The Ringer-Verse - ‘Invincible’ Episodes 1-3 Reactions

Episode Date: March 29, 2021

Charles Holmes and Jomi Adeniran discuss the newest creation from Robert Kirkman, 'Invincible,' which is now streaming on Amazon Prime. They break down what makes this superhero show notable and worth watching (02:24). They then delve into spoilers on the first three episodes and how the major reveal in Episode 1 shapes the rest of the series (13:06). Hosts: Charles Holmes and Jomi Adeniran Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome into the Ringerverse, a podcast here on the Ringer Podcast Network. My name is Charles Holmes. I'm a staff writer and host of The Ringer Music Show, and I'm joined here today with my friend Jome, aka the chief meme officer of the Ringer. Yo, Jomey, how you doing today, man? I'm doing great. I got my Dodgers jersey on. I'm feeling it, man.

I'm ready to talk invincibles. Let's go. All right. I got to say something real quick. You want, today's a special day. You want to know why today is a special day? Why is today's special day, Charles? Tell me.

Technically, this is the first crossover episode here at the Ringiverse. You know what I'm saying? This is a crossover episode. The superheroes, the teams are merging. You're there with Mallory, Rubin, on every Tuesday. I was Van Lathen on Fridays, but they brought us here for a special surprise episode. You know what I'm saying? The first Marvel DC crossover.

Let's go. I'm excited. We're literally interested. the ring of verse right now. Incredible. Let's go. All right, but before we got some housekeeping, today, we're here for a very special episode giving our instant reactions to the Amazon animated series Invincible, which is based on the early 2000s comic book by Robert Kirkman.

The first three episodes debuted over the weekend, so we're going into our general thoughts, describe our history with the comics, and what we'd like to see over the course of this season. But before we do that, I got to make sure y'all tap in for the rest of the week's ringerverse content. Yo. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Trimfaya offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start.

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Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tremfia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit trimfireradio.com. The playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way to the finals with Fandul Predicts. Predict the spread, total points, and even the game winner. Sign up and get a $25 bonus. Offered by Fandul prediction markets LLC, a registered futures commission merchant, 18 plus. Bonus is non-withdrawable and expire seven days after receipt.

Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tool. Restrictions apply. See terms at vanduil.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash terms. Jomey, can I list off what we have going on this week? It's pretty hot. It's pretty hot. Oh, man.

Go deep, bro. Go deep. All right. On Tuesday, Mallory Rubin will be answering all of your Falcon and Winner Soldier questions. Then on Wednesday, we got Van Lathan and some special guests diving deep into HBO Max's Godzilla versus King Kong. And last but certainly not least on Friday, we'll have another First Reactions podcast

for the third episode of Falcon and Winter Soldier. But now, back to Invincible. For those that don't know, Invincible premiered this weekend on Amazon. It's a comic book series that was made in the early 2000s by Robert Kirkman. And everybody knows Mr. Kirkman as the guy who created the hit, Sensation Walking Dead. So honestly, Invincible is actually his, was a comic that he made before Walking Dead for Image Comics.

Should I, should I give him a nice summation of who Invincible is? Give him a little, give a little breakdown of it. Like, give him a little sampler. All right, yeah. So basically the way I would describe Invincible is it's almost like a take on Spider-Man and Superman. You have this young kid called Mark Grayson without, powers in the beginning of the show and the comics, but he's the son of Omni Man, who is this world's

Superman. He is the top dog superhero. And we follow Mark Grayson, and he's basically like, when am I going to get powers? When am I going to get powers? When am I going to get powers? And then bam, all of a sudden, one day, it happens. He gets super strength, he gets flight, and he's thrust into this world of superheroes. He's fighting bad guys, fighting aliens, having joining this world's teen titans and learning from his dad some things that he does know and down the lines of things that you will end up finding out. Is that is that a good kind of lead in for who Invincible is, Jomey? Did I do a good job? I think that's a great, great summary. He killed it. So, show me, what is your history with Invincible? Were you reading the comics? Did you come

fresh into the Amazon series? Let me know. I will tell you straight up, I had no idea what this show was when I got into it. They read the comics. You know, I didn't even see, like, the ads. You know, I just woke up one day. I was like, all right, let me check what everybody's watching this week. And people were talking about defensive. And I was like, all right, cool.

