The Ringer-Verse - Reactions to 'Thunderbolts*' | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

The Boys are back, and giving you all of their takes on the newest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe: 'Thunderbolts*.' (0:00) Intro (2:13) Spoilers ahead (5:15) Reactions to the film (1:08:52)Midnight Meter (1:13:30) Outro Hosts: Van Lathan, Charles Holmes, Jomi Adeniran, and Steve Ahlman Producers: Aleya Zenieris, Jonathan Kermah, Chris Thomas, and Steve Ahlman Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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House of Our gives you their deep dive on the last of us. Wednesday. Midnight Boys are back with more and or coverage. Andor is happening as we speak. The feeling is back. On today's show, we give you our instant reactions to the latest serving of the MCU. Yelena, it's Ghost, it's Red Guardian,

it's pastmaster. It's a small-y. Hey. It is Bucky. It is John Walker. They are the Thunderbolts. Asterix. Asterisk.

And we're going to talk about them today. But before we do, we're going to give a spoiler warning for everything, MCU. We might be spoiling some Thunderbolts comics. We might get into a little bit of their checkered and rocky history in Marvel comic books. We also might spoil some things about other franchises as we discuss the Thunderbolts, Steve, MCU's spoiler warning. We're getting ready to talk about Thunderbolts. You're listening? to a reaction podcast.

The spoilers are coming. All right, we have to put you in the know. You must know about the movie. That is important. The only person who can do that here is Charles with the Midnight Manifest. All right, this is your Midnight Manifest for Thunderbol, directed by Jack Shria, written by Eric Pearson and Joanna Callow starring for a huge fashion stand, Wyatt Russell, David Harbour, Julia Louis Dreyfus, among others.

Yelena is feeling lost and unfulfilled working undercover for Valentina in the season. CIA during one of her last ops. The Atlanta finds the remnants of the Century Project before blowing it to smithereens. Meanwhile, in Washington, Valentina is on the verge of being impeached from her role as director of the CIA. To cover her track, she decides to burn all evidence of her wrongdoings, part of which includes getting her prime agents, the Black Widow, U.S. agent, ghost, and Taskmaster, to kill each other. When these proto Thunderbolts meet at the vault, they quickly realize they've been set up by Valentina. Unfortunately, this happens after Taskmaster takes one to the head, hence her big scrub from all those trailers and promo materials. L.

Also, they mean an amnesiac. Amnesiac? Amnesiac. Amnesiac? Amnesian? How do you say amnesia? Bob with him. They meet a dude with amnesia.

And then Red Guardian arrives later in a limo. Together, the Thunderbolts mount an escape, thanks to Bob sacrificing himself. In the process, he awakens his sentry powers, meaning he now has strength, flight, telekinesis, and can blow shit up with his mind. On the run from the CIA, the Thunderbolts are captured by Senator Buckie, who wants to take Valentina down, needs these anti-heroes to do it.

Thrilled that our Century Project was the success, Valentina decides to turn Bob into a hero and in the process save herself from impeachment. Predictably, Bob Co's full homelander, the Thunderbolts arrive and failed to stop him. The Century then turns into his villa persona the void, a tortured metaphor for depression and self-loathing that transports New York

into the bad place. Yelana and the Thunderbolts hug Bob's paying away, they saved the day, and in the process, become the New Avengers, and that has been the Midnight Manifest for Thunderbolts. Van? we saw this yesterday at the screening

instant reaction walkout the theater. Walking out the theater, I thought that they executed the movie. And let me tell you what I mean. First of all, I love the movie. I want to get into a discussion of the actual happenings in the film and then come back to

our thoughts on the quality of the movie. But the first thing that I thought was it was an executed cohesive movie. Which, this sounds so weird. But you haven't seen that from Marvel in a while. Yep. It's been a minute.

You haven't seen that from Marvel in a while, a movie that actually has a point of view and what characters have weighty arcs and there seems like, regardless of the superhero stuff that's happening on screen, that it actually matters for reasons to the characters that are involved.

