Puny Pod | Monthly Bugle January '24

[00:00:00] Welcome to Puny Pod's Monthly Bugle for January of 2024. My name is Ryan and my co-host. He made an edit to our show notes for now until he has ready to play spy and AI is David. David, are you trying to tell me something?

[00:00:19] No, I'm quite the opposite. I'm going to form an union and I'm going to force you to not hire AI talents. Not that I am talent but you know what I mean? So how are you doing then?

[00:00:31] Not too shabby, not too shabby. We are here in the new year. We have I have a new mic set up so if I sound different that's why please bear with us as we play with it.

[00:00:42] It's going to probably sound weird for a little bit while I get used to this and I get used to editing it. You're definitely going to hear more background noise for a little bit because I noticed it is

[00:00:55] Hey, more gainy than my previous setup. So you will crystal clear here everything going on on my side. And if you hear a random cat it is almost certainly not my cat who is sitting with me. All right, well David. So we are recording this on January 10th.

[00:01:20] So I do want to first head off and say we will not be covering echo which came out yesterday. I did not get the chance to watch that point yet. I'm I'm slack in but we'll cover that on the next monthly bugle.

[00:01:41] I'm just like to be fair though like they dropped five episodes. It's not like it was just a casual 35 minute watch not including credits if you will. So yeah, and I was like so as updating

[00:01:58] I think I've talked about this a couple times on the show but I have this really deep dive analysis that I did at one point and maybe we'll release it as our secret show with the phase two review or something but

[00:02:09] I I dove in super deep and like created baseball style stats for stuff for all the movies and everything and one of the stats involves runtime and that was one thing I noticed with echo is like the runtime

[00:02:27] of those episodes is wildly variable. Like 150 minutes, once 35 minutes it's just crazy. Is this the document you loosely refer to as your manifesto? No, that's a different one. Okay, it's kidding.

[00:02:45] No I think yeah let's yeah the it would be it would be interesting to kind of look at like all the run times I found even a Loki even in some of the other Marvel properties you know you

[00:02:59] 35 it's 45 it's you know 42 it's an hour. Yeah it's kind of interesting to like if you just ditch them together and just look at like the total time. Yeah all right well we do have those some new

[00:03:14] Marvel content that we can cover here so released in nine nights one one episode and I we had season two of what if and David well I get my document pulled up here what was kind

[00:03:32] of your overall feeling on what it's season two. So going into the last season what if and I and I despite being a completionist I did not rewatch season one and so having had a long autumn filled with writer strikes director strikes lack of content.

[00:03:58] You could have spoon fed me almost any Marvel content and I would have been pretty amped up for it and so going into it I was I was excited I looked forward actually really like the what if

[00:04:09] series like concept I wasn't a huge what if comic book fan or read them but it wasn't like my main jam if you will but I liked I liked the stories that they told and there were a

[00:04:23] couple in particular we talked about in the last preview show that I was interested in so I liked you know again we kind of get into like what were our favorites but I was really just

[00:04:33] looking forward to revisiting it trying to figure out where they were going to zag or they're kind of end up at the end how about you yeah I definitely agree I think I think this this season of

[00:04:44] what if one thing that stood out to me was we did a lot less plug-in play so season one was a lot of just like here's the same thing but with different people doing it where season two took a lot

[00:05:02] more I guess risks right and and kind of explored the stories a little bit more which was really really interesting to me and I really really liked it so overall I thought it was a really good

[00:05:18] season diving into the individual episodes here the first episode right out of the gate was what if Nebula was in Blade Runner I mean what if Nebula joined the Nova Corps this one was

[00:05:35] had a very Blade Runner aesthetic and very very clear homage to Blade Runner essentially Nova Corps sees Tony's Tony Stark's armor around the world and you know does it and I thought that one was really fun and it was it was cool to explore

[00:05:58] explore a different side of Nebula right like we've always kind of seen her as this warrior bad language but kind of to get to see a different side of her and and see her explore her

[00:06:11] character a little bit was really really cool to me yeah and also um we should have prefaced by saying to see Karen Gillen, Michael Rucker like type of IT all these people

[00:06:27] and then not everyone in what if is the are the original voice actors or the voice actors not all the original actors but that that was pretty cool and kind of adds to the

[00:06:38] kind of to the enjoyment if you all it's not super distracting when it's a different Tony Stark it's not that big a deal but the fact that these actors came back to do the roles like you

[00:06:48] know kind of you know cemented a little tiny bit um yeah I did like I like seeing Groot again like seeing me again like seeing Corgan power the duck shows up this is about the Howard

[00:07:02] Duck level I enjoy so nice yeah um so our second episode was what if Peter Quill attacked Earth's mightiest heroes uh so story plot here is basically y'all do doesn't think twice delivers Peter to ego ego twists Peter Peter becomes who he was supposed to be which is

[00:07:30] uh the you know son of a celestial and he uh he proceeds to attack Earth in the in the late 80s if I remember correctly. Yep yep uh I would like to note

[00:07:46] I think there are two or three Academy Award winners that there's Michael Douglas in Lawrence Fishburn Kurt Russ I don't think a one one but like Hayley at well Chris Hemsworth like again

[00:08:01] just the just a merger throw of voice actors if you all I enjoyed this one um again you know there are um aspects about this one you know it was cool to see like the alternate version of the Avengers that

[00:08:16] potters really cool like that was probably my favorite thing in the other episode. It was really cool to see it actual galif so totally. So yeah that that one I liked it was a little bit of a

[00:08:40] plug-in play for me like that was a little bit of just like it wasn't that much of a change from the time line right it was kind of just things we already seen it was just different heroes doing hero things. A lot yeah

[00:08:57] a lot of I would say far to kind of criticize what if it seemed like there were a lot of permutations around the Avengers which I don't mind right I enjoyed the Avengers quite a bit but it

[00:09:08] seemed a lot of like flavors of vanilla yeah so um then releasing on Christmas Eve we had what if happy Hogan saved Christmas this one's kind of started off as like a pure die hard parody

[00:09:25] with happy climbing through vents and stuff but it ended up actually pulling in a comic book storyline a little bit of a deep cut with happy Hogan becoming the freak getting getting some

[00:09:41] gamma radiated blood mixed in with his own and becoming a gamma monster and he fought against a Hulkbuster armd Justin Hammer and we still got Sam Rockwell still danced even in an audition I know I this so to a certain extent because they lifted from

[00:10:12] national Christmas movie favorite die hard it was I'm not gonna say it's cheap it was like okay this is gonna be an easy banger see him dancing this I love this episode quite a bit

[00:10:24] um again pretty much almost all the original actors it reprisant their roles really it was funny I enjoyed the little nods to die hard I enjoyed like you're saying the kind of delving into

[00:10:42] the comics a bit now if you were to rank this as far as your Christmas movies goes this is above Iron Man 2 I'm 3 right yeah probably would be it probably would be it was it was really fun

[00:11:02] I think it was it was designed as a Christmas thing not just a seasonal thing but it was also released on Christmas Eve which I think helped the enjoyment right watching this one in July would

[00:11:18] probably not be necessarily as enjoyable I do also think it's funny because there was there was like a very blinking you'll miss it type of reference where they're like talking about what food is there