Like, you know, animated supero stuff. I love that stuff. You know, I grew up watching Teen Titans, you know, Batman. Okay, okay. I'm into it. Let me see what's happening. And I watched episode one. And I was like, oh, this is it right here.

I need more of this. this show and I marathon the rest of the series throughout the weekend. This show, I think, I think honestly, like even just watching the first three episodes, it has a chance to be really special. This is what I love to see because I started reading Invincible during its original run in the early 2000s. So this is my favorite, one of my favorites, top five comic series of all time. And I think

what you see in the first three episodes is Invincible, is a show about subverting comic books and superheroes because they take the things that we love and know about superheroes and they twist it just a little bit to make it a little more violent, a little bit more demented. And the thing about Robert Kirkman

that I think people love about him is you can tell that he has a little bit of a dark side, whether it's Walking Dead, whether it's Invincible. He likes the guts, he likes the gore. So me talking to Jomey right now, somebody who can come into Invincible Fresh is so, so. funny. So when

you're plopped into this Technicolor world, Johnny, like, were you kind of expecting the left turns that the show would take? Because I would say for like the first 30 minutes, it's just kind of a run-of-the-mill superhero show. Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, honestly, you know, coming in, I thought, I honestly thought we're getting

like a little, you know, more PG, you know, type thing from Amazon and superheroes. You know, they got the boys, which is his own different monster. So I thought, oh, you know, we're going to come in here see some light, you know, father, son, bonding, you know, like, it's going to be real cool seeing how he navigates this thing. And then it just wasn't like that.

All of a sudden, it just wasn't that. And I was like, okay. Oh, yeah, we're not going to spoil it, but that last minute twist, I think that the series hinges on it because it takes it from, like, your cartoon network team titans into almost like Harley Quicks. where you're like, oh, oh, they're doing something completely different with this show.

It changes the entire game, honestly. Like it takes, like you said, like it takes it from being like, oh, this is pretty cool. Someone watched with my, you know, my brother, you know, my little, my little cousins to be like, oh, snap. It's a whole different level of things that are about to happen here. You know, we don't want to spoil it for y'all, you know, but it's, it takes a show to a different level that I cannot wait to see Explore. in future episodes and future seasons. Like, it's incredible. I talked to Robert Kirkman for the show.

And the funny thing that people may not know is that when he was writing the comics, what it takes the episode, episode one, that big twist, I think it took him six or seven issues of the comic coming out monthly to get to. So what ended up happening is, like, Robert Kirkman thought that the comic would be canceled

within like the first 13 issues because you have to think like waiting six seven months to find out that this isn't just your normal superhero show is a lot. And what Invincible does in that first 40 minutes is condensed that storyline. And I wanted to ask you,

we're used to 30-minute superhero cartoons. How did you feel as of you were coming in knowing that this is going to be 45, 15, minutes. They're treating this almost like an hour-long drama in the same way that they treat the boys. Yeah, I thought it was interesting. I was like, okay, you know, this is going to be something that like, you know, I'll peep it out, you know, like, let's see, you know, what this is going to be. Honestly, thought it was going to be like the boys light, you know what I'm saying, like, in terms of, like, the adultness of it, you know, but that first 30 minutes is real like, it's real, again,

like it's real PG. I'm thinking like, this is something, this is something, you know, Teen Titans Go type stuff, you know what I'm saying? Like, but it just shifts like on a dime. It doesn't give you a second to process. It's just like, boom. And like, I'll say full stop. I saw, I saw it coming. I saw something coming. You know what I'm saying?

You saw something. So you knew it by by, by almost that. I knew it by like, by like minute 30. You know, I knew something was off, you know? But then like, but again, like the spectacle of it is just, it's just special. And And we haven't even talk about the voice talent on this show. Oh, the voice talent is stacked.

Let me run through it. Let me run through it really quick. I have it. We have Mark Grayson is played by Stephen Yoon from Walking Dead fame. Nolan Grayson, his father, who plays Omni Man is J.K. Simmons. Debbie Grayson is Sandra O. So, like, already they're stacked. Ruxplo, Jason Manzukas, the robot, played by Zachary Quinto.

So already they are lined up and have just such a. stacked roster, what did you think of the voice talent? I mean, Bezos bucks, man. You know, when you got that type of money, you can get anybody you want, man. Like, just listening to, you know, all the actors and actresses, like, they were killing it.