So when I walked out of the movie, I breathed a sigh of relief that they can still make a movie. movie and not just throw stitched together commercials on screen and a film that isn't

intrigue porn, like, oh my God, what's going to happen after this film? But what's happening to these characters in this setting, in this place, with these stakes right now? Yeah. And they did a great job at that. They did a great job.

My brother was like chomping at the bit when I got out. He's like, what did you think? What did you think? I think the first word that I, like, texted him was like, it's competent and not in a bad way. And like, to your point, when you watch the movie, everything from the actors to the script to the color grading, I'm like, it has a point of you. Like, this is a movie that holds together. There is point A, point B, point C. And to me, it does the thing that I think we always talk about, like, the big Marvel

movies, the Winter Soldier, Black Panther, the Ragnarok, like, all of those. But what I think the MC used to do really good was like the movies under that, which were just like, this is a fun time at the movies. You're getting a lot of talented actors to make you laugh, to make you feel something. And you walk out of it being like, oh, I was entertained. I had a good time at the movies. And that's the feeling that I got where it's like, I think it might be unfair if people think that this is going to be the movie that's going to like completely write the ship or save Marvel. But if you're like, oh, I want to go see a really entertaining movie at the movie theaters.

I was like, fuck, Marvel can do it. Like to your pause, like, they can do it. It's sad that we're at this point, though, with Marvel where, like, man, they gave us a full 48, man. It was just what we've been betting on. No, no, no. I don't want to get into a state of Marvel conversation. But I will say that that to me is the reason why we started to, we started to, we started to legitimately ask ourselves the question if they still know how to do it.

Yeah, yeah. And this movie wasn't just proof that they still know how to do it. It was that they still know how to do it. Well, yeah. All right. Mint boys, we all saw it together. The movie is undergirded by Yelena, who if that star, if that actress and that character doesn't become a big deal in this film, the movie doesn't work.

Did Yelana's character get there for you guys in the movie? By the end of the movie, did you look at her as somebody that you could build a movie around? Did you look at her as somebody who wasn't second to Natasha or second to Kate Bishop, but someone who could have her own team that her journey is central to? I was wildly impressed because I was very worried that the likes of Florence Pugh wouldn't be sticking around

for the long haul when it comes to Marvel. And she's very present and in the moment when it comes to this movie. and where the movie leaves us is like, oh, wow, she's actually probably like a flagship person that we can look forward to in the MCU because I loved her performance here. I loved the fact that she is both vulnerable

and impactful and empathetic and trying to be not necessarily even the biggest leader, but a person that people can rely on and a person that can actually work with and empathize with the people around her in a way that people don't really care to make that type of effort nowadays, at least in the levels of anti-heroes that she's had.

I'm very impressed with Florence Pugh. I'm very impressed with, like, the lower-level cast. Like, I think we can, like, all say that, like, Lewis Pullman is, like, a secret MVP of this movie. I kind of want to see every other person make another round of this. I want to see the Thunderbolts again, and it's an intriguing way to introduce

us to a band of anti-heroes that probably not since Guardians have I really been attached to. Well, you will see them again in Avengers Doomsday. They're all on the chairs. They're all there. Well, all but one. Rest and peace taskmaster, man. You didn't deserve that. You might have actually, but that's not the point.

Florence Pugh, I mean, she was a highlight in Black Widow. She was a really good part in Hawkeye. And so we were very familiar with her game going against this movie. Certainly. But the fact that You could have just been like Florence View, you're charismatic as hell. Go do that.

Boom. And that might have worked. But her performance and what they had the character of Yelena go through was just so layered and I thought was really well done. I can't wait to talk about it to guys later because the themes of this movie are so dark, honestly. And like, especially for a Marvel movie, but just for like movies in general, like the ideas of depression and suicide.

