I mean, I think I could get on board with people, like people generally knowing who Rogue is and what Rogue does. But there's no, like, we see the X Mansion in this, but it's it's the X Mansion, like, we're gonna burn it down. Which is cool, I mean, fine.
00:35:51
Speaker
I don't know if you're going to appease the fans who were who hated Krakoa that way, though. Because the fans who hated Krakoa want the X-Men to be exactly as they were in 1993. I mean, who doesn't want that map? Sure, sure. Yeah, it's like, I also feel like, and this is this is a structu this is me giving structural advice to Gail Simone, who is has written better comics than me consistently for much longer.
00:36:21
Speaker
ah But like, I also don't feel like starting a number one with the villain is a great idea. Like, our opening sequence is with the bad guys, and it's actually like two sets of bad guys that don't seem to be related before we get to the good guys, and they ain't even playing fucking basketball, Matt.
00:36:41
Speaker
they're fighting a big dragon, which is cool. I liked the fight with a big dragon. I liked the fight with the dragon a lot. the The sequence of this that made me go, what am I reading was when they go visit the sick kid. the That got me too, but only because I was, I felt like it was only because I, uh, shortly before, literally before reading this issue, like this morning, I was listening to the, uh,
00:37:09
Speaker
Attitude Era podcast review of Hulk Hogan's album from 1994, where he has that song, Hulkster in Heaven, ah huh that is a made up song about a made up dead child.
00:37:23
Speaker
Yep. So it had like, I was like, this reads real weird to me, but that is a ah a maybe a weird coincidence. So it just kind of comes out of nowhere. And then it's like a huge, sad bummer of It's is just odd. i'd like I like that the way that it provides Rogue's motivation, here's what I think is hilarious, is when that kid, they give that kid a Greg Morrison X-Men jacket. And I'm like, man, so this kid in Marvel continuity was really into it like,
00:37:59
Speaker
two years ago, like two or three years ago, when the X-Men were the new X-Men and Janosia got destroyed. Here's why I think this issue is better than the Jed McKay X-Men issue. That issue seemed to look backwards a lot. This one is at least looking ahead. It is setting up some new thing called the endling.
00:38:26
Speaker
and it is introducing new characters and it is like doing all of that. But it is weird to start a number one issue of the X-Men where they are in total disarray. You know? Like these X-Men don't have a home base. Cyclops and his group have their place in Alaska, but these X-Men have nowhere. They go to Gambit's house in New Orleans. It's an orphanage, I think. and It's an orphanage, yeah. I also kind of dig that. like I kind of dig the idea of, like we're not going to be a school, we're going to be the orphanage that takes in all these mutants. yeah like i think that's a like I think there's a lot of really cool ideas in here that I do like a lot more than
00:39:16
Speaker
adjectiveless X-Men's. What if the X-Men just love cops? What if they show a cop around their old factory? Yeah. What if the X-Men were hanging out with everybody's favorite person, cops?
00:39:31
Speaker
Uh, which but I look, you know, we love Jim McKay. We do. it that ah That was just a swing and a miss. Yeah. Like it's, it was, it was, there's a lot of really good ideas.
00:39:47
Speaker
I think they could have been presented in a way that would make this feel like more of a fresh start and would I'm trying really hard not to like armchair edit this book because like I think that's I think that's rude for one thing and Gail Simone is a creator that I would not want to be rude to but I feel like there's If you rearrange the sequence of events and you make it slightly different and you tie a couple of things together, I think all of the really good ideas in this book could have been presented in a way that would appeal at least to me more. Yeah, I think I would start with this X-Men team at the orphanage and say, okay, this is our X-Men group. This is their home base. And then flash back to how they got there.
00:40:42
Speaker
I would... I mean, if you do you want to know what I would do, Matt? or sure I just said I was good to not try and armchair edit this, but... I mean, we're already we're already doing it. Let's go ahead. I would cut the sick kid. Yeah. but The Hulkamaniac in heaven. And I would just have the either of the characters that show up at the end or Fawn, who shows up in the the middle.
00:41:11
Speaker
have them be the thing that is like, no, we came to you because you're the X-Men, and we know that we know that you're gonna be there to help us, and combine those two beats so that they get to have a reason for, like like Rogues, like, no, we have to be X-Men, because that's what these these young runaways, like me, need in their lives.
00:41:42
Speaker
I think that would be a better way to introduce that than, than what we get, which as you said is a character who is created to be a kid who dies. Yeah. Which is always going to be a bummer. And I don't think it's like, I don't think it comes off as ham handed or insensitive in this. Cause I think frankly, I think Gail's better than that. I think Gail can pull that off.
00:42:09
Speaker
um I think maybe it just happens a little too fast out of necessity because it has to you know, you got three pages, you know, but like And maybe that character is gonna come back in some interesting way who can say but nonetheless we got to move on speaking of judge McKay ah doctor Dr. Strange number 18 Very cool issue. Dr. Strange does not feel good about passing the Sorcerer Supreme title to Dr. Doom. So he is trying to figure out ways to set things back to right the wrong. So he talks to the Vishanti. They're like, look, you gave him the power. Don't know what to tell you.
00:42:55
Speaker
He goes to the Dome that Dr. Doom has put over Latveria to try to call Dr. Doom out. That doesn't work. He goes and finds the General, General Strange, ah who's a great character, ah and thinks about using him as a weapon against Doom and decides against it. Before all that happens, though, Baron Mordo shows up at Dr. Strange at the Sanctum Sanctorum.
00:43:22
Speaker
and is like, okay, you're not the Sorcerer Supreme anymore, Dr. Strange, so I'm gonna kill you.
00:43:30
Speaker
And Clea shows up and she's like, no, you're not, you're not gonna kill him. And Mordo's like, well, she's gonna leave you because and you're not the Sorcerer Supreme anymore. Mordo's reaction to Clea showing up, him just going, I didn't realize Clea was here. He is very funny. Yes.