And I'm like, like, it takes you into their world, you know, because it's easy to get, you know, you can get anybody to come voice jack, send a booth, you know, talk for a couple hours, and get that check. You know what I'm saying? It's easy. You know, but these, everybody's put like hard into it. Like I've never,

I've never heard Sandra O do, voiceover. She's out there, she's doing it. You know what I'm saying? Like J.K. Simmons, he was, he was Tencent and Cora.

You know, so I've got experience with him. Whoa, he was Tencent. He was Tencent. Then we got a commissioner Gordon in the Snyderverse. He was J. Jonah Jameson

in the Spider-Man films. So my man, like, off top, already a legend. We got four classic performances and he kills it in this. Yeah,

he's like, he's just really, really, really talented. And I mean, it goes for the whole cast. Like, everybody's like putting their all into it. And so when you feel that energy watching it, you know, especially after episode one, you're like, wow, like, I want to see more. If we break down kind of the business of Invincible, it's clear why it's hitting Amazon.

They had a runaway hit with the boys. And I think what's funny is, is that for a lot of, of people, they're going to think is like, oh, are they just doing an animated version of the boys? This is just boys' life. But kind of what's funny is that Invincible came before the boys. The Boys, as a comic released in 2006, Robert Kirkman released Invincible in 2003. And what's funny is this was all part of a trend that was happening in Image Comics.

And just all independent comics in general, you had Robert Kirkman who was doing Invincible Walking Dead. You had Mark Millar. He was sitting it out of the park with, like, things. like wanted. You had Brian K. Vaughn with X Machina, Y, The Last Man.

And all of these things were deconstructing comic books. They were deconstructing superheroes. And I think what people will see when you watch Invincible is that this is a show about deconstructing, like what would happen

if we had heroes in this real world setting? How violent would it be? How gory would it be? What are the big choices? Yeah. I think the thing I love a lot about the show

is that it doesn't shy away from like these things, the accidents that happen and the effect they have on people, you know, like, again, not to spoil it, but there's a scene where one of the characters has to deal with the aftermath of, of an event.

And you can just, you can feel the pain in their voice. And you're like, wow, like, you know, in most of, you know,

Marvel movies, people die all the time and they just, you know, go back to Avengers Mansion and go hang out and play, play cards or whatever. But in this, show really has you grappling with the effects of being a hero is hard, being heroes tough, you know, and I, and I love that. I love, you know, seeing the ethos of being, of being a superhero.

It's really important. And it just brings a heft to the show that, like, a lot of superhero shows, you know, don't have, you know, these days. Yeah, couldn't agree more. I could not agree more. All right, we're going to take a quick break. And when we get back, we're in spoiler land on everything invincible. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business. They keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services,

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That's Clinic with a K. Clinic Kids is registered 5.101c3 nonprofit. All right, and we are back. one thing I want to say to everyone, we're sounding off the big spoiler warning siren. Maybe you know, Steve and our producer can give me a siren. Spoiler alert, all right?

Get out of here. All right, we're getting into everything. So if you don't want anything spoiled, please press pause, watch the show, and then come back. We'll still be here. We're not going anywhere. We're not going anywhere. You know, we're going to crack open a few bruskees.

We're doing the thing. So, Jomi, we do this thing here on the instant reactions pod where we try to break down what happens. in the episode within 30 seconds. Do you think I could do it? I've got faith. I'm going to set the timer. Maybe we could do a little sound thing.

We're going to set the timer. And I'm going to see if I can break down what happened in 30 seconds. All right, all right. And go. All right, so we got Mark Grayson. He is the son of Omni Man. This Earth's Superman.

He gets powers. He's like, whoa, I got powers. They fight some aliens. Omni Man kills this world's version of the Justice League. we have a demon, Damien Darkhold, I believe his name is, who's like, I'm going to figure out what Omni Man has done.

And Infensible, aka Mark Grayson, is none the wiser. He's just training to be a superhero under his dad. And I think that's 30 seconds. Did I do it? Did I do it? You know what? Honestly, I got to give you a 10 out of 10.

I think you nailed it. You got all the key points in there. You know, great job. Great job. Shout out to my man, Van. That is way harder than I thought it was. I've been giving him shit. You had to do three episodes too.