Like they are threaded through this movie from literally from the beginning. And the fact that it doesn't feel like very, like, overt or just, like, super duper in your face. It's just, like, a very underlying theme of the movie that I think, honestly, like, in, like, 20, 25. I mean, maybe I'll just be it for myself, but, like, somebody who's, like, going through stuff. Like, you know, it's just like, oh, snap, like, this is, this is real. Like, I see the vision. I thought that the movie, to your point, does a really good job of putting all those characters

in places that works. for them despite the dark overtones of the film. I thought Sebastian Stan was incredible. Maybe it's just like the Oscars gas getting to me, but I'm like, yo, where has this guy been ever since Endgame? You know, we saw him in Falcon Winter Soldier, and that was solid. And we got the cameo in Brave New World. But I'm like, brother, he could have been here the last, where was he the last six years?

We could have been at like two or three of these movies. I just thought as a whole, I think I'm hiring it than you guys are. I thought I had a lot of fun. And again, we're not going to do it into the state of Marvel conversation. But, man, in that moment, man, Credit us rolling, I'm like, fellas. We're back, baby. I will say this. Florence Pew is already better Black Widow than Scarlet Johnson.

It is the rare time where I feel like they've actually gotten it right, where the person to take on the mantle, I'm actually way more interested in their story. To me, this was kind of like Black Widow too. This was a Florence Pew. movie and this was her time to be like, not only can I like lead a movie, but her chemistry with everyone, I was like locked in. Whenever like the movie maybe like plot wise maybe was kind like faltering a little bit, she did that movie start thing where she could just kind of through like share force of like charisma to me like get it back on track. I just think she

was hilarious. Her relationship with David Harvard was amazing. I loved her. I know I don't agree with that, but I know why people would think that and you're not the only person that felt that way. So you still think Scarlet I do But I don't know that there's necessarily A one-to-one way to compare them But I'll tell you why I think that is We've seen

We've seen Yelena's Entire Life from the beginning Yeah Yeah So we've gone through the entire thing with her So we get When Scarlet When Black Widow

When Natasha was talking about there's a lot of red in her ledger and there's all of these things. We learned them later and we had to assume, right? So for a long time, she just got to be a hero. We met her as a hero.

She would have conversations with Hulk or another character and we would get some exposition as to how much trauma she had been through. But for the most part, Black Widow was this hero, hero figure and Avenger. Yelena, we've watched her

become a hero. We've watched her be taken away from the only family she ever knew. We watched her basically be put in the red room. We've watched her learn that she's alone, then try to become a part of something all the way to the point of being a part of something. So we're more attached in a way if you've been watching this stuff to her Black Widow,

even though we had to watch Natasha die, even though it was very tough as far as her relationship. with Hawkeye and everything else, even though we've seen all of that. With Yelena, when these scenes started to hit with her and Red Guardian, there was real emotion. Like, they actually really mattered.

You cared about the relationship. You cared about it. She lost her sister. She killed people. She had been a child soldier. All of that stuff. So passing a mantle here is the best mantle past Marvel has done bar none.

Right. But passing the mantle here, has just been done better because, once again, like the old days of Marvel, we've got more of this character before they got their own movie. Jumme, what were you going to say? No, that was going to be my question was that,

is it, you know, Scarlett-Hanson or Florence Pee was just like, they're just telling better stories now. Well, also, I think with Scarjo, I think the thing with her is just like, it took her a while, in my opinion, to find her character because it was a different era in superhero movies where she kind of was the woman on the team. She didn't really get the big moments

And I think they've learned from that since. And now Yelena, to your point, gets more time to shot. Even in Hawkeye, like, it's just like, she gets time to be a fully-fledged character and not just like a member on a team who says a quip. And then we got to go back to Iron Man. But, like, I think you brought it up, Jomey. I'm at the point where I'm like, do they just need to, like, drop the big bag on Sebastian Stan and be like, hey, yo, Bucky Cap.

We need you. Because, like, when Sebastian Stan comes, like, every single time I see him in a movie, now in the MCU, I'm just like, oh, no, he knows how to do this. Like, he's been in the system. He's operating on another life. There was a part of the movie when they're going to the limo and Sebastian rolls up looking like the Terminator. That was so great.