[00:11:35] and one of the things that's mentioned is a kogi which is actually the food truck and also brick and mortar restaurant that Roy Choi chef chef Roy Choi started who is who taught John Favral

[00:11:58] how to be a chef for the movie chef yep yeah Korean restaurant like yeah so yeah I've seen the you know we're not gonna nerd out I almost went on down to like food shows that's a different podcast

[00:12:15] the chef show yeah it's a good one if you guys haven't watched the chef even if you haven't watched the movie chef watch chef show as MCU fans you'll actually enjoy it there's actually some MCU pieces I think

[00:12:29] there's one of the episodes that was like well they were filming Avengers and so it's a bunch of the Avengers sitting there having dinner um pretty fun it's not sure but it's still good yeah

[00:12:42] so then we moved on to Christmas and boy oh boy did I get a Christmas gift out of this episode I am not gonna lie this episode was like they called me up and they had me right the episode

[00:12:58] this was what if Iron Man crashed into the grandmaster so after Iron Man flies the new through the portal in the battle of New York as he's falling back through the portal he gets dumped

[00:13:11] out onto sarcar and we ensued or we engage on like a very like death race inspired just fever dream of an episode but also so so good there's like transformers inspiration you can

[00:13:37] pick up on we've got the grandmaster in there which who doesn't love us who doesn't love some some Jeff Goldblum and this this one literally was like it had my name written on it

[00:13:56] from start to finish so a couple things one that the and it's really really unfortunate but early on I got like phantom men as pod racing vibes and that kind of yeah there was there was and I like the

[00:14:14] pod racing I think that's probably just like a little bit of our age different showing where like yeah the pod racing I have happy memories of but it definitely has some of that aesthetic there

[00:14:28] it's like Tony didn't look at like fall Korean say are you an angel like as long as that didn't happen it was not gonna be that bad um now let me ask this I think I watched it and around that time it

[00:14:40] texted you and I said Iron Man what were your thoughts oh they were so cool the very last one where he like transforms back from the car into the suit oh Jeff's kiss it was so good it was

[00:15:00] so good and for those who don't know this episode was supposed to be an in season one and they kind of make me reference to that in the episode because the end of season one

[00:15:12] when they create the multiverse of angels the guardians of the multiverse I guess is what they call it there is a Gamora who shows up that we never saw in what if and this episode is where they

[00:15:29] introduce that version of Gamora um and this episode was meant to be in season one but due to pandemic issues ended up getting scrapped because they didn't have it finished by the time

[00:15:46] by the time season one came out and so it got booted out to season two and I think I mean I think they handled it well it was it was super fun yeah told a grin so then we move on to

[00:16:02] what I would argue is the most plug-in play episode which was one if Captain Carter fought the hydrostomper so basically imagine Captain America's so our Captain America not civil war winter soldier but with Captain Carter instead of Steve Rogers

[00:16:24] Bucky is now the head of hydra or not hydra the head of shield and essentially instead of hydra you have the red room so you have of drag-offs red room as the big bats they have taken over they've taken over Steve who in season one

[00:16:54] when he doesn't get the super soldier serum he basically becomes Ironman and the red room has common deered him if you will and so he becomes the hydra stomper

[00:17:07] I thought this was the low point of the season in my opinion it was kind of fun but it just this one didn't grab me that much yeah no I would agree with you I mean I think

[00:17:21] we'll see it a little bit later on I think by the time we get to episode 8 I'm not sure if I can write but they're either four or five episodes with Captain Carter

[00:17:37] whom I like as character but could just be it could she just have her own series like so for it could be like there's no Falcon there's no new Captain America like he doesn't show up anywhere

[00:17:50] okay they could be you know you know as we head towards the live action it would have been canonized at least have this character I'm sure Anthony Mackie doesn't have a huge amount going on

[00:18:03] like this is his main gig so I would have liked to have seen him incorporated I think that would have been kind of cool but that's his main yeah that's fair that's fair and this

[00:18:15] this episode did have the tag at the end that started us down the line of kind of the connective arc so one of the really cool things with this series is it's anthology based

[00:18:29] so the idea is you can pick an episode out watch it and enjoy it you don't have to know what's what else is going on throughout the rest of the season but the tag at the end of this did hint

[00:18:41] towards kind of the continued arc which same thing happened in season one kind of the last three four episodes could string together a story um so the next episode was what if Kahori reshaped the world so Kahori is a MCU original hero it is she is the first

[00:19:08] fully original MCU superhero and I'm saying this specifically one I have to issue a past show correction on myself copen dine was not original to the MCU she actually was part of the

[00:19:26] MCU two universe and I miss that in my research when we were talking about it and then there's some other like secondary characters and even like um basically primary characters right Colson is a pretty primary character and he's original to the MCU but he's not a superhero right

[00:19:48] so when I say original superhero I'm being pretty specific there he's 18 Colson is a superhero in my heart that's fair that is fair um what did you miss this so with this episode like what did you

[00:20:03] well you could summarize it but like what were your thoughts on I'm curious to know as you as you like what are your thoughts on the development and story in a 30 minute format of this character yeah it was really interesting so so basic concept here is

[00:20:20] um the the test erect is is sent or ends up crashing to earth hmm excuse me and crashes to North America rather than anywhere else and a mohawk uh tribe in the mohawk nation um essentially finds it and and Kohari is a member of that tribe

[00:20:55] becomes empowered by it um and fun in sues um I thought it was really interesting I one interesting thing about it was the all of the characters spoke in their in their own tongue so

[00:21:13] the mohawk characters spoke in the mohawk language the um Spanish characters uh because the villains in this are Spanish um they spoke Spanish and so it was really interesting that there I don't think there was any English spoken in the whole episode maybe I guess the watcher probably

[00:21:38] spoke English at some point as he was narrating but um I I thought those really interesting 30 minutes probably wasn't long enough to fully do it right but I don't think it was done wrong necessarily

[00:21:54] yeah um I I will say my one big criticism of this episode is I felt like using the Spanish as the European villains was a little bit lazy um yeah spanish angry spaniards is kind of a trope to me rather than using you know uh French invaders or

[00:22:25] in English invaders or something or the freaky Dutch yeah let's get it the freaky deaky Dutch should be um I like this is one and again to your two point like something like this where you are

[00:22:39] having an origin story it's new character whether it's in what if or something else I don't know could you do I'd be down for like two or three 30 minute episodes doesn't have to be a certainly

[00:22:52] live action movie or even like a fully animated movie but just to kind of get into it I do think that for was see a little bit in echo and other things you know you're having this opportunity to

[00:23:07] you know represent groups who were not historically represented comic books spend a little bit more time on the background on the culture you kind of have to rush through it

[00:23:18] just a little tiny bit I think yeah get there by the end but um not I like to I mean it's it's I like the fact that they're thinking about creating new characters via Disney plus doesn't have to

[00:23:34] just be what if so hopefully we'll we'll see her again yeah for sure for sure well we actually we do see her a little bit later in the um in this season as well yeah yeah I'm an outside of what FBA yeah for sure

[00:23:50] um so then uh the next episode is what if hella found the 10 rings um this could have been very basic plug-in play but I do feel like it it's it it it wouldn't in a direction I didn't expect

[00:24:09] hella ending up kind of heroic was really interesting to me um and and so I actually didn't expect to like this episode as much as I did because I was expecting just basic plug-in play but we we got a