You had to do three episodes. That's special. That's special. Shout out to my man, man. That is way harder than I, uh, that I remember. Yo, but Jolmi, dig it deeper. Did I miss anything? What were some of the big reveals as a first time invincible watcher that you were like,

oh, man, it's going down? I think you took care of everything. You know, again, the big reveal at the end of the first episode is, you know, that, Omniaman takes out Dollar Store Justice League. Yeah, Dollar Store Justice League. Trader Joe's Justice League, we doing them like that? Listen, I first time watcher. I'm looking at them like, oh, look, okay, that's supposed to be Batman.

Okay, oh, that's supposed to be Wonder Woman. I know they have names in the universe, but I'm just looking, oh, that's supposed to be Superman. Oh, that's the Flash. That's Green Lantern. All right, so when you were watching this, at the end of episode one, you have Omnesty, Man, he's surrounded by what you call the dollar store, Justice. Then that world's flash tries to come up on him, you know? You know?

Were you, when Omni Man finally, like, gets it cracking, and he basically takes his hand and squeezes this, this flashes head like a watermelon. What was going through your mind? Well, let me preface it by saying this. I knew that was coming, all right? You knew it was coming. I knew something was about to happen, because let me, let me break it down for you real quick, all right? Let me take you back.

So I'm a big fan of J.K. Simmons, right? Like, I've been watching that guy basically my whole life. And he's a terrific actor, right? And so, like, through episode, what I'm listening to him, I'm like, man, is J.K. Simmons phoning it in right now? Because, you know, he's just talking to his son. It just seemed real, like bare bones. Like, he was just like, yes, Mark, you have to fly here, Mark.

And I was like, just, what's going on? But something, because again, like, I've seen J.K. In Legend of Cora. I've seen him in Whiplash. Even in the farmer's commercials, he brings it, right? Wait, can I also say you do a really, really good J.K. Simmons' impression? Can you give me it one more time? Give me the J.K.

J.K. Simmons impression one more time. Listen, Mark, fly here. Mark. You got to hit me in the sternum, Mark. It was just, it was real straightforward. I'm like, I know this dude. I know this dude. I know this dude has talent.

Like, he can't be phoning in it right now. So someone's like, he's heightened something. He's an op, right? I don't know. Like, again, it's episode one. I don't know the whole universe yet. But something told me like, all, right, this guy's an op, right? And so when the dollar store justice league, they all assemble and like, he's not there,

I'm like, hey, bro, where's Omni Man? And then Red Rush pushes Immortal out the way, you know, of Omni Man. I'm like, oh, it's cracking. He's a snitch. He's about to get them guys out to paint. And just that. And then the next 10 minutes, man, are just, are, it's, it's incredible. That entire scene is fantastic.

Like, he sends all them dudes pack and he puts them in a pack, rolls them up, and smokes them out of there, man. That was just incredible. And, like, it had me hooked. Like, that's what I knew, like, I want to see this whole thing through. So that's actually a good, a great kind of segue to my next question. I wanted to know, like, for someone who I remember reading the comics as they were coming out, the first episode covers, I think, six or seven comics.

As a viewer, would you have been as enthralled if you didn't get that final scene? Would you have clicked on like the second episode as fast if they, like, if there was no Omni Man getting busy, like ready to fuck shit up? I don't think so. I don't think so. you know, like watching the series, like the first 40 minutes or so, they're interesting. Like, let me not take that away from the show. It's a little bland.

The first 40 minutes, it's not bad, but it's, we've seen it before, you know? And it's like, what's the hook? What's the hook? That's exactly the point. It's like, I know what this is. I've seen this a thousand times before. Like, it's good. It's fine.

But, you know, what's going to, you know, keep me coming back each week on this weekly release schedule? And then, bam, it hits. and like it sucks you all the way in. What do you think? We are in a place right now as a culture where it seems like we are super, super into evil Superman. You know, we got Zach Snyder.

We got the Snyder cut. You saw evil Superman getting busy. You know, you know the boys. Yeah. We see all of that. Now we have the third show Invincible. What do you think as of you were like, why do we, why is that like the little serotonin in our brain,

Our little lizard brains are like, oh, evil Superman's going to work. Yeah. Like what it is about? Well, I mean, Jesse Eisenberg, you know, Lex Luther said it best, if God is all powerful, then he cannot be all good, right? And I think that's something we want to see. Like, what happens when the people who are supposed to be protecting us, you know, our symbols of hope, our symbols of freedom, you know, go nuts.

You know, I want to destroy everything. And there's nothing we can do to stop them, right? There's nothing you can do to put those guys away. I think it's an interesting concept. And we're getting more and more of it, like you said, because we live in a world where like, you know, it's not, you know, it's not ideal. You know, it's pretty dark times out here. You know what I'm saying?