I don't know. It's a top three scene in the movie. I was literally in my seat like, hell yeah, man. This is what it means, baby. Like him putting his fist in the ground, he standing like a badass, bro. I was like, dog, we should have gotten like eight of these. Where has he been this whole time? Well, I mean, he's the vet of the team.

He's like, he's the one that they're all able to get behind his leadership. Because really, Buck is kind of the leader of the team. Yelena is sort of the center of the team. The emotional. The emotional center of the team. And really the person that they do take cues from by the end in terms of because they can't punch and kick their way out of the bob slash void slash sentry situation. Right. They have to have somebody that's made a connection with the character

and is willing to confront their own trauma, is brave enough to confront their own trauma to actually win. And she's the only one that was really brave enough to, like, actually physically and psychologically, like, walk into the void, see? Well, yeah, and that's very true because we talk about Bucky and, like, why couldn't he be a sort of, like, leader of this team or a sort of, you know, established vet that could take control? And in ways he does, but again, to your point about that final confrontation, there's like a great moment where, like, everybody is affected by the Void's powers and the Century's Powers.

And everybody's talking about, what did you see? What did you see? And then Bucky's like, oh, yeah, I worked through that. Like, he's, we've already been through all the things that Bucky's been through. It's not to say that he's arched out, but to say that he can, like, kind of pass on the emotional labor and the emotional growth to somebody else to make that. Well, that's actually now what he said. What he said was, he said, I've had a great past. He says, I've had a great pass.

So it was awesome. Which is a lie. But he's come to terms with it. Yes, exactly. And so, and the rest of them are still coming to terms with it. By the way, there's one comparison that we do have to make because obviously this is Marvel's version of the Suicide Squad. Yeah. This movie was able to do something that the suicide squad was not able to do it.

Which one? Either one of them. Okay. Which the second Suicide Squad movie was actually better than the first year. It's better than the first one. But this movie actually was able to give us a why. Like when I say why, I mean, why are reviewing these characters as heroes? Because their arc from villains to heroes is very well done.

Like, their arc from we are sitting here to kill people. We're all different agents working for our own reasons, right? John Walker wants to be useful. Ghost is a scientific misfit. Yelena, this is all she has to try to get fulfilled. And Val is using all of their weaknesses to work them, but they have strength in each other and their strength in their service. You never really got that with the suicide squad.

They were up against a completely outmatched villain. And you got to a point to where you were like, yeah, I get that they're kind of like, why are they doing this? Yeah. You know what I mean? I mean, it's more pronounced in the country. But you're kind of like, why are they doing this? There's never a moment where you understand why this misfit group of people has to trust each other or has to get to a point where they're working as a team for the greater good.

But in this, particularly the moment in the movie where they all get some saves where it's not about plunging and kicking, it's about the little guy. The team coalesce together and it makes sense. I mean, even before that, I thought, like, from a screenwriting point of view, like, it was such a good choice to be like, instead of this being a movie about how. Valentina, like, doing a basic, like, oh, I'm getting the squad together, then being sent to kill each other, and then having to work their way out, I was just like, oh, that's really smart. Because even in that moment, I like, like, when they're basically like, yo, you're supposed to be Captain America, you're an asshole.

Like, there was a bunch of lines where I was just like, I'm learning. Because I think what this film had to do is there's a lot of, like, exposition dumping because you're just like, this motherfucker was in Ant Man. And then what's your deal again? And like, I think they did a very smart job kind of like hiding those exposition dumps on the margins or folding them into jokes where I'm just like, okay, this works.

From the time that they're trying to escape outside of the thing, I'm like, I know they're going to escape, but I ended up liking them, all of them. Like, I ended up really liking U.S. agent. I'm just like, he's an asshole, but he, like, Wyatt Russell was fucking cooking. He's great, yeah.

I was just like, I love these characters to get. The movie does a really good job of sharing the rock between, like, all the characters. Like, obviously, Yelena and Bucky and Red Gardier and get a lot of the ball. But Ghost was great. U.S. agent. Again, I was like, I don't like this guy, but something about him, man. I want to see him again, you know.