[00:24:26] very interesting story where we're essentially hella is cast out from as guard very very similar to Thor's outcasting um she has to find mercy rather than being worthy um and then she interacts with

[00:24:47] the mandarin and teams up with him to get some sweet 10 rings action happening I and I like you I was like all right we'll see how this goes I really enjoyed it. K-Planchet is a treat and the other

[00:25:03] voice actors I thought did a real really good job it was visually um I don't know I like the kind of the scenery as it kind of they they make their way through that kind of a force they end up on

[00:25:17] the other side um I don't know I thought was really good. Yeah yeah I definitely agree I think it was a really good one I think you know if you are a if you are a Thor fan and you don't really

[00:25:32] love what if I would honestly go pick this one out and just go watch it um it was it was fun. Yeah no I really enjoyed I was you know it was I had no idea where it was sometimes you see the

[00:25:47] title and he starts to like kind of like fast forward through the comic book in your mind to kind of figure out where we can end up and I was like oh all right well I've no idea where this one's going

[00:25:59] right right um so then the next one which this is actually based on a Neil Gaiman, a Neil Gaiman comic book universe so he wrote for Marvel Comics Hero Avengers 1602 this was what if the

[00:26:15] Avengers assembled in 1602 um I loved this one this was I I've been ranting about the plugin playness and I think rather than unpugging heroes and plugging other heroes in this was unplug the setting and plug a different setting in but I thought this one was really really fun

[00:26:39] it was super super silly we saw the freak come back we saw uh aunt man getting to do some fun stuff we saw the return of of the yellow jacket I didn't expect that one nope um yeah I thought

[00:27:00] this one was really fun it was it was silly there's there was a lot of silliness to it uh Tony Stark it's the town drunkard right uh and uh I don't actually remember the plot of this one all that

[00:27:14] well I I remember the general gist is is time is like the universe is ripping apart at the seams here in 1602 and we have to figure out how to not have it rip apart yeah people are just

[00:27:30] appearing and they have to you know and and then a young you know 400 plus year old version of drunk and Tony Stark has come up with his device machine yeah I did find it you know I think Steve

[00:27:47] Rogers as Robin Hood makes so much sense in the world I think it's technically Rogers Hood but there you go yeah yeah I liked the play on the characters um it was lighthearted it had

[00:28:04] a fun premise I think in our last episode this is one of the ones I was most looking forward to and I thought it delivered pretty well yeah so then the last one the the finale here where

[00:28:16] everything kind of came together we had what if what if strange supreme interview or intervene so in season one one of the kind of arc pieces is that there's a there's a strange there's a

[00:28:36] doctor strange out there who's absorbing all the powers of all the baddies in the world or in the universe so that he can become this ultimate bad guy right he can he and his ultimate goal is to save

[00:28:53] his girlfriend I can't think of her name now Christine Christine it's ultimate goal is to save Christine we saw a little bit of this actually come into live action through multi-versa madness but he comes in and once so once everything's kind of been realized that because at

[00:29:18] agent or Captain Carter has to basically sacrifice Steve every single time they can't be together that's a tomorrow term from another marble project a cannon event strange supreme is kind of trying to show Peggy that hey you could be with Steve

[00:29:43] and then what we end up finding out is strange supreme is actually collecting all of these universe enders as I think they call them um and eventually what he wants to do

[00:29:59] is create a new universe he wants to create he wants to feed them to this forge and create a new universe so it was really cool tons of background cameo's like this was this is the the

[00:30:14] episode that you're gonna want to watch on point two five speed just to catch everything that's in the background but big you I mean basically the whole episode it's just one massive fight scene

[00:30:27] um and it was it was really fun at the end we get to see like this mega ultra super powered version of uh of Peggy Carter where she has the she has Captain America shield she has hella's crown

[00:30:46] she has the infinity armor that that um killmonger had created in the first season of what if she has I think she has melloner um she has everything right she has all of the power

[00:31:06] and through her work with Kohari Kohari comes back here they are able to stop strange shipreams plants yeah and again it's really hard to say that an animated MCU show jump the shark

[00:31:26] but when she wields all the stones and it doesn't kill her I'm like okay whatever like I that's a nerdy thing but it's a good almost kill the Hulk uh yeah but um yeah with little things like

[00:31:39] little small things like if you remember um you know we're in a different world different time and it's like red skulls image is on is on Mount Rushmore and so little things like that you're

[00:31:52] like oh that's cool that that gets you to like places you in a spot and it gets you to think of things like oh this is a completely different universe we've seen the strange supreme weirdo and he

[00:32:04] turned out to be a bad guy yet again collecting all the universe killers I tried I didn't if you did Ryan but I tried to slow down and it certainly stopped the screen in different

[00:32:16] quiz time try to identify oh yeah who all was there yeah so good it's it's so good it's so so good I you know I will say this is the thing overall about what if and and this is my hope for

[00:32:35] this year and this bleeds a little bit into something we'll talk about a little bit later in the episode is the low barrier to entry and the the risk acceptance that you can do with an animated series

[00:32:56] like this especially in anthology series like this it's so awesome and it's so cool to get to see them explore new thoughts and new stories and different stories you know you and I were texting a

[00:33:08] little bit while this was coming out and I was like man I wish I could see that that's the car race in live action but um it never will happen right like that's that's way too risky it's that that budget

[00:33:20] isn't worth it so it is it is really cool to see them kind of take to this medium of animated television and explore more risky stories right more more different stories just stories that that we

[00:33:38] wouldn't be telling in moving pictures otherwise right they're told in the comics and that's sort of thing but um they're not told on screen that much yeah I would say out of all the

[00:33:52] I think about this for a second I'd say out of all the Disney plus MCU shows I mean this feels like the most her comic book I mean not yes like just each one's different

[00:34:07] you know I'm obviously visually it looks like comic book it's animated right it's gonna more of a look and feel but I agree with you just doing like the amount of CJ I would take to do

[00:34:20] that race and the suit up and the unsuit up like your millions in and yeah and so the fact that they're able to do this and find some um uh like positive feedback the downside is because it's not a

[00:34:37] movie theater you can't judge it by like how much money it makes but I do hope they do more of this because I like to your point I think it's easier to do I think the baritantry is lower um I don't even

[00:34:52] need to have like Kate Blanchett and you know rock you know not Robert J. Um everybody but Robert J. and your Chris Hemzwer you don't need to bring them back you be really kind

[00:35:03] of be anyone it's not gonna take it out taking anything away from me so we'll see hopefully they do more of it for sure for sure well um so that that's our uh kind of current content

[00:35:18] review for this month um so we originally went into planning this this one for this month to be a bit of a recap of 2023 with a look forward into 2024 and then um

[00:35:35] well the month of December happened in the MCU um so we will so before we get into kind of our our year and review year ahead we did want to cover kind of a pretty major major happening in the MCU

[00:35:50] so there there has been um it's been all over the news there's been a lot of uh who was cast as he who remains slash king slash insert variant name here um he he has since

[00:36:16] uh he he I will sorry I try to handle this a little bit delicately but uh his legal he's legal troubles have led to a point where marble has separated um separate ties cut ties he is no longer a part of the

[00:36:33] marble cinematic universe so just really quick just to summarize with that getting details so in March 2023 he there was a he there was an incident um um uh a place we're called