00:43:52
Speaker
And the issue ends with Dr. Strange being like, Oh, I fucked up. Maybe you are going to leave me. And Cleo's like, no, I fell in love with you, not with your title. And we're in this together, you and me. And then it just says the end. Because I guess this is the last issue of the series, which shocked me. Yeah. And and we get like a, a letters page note from like Like the only way that I realized this was the last issue is that we get a letters page note from Jed McKay. It's like, hey, we've had a lot of fun yeah ah with Dr. Strange over the years, never the end. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, I guess it's an appropriate place to end the series given that he is not Sorcerer Supreme anymore. Uh, but I could have kept ready reading, reading Jed McKay, Dr. Strange for years and years to come. it is It's,
00:44:49
Speaker
among my favorite Jed McKay stuff. The whole Strange saga from Death of Doctor Strange through the Cleia series through this. I mean, it is what made us a fan. Yeah. It really is. Or made us two fans. It did not combine us. Into one person. Fusion dance style. And I think this Doctor Strange series with the past Guilfairy art has been just really fun and really enjoyable. It's been great.
00:45:19
Speaker
I hope Jed McKay can come back to the Doctor Strange to the character at some point in the near future. Yeah, you know, I i like seeing, yeah as a fan of his work, I like seeing Jed McKay kind of move from and not in a not in a mean way, but in just a very practical consideration of numbers way, B tier characters like Dr. Strange and Black Hat to the Avengers. Cause I think, I think Jim McKay is great, ah generally speaking. And, and you know, the X-Men. I have certainly enjoyed this Dr. Strange book and, and the Black Hat stuff more than ah like the most of everything that he's done.
00:46:11
Speaker
Yeah. Uh-huh. But I think, you know, that's, which is not a slight against Avengers, which is a book that I've actually been ah a pretty big fan of as well that we've talked about on the show. X-Men, a little bit of a misstep. But yeah, like as a fan of this book, it sucks. One last book I have not read, but that you wanted to talk about Chris is Gotham City Sirens number one.
00:46:39
Speaker
Yeah, this is the ah the relaunch of Gotham City Sirens ah that we have by Leah Williams, Matteo Lully, and Triena Farrell. it is a it's ah It's the Gotham City Sirens. It's Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman teaming back up ah to do some stuff. Their villain? Their villain?
00:46:59
Speaker
Matt, this is, I was reading this and I was going, yeah, this is pretty good. This is pretty good. I got to the last little bit and this is what was like, oh, we got to talk about this at the show. The villain that they're fighting is Punch Line, who is ah Twitch streaming. Yeah. In a weird, like, has a weird, like,
00:47:22
Speaker
kiddie pool full of glitter like OnlyFans set up and they deal with an energy drink company. Like the, I don't know her name, but like the Twitch streamer who like sold her bathwater. Yeah, but it's punchline and she's, she's gaming while I believe participating in the plot of the Gerard Butler movie, Gamer.
00:47:50
Speaker
ah Which, honestly, owns. I am very excited ah to read more of this. Very fun Harley stuff, very fun Ivy stuff, ah very fun Selena stuff, and I think we've talked about it a little bit, but if it hasn't been clear, I fucking love punchline.
00:48:14
Speaker
I love that Harley Quinn went through such an evolution that we needed to make a new Harley Quinn who was just purely a real shitty human being. but She's great. I love her. In the way that I love villains. In the way that I love crossbones.
00:48:35
Speaker
um Yeah. God of the City Sirens. Very, very fun. Very, very fun. Well, speaking of things that are very fun, Chris, it's time to take some questions from our listeners. So why don't we do that? Let's do it.
00:49:14
Speaker
Chris, our first listener question comes from ACAB includes Johnny DC. That's such a funny name. It's such a funny name from our. It gets me every time I see it. And I love, i I love that there are other people out there who know about Johnny DC, continuity cop in a five on five war games match between the bat fam and a group of villains who you got in the match. Like who would I book?
00:49:44
Speaker
I think the question is, who do we think wins? But I think first we have to assemble the teams, right? I mean, look, it's gonna be the the heroes. Yeah, they're gonna win. This is like when ah ah I went down to South Carolina and um Chad Bowers, my arriving partner and friend of several years.
00:50:05
Speaker
i Has kids and one of his kids kept asking me like who would win in a fight between two of his action figures Which I love I will answer that question all day ah but he kept showing me like Killer Croc in Batman and then he was very disappointed when I was like Batman's gonna win that one, but And he was like, but he's so big and I'm like, yeah, but I am afraid I have seen how this one plays out My dude several times
00:50:35
Speaker
So we know for sure that the hero, the heroes are going to win. because Can you, um before before we assign the rosters, can you give me a war games real quick, Matt? War games! Thank you. War games. could Could be a blood and guts match, but we won't make that distinction. For those of you who don't know, war games, the greatest professional wrestling match,
00:51:02
Speaker
takes place in two rings yes that have been encased in a solid steel cage. and By solid steel, we do mean chain link. well Two teams of five, two people start out, then there is a coin toss to determine which team gets to send a person in every 90 seconds.
00:51:24
Speaker
Uh, so like they're, I mean, the bad guys always win the coin toss so that they can have a two on one advantage. Because they'll have a two on one advantage. Then they'll have a three on two advantage. Then they'll have a four on three advantage. And then the the last person who comes in, you get the big good guy pop. Right. And it the match only starts. ah Well, once everybody's in the ring, we enter the match beyond. that's and and But only then can anybody win.
00:51:54
Speaker
Yes. And rules vary about how you win or don't win. Like wwe WWE has changed the war games rules so that like, I mean, I'll tell you how you win, Matt. Yeah. By submission or surrender. That's right. That's why the same thing.