And so we're really leading into that. Like, what if, you know, our symbols had the same negativity that, you know, we do? The same human foibles as we do. Exactly. They're supposed to be, you know, flawless, you know, powerful. you know what if you know they had a bad day and decided you know what who needs the earth right you know i think it's something you know worth licking into and we're gonna get more of it on this episode in the series uh it's gonna be interesting to see you know how this differentiates from you know

like justice superman that type of stuff but like i said i'm excited to see it i'm very much excited to see it. To you, what's the most effective part of the first three episodes? Because I'll be honest, watching the first three, I'm different because I know what everything is happening. So I think actually the effective part of having read the series is that like a lot of things get room to breathe. Where if this was like a 30 minute show, they would have to rush through a bunch of different plot points. But you get to feel for Mark. He has that Spider-Man type of trajectory where You know, he's bad with women. He can't shoot his shot.

He's bad with women yet still pulls him. Stop, bro. That's the energy. The whole Amber bot, man, I'm like, dog, this man really got no swag whatsoever. Everybody is working. And that's one of the things, like, I like about the show. You know, I'm very much into romantic, you know, like, you know, love triangles. You know, will they, won't they?

Like, I love that in the show. So immediately, you know, I see, like, okay, Amber is going to be there. and then episode two pops up and you see Eve and I'm like oh it's about to go down All right so who are you shipping Mark and Eve or Mark and Amber man Because you don't know what's gonna happen

Who are you looking for it? All right let me let me break it down real quick So off like No look I've been thinking a lot about this Like I said this is a good show You know it's a brainworm You know it gets in and you gotta think you know So like you know

This is my objective opinion All right here's what I think is gonna go down you know Mark and Amber gonna talk you know Gila Freddy saw the end of episode three that was Macon on the bed you know what I'm saying but I feel like you know Eve's gonna come in and pull

and pull Mark at the last second you know what I'm saying I think that's what's going to go down at that front personally personally Amber got there first right that's one you know you gotta respect that so Eve got a you've got a backup although I can see I can already see it you know because

I'll see it right on the finger Joe That's where we got to disagree. Come on, man. Mark, you know, is splitting the superhero life and the regular life. Amber's going to be in a regular life. He was going to be in a superhero life. It's going to be tough. You know, which one does he want to go by?

I got to go with Amber. You know, my girl Zazi beats. You know what I'm saying? I got to rock with her. You know, I can't rock with Britta. You know, like, come on, man. Again, that's going to be like a defining part of the show. Like, what does Mark do, you know, with his hero and his superhero life?

You know, I want to see it. I want to get into it. You know, that's going to be, it's going to be an exciting thing to see over this season and hopefully future seasons. Joe, John, John, Joe. Like, I want to spoil it so bad for you. But I'm not. Please don't, bro. I'm not going to, man.

I'm not going to, you know, the Ring ofverse crowd, I'm on a, I'm on a razor's edge with them. They love me one minute, they hate me the next. You know what I'm saying? Listen, Charles, let me, let me take you by in the current a little bit. So, you know, as chief meme officer, you know, I run a couple social channels on the ringer.com. And Charles, bro, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, you in a pack right now, bro, in dimensions, bro.

They light you up, bro. No, I feel like I redeemed myself this week a little bit, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm not all the way there, but I redeem myself just a little bit. Now, you're going to be back. Don't worry about you coming back. Jordan 96-97, bro.

Don't worry about it. That's what I like to hear, Jomey. Let's go to the, I would say, probably the most important relationship on Invincible. How do you feel about the chemistry between, you know, Mark, aka Invincible, and his dad,