[00:36:50] he was charged with the crimes back in May in March 2023 we didn't talk about it because we felt like at the time let this go through kind of legal due process go through the courts there's you know

[00:37:01] talking about you know looking at like videos or reading article like variety art it doesn't matter like it doesn't matter so um his assault trial began in November 2023 he played not guilty to

[00:37:15] misty and it made her assault and harassment charges um and you know without get going through the trial on in December 18 he was found guilty of one count of reckless assault in the third degree in a

[00:37:29] charge of harassment as violation he was a quitter and other charge of assault another aggravate harassment and he was promptly like a by-borrow he had appeared in um Loki season one he appeared in

[00:37:44] Loki season two and then the wasp quantum media has the titular character king and a lot of the back half of this you know phase of the MC it was around king and so that's kind of where we get to where we

[00:38:02] yeah and I do also want to just throw in there real quick that like um we did select not to cover this on the bugle in the past like like David mentioned um and and I do want to say that like

[00:38:17] it's important for me to say that well yes we are going to talk about how this impacts the MCU the impact on the family the impact on the victims the impact on Jonathan majors is not lost on us right

[00:38:29] oh wow that that is those those are very real human impacts um we are going to choose to not not cover them in depth because I think they're covered much better by other outlets that is not

[00:38:44] why you necessarily come to the to the monthly bugle right you come to the monthly bugle for Marvel content and so so with that being said Marvel has cut ties with as David said a titular character

[00:38:59] literally the announced name for one of for the next Avengers movie is King Dynasty and so this is a pretty pretty big deal um nothing has been announced as to what the resolution

[00:39:16] to this is right now you know there there's a they are at a nice place in storytelling where they do have some options right some options do exist um it's going to be weird when they go back in an

[00:39:32] AI over his face in that after credits scene where you see a bunch of them but you know there there's a lot swirling around right now and I think with everything else that's happened in the MCU

[00:39:52] the article the variety article from earlier this year you know talking about how how messy Marvel is the general sentiment around Marvel right now it's actually at a very interesting point um and so that leads us to the question and I guess I'll pose this to you David

[00:40:18] do you think I guess what is the most probable outcome from your point of view? Oh man that's a tough question I envision that all the executives are down in palm springs or

[00:40:31] have been in their little palm springs retreat that they do every year to kind of like map things out and again I would like to echo what you said before like there are real people involved real lives

[00:40:43] like we're not you know I don't know the wishing them all the best I don't know that sounds tried but like wanting to kind of acknowledge like you know to acknowledge that and to

[00:40:58] you know hope for healing there and as it relates to the MCU like this is kind of minor to like real life stuff but anyway right so I think so I've I've read reports which suggests that

[00:41:13] there already just referring it to quote Avengers 5 um I have heard I've read as you probably have as well do they recast the king character the nice thing about him being a variant is

[00:41:28] you could recast them with someone else you you know the end of Loki you know without giving away too much I guess we'll spoil it yeah it's both end of Loki too I guess maybe you're fine we talked about it here

[00:41:40] yeah it's just like I mean king can arguably be gone and so the questions whether you recast whether you just replace with an entirely different villain and an entirely different storyline I personally think and would prefer that they just zag to a different storyline or the

[00:42:04] accelerate the X-Men I think you know when you if you were to ask comic book fans like what's your favorite comic book line what's your favorite story line in a comic book there'll be stuff

[00:42:16] her fantastic foreign expended Avengers no I don't know that that many people are saying you know what I really did that king storyline that was my normal jam you know and I think that the quantum realm stuff the different timelines the different universes it's very confusing for

[00:42:36] folks and I don't want to say it's unintelligible but it's pretty confusing and so I would almost rather than move to something a little more linear and easier to understand and so I would say

[00:42:54] kind of zag on the storyline but how about you that's fair that's fair again and I think they do have a they have a pretty straightforward opportunity to zag there too secret wars is supposed to be

[00:43:06] our next Avengers movie after king dynasty in the comic books king isn't a huge part of the that's the be-onder is the big bad in those so zinging to the be-onder could make sense

[00:43:26] and I also think that I do like there I've seen a few fancasts go around you know Robert Downey Jr. as his character from tropic thunder but I think there's some good opportunity is John Boyega

[00:43:48] if they wanted to do like a one for one recap he's not gonna do it he's also don't think one for one is the is the right choice yeah I think you go with a much older king and I don't know I haven't seen

[00:44:01] this one float around necessarily but somebody like a Denzel right um as a as a much more aged king or a younger king this one I have seen float around a little bit which is Caleb Laughlin

[00:44:15] from stranger things okay um have him have him play a much younger king and so I think if you wanted to do something to try and finish out the king storyline maybe you move King dynasty

[00:44:30] into 2025 you know reconfigure your release strategy a little bit bump it up and just kind of get it done with don't make king like your new thing else right because that that was the idea was

[00:44:46] king was gonna be your not just phase but your saga villain right king was gonna be this big bad similar to Thanos where you know you're fighting him for 10 years um I don't think that's

[00:45:01] that is not the reality we live in at this point I don't think how about and again they might even talk about this like what if you just made you know super powerful Loki the bad guy everyone loves

[00:45:16] Loki you know you have to because yeah if you think about it one of the things that might have been missing from the last phase and you like we didn't have an Avengers movie

[00:45:26] and maybe that was a mess and why you can't necessarily bring back all the Chris's and you know scratch a Hanson's character all that stuff but you could bring back Loki and everyone loves

[00:45:40] some some time idols like we're Sylvie I'd be cool with Sylvie Loki as well or Sylvie version of king. Well they're bringing in um I mean they they have young Avengers

[00:45:54] young Avengers was one of the tags at the end of the marbles and young Loki is in the young Avengers and so you have some tags there to play with and I think if they wanted to do that they could

[00:46:10] kind of just write off phase five which I think would be unfortunate because I think the television and get in phase five is some of the best marval television we have. One division kept in

[00:46:26] Falcon winner soldier like those those are very good television series so to write them off completely would be unfortunate but um I do think they are faced with the challenge and I do

[00:46:43] agree I think ultimately getting to a more linear a more linear type of character a more linear place is going to I think that's going to be where they're gonna head um Deadpool presents a really

[00:47:01] interesting opportunity in that I think it can close some chapters for them and and you know it comes out later this year and it could Deadpool storytelling lies it's not outside of the realm

[00:47:21] of normalcy for Deadpool to just kind of be where things end. So I wouldn't be surprised if they use that to maybe cut off some ties or something um I would be surprised if you know Deadpool

[00:47:39] be heads Jonathan majors or something but pieces. Or hey guess what I mean to the to your point like you bought the properties 20th century Fox properties five years ago when you crick out one of those

[00:47:52] fantastic four X-Men movie or yeah Avengers five Avengers versus X-Men I'm telling you right now that was amazing oh my god right like it doesn't have been and a VX so Avengers versus X-Men

[00:48:05] A VX was a series of comics that was in the heart of my comic book reading days and it was so cool seeing Tony Stark build a a Phoenix Buster armor oh my gosh if I saw that if I saw

[00:48:24] I mean even if it was Riri Williams building a a Phoenix Buster armor it would oh I'd be I'd be a mess but I do think yeah I think like I think unfortunately two magnitos is a lot