00:52:14
Speaker
that's how That's how Blood and Guts works. WWE's version of War Games has changed it somewhat, where I think, I don't know if you can win on a pin, but you can win in other ways, I think. No, you you need to, I think classic, as as Dusty Rhodes intended, you can only win by submission or surrender. That's right. Once you enter the match beyond. You gotta to get to the match beyond though, baby.
00:52:43
Speaker
Fucking love that it's called the match beyond that owns so fucking hard. It's so good. So here's the teams I think Obviously
Speculations and Rumors
00:52:54
Speaker
Bruce is on the hero team. I was gonna say if we want to make it a little more interesting know Bruce You gotta have Bruce. You right, we know Bruce. I like look I like him Bruce comes in last though.
00:53:10
Speaker
He gets that big baby face pop. Okay. All right. I'm going to listen to your suggestion and then I'm going to, I'm going to give you the remix. but Okay. I'd say you have Bruce Damien.
00:53:26
Speaker
Hmm. Dick as Nightwing. It's so tempting to just have it be Bruce and all the Robins. Although seventy brown jason then there Stephanie Brown could be one of the Robins.
00:53:40
Speaker
I think Jason, I think you have Jason in there as the wild card. Like, is he going to be a team player? You know? Okay. Maybe swap out to instead of Tim, have Stephanie Brown in the match and be part of the five.
00:54:00
Speaker
It's so hard to limit it because there's so many members of the bat family. Yeah, man. Okay. what What's your group? Okay. Okay. Now, do you, do I, do you want me to give you the one with Bruce or the one without Bruce? Since I did- I'll give you the one with Bruce, I'll give you the one with Bruce. Okay. Bruce starts it. Okay. Cause he's gonna get, he's in there, he's a 60 minute man, Matt. Sure. He's there for the whole, the whole thing. Okay.
00:54:33
Speaker
all It's Bruce, Tim, goes in second. He's Bruce's partner. Okay. Uh, Dick goes in third. Uh, I'm going to say at number four, we have Selena. And at number five, here's who gets the pop. Babs. Oh, that's good. That's either it's, it's either Babs or Dick gets the pop.
00:55:09
Speaker
It's the hero pop. Now, what's the team without Bruce? The team without Bruce, same team except for ah Dick goes in first so that he can get the baby face heat. Okay. Dick gets worked over a lot, but he makes the big comeback at the end. And in that case, then Babs is definitely the last one to go in because those are the two that go together.
00:55:36
Speaker
Now see, okay. Since you put Selena on the hero team, oh that changes the villain team. Cause I thought for sure we'd have the four United underworld United underworld members on the villain team.
00:55:55
Speaker
Okay. I'll, I'll do my villain team cause Selena wasn't on my villain team. Okay. The four members of the United underworld, penguin, Riddler, catwoman, Joker, right?
00:56:07
Speaker
And then as member five, you got to have Bane. The one Batman villain who's a wrestler. Bane is definitely the number five entry because he is the like, he's the monster. Yeah, he's the monster. He's the most physical physical to quote Michael Cole on a physical match ah of the the Batman films. But I kind of feel like you've got to like, you kind of want it to be all physical guys, right? Cause like what Riddler going to do in the cage? I mean, what's penguin going to do in the cage? What's penguin going to do in the cage? You know? but i don't know like The weird thing about Batman is you don't get a lot of like physical villains because he's Batman and there's no question of whether Batman can kick somebody's ass. Well, let's see. Okay. If they're all
00:57:00
Speaker
Clayface 1, Clayface 2, Clayface 3, and Lady Clayface. I think you have Bane, Killer Croc. Croc's a good one. Maybe one of the Clayfaces. Maybe like Matt Hagen Clayface.
00:57:20
Speaker
who else Who else is like a physical Batman villain? Roz, kinda? Ross could be in there, I guess, yeah. I mean, I would not classify him on the same level of as like a bane, but I mean, he is a dude who physically fights Batman. That's true. that they They have a ah big old sword fight. Well, they do. It's great. It's one of the best things they're having in comics. That's what Batman's wearing for the the whole match, by the way, is that look, the that's no cape, no shirt.
00:57:56
Speaker
I mean, man-bat is a physical villain, but I know you hate him. Uh, yeah, he sucks. Is the problem there, bud? Killer Moth? No, do they have to be Batman villains? I mean, I think that's part of it. Or can they be any villains? I think they have to be Batman villains. Can we put the Beast Raban in there? Oh, you know, we're who we're fucking forgetting KG Beast.
00:58:24
Speaker
Oh shit, KG Beast, yeah. the Matt, I feel dumb now. KG Beast. KG Beast, good as hell. Yeah. Because you know KG Beast is going to be out there working that Mick Foley gimmick like, I will never submit. I will cut my own arm off. I think we got five in there. said So those are the teams. Those are the teams. But the heroes win. it's There's no doubt about it, the heroes win.
00:58:53
Speaker
ah Here's a question from what if it what do we do. What if we do? Um, what if it's KGB Spain the comedian and the criminal in the cloud? Here's a question from blue sky from miles labdell any reaction to the Robert Downey jr. Dr. Doom news No You you have no reaction No, not really. I mean I will i will tell you I It's not something that I'm excited about because I i worry that we're going, that this means we're going to get a Dr. Doom that is not Dr. Doom, that is not Victor Von Doom. Yeah. That is a guy who is more like the maker than Dr. Doom. Here's what I think about it. I remember like seeing it
00:59:48
Speaker
And thinking, that's interesting. And then the more I thought about it, the more I was like, oh, maybe that's going to suck. Because, yeah, it's it's a Dr. Doom who's like an alternate universe Tony or something like that. Like, do we know for sure that is or is not what they're doing? We don't. We don't. like That's the only reason you do that. I do think there's a way to make it work, though.