Omni Man, obviously J.K. Simmons, Omneman, Stephen Youne. It's really special, you know, because you can see, you know, even, as I said, like, it seems like J.K. was funny to get in in the first episode, but you can see, like, you can, like, kind of hear how much he wants this for his son. Mark really wants the powers. And J.K. or, you know, Omni Man wants to share it with, with him, you know, but it's taken too long, you know, he's, you know, what, like 17, 18, you know, like, when are these powers going to kick in? And they finally do. And, like, now they can finally, you know, bond, like, on a level, you know, that he doesn't have with his mom and stuff like that. And so to see that relationship grow, you know, even

though we know, like, what's going on an Omni Man, right? To see that relationship, you know, grow between, like, throwing the ball across the world, flying with each other, you know, having conversations, you know, while flying. It's like, it's, it's, it's just, you know, it's really beautiful. And like, I know, you know, the series is going to, you know, whatever happens is, it's going to be invincible on one side, Omni Man on the other side. And so, like, I'm devastated that, like, it's going to come crashing down. But like, as it's building. Tell me, I'm so afraid for you. Are you ready to get your heartbroken? I don't know if like, I don't know if you're ready for it. I'm not, you know, I'm not. It's because, again, it's beautiful to see, you know, father, son,

you know, getting to, you know, it feels like they're learning each other for the first time. it's honestly like you love to see it but like again like as a story as somebody who engages in superhero stories you know you see it i know exactly where it's headed and it's gonna be tough frankly i don't think i don't think invincible can rock with anny man right now so we look it's it's a whole go hon gooku situation you know what you're saying bringing a little anime to the ringerverse they're gonna kill me for that but he's sprinkling it you know bring little mingotts here come on now it's gonna be tough it's gonna be tough to see invincible get clapped by his boss. It's going to be tough. I don't, like, I'm not going to say anything right now, but, you know. I'm just going off. I'm just going off what I see. We know what's going to have. We know, we know the tropes of at least what is going to happen. If, like, at some point, Mark is going to have to find out what Omni Man is up to. And, like, story-wise, what we know about

stories, they're going to have to go at it. And right now, Invisible's not built for that life right now. He's not ready. A couple times goes out like a punk. What, what's the episode where they're fighting the aliens. They're fighting the aliens and these Martians or whatever you want to call them. They age, you know? And the funniest thing is that, like,

these aliens are giving it to them. They come back a couple times and they're killing all these people. And I think at one point, Mark, like, like hurts an old woman. And he just falls apart. He falls flat.

Like, he's not built for this life. And I'm like, damn, Mark. Like, really? Like, this is your son of Army, man. Get up there. Come on, man. You know? Well, that's like part of the show that I love.

Like, a lot of, you know, super-heral things we watch, you know, we don't get to see what happens to the people after the fight. You know, like, they save the day and then the heroes go, and we don't know what happens to the people who got affected. And especially that episode or particular episode two, you know, he takes her to the hospital. You know, he's visiting her, making sure, you know, hey, she all right. And then to find out, like, she didn't make it, you know, despite him trying his best efforts, you know, for his first attempt to saving the world. world, it didn't help. You know, that lady, you know, she passed. But to see, you know, how hurt he was, you know, how affected it was by it, like, that's, that's a different level of, ethos that I didn't honestly expect from this show. And that's why, like, on many different

levels, the show, like, I think it has potential to be, like, really, really, really incredible. That's actually a question from the outside looking in that I want to know is, like, I already love Robert Kirkman. I already love Invincibles. I'm going to give it that chance. Do you think that an audience will give this type of show a chance? Because it is a risk that every episode we're doing the hour drama format. It's animated and it's

not as recognizable as a Harley Quinn. Like Harley Quinn, you know, you've been watching Batman the animated series since you were young in decades ago, like you know her as a character where Invincible is a little bit harder of a bet. And you were patient. You got to the final minutes of the first episode.

Do you think that people are going to be willing to give it that type of chance that the show needs? Oh, 100%. Again, because, you know, the ending of episode one is incredible. And then going, you know, going forward, you know, wanting to see those relationships grow, you know, between, whether it's Mark Amber, Mark Eve, you know, Mark and his father, Mark and his mother, you know, seeing all those relationships develop over time, I think, is, you know, is important.

I think we'll get to think people would want to see that. But ultimately, like, I mean, for me, honestly, that's a major part of the hook. but I just love it when Omni Man goes crazy. Like, and episode one was incredible, but then at the end of episode two, when he's sending them, those aliens, bro, packing, man. It's honestly like, I mean, it's part of like, you know, the animation is just spectacular. Wait, you like the animation?

All right, let's go, let's go into what we think is not as effective, okay? This is, this is the negative. This is the time when, like, they tear my ass up from my trashy video. Like Here's what I'll say about the animation, right? There's this thing in, it's a Japanese term called Sakura, right?