[00:48:45] and as much as I would love to see them do just like a basic X-Men versus the brotherhood of evil I also think we might be bored with magnitos which I don't necessarily disagree with but if you're

[00:49:01] telling me that the next if we're gonna exactly from Kang and you're telling them the next big bad is that beyond her I'm just like okay I guess like no no doom we don't have to do magnito

[00:49:13] you do you know there's so many other health art like there's so many other character health higher club with the phrase so many ones you could do like take wonderful full villain I mean she did a little bit of that and multiverse of madness but completely right

[00:49:31] so anyway yeah I think I do think ultimately I think we've probably got a couple more projects with some version of Kang around I do think that'll happen I don't think that we just

[00:49:47] called drop him right now and whether they they complete that with Renslayer you know she was kind of hinted to be a variant of Kang's in Loki so whether they they use her to close the story

[00:50:04] it closed the chapter of Kang or you know a recasted Kang or something I do think we will close that chapter I don't think that it's just and we never talked about him again no I don't think so

[00:50:22] either but I would not be surprised if they didn't close it if they just left it open so yeah like a comic book like at the end of the comic book there's a fight between characters

[00:50:36] and people are the bad bad person still live or they escape or they go into some sort of portal in other worlds you don't see them but they're not gone yeah so I don't you know they I could see

[00:50:48] them off-balling Kang bring Kang back um but there's other I mean like I said there's a lot of different ways you bring back Ultron bring back I mean this a lot of different things yeah right

[00:50:58] do Ultron right would be great oh god I just so as part of this not for this episode but for the next one I rewatch all of the last phase of the MCU just got done Avengers Ultron man

[00:51:15] did my demo boy Ultron wrong but anyway yeah so yeah that that's you know that was major news and we didn't want to skip over it I think we had to cover it in some way right and so

[00:51:31] I think ultimately it is an interesting time for the MCU um the release slate is such that they have flexibility ultimately reshutes rewrites that sort of thing can happen because you

[00:51:47] have another year until most of the movies on your slate are gonna come out I don't think Kang was gonna be a part of like Captain America um no new world order right so you've you've got some

[00:52:02] time to just to decide and figure it out which is good I think well here's the thing you had a multi-month writer strike so all they could do is just think about different options so I

[00:52:19] wouldn't anticipate that even if they don't have like pen to paper scripts done I I'm sure they've got stuff plotted out I'd be shocked if they did not it would be really surprising Kevin

[00:52:32] Vaggy kicked his heels up for five months you know what I'm trying to strike I'm not gonna do anything so right right um cool well let's move into what this this was supposed to be right so

[00:52:45] we do want to do a year and review um plus a little bit of a look forward here so I'm gonna start with 20 23 in review so to run through the releases that we had in 2023 we started in February

[00:53:03] with Antman in the Wast, Quantum Mania I actually I really enjoyed this movie I know the general discourse is it's not good but I I did enjoy this one I thought it was really fun

[00:53:22] and there's our one of our appearances of Jonathan Major hmm and then we moved on to Guardians of the Galaxy 3 volume 3 in May of 2023 which was the MCUs Kiss Goodbye to James Gun

[00:53:40] before he goes over and starts running DC um and I think this was part of the run of movies where they really just let the director cook right um this was a James gun movie through in through

[00:54:00] every single part of it um it it it it was a little bit weird that they used two of the girlfriend actors as voices in this movie um so Judy Greer and um Linda Cartelini were

[00:54:16] both voices in this movie which are oh interest Avengers girlfriends um but or X-Wipes um so just kind of funny there but um that I think Guardians of the Galaxy volume 3 made the most

[00:54:36] one out of this year I didn't actually make notes here but I think it's safe to assume it did I I think it's almost safe to send the Guardians of the Galaxy volume 3 made as much as

[00:54:47] the two other MC movies combined yeah um and then in November we had the release of the Marvels I don't think we actually ever ended up doing a current content review on this one um

[00:55:00] um I I thought early on I really liked this I thought I was actually talking to somebody else today about this and I said this was the most pre end game Marvel movie

[00:55:16] of the post end games uh MC you okay you lost me you said the most pre game there was pre end game those post end games yeah so it felt the most like the MCU before end game it felt very linear

[00:55:32] it felt okay very like just point eight point B superhero movie to me class okay I got through classic MCU phase one phase two telestory A to Z got it yep um so that was the Marvels

[00:55:53] and then in non MCU Marvel movies we did have Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse release in May I will go out on not even that long with a limb and say that this was the best Marvel content of the year

[00:56:09] period oh yeah without that that's it that's it I'm not gonna say it's a low bar but like as I mean it was across as Spider-Verse was probably the best movie I saw last year to be honest um really really

[00:56:24] well done um if Sony just focuses and just does that and if you are I'm great I'm good with it yeah um other than you know the weird child labor part of it where a 14 year old made uh one

[00:56:37] of the scenes but you know you're right now they put on their speed B man like give them some to brag about the help some is to get into college uh then on not being serious sir but yeah

[00:56:50] I also don't think anybody's actually could play I saw that was like a headline that came across was like wasn't actually legal to have a 14 year old youtuber make that the Lego scene in that movie

[00:57:01] yeah I don't know but um then we have TV shows secret invasion which was a show it was a show and I watched it I wanted so much more out of it I wanted so much more out of it uh Loki season two

[00:57:26] was in October of 2023 I actually thought this was really good it was very mind twisty and turn me and uh definitely very current MCU um but I enjoyed it um it was definitely weird but I enjoyed it

[00:57:47] and then we just went through what if which released in December of 2023 so that was the last thing released in 2023 so um other than across the spiderverse David what was your favorite Marvel thing from 2023 um that's a it's a good one I would say I'd say probably Guardians

[00:58:16] of the Galaxy 5 3 um mostly and it's it's a little bit convoluted because it I'm not just basing it on the last film but the two prior films the holiday special just kind of sticking the landing

[00:58:34] if you will yeah and I mean you know I mean well it may not be like the highest rated or the highest money maker of of kind of trilogy MCU films it might be like the most perfect

[00:58:47] if that makes sense yeah um and then I would say second would be like runner up it be Loki season two that's not true that's fair um not to be boring but I think I agree although I will say

[00:59:05] for me Marvel's was very close and I know this is something from our texting you and I don't necessarily agree on which hey that's that's what the podcast is built on a little bit

[00:59:15] um but I did like the Marvel's a lot I thought it was really really fun among Velani stole the show and that may be um and for me the two tags at the end the first the the young Avengers tag which was hilarious among Velani basically doing

[00:59:41] exactly the Nick Fury thing to uh to new Hawkeye to Kate Bishop was very very funny to me and then I was screaming like a goddamn bancie in the the theater um when Hank McCoy appeared on screen

[01:00:01] I mean the miss out point what was that yeah I was just I lost it I absolutely lost it when when we saw beast and like when you see because because you kind of see it zoomed in

[01:00:17] and you just see his blue hand walk by and I like literally grabbed my wife's arm and I was like is that and then when it kind of shifted around and it was very clearly X man I was like

[01:00:29] X man holy crap so and enjoy because that's the last you'll see of it for four year yeah um yeah as long as it's not like live action Kelsey grammar like I don't need to let you see like