01:00:19
Speaker
I'm not totally convinced that Robert Downey Jr. is good casting for Dr. Doom, setting all the Iron Man aside. Because Robert Downey Jr. cannot deliver a line without a wink. And Dr. Doom is not a winky character. Yeah. Doom means everything he says.
01:00:42
Speaker
But but i think what what I think happened was, well one, they wanted to inject some excitement in life back into the Marvel fan base after some some stinkers. Quantum mania, boy. Quantum mania. They were ah back against the wall because of all the Jonathan Major stuff, which sucked super bad.
01:01:06
Speaker
Super sucks. Super sucks. And, and, and let me be clear, it's not, so I don't think what happened to him sucks. I think it sucks that he did it. ya ah Yeah. In case that was in question. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. Here's what, here's the way I think Robert Downey Jr., Dr. Doom works. i I think they saw Oppenheimer, they saw Robert Downey Jr. and Oppenheimer give a pretty sincere performance as a villain in that movie. I thought maybe we could do this.
01:01:38
Speaker
Robert Downey Jr. should never take off his mask ever. He should be under the mask the whole time. And it should just be Robert Downey Jr. doing a performance as a totally different character. It is never acknowledged that he looks like Tony Stark. I i think that would be a great way to go about it. I very much worried that it is going to be like a alternate universe Tony Stark thing which is This is one of the first things in a while that has struck me as like being Look, I know these movies only exist to make money. I know these comics kind of only exist to make money. That's fine. I do The Sistine Chapel is is commercial art, you know. Yeah look look is Avengers in game and
01:02:31
Speaker
as good as the Sistine Chapel? No, it's better, obviously. Sistine Chapel didn't have Thanos in it. Or does it? Look, look close. This is the first thing that's been like, well, you know, ever since Robert Downey Jr. and and ah Chris Evans left, these movies have kind of floundered a little bit. And it's like, well, yeah, that's because you got to the end of a 24 movie storyline. And now you're figuring out but how comics work.
01:02:58
Speaker
Now you're figuring out attrition. And so I worry that it's that. But they did exactly what comics do, which is finishing a big story and then kind getting kind of bloated and hard to follow. Yeah. and I mean, you said there's been some stinkers, and I think there have been, but I've generally enjoyed, like, quantum mania aside, you know, I liked the Marvels.
01:03:26
Speaker
Uh, I, I enjoyed this weird era of just getting kind of weird, you know, weird done in one Marvel movies. Yeah. I think the, the, the big thing is, and something that people don't often talk about, like, I don't think a lot of the Disney plus TV shows have been like full on bad, but there's so much more homework you have to do.
01:03:53
Speaker
to get it. Like if you want to enjoy the Marvels, you gotta watch Ms. Marvel, right? If you want to enjoy whatever the next Hulk thing is, you're going to have to watch She-Hulk. if you're gonna If you want to, a lot of that stuff is became homework. Also, Thor 4 wasn't good. Thor 4 also wasn't good. Yeah. I don't think it's even a quality issue entirely. I think it's an issue of the Disney Plus shows just made it so that you have to have so much more stuff. Like you have to have seen Loki to like Deadpool and Wolverine. I'm not, to well, I'm sure plenty of people like Deadpool and Wolverine who didn't watch the Loki show, but like to understand everything in Deadpool and Wolverine, you have to have seen Loki, the Loki show, both seasons. So like, that's just a lot to ask, you know? Yeah.
01:04:52
Speaker
But I mean, you know, welcome to superheroes, man. Welcome to superheroes. Hey, hey, normies. Yeah. Get good. All I'm saying is I don't know why in a world where God has given us Mads Mikkelsen, why you would even enter your head to cast anyone else's doctor too. I saw someone for lack of a better way of putting it, fantasy booking, those of new upcoming Avengers movies. which the two The only thing we know about Robert Downey Jr. as Doom is that he's only signed on for two movies, the two Avengers movies, Doomsday and Secret Wars. Do you think they're going to do a Secret Wars 2015 movie that's actually like 36 movies? That would be wild. I'd love it.
01:05:49
Speaker
so I saw somebody saying that like, the what if they introduced Robert Downey Jr. Doom and kept him for a movie? And then the big swerve was the real Dr. Doom shows up and blasts this fake Tony Stark Dr. Doom away. And now we've got real Doom. Like actual Victor Von Doom, which would be interesting. Yeah, it could happen.
01:06:16
Speaker
I could see the possibility of a swerve coming because I don't imagine Robert Downey Jr. is going to want to like do a ton of more Marvel stuff.
01:06:29
Speaker
ah so i mean you say that but You know what I bet he would like is um a literal dump truck full of money. Yes. A new wing on his house, ah sure. Yeah. ah But we'll see. We'll see. i'm not in
01:06:48
Speaker
insanely hopeful about it. But I think there are directions they could go to make it work. I'm just saying, man, I've watched Hannibal now. And in a world where I gave where I was like, all right, look, I don't love Benedict Cumberbatch, but he is the most Steve Ditko looking motherfucker in the world.
01:07:08
Speaker
So, you know, I got to give it up to him for that. In a world where Mads Mikkelsen exists, if you, because you have enough money to do it. Oh, sure. i And I don't like, no matter what he may want or say or think, there's a number that you have at Disney Corporation. They're going to have paid Robert Downey Jr. more than Mads Mikkelsen would demand, I'm sure.
01:07:34
Speaker
Yeah. I'm just saying, like he was right there and that's like the easiest casting since Patrick Stewart is Professor X. And if, if you're going to recast someone you've already cast in another role. Well, I, my, my dark horse candidate has been, uh, Jeffrey Wright. Jeffrey Wright. No, not Darren Sauer. Next time, baby. Next time, baby. Next time. Uh, all right. Here's a question from, uh, Jerry La La La La La La La on our Discord. um This is an easy one for me. ah David Leecher, Sean Levy. Now, I have not seen Deadpool and Wolverine. But I know that Sean Levy directed Free Guy. And I've seen enough clips from Free Guy to know that's a movie I never want to watch all the way through.