Bob, I think the movie, like, balancing all those characters, it did a fantastic job to the point where, again, we're sitting here and we're like, we would love to see these guys again. Like, Tuesday, where you at? I can't wait to see him again. Bob. Steve, you like Bob. I do love Bob. I was a little anti-Bob. How do you know?

You're a little bit. Your jacket. Bob, you can't prepare. Yeah. You got Bob. Okay, so let's get our thoughts. So, for you guys, I don't know, Robert Reynolds, the century, is one of the most powerful characters of Marvel.

His backstory is very complicated. He was an actual hero a long time ago. Yes. But, and everybody knew him. He was the hero of the world. Everyone loved him. The character was introduced in, I think, like, 2000, 2001, early 2000, something like that. And in the country, in the country.

comic books, what happens is the century is a gigantic hero, but along with the century comes the void. So the only way to get rid of the void was to get rid of the century, make everybody forget that the century ever existed. That's the purpose of the watchtower. The watchtower had technology that made everyone forget that the century existed. The century comes back, the void comes back, and there's always a push-pull between this guy who's been given the Super Soldier Serum that's a thousand times stronger than Captain America

but also has this this dark side that is... Power of a thousand exploding suns. Is he in the comics? Is he like schizophrenic or it's just like the void isn't either another personality

because like they tried to do it in this. The void completely overtakes the century. Yeah. And at first they didn't know that the void was the century. Yeah. But Bob had to be, Bob was

using the century in this movie and having such a godlike hero against these shooters, punches, and kickers was good. You liked Bob, you didn't like him. Why did you? No, no, no, I liked Bob. I'll tell you what I did. I liked Bob the character. Did you not like the centrification of Bob? No, no, no, I actually

like, when the century comes out in that fight, when they're fighting against a century. That was great. He loved it. He was cooking. He was putting belt. I was like, oh shit. I was like, all right, we go. How are they going to take down the century? And then when he becomes a boy And they have to hug him

I'm like, all right Like I literally was just like They're not about to have like these these motherfuckers The power friendship? Yes, the power friendship I really That was when I was like dog I really just wanted to see the century

Like I could have seen the century That fight be like 30 minutes When it was over I was like fuck They would have brother He was giving them belt It was bad There was no shot Because they were like

Yeah he's stronger than the Avengers He did it doda whatever I was like Fuck that fuck out of here And then once he started I was like, I was like, okay. Because he has several different powers, right? He's got the telekinetic power.

He's got thermokinetic power. It seems like he's got flight. He's got super strength. He's super fast. He's invulnerable. While we're here, all right, MCU. Like, before we get back to the movie, MCU, we have a century. We saw what he could do.

Yeah. Right now or in the past, who could actually take the century? Only one person. Gaia. Gaia. Yeah. No, I think. I think Captain Marvel, actually, energy powers.

Patrick Marvel, Thor. Thor. I think Scarlet Witch could get busy. Scarlet Witch is going to be right there. I mean, you know, she's got the schizophrenic thing going on. Dr. Strange? Could Dr. Strange hold his own or not? Dr. Strange is a...

He went one with Thanos, you know what I mean? For a while? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What about Thanos? I mean, yeah. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

Maybe. Maybe. And gave Thanos or Infinity War, Thanos. I mean, like... Ballet, Thanos? All right, beginning not all. He just has the one and he's facing Hulk. Who's winning?

I mean, he did give Hulk the beat out, though. Like, he just has the power store. Yeah. I mean, you got to put a lot of things into it too. I mean, there's flight. There's all, there's all times of things.

And Cynch's going to have a lot of stuff for that. I think the Hulk could also. I think the Hulk would. Yeah, yeah, I think the Hulk could put up a good fight. The Century. Oh, no. No. No.

No. This Hulk. No. We got to talk about him. Wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait. Wait, wait. Wait, wait.

Wait, wait. Wait, wait. Not smart Hulk. Like, angry Hulk. Nah. He's getting fucked on. The Century, the Century fucking over.