Where, like, they take, like, they make sure, like, the animation for, like, whatever this amount of time is, is deft and special. Yes. Like for the fight scenes, you know for this fight scenes,

this is where the budget for the episode went. Exactly. That's what I mean. Like, the fight at the end of episode one, where he fights dollars store justice league, and at the end of episode two, where he's going through that entire planet. Like that's the stuff.

I was like, all right, this looks good. I will say, like some of the background actually, it do look like, you know, it's a Tomb Raider 2003 out there. That's what I'm talking about, Jelvie. I got him on my side. So there are set pieces in this where it looks spectacular. The animation, how they're fighting. I'm like, all right, yo, Bezos dropped some money on it.

Benz's bucks was been spent, bro. Absolutely. Absolutely. But when they're not being spent, those backgrounds look rough, my dude. The people running in the background, I'm like, whoa, man, this is like OG PlayStation-type graphics. Like, what is going? And we live in a world. You know, I don't know if you went to, like, you know, we're in a world where we're watching

Jujitsu Kais and what's happening over there. We're watching what's happening in a Demon Slayer and all these things. I'm like, bro. Come on, y'all couldn't call Mappa. Like, we couldn't get some, like, a little bit, like, a little bit, an extra level, come on. I'm willing to chalk it up to quarantine.

You know, they wasn't from home. It's a tough, you know what I'm saying? It's tough. You know, I'm going to let them slide on season one. You know, we'll see what happens when the world gets back to normal. If season, season once is successful as I hope it will be. I need them to come with it a little bit more season two.

Listen, the cast is expensive already. You know that's where they drop most of the money. Right. You know what I'm saying? So the cast got to get some money that don't leave a lot for the animation. You know, you got to be got decisions decisions, you know? All right, all right. See, that's my only, that's my only little negativity of the, of the podcast, of the episode.

We're going to keep it light. But you know, I just didn't want to seem like I was the only one hated. No, it's not, I mean, again, like, it's not even a big deal. It's just really like, you know, if you know, if you've been watching animated shows for as long as we have, you know, you notice things like that were like, that looks a little off. or Alex, a little cheap. But it didn't take away from it too much. It didn't take away from the impact. That's not worried.

Like, because again, when the animation is good, it's good. It's good. So, like, that's not, that's not going to ruin it for me at all. No, no, sir. Since I've read 144 issues of this, I'm not, like, I'm not going to give my usual predictions. I'm not going to, I'm not going to spoil it because I know what's going to happen. But what I wanted you for this special episode of the Ringervverse,

Jomi, I want to, I want to hear some of your predictions. Maybe we check back in at the end of the season, see how right you are. What are some predictions you got? Off the bat, I think, you know, again, like I've mentioned before, Omni Man v. Invincible, and Omni Man's going to send his son to the hospital big time. Like, it's not going to be close. You know, he's going to be fighting one hand behind his back. Wait, you don't have no, you don't have any faith in Mark.

You don't think Mark could hit the gym a little bit and get his hands up. I've seen Omni Man sleepwalk through killing people no no Mark got no chance I mean he's got

you know he's got his friends you know Adam Eve Rexplo yeah what did you think about his little his little group Adam Eve

Rexpload duplicate robot they don't even them I'm just like y'all don't seem ready for no no no none of them even like the new team they form at the end of episode three like don't have a chance

like it's not going to have a form I think I like I mean I like the new I like Zachary Quinto is just doing Spock again, which is really great for him, you know, get the checks doing the same role and then a different, you know, voice modulator, you know. But ultimately, like, I don't think even with all of them together can handle them, Omni Man. So I think, like, that's going to be like, that's going to be, you know, what happens at the end of season one is, you know,

Omneman standing tall against everybody and just having the rest of them be like, what are we supposed to do? how we're supposed to beat this guy. In terms of Mark's, you know, relationship life, I... Why are you laughing, Joe? You don't laugh. Because, because, again, like, I spent a lot of time watching a lot of television shows, right?

So I already, I already know that Eve is going to put the moves on my guy, Mark, and leave Amber in the dust, bro. This is the summer walk around waiting to happen. I do. I'm telling you, man, like, we're going to open season two. And Amber's going to be on Twitter talking about like, yeah, man, that's why I don't mess with these dudes, bro. She's going to be sub-tweeting my guy all summer long. And then my last prediction is probably going to be, I think Demon Blood is going to figure it out.