01:08:28
Speaker
David Leach co-directed fucking John Wick. Seems, seems pretty simple. Hey, I was listening to the, uh, the insert credit podcast, uh, which I've mentioned before, uh, the inspiration for me asking you a question at the top of the show that is not, how are you doing? Yeah. Um, and they were talking about this. Did you know free guy was what some people called like an extra life in video games? Like that's why it's called that you get a free guy.
01:08:56
Speaker
I have never called it that in my life, but i somehow I knew that, yes. I had never i have never called it that and I had never heard it called that. so i didn't like That was a joke that was lost on me. They had a whole conversation about whether that was a regional thing and all the regional things that you that that they would be called. I did hear someone when I was a child playing the Nintendo Entertainment System called a bonus man. Okay, that's wild.
01:09:26
Speaker
No, it is. I do think that's better than free guy. Bonus Bonus man. Extra man was ah was one that I heard a lot as a kid. Extra man I'm i'm familiar with, yeah. Free guy is is weird. It's weird, man. Free guy is weird. But yeah, David Leech in a walk. like David Leech directed that bullet train movie that was pretty fun.
01:09:54
Speaker
It got me real confused because I had COVID and made me think he directed Monkey Man. But it was actually a completely different movie that I watched while I was sick. The Fall Guy. The Fall Guy, yeah. It was just fun. Hobbs and Shaw wasn't great, but they can't all be winners. Hobbs and Shaw, look.
01:10:19
Speaker
Hobbs and Shaw wasn't great. Hobbs and Shaw was exactly what I thought it was gonna be. it was about It was a movie about two guys who knew they were in a movie. Who knew they were in a movie, didn't really like each other, and it result was fucking great in it. Yeah, he gives it his all. ah Hubert Vigilia on Blue Sky wants to know, what are your favorite finishing moves and signature moves in wrestling? ah I think you know mine.
01:10:49
Speaker
But please tell the people. ah It's my favorite move on the planet, Matt. ah Shoulders back chest out, diamond cutter, baby. Oh yeah, the diamond cutter. Diamond cutter, you can hit it from anywhere, you can hit it on anyone. 52 variations. Looks great. It does look great. Co-created by William Regal. And you know, it has lived on in the RKO, which Despite my feelings about pro wrestler Randy Orton, the RKO is undeniably great. The RKO is good, but it is a variation. um it it' just It's just the diamond cutter. Well, it's closer to an Ace Crusher, Matt, if you really want to get technical.
01:11:38
Speaker
The RKO is, like I've seen some RKO's that have made my jaw drop. like I will never forget the one that he did to Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 31. That is one of the few like WrestleMania moments that is such a manufactured term that that company was obsessed with for so long that they forgot how stories work. But that is such a an incredible that that is one of the few times where I'm like, yep, that is that is what it should be. Yeah. It should be some shit you've never seen before. And that was incredible. um Yeah, I remember being a kid in like 1997.
01:12:20
Speaker
and being a member of the Diamond Dallas Page Fan Club, ah the union of diamond cutters that had their own special password protected section on wcw.com or wcwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww showed me a hole called the cravat And I was like, Oh, what if I modified it with that? And that is the that's how the diamond cutter came about. And it's a it's a good move, man. It is a good move. It's anytime he did it when somebody came off the top rope. Same for the RKO. Beautiful, beautiful. There's a great little run.
01:13:10
Speaker
where he's like just getting over as a face, where the gimmick was in every match, he was gonna do it a different way. yeah And I loved that as a kid, cause it's like, oh, there's like, he was like, yeah, I have 52 different ways I can put it on you. And I was like, you know, ah as a kid who was obsessed with like wrestling and also wrestling video games, I was like, that's so many slots. Is that the same time that he was always coming out, like,
01:13:40
Speaker
all bandaged up all the time. Shortly before. Shortly before. That part of like getting the diamond cutter over, like kind of ended when he hit Scott Hall with it and and rejected the NWO. One of my favorite moments in pro wrestling history. Uh, but yeah, I love the diamond cutter. Love a cutter. Well, speaking of Scott Hall, my favorite finishing move of all time is probably the razor's edge, AKA the outsider's edge. It's a good one.
01:14:11
Speaker
It's not quite a powerbomb. I don't know what you would call that move. I've never seen anyone do a move like it. like Do you know what that move would be called? I mean, it is it's always called like a crucifix powerbomb, but like you're right. It's not quite a powerbomb. It's not quite a powerbomb. I don't know what...
01:14:36
Speaker
to call it. It's just fucking picking them up and throwing them down. It's yeah classic pro wrestling. It looks cool. Yeah. And that's what's important about a wrestling move. Now, I will say in modern pro wrestling, I have become enamored with simple finishing moves because so many finishing moves at this point have to be so complicated.
01:15:06
Speaker
So when a wrestler just uses a clothesline as a finisher, I have to respect it. People who used to listen to Smart of the Beast may be surprised that I say this because I think I remember saying I was unimpressed with the Rainmaker just being a short arm clothesline in the past.
Personal Favorites and Perfect Days
01:15:26
Speaker
But I have come to respect it a lot. He takes that big old step, Matt. He takes that big old step and he makes it look impressive. Yeah. The same goes for the buckshot lariat that Hankman Page does. I love it. Cause it's, it's not like the setup is the window dressing. Like, like whether it's the rip cord for the the Rainmaker or the like front flip for the,
01:15:50
Speaker
the buckshot Lariat. Yeah. It's that impact. That's, I mean, that's why I liked, uh, Jon Moxley's fucking goofy, like almost fall out of the ring Lariat. Cause yeah, it's goofy, but when he hits you with it, it looks like it's a murdering you.