[01:00:45] some 60 something year old dude like being a being a superhero like with all the respect to Robert Dan Jr and uh others but um but if you so I saw marbles about a month after you

[01:01:01] I didn't see when it first came out how stuff going on unfortunately not see it and so we didn't have kind of the live interaction reaction at that point in time I like the marbles I thought it was good

[01:01:10] I thought it was it was tight I thought it told like you said told a very simple fun story I wasn't super invested in the villains and if you cut out those two end scenes that was you know some of the

[01:01:24] I don't want to say a better part of the movie but that certainly added to it if you will and then I don't like what they did with the two in a Paris character all like that's

[01:01:33] something like her characters it is I think is you predicted one of the shows like she's going to get screwed over and she did but it's still like I think it gets too much

[01:01:45] a vitriol and dislike for some dummies and I don't know it is certainly not like you know it's not like secret invasion which I think I think is genuinely not very great

[01:01:58] that what's the worst of the year I don't like to be there over here negative but secret invasion and I think partly partly for the twist to talk partly how it ended up I will excuse like bad

[01:02:19] CGI like it's a it's a tv show all that it's been a lot of money on it but like where it kind of ended up big disappointment how about you I agree I think secret invasion is is the low point of the

[01:02:32] year I was curious if you'd say quantamania but I agree I think secret invasion ended up being the low point and it ended up negatively impacting the marbles because the marbles awkwardly

[01:02:44] didn't deal with where in the timeline it is it has to be before secret invasion but like logically it has to be has to be um has to be but it kind of negatively impacted the movie ultimately because

[01:03:00] it just kind of blew it um what let me ask you this what if not to no pun intended what if what if it predated secret invasion like so instead of coming out in November let's say secret

[01:03:15] invasions in like September and they bump it up to like I don't know July yeah like I wonder how that would how it would have been received had it gotten your tradition like it's your summer movie I mean

[01:03:30] part of it also got ruined not ruined but like a lot of the anticipation in build up got ruined because it was the brightest I'm the right strike and then the actress strike and then no one's going on

[01:03:38] the shows and you can't even like you can't even get relars into go on the tonight show or whatever to like pump up the movies and so I think for those reasons like it would have been interesting in different times

[01:03:50] how it would have I thought of what it'd done better so here's what's wild I was updating my my baseball my baseball scores sheet for the for the MCU um what if is actually right now at a

[01:04:08] rotten tomato score of uh 68% okay what if season two it is the second lowest thing of the year from last year what if is season two yeah yeah for audience score uh 48% was uh woo let's see

[01:04:30] her in beige. wantomania is at 82% okay so very it just just was an interesting thing that I came across but I do think unfortunately audience scores on rotten tomatoes can be swayed by certain things

[01:04:56] and so I do think some of the inclusivity that uh season two of what if brought in probably negatively impacted it impacted it's rotten tomato score yeah yeah um but that being said um

[01:05:11] I don't think I'm gonna guess that your answer to the next question here is not going to be actually anything based on a movie okay um which is what do you think was the biggest takeaway

[01:05:28] for Marvel this year um I think so I've got this a lot a lot of takeaways I think I think the biggest takeaway will be that whatever I think the biggest takeaway is that

[01:05:52] with the expansion Disney Plus with the shows with the movies with the traditional way in which kind of fivey was kind of the you know unifying thread quarterback whatever you want to call it

[01:06:06] of all of it that kind of tied all the stuff together I think that whole way of working does not work anymore yeah so what that means is in the shows if you and I are doing like you know um I

[01:06:17] don't know MCU project X and we produce and film and record a bunch of the of the scenes and stuff and then we just basically handle the MCU we don't really know how it's gonna end up we don't know

[01:06:29] how it ties together to the other things you were basically kind of handed over and then an MCU board puts it together and there's oversight and it's all meant to be kind of seamless if you

[01:06:39] well you and I know at showrunners like okay you can have these characters and this this plot point has to occur and then you can tell your story but like we don't it's it's being kind of

[01:06:49] centered control I don't think that model works anymore if I can't wait too many like things to kind of oversee and that kind of stuff fell through and I'm like some of them did not

[01:06:58] come off very well now maybe this next year not to jump ahead but like with fewer projects maybe means he can focus a little bit more on them yeah I'd say like kind of a new I mean it worked early on

[01:07:11] we're like hey we have to have at least a somewhat cohesive storyline and a methodology and just you know I think that I think FIGE as a very positive kind of benevolent I don't want to say

[01:07:27] control freak because that's not quite the word very kind of hands on creative like he's got a good vision and that's great to have but at some point in time you have to diversify and I don't

[01:07:39] so hopefully that's the thing with the alert but how about Jim I agree I think I think learning I think one of the big takeaways I hope that they learned and I get the feeling that they did

[01:07:54] there's a lot of signals that tells me that somebody was paying attention to this is that the general movie going audience does not have the patience to get through a year of weird at this point they don't have they don't have that time to give

[01:08:24] give you the space to to figure stuff out and so I I am seeing a lot of moving towards more sure things which I think is disappointing for me personally just because I like some of the weirder

[01:08:44] stuff one of my favorite comic book where arcs I ever read was like Captain America it was a more modern comic but was Captain America in the quantum realm and he was exploring and like that's a weird

[01:08:57] that's a very weird mashup right and I think ultimately Marvel learned through the struggles of quantumania the general discourse is that you know outside of this show right the general discourse is the MCU's failing but I think it shows it shows that the general public

[01:09:31] has a lack of patience for the MCU and you know you kind to have to there you can't really get away with with a couple of misses yeah I don't you hear a lot of ulogies being espoused for

[01:09:52] you know MCU super hill films I mean let's let me to be fair 2023 was an exactly super great for DC yeah um what was it shazam yeah they had shazam they had black which uh Aquaman lost kingdom so in comparison

[01:10:19] MCU is hitting at home runs out of a park so but I don't think I don't think there's super hero's saturation just like you just need good stories right and good stories are that means

[01:10:32] a lot of different things but it is stories it is things that people can understand it can appreciate really too like you know again not to jinx we're never gonna have another endgame like that's done like but you could still have really great stories which build towards

[01:10:48] it's just you're not gonna end up with this super autoretic like you know finishing crescendo movie you know two part movie with you know 50 superheroes and and just not it's not gonna happen

[01:11:03] again yeah so um and I know that the quantum realm was the quantum mania of quantum sorry the next phase of the MCU was aimed towards like varying a different direction it's just there's not

[01:11:19] that traction so you have to view have to fear you have to fear and I think I use the expression before the mutants are the break in the case of emergency and it is time to get out the mallet

[01:11:32] and break that glass and bring in the expan yeah and I think while they're filming the mutants a lot of the the ground level rumor rumor rumblings is is a lot of like street level type stuff

[01:11:45] so bush by the demand think more dare devil you know maybe sport king pin type stories which I think that makes a lot of sense that that can be your interim content until you have the

[01:12:02] the expan ready to launch right there it's a cheap it's cheap people love it people absolutely love that's the street level superheroes like that that is that is the content that the

[01:12:18] Brad's dad's and chads of the world are going to eat up and there and so I think I think if I were to predict something probably now for 2024 or 2025 necessarily but 2026 and beyond I think you're going to see a corner turned towards the street level in the MCU