Somebody somehow. He's going to figure it out? He's going to slip up. So what is he going to do? If Mark can't be Omni Man, what the fuck is he going to do once he does that man? Look, all Demon Bloods got to be like, hey, look, I got you. right you can either come in easy or coming hard i'm already in hell you can't do nothing to me

all i got to do is tell walton goggins you know president man about what's going down and you're finished so like what can we do to come to a arrangement where you don't try and kill me and you come in peacefully you know like i think that's what ultimately sets it off is omnium gets caught up right he's like hey mark i need your help bro they got me jammed up mark Hey, I can't do that, man.

Like, I'm cool with humans, you know? I'm on set, you know? Because, I mean, Omni Man's goal, I think, like, again, not reading the comments, I'm reading anything. He's supposed to be Earth's conqueror, right? Because he has that line in episode two where, like, Earth is not yours to conquer, which is like, oh, like, that, I didn't think that was an accent, I think that was on purpose, you know?

So he gets rid of the, you know, Dollar Store Justice League, you know, Guardians of the Globe. because they're probably the ones who stand, you know, the most in his way of Earth conquering. And, you know, his thing is like, I own this planet. So you aliens can't come in here and take it from me, sends them packing. And whoever else wants to get these hands going to get them. Now, when Demon Blood finds out, and he's like, hey, bud, you, you're a problem. You can't have you all here.

I'm like, hey, Mark, we're Vilgamites. We're supposed to, you know, conquer this planet, you know. You're my son. I was hoping we could do this father-son thing. And Mark's like, I'm half-human. I'm not really feeling it like that. You can't have that. He's like, come on, son.

And Mark's like, no, dad. Remember, mom, she's human. You know, we want to protect her. And you're like, no, no. And that's where it all comes to a head. And so I can't wait for that. Oh, all right. So we got some predictions.

We got some Jomi predictions. We'll see what happens, honestly. And does this, the thing that now that I see that, you know, people are excited about the animated series. series is now I want to see what Seth Rogen does. You know, I want to see what Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg do with the live action movie, knowing that people are rocking with the animated series. It gives me, gives me hope that one day we'll see Seth Rogen's and Evan Goldberg's

invincible live action movie. Does this make you hype for the live action movie, my man? I got to be honest, I'm loving the animated style. I love it. I love the way it looks. I mean, again, it's, you know, JK at times, but I just love the fact that you they're able to do things that live action probably be more expensive.

I don't think live action can do everything that we're seeing in the animated series. That's actually one of the effective things that I think the show does is like within the span of three episodes, we get Omneman going off against the Dollar Store of Justice League. We get multiple alien invasions. We get Mark and Adam Eve going against Earthquake Man.

You know, we get action. And I think that's probably one of the, the hurdles that Seth Rogen and Co. We'll have to get over. It's like, how do you pack this much action and gore into the, into a live action movie that's not from the MCU or the DCU? You know? I think it'll be, it'll be interesting to see, like, you know,

with the amount of CGI, you know, practical effects, like, what's the breakdown there? And then just, you know, seeing Seth Rogen's vision come to life again, like, you know, he's executive producer on the boys, you know, so he's got back, experience with this kind of stuff. It'll be interesting. Like, I'm not going to say no to more invincible. You know, live action animated.

Like, I'm ready, you know. You ready? I'm ready. Whatever, whatever Evan Goldberg and stuff wrote me off for me, I'm about it. That's a great way, I think, I think to end what is the official first crossover episode here at the Ringervverse.

Jomey, wait, who would you be, Joe, in this crossover? I want to be Black Panther because I'm rich. I'm handsome, and I got this vibranium drip, you feel me? Plus, I'm African already, so, you know. All right, I was about to roast you. I'm like, Black Man, really, really? Yes, you're going for Black Panther?

Baconda forever! I don't know who I would be, you know. You teamed up with, who's an evil? teamed up with the ringer Stanos. That's what I'll say. You know what I'm saying? I'm just tipping the scales. And you went advanced pronunciation. Thanos.

Stainos. I'm riding with my man. I'm riding with my man. Okay? You got the Ringer Stano's and the Ringer's Black Panther here on the first crossover episode of the Ringerverse.

Make sure you guys tap in Tuesday for Mallory Rubin's podcast on everything, Falcon and the Winter Soldier. She will be answering all of y'all's questions. Then we have Van coming back on Wednesday

with a first reaction pod with some special guests with Godzilla versus King Kong. And last, but certainly not least episode three of Falcon and the Winner Soldier this Friday. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We'll see y'all later.