01:16:10
Speaker
I'm glad he doesn't do it anymore. I, I never, like, I could not quite suspend my disbelief. that with that rope rebound clothesline that I feel like he did it a couple times and it looked really cool. Cause it looked like he almost fell out of the ring and then came back and then it became like just a signature thing that he did. And it kind of lost the magic. Yeah, look it was better when he did it as a member of the shield as most things in w WWE, he, the shield was better for Dean Ambrose ah by a long shot than anything after for him. Uh,
01:16:47
Speaker
Speaking of people that, regardless of what you think of the person, look, don't don't don't like him. Not a fan of him. And it's really, only really works because um he's he likes to legitimately hurt people. But ah the clothesline from hell owns. I mean, that's just a version of... It's the Stan Hansen Stan Hansen lariat, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:17:14
Speaker
Uh, but yeah, I mean, it did look like it killed people. Uh, for sure. It knocked the road dog unconscious. Yeah. Uh, that's a shoot. That's a shoot, brother. Uh, the dope dog abides from our discord asks, cat or dog, cake or pie, tea or coffee. Forget all that. Jackie Chan or Donna Yin. Uh, all of those are equally easy for me.
01:17:41
Speaker
I mean, yours is Jackie by a long shot. Mine's Jackie Chan. What? Like, come on. I am recording this under the watchful eyes of Mr. Jackie Chan. Also, dogs, coffee, pie. I love Donnie Yen. Hey, I got nothing to love for Donnie Yen. But it's Jackie. but Yeah, man. Come on.
01:18:09
Speaker
I mean, it's, it's, it's about what you want, right? Like, if you want the, like, Itman style thing, which, you know, i I love for sure. But yeah, like, Dunyan, like, Dunyan's great, Dunyan rolls. But like look, Dunyan is a great martial artist and a good actor. Jackie Chan is a born entertainer.
01:18:34
Speaker
Yeah, as i have as I have said before, if you if anyone ever asks me why the Oscars are bullshit, I tell them because Jackie Chan doesn't have all of them. Who who gave more to movies? Who gave more to movies than Jackie Chan?
01:18:53
Speaker
yeah yeah The King's Speech is great. Did anybody break their head open filming it? I think not. anybody it's i mean First of all, nobody ever jumped from one building to another in the King's Speech. There's no hovercrafts in the King's Speech at all. No hovercrafts. Like, go watch Drunken Master 2 and then any movie that's won an Oscar, a Best Picture Oscar, in the past 40 years.
01:19:22
Speaker
and then tell me what's bullshit. Our buddy, Frans Ferdinand II, Ben, on Blue Sky, wants to know, what's a video game you like that you think would surprise people?
01:19:35
Speaker
Hmm. I mean, if I hadn't talked about it, I'm sure many times Persona 5.
01:19:43
Speaker
Yeah, nobody would be surprised that you like Persona 5 now. Yeah, but the the subject of the thing I've been toying with writing for the past like year is the idea that I shouldn't. That you shouldn't like Persona 5? Yeah. And yet, here we are. Yeah. oh I don't know. like i I feel like my tastes in video games are maybe more eclectic than any other media. Yeah, I feel the same about myself.
01:20:18
Speaker
I mean, I really like, because I like action games primarily, ah but i don't I don't think anyone would be surprised to find out that I really like Phoenix Wright, you know, which is basically reading a book.
01:20:33
Speaker
Right, yeah. But I guess on the reverse of that, I think based on the video games I've talked about on the show and that people know that I like, I think people probably anticipate that all the video games I like will involve some kind of like puzzle solving or thinky strategy. But I love a good racing game. I love a good racing game too. A burnout?
01:21:02
Speaker
A need for speed? Yeah. A Grand Turismo? I find Gran Turismo a little bit boring. Like, for me to really like a racing game, it's gotta to be a little, it's gotta to be kind of unreal, if that makes sense. There was a racing game that i but I played years ago. It was actually my friend Sean had this thing where he could like stream games through his TV. I forget what it was called, but it was like a very early game streaming platform. And one of the games he had on there was called Split Second. And it was this arcade style racing game where at certain moments, there would essentially be like a quick time event where you could
01:21:57
Speaker
cause some kind of like explosion or event to happen to disrupt all your opponents in the race. And I fucking loved that game.
01:22:09
Speaker
ah I should go find that game and and download it and play it because it's one of my favorite racing games ever. like Anytime there's a racing game on ah PlayStation Plus, like I'll grab it and play it for a little while.
01:22:27
Speaker
ah But I really, really liked Split Second a ton. So, racing games in general, but specifically that one. Yeah, yeah. and And I feel you. I like a... I like a racing game and I'm fine with, like, a Gran Turismo. But I do appreciate... The most realistic I want is a Burnout Paradise.
01:22:56
Speaker
jim Yeah, yeah, yeah. blazed for speed Blaze the Cat on our Discord asks, what would constitute a perfect day for you?
01:23:10
Speaker
oh I mean, I feel like this is, I feel like my answer verges on the depressing. But ah You gotta understand that I was a real workaholic for a real long time. My perfect day. You know what was a great day for me, Matt? Hit me. Last year on my birthday when I didn't have to do anything except ah go eat a bunch of steak at a restaurant and then play video games with you, Matt Wilson. Yeah. And my wife was there and my dog was there.
01:23:51
Speaker
that's like That's great for me. like Not having any demands on my time, but just to do fun stuff with the people I love. like i like I love that. Yeah, my initial thought of the perfect day is, is what I tend to do on days where I don't have anything to do, which is I play video games all day. Yeah. Uh, but more specifically, I think like hanging out with my best friends, which would be you and Ben and you know, lots, you know, there are other people in that category, but like,
01:24:39
Speaker
Spending time with my friends just hanging out, whatever it is that we're doing, would always constitute the perfect day for me. Like, the day where you just, like, ah laugh a lot. that's That's the day I want. Yeah, and there's no deadlines pressing. There's no, like, you don't have to rearrange the things and make sure you get the stuff done.