[01:12:45] yeah I mean I think we're already kind of seeing it right like we saw echo which I mean we didn't really talk about you know it just popped I knew you haven't seen it I've only seen two episodes

[01:12:58] yeah have some high hopes or things I really like about it won't get into it I'll get into the next one but yeah more street level it's a little more relatable it's easier to pull off it's easier

[01:13:09] relate to it is cheaper to do you don't have these big huge high-stake budgets if you well you know early Avengers films like how many million dollars to make and now some of the later you know

[01:13:21] Disney plus MCU projects I'm sure we're like you know that much for a season and like right make huge comic sounds yeah well and now and this is a little bit of news but the

[01:13:36] all the Netflix um the Netflix Defenders shows all got added to the MCU timeline on Disney plus today as we record so you know they're it's official right like there there is that street universe which is

[01:13:58] um and so yeah we've already started doing a little bit of future casting but let's let's zero in our sights to 2024 a little bit so in the MCU we have a single movie year and I

[01:14:14] meant to look up when we'd in the last year that we had a single movie was and I don't remember it has to be around phase two if I had to guess um I think we did this before and I think you're excluding

[01:14:31] pandemic times right yeah excluding pandemic times uh I feel like we look give me a second let me I can find it but yeah it's been it's been a minute for sure yeah so we do have a single official

[01:14:45] MCU I'm gonna go out uh I'm gonna make our our podcast claim and I'm gonna call it Earth 999 999 or 199 999 999 9 um movie which is Deadpool 3 I expect we will probably get a Super Bowl commercial

[01:15:07] for Deadpool 3 releases in July of 2024 um outside of the MCU so operating in the Sony universe we have Madam Webb releasing on February 14th 2024 craving the hunter set to release the day after my birthday August 30th 2024 venom 3 set to release November 8th of 2024 and spider-man beyond the spider

[01:15:38] verse is not does not have a date in 2024 and I will we have a bet later on in the episode um and I'll talk a little bit more about spider-man beyond the spider verse um and why it may not be

[01:15:54] or why it may or may not be the bet that you want to take um shows coming out in the MCU on or for 2024 we have echo uh which just came out right that came out in 2024 literally yesterday

[01:16:13] um X man 97 do out early this year that is a continuation of the 1992 X man series uh Agatha Cove and of chaos book of chaos who knows what it's actually gonna be subtitled by

[01:16:32] the time it actually comes out uh will be out in fall of 2024 spider-man I think it's actually now called spider-man friendly neighborhood spider-man um it was formerly called spider-man freshman year animated spider-man project uh is a TBD but it is 2024 marvel zombies is TBD 2024

[01:16:58] and actually what if season three um also got its first trailer um which was a scene with uh a lexie and bucky driving in a car uh together and I believe that that will be out in 2024 as well

[01:17:17] um so pretty good pretty good show lineup right like a pretty heavy show lineup I was saying and to answer your earlier question the last time that we had a calendar year with only one

[01:17:31] MC release was 2012 obviously vendors it was the last time and excluding 2020 when there was nothing nothing yeah yeah yeah yeah so so definitely really interesting and and obviously signaling some some reconfiguration in the MCU you know let let us not forget that there was also two strikes

[01:17:52] and and you know that was kind of one of the big stories of the year in 2023 was was you know improved working conditions for the actors and writers um but um well yeah so let me ask you this real

[01:18:11] quick before we get into like of the movies and we'll lump them all all five of them together um like which one of you most excited for I oh or stay a different you can only see one yeah that's

[01:18:33] tough that's tough and so I'm gonna say and I'm guessing for you it's the same thing it comes down to two comes down to Deadpool three or Spider-Man or beyond the spider version assuming they both

[01:18:42] assuming spider-Man comes out yep yeah you can only see one um I'm gonna say Deadpool three I think you know the leaks the leaks are what they are but I do have some really high hopes for

[01:18:58] Deadpool three I think it's gonna be really really fun um I will say spider so the spider version movies are the best spider-man content I think we have ever seen on the big screen

[01:19:13] uh upgrade now it's not a far jump for me from them to the MCU spider-man movies I actually really like the MCU spider-man movies I actually think like probably by bulk of like work spider-man

[01:19:31] probably has the best representation and and I know there's just a lot of it but um it's been like nine no I know like the to be McGuire movies save for save for the third one um they're fun in their

[01:19:53] own right the Andrew Garfield movies on rewatch are actually pretty good um the Tom Hiddleston or not Tom Hiddleston um Tom Holland MCU movies are great spider versus great honestly spider-man

[01:20:10] it has been done pretty right by the by the movie industry so yeah I would say probably if I could only watch one Deadpool three though I that would be my answer as well mocy for the

[01:20:27] cameo's from the various Marvel superheroes that would not be possible in any in any kind of Sony property right like that's not gonna happen flip side if I were to play contrarian from

[01:20:40] moment like Sony knows how to make a spider-man movie and the spider-man stuff has been dope Marvel has never made a Deadpool movie I don't know yeah Disney's ever made an arrated comedy

[01:20:54] and so the uh don't come here on I'm sure it'll do well but like I could you could you could squint and you could see like this is this I mean Deadpool three has to hit for Marvel like it has

[01:21:08] to be well received it doesn't have to be the greatest of all time but if it's if it's even like a okay that would be minus C plus like that's a disaster and I don't think it will but you know

[01:21:22] we've been a little disappointed times in 2020 so I'm I'm optimistic I'm really optimistic for that yeah now I'm like looking at all the touchstone movies to see if any of them were arrated because I'm I'm now I'm curious if if Disney or its subsidiaries has made a arrated

[01:21:45] I didn't have time to research it like I'm sure there's a touchstone or there's like an affiliate out there like obviously Disney you know you know Disney parent like is not cranking out

[01:21:57] a bunch of arrated stuff if you will and I'm sure I'm sure that they will get it right yeah it's not it you know it's not difficult blueprint so one of the funny things because I looked

[01:22:11] up the touchstone movies uh you realize how many touchstone movies feature your your favorite actor in the world don't get me started to have any of the cage yeah keep going please I'm looking here

[01:22:28] I the ones that stand out to me immediately and this is just their top 25 top grossing movies of all time I know he was in Conair obviously and gone in 60 seconds those two stand out

[01:22:46] like sore thumbs as I'm looking at this I'm pretty sure he's been in some of these other ones too but uh but yeah Disney definitely has a relationship with uh the new cage so you're saying Deadpool 4 you know what I there would be some part of me that

[01:23:04] would not be surprised if he showed up as hell okay here's a question for you you have to cast in the close cage and one of these movies who is he in which movies in Xenoh 20s in for me

[01:23:19] well okay which one may he actually show up in Deadpool 3 which one has to be as a major character yeah as a major character I mean he'd be hilarious as Craven the Hunter that is the

[01:23:33] as the property right there yeah I want to see him do that crazy accent like obviously so good even if he's have you you've I'm sure you've seen you've seen the trailer right

[01:23:45] yeah yep the accent work in that thing is Russell Crow's Russian slash South African accent is wild so yeah put Nicholas Cage in that yeah I'll watch it twice that's fair yeah yeah and famously

[01:24:06] starring the guy who didn't want to keep doing that suit I'm gonna go my way so yeah but just some died Ultron and you you could see I could see as he lays on the ground there's a small