01:25:08
Speaker
before you can allow yourself to have fun. like that's you know it's it's I try to explain to people that my my ideal day is not having any demands on my time, which doesn't mean that like I don't want to interact with people, although sometimes it does. It just means that like I don't want to have to do anything and goofing off and hanging out with you and AC and getting into multi-blood.
01:25:37
Speaker
Great. like that's you know That's as close to ah an ideal day as I can imagine. Also, I don't like traveling. I like being at home where my dog is. Yeah, same, same. KittyHawkProGayer2 on our Discord wants to know, you've talked a lot about the best first issue in the past, but what do you think is the best pilot episode of a TV show? ah Geez, I'm trying to think about what good pilot is because I can think of like what's a good first episode but I don't know if you would consider like the prisoner first episode to be a pilot you know it's part of this part of the series it I think you could generally just consider any first episode that isn't uh the cage or not it's not the cage what was the first what was the original highlight the menagerie
01:26:29
Speaker
Like that wasn't one of those pilots that like never aired or whatever. um I think you could generally consider the first episode of a TV show, the pilot, ah typically.
01:26:44
Speaker
My answer, okay, so Kitty Hawk gave the answer of Futurama, which is a great pilot episode. That's a good one, yeah. My answer is Twin Peaks. Yeah, that's also a good one. It's so good. It's such a good deal. I get when they're like, she's dead wrapped in plastic. I do like that. Yeah. It's, uh, it's what's his, it's, what's his name from a racer head that says that, uh, what's that guy's name? Jack, Jack Nance. It's Jack. Nancy says that depending on how you look at it, the, uh, the pilot of Batman, the animated series is either on leather wings or Christmas with the Joker. Neither one of those is a great episode.
01:27:22
Speaker
yeah oh Yeah. At least, you know, by the standards of that show. High Diddle Riddle is a pretty fucking good episode of of Batman 66. They kind of nail it from the start with that one.
TV and Star Trek Discussions
01:27:31
Speaker
Yeah, that show is pretty much what it is from like Jump Street. Yeah, that it is a it is a direct adaptation of the comics. Frank Gorshin was perfect casting. um It's the only mention of Batman's dead parents in the entire run of the show. He's pretty good.
01:27:47
Speaker
On Leather Wings was the first Batman the Animated Series episode that aired, but not the first one made, right? Yes, I think Christmas with the Joker was the first one that was that was made.
01:28:03
Speaker
But I don't know, like i given the production of an animated series in 1992, I don't know like what order they were written in or actually produce and I'm sure I could find out that I'm sure that shows been documented to to heck and back. But yeah, yeah. oh There was apparently there was like Batman the animated series had a like original unaired pilot. ah So so it's a little weird that yeah, that that whole thing's a little weird. ah ER r has a really good first episode. Okay.
01:28:37
Speaker
oh Yeah, I mean, that's a good one. That's one that people might be surprised that I like as much as I do, but that's one of AC's favorite shows. so Sure. I'm trying to think about pilot episodes that are as good as the show is going to get. You know, like, the like one that sprung to mind was like, the pilot episode of Community. Yeah, it's good. But it's very clearly the episode that they gave to the network to get to make it. Like, oh, this is going to be a show about this guy, Jeff winner.
01:29:08
Speaker
It's one of those weird pilots that feels different from the rest of the show because they they didn't have the sets yet. Yeah. So it's all filmed like on location at an actual college somewhere. Yeah. And it's also like structurally, it's a fucking scam because that's not the show they're going to make. Yeah. by the By the end of the first season, like halfway through the first season, that's not the show they're going to make.
01:29:35
Speaker
Yeah. It's not about Jeff Winger learning to to so love his new friends, you know? I do like pilot episodes that are arguably better than the rest of the series. You could say that a bit about Twin Peaks, but you're wrong. But like the pilot of Lost is arguably better than the rest of the series. Like it sets up so much cool shit that she never gets paid off in any appreciable way.
01:30:04
Speaker
And I think that's also true of ah of the Battlestar Galactica, the 2000s version of Battlestar Galactica. like That first pilot episode of that show is so... Well, there's the like the miniseries movie and then the actual pilot of the series, which are both so tense and have such like suspense to them.
01:30:35
Speaker
that they absolutely couldn't maintain for the rest of a series.
01:30:41
Speaker
So I think those are good examples. Yeah. Encounter at Farpoint is probably the best episode of that first season of Star Trek The Next Generation. Probably, yeah, probably. Still among the worst episodes of the show. All right, maybe one or two more questions and then we gotta wrap up.
01:31:02
Speaker
here's one from Secretly Assummers Squared. What's your favorite weird minor Star Trek species, not the Klingons or Romulans, just an alien of the week sort of guy? I like the um the weird ah three-armed guy that ah was on the con in in the ah ah the the animated series, the original animated series. I like him. Uh-huh.
01:31:27
Speaker
these i This would have been a one-off alien species until Lower Decks made them really important, the Packlets. The Packlets were very fun. The Packlets are in one episode of Next Generation, one. And like, having a species that's just dumb, but they steal their spacefaring technology from other races,
01:31:58
Speaker
That's good. I like that um that one episode of of Voyager, where they find out that they're not the real Voyager and that they are like a weird like whatever like species that made a copy of Voyager and everyone aboard it. And now they're like like melting into goo.
01:32:24
Speaker
yeah And the real Voyager has no idea that they're out there, but they were out there for like two years also having Star Trek episodes happen to them. yeah And then they're like, oh shit, we're actually made of goo. like That's a pretty good one. it's it's a yeah it's it's kind of it's It's equal parts sad and hilarious. Right. You know what ah what space race in in ah and Star Trek is really cool? The Tamarians.
01:32:54
Speaker
Yeah. Darmock? Darmock is a low-key top 20 episode of Next Generation. It's so good. um i like like I'm keeping an eye on the door in case my wife busts in and talks about how much she hates Darmock. She hates Darmock? Yes, because all language is middle. Okay.
01:33:20
Speaker
the Okay, they they shouldn't use the term metaphor because their language is more like historical reference. Yeah, I mean, I mean look look look Like many of the best Star Trek episodes. It's it's all it's all a thought experiment Yeah, yeah, it's I just doesn't have to hold up for longer than 44 minutes. I love the concept of
01:33:50
Speaker
a race of people with a language where you understand the words, but so many of the words are proper nouns that you have no idea what they're talking about. Yeah. And I feel like we did like once, once social media existed and some of us turned 40, I think that was proven to be like very, very true.
01:34:14
Speaker
Yeah,
Humor and Gaming Challenges
01:34:15
Speaker
yeah. i I don't know how often I go on TikTok and I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? Matt, Matt, I don't know what a skibbity toilet is. Oh, I sadly do. I don't, I don't want to. I hear that and I'm just like, Timba, his arm's wide. Timba, his arm's wide.
01:34:37
Speaker
But I mean, you know, like listen to, listen to, there are people who listen to this show who when we started talking about war games, the match beyond, that just yeah faded right out. Look, Darmaka and Jalada at Tanagra. That's all I'm saying. Shotgun when the walls fell, man. Exactly. All right. Here's a question from Stone Cold HCC and our discord. How come roads always have to be black? I want to drive on a red one.
01:35:03
Speaker
ah We do have red ah roads here in ah beautiful Minneapolis, Minnesota, ah but they are bus-only lanes. Interesting. There should just be a regular red road. I agree with you, Stone Cold. I'm with you on that. i do I do actually now want to know why roads are black.
01:35:24
Speaker
ah guess just because that's the ct like That's the color the tar is, right? like Yeah, but I mean, like, ah I assume it could be any color. It could be any color, but I just make it the color of the natural color of the material, I suppose? I don't know. It's anyway probably, it probably doesn't like so that it won't show dirt and like tire marks. Yeah, probably. Give it enough tires, it's going to turn black anyway. There are some roads that are like gray.
01:35:58
Speaker
Like there are there are varying shades of road, at least.
01:36:04
Speaker
i'm goingnna ask that i'm I'm skipping over some other questions to ask this last question from Julia Louis-Dreyfus on our Discord. I have a lot of questions about that name when I see it in the Discord. They ask, I just made it to Melania's second phase in Elden Ring. Yes, I started in 2022. What's the longest you've kept trying to finish a video game?
01:36:25
Speaker
I don't know, ah because i did spend that I did spend that sunny afternoon like so a few hours of the the limited hours that I have in this life on planet Earth, trying to walk down that one street in Bloodborne. I could show you how to get past that, and then you'd have a great time. You know, Matt, um that's another one I saw on PlayStation Plus, where I'm like, hey, I got time. That's true.
01:36:54
Speaker
I just, I feel, I worry that if it's like Elden Ring, all the time I put into it still will not make it fun. I think it's great. I think it's the best video game. I know. I know you do. And that's, that's why I didn't say we'll make it good because I know you like it. but but I'd like to have fun. I'm different. The clock is still ticking for me on like uncharted four. I started playing uncharted four like six years ago and uh, a thief's end and just never finished it. I got really frustrated with that game. I want people like those are charted games. I, and I played the first three, but something in uncharted four just made me go. I think I'm, I think I'm good.
01:37:46
Speaker
Maybe I'll finish it someday. I don't know. you were like These dogs are too naughty. I'm, I'm, I think I just reached the point where I was like, i I have reached the point of cognitive dissonance that I can no longer take about like super nice guy, Nathan Drake, who is a mass, mass murderer. Matt, that's that's video games, baby. But so many video game characters
01:38:18
Speaker
I've never encountered another video game character like Nathan Drake, where it's just like, I'm a regular guy with a wife who lives in a house.
01:38:28
Speaker
But I shoot dozens if not hundreds of dudes all the time. I mean, you're basically describing Chief Miles O'Brien to really tie the episode together. ah You did, man.
01:38:44
Speaker
Uh, all right. Boy, ask us about the Star Trek war games match. That's the one. That's some good shit. That would be some good shit. All right. We're out of time. Uh, thanks for those questions. There were quite a few we didn't get to, um, but, uh, but thanks to everybody who sent in a question. We'll ask you for more, I'm sure in the near future. Uh, if you would like to send us a listener question, you can email us one at our email address, which is war rocket podcast at gmail dot.com.
01:39:12
Speaker
That is also where you can send every story ever lists and Thursday Night Raw entries. And let us know if you want to sponsor the show. We have ah some sponsorship stuff on the way. Thanks to Chris's efforts. So
Conclusion and Contact Information
01:39:29
Speaker
if you're not on the Patreon feed, you'll hear those.
01:39:33
Speaker
You should hear him anyway, honestly. You should. If you want to get in touch with us other ways, on we're on Tumblr, warrockitpodcast.tumblr dot.com. We're on Blue Sky, warrockitajax.bsky.social. A whole bunch of our questions came from our Discord server, which you can join by invitation, ask us for an invitation nicely, and we'll make sure that you get one. Our website is warrockitajax.com. It is every episode of the show we've ever done. warrockitwiki.com is the fan run spot.
01:40:02
Speaker
where you can find all the information you could ever want about this show or Rockin' Ajax. If you want to find me and myself my you can go to my website, MattDWilson.net to find links to my comics, my books, my other podcasts, and my social medias. Chris, where can people find you? Everybody can find me.
01:40:23
Speaker
pretty much right here on War Rock at Ajax, but ah there will be some other links soon on the-isb.com, but stay tuned right here. We'll be back next week with a guest. That does it. ah Folks, until then, don't forget, Black Lives Matter. Trans 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.