[01:24:21] rice smile like I made it out and just like godfather just when you thought you were out they pull you back in with them but a little cash so yeah all right well let's let's play some bets so

[01:24:36] I actually want to put some actual wagers behind this oh okay so um I think this will be fun we can do this every year um I know that you have some other movies in mind outside of the MCU that you would

[01:24:53] like us to review um I have some that I also love and and would love to review on our show and so with that being said I would like to put on the line our wild card movie for next year

[01:25:16] um so let's see here so for this trying to figure out how we how we actually want to do this let me make sure I introduce you in your premise you and I are going to make a wager the wager is based upon

[01:25:39] predicting an outcome for one of these movies or shows for the upcoming 2020-24 and the winner I think what you're saying right is that they get to choose a movie or property

[01:25:53] that gets reviewed on the podcast is that right yep yeah we will review the movie of the winner's choice sometime next year um okay I would like to first express my profound disappointment that you as a

[01:26:13] fast and furious fan we're not doing this for pink slips that's how I look by life a quarter mile at a time family anyway sorry that might be my wild I know it's going to never

[01:26:28] do I know I know you're gonna pick like Tokyo draft what's gonna be like that's actually my favorite so funny alright well I know what I know and what I need to rewatch so um no so so

[01:26:43] I think what we'll do is so we're gonna make two bets if you get both of them right you get to pick the the wildcard if we split we'll figure it out later um so bet number one is which

[01:26:59] of those five movies I listed so Deadpool three, Mademweb, Craven the Hunter, Venom three and Spider-Man Beyond the Spider-Verse is going to make the most money in we'll do international box office okay well worldwide so domestic eight plus international okay here's how

[01:27:27] I'm just gonna like open it up might analysis so it presumes that Spider-Man Beyond the Spider-Verse premieres in 2024 you get zero points if if it does not then the choice is Deadpool because here's the deal spider-Man I've come to come out to Christmas in which case

[01:27:49] it's gonna have a solid couple weeks and then it's gonna make all its money next year so if you're telling me I can either have Deadpool or Beyond the Spider-Verse would be not even come out or

[01:28:01] mademweb then I'm gonna take Deadpool now I think it is I think the question should be if you were to take let's say take Spider-Verse off I think Spider-Verse versus Deadpool three assuming

[01:28:14] Spider-Verse comes out October or so like it's a full two month in the thing that's a that's a good analysis I think otherwise it's like will mademweb Craven and Venom three total Deadpool I think I think that

[01:28:36] two of the non-MCU's if you took out Spider-Man if you said hey you could either have Deadpool three or two of mademweb Craven or Venom three I could see the so many properties Venom three

[01:28:50] might make a bunch of money yeah okay yeah let's adjust so so you know what do you want better okay you take the MCU as a whole so if there is a surprise movie announced if young Avengers gets announced

[01:29:16] uh Captain America gets pulled forward whatever okay you get to add that to your total or you pick two known quantities from outside the MCU okay I would be if you if you are

[01:29:38] propositioned that and you know that like oh I heard that they're gonna like release end game a Christmas time like every so to top avatar that box office again um okay that's fair so it's

[01:29:50] MCU versus two of the non-MCU yeah which one you want I'll let you choose because I kind of made up the the rules here do you have to choose the non-MCU's or is it just the two highest box office

[01:30:12] uh let's go sure let's go with the two highest right I'm gonna by the way I'm gonna file this away under things we shouldn't talk about before you before we hit the party I'll be fun I'll take

[01:30:25] I'll take the underdog I'll take the non-MCU okay cool so if the MCU outperforms the top two which honestly like Spider-Man releases on time or Spider-Man releases sometime this year you could

[01:30:39] you could feasibly see a a a win here venom three could make a lot of money I would say if you had to pick I personally out of the non-MCU I'd pick venom and craving yep I think battle mode is

[01:30:55] it's already getting a bunch of hate online um I will also note that this will force me to go out and if I have to buy multiple tickets you can wait your your $20 movie ticket is going to

[01:31:10] put you over that I can't wait to start drifting in your car up above part of your auto okay I cannot wait so then the other one and this this one's a little bit probably more straightforward

[01:31:24] now there is some consideration to be made here of what rotten to make you what rotten tomato's audience scores do and I do want to name that that I think both you and I have some good experience

[01:31:38] with rotten tomatoes audience scores and know some of the proclivities there but it is what TV show echo xman 97 agatha covenant chaos friendly neighborhood spider-man zombies or what if season three

[01:32:02] will have the highest audience rotten tomato score um okay so three of those we don't know if they're going to come out like spider-man don't know if it's going to come out it's supposed to be but you

[01:32:26] know who knows that although I am someone optimistic that the animated stuff can crank down a little bit quicker than the live action but um I'm gonna go I'm going to cheat I'm just going to

[01:32:41] live action I'll go cup of chaos okay I think I think cup of chaos stands a really good chance I'm going to go with the nostalgia factor because it's the internet I'm going to go xman 97 now does your answer change knowing that Elon Musk is voicing

[01:33:05] are you still going that used to want that is you yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I think

[01:33:13] I think as far as since we're looking at audience score I mean I will say echo's actually getting reviewed pretty well audience score wise um I have to have looked at it today I think it's up in

[01:33:24] the upper 70s right now which is good but yeah I think I think xman 97 is I think it's going to just get the audience score yeah it's it's one A1B for sure like especially if it has the music

[01:33:44] in the nostalgia um like if they just don't screw it up like also too and as I think about it that's probably the better choice because people are going to be frothing for xman content

[01:33:58] yeah and unless you are just rolling out exactly what was done before like it should do pretty well so yeah well we will see how this all lands next year after our pod of nursery

[01:34:13] when we hit our second pod of nursery because this is where on our pod you really stand man on our first pod of nursery were here you're kidding keep it coming here oh here one

[01:34:26] so so yeah I think I think that covers everything there's been a ton of announcements rumors and that sort of stuff going out honestly I I think we'll probably cover that in our monthly

[01:34:40] bugle next month um I will see what the new cycle holds but we've seen a bunch of stuff happening there's a bunch of shifts happening in the MCU um release dates and what's just even things like

[01:35:00] you know who's going to be in fantastic for or who's going to direct you know you know the Avengers movie or who you know when is it our season second seasons are like

[01:35:13] she-hulk and moon night miss part of those going to year announce like I do I think it's a good idea let's we can kind of focus in regroup and gather in some of those things and maybe in the

[01:35:24] month interviewing period of time some of that stuff will start to trickle out I do think now this tracks are over now they're back from the holidays with kind of a new lens and landscape for like

[01:35:36] how 2023 was for the MCU and what 2024 will look like I think we'll we'll start to get some stuff hopefully pretty soon. I agree I agree well um with that our our next episode that you

[01:35:50] will hear will be our phase two review so we're going to go through phase two of the MCU after that it's a little bit up in the air David and I got a figure out kind of what we're

[01:36:01] going to do next um the Netflix shows becoming canon kind of throws a little bit of a wrench in our plans so listen to the phase two show we'll talk about what will review next there it will

[01:36:15] either be dare devil season one if that's what we choose to do or we will review uh Captain America Civil War or might be bad a web just I don't know if you're out state so so but yeah with that all being said

[01:36:35] really appreciate you all listening and uh I think we end this one with enough said