Like, comics Hulk probably not. By the way, the Century fucks over the Hulk in the comics. Yeah. Like when they have them, the Hulk is fucking. Not my, not my, not my Hulk. Speaking of which, not my Avengers, man.

I mean, like. Well, let's stay on Bob real quick, because I didn't get Steve's Bob take yet. No, it's the level of immediate vulnerability that Bob has that endears him to Yelena that kind of like, booies him up to a level of like,

it's not like he's a pet. It's not like he's a, like, child or something like that's childlike, but something that, like, Yelena wants to protect and, like, look after because she sees that level of mental strife and struggle inside of him

because he keeps saying these things to himself or just like, I'm always making things worse or, like, I, like, it's better if I'm not here and stuff like that. And it's that, like, kind of negative self-talk that she's familiar with. And that kind of makes it an easy. I'm like, okay, these two are, like,

right on the same level and they're going to be. be like the things that are actually like the intellectual adversary that they're going to be facing off against. And that's kind of the heart of the movie and that I really love that in Bob. Was Bob as Yelena, what does he do in the fight? What does she tell him? Stay behind me. Stay behind me. That right there. That fortified their bond. Yes.

If you looked at what he was going through when he was a kid when he's in the void, when he's in his room, he was being, he wasn't being protected. and not only was he not being protected, he was being made fun of for not being a good protector. Correct. He tries to protect his mom,

his dad's, what are you going to do? And then while he's protecting his mom, his mom's like, good job protecting me. Like, you can't do it. So to have somebody go out on a limb for him, good writing, that was the connection that they needed for her to be able to get through to him at the deal. If I'm recalling correctly,

wasn't this role supposedly played by Stephen Young? Yeah, it was. And then the, strikes. The strikes. Yeah. Like fucked everything up. I mean, I think it would have been interesting to see Stephen, obviously, a great actor. You know, I think would have killed it. But I think Lewis Pullman

brings, like, there's an innocence, I feel like, in his eyes. That just, for what I'm watching the movie, I'm like, oh, this guy has no idea what's going on. I'm like, I want to protect Bob. I'm like Elena, right? This little puppy boy, I want to protect him. And then he gets all blonde, he's a century and you can still feel

like in the eyes, but when he's, you know, whipping their ass, it's a little different. I think what he did in that role, again, playing the soft, but also the strong, like, the big hero villain,

whatever, I thought it was pretty solid. I mean, hearing Mark Grayson's voice once he starts beating on the Thunderbolts, would be a legendary. Okay, but when Vow's like,

he's invisible, I'd have been like, ah! I see it. So I also, I think the thing that I really enjoyed about this, and I haven't felt this way

in the while, is that this movie, also felt like tactile when like they're trying to get out of the vault and like u.s. Asian is doing this thing like yelaine is like she's jumping off buildings they're fighting i was like finally like a like a marvel movie that like feels designed i thought like even even if i didn't really like where the void ended up i was like the void looks cool like i was just like there was moments in this movie where I was just like, yo, everybody looks good. Like the action, the stunts.

I was like, I was actually like taking aback. I was like, this is how it felt to watch those captain, those original Captain America movies where I'm just like, oh, you guys don't have to kind of rely to what you brought up, like stitching shit together and papering it over. I'm like, you guys trusted the directors and the actors to really go out there and like sell a bunch of this shit. Also, it really feels like the script isn't bogged down in like rewrites and stitch together. It really feels like, like, obviously the scripts go through and, like, the creative process is an iterative thing.

But this really feels like this had a momentum and, like, propulsive force behind the story that actually was not chopped to bits to, like, oh, well, we need more exposition here or we need to make sure that we introduce this character for a later movie here or stuff like that. Like, it's very centered and it's very propulsive in the storytelling. Do you think that's because, like, kind of similar to the, I feel like, the best Marvel movies, when this movie was probably greenlit and created, they probably didn't give as much of a shit. And I don't mean, like, they didn't believe in it. More so, they were like, this is like something in the corner, similar to like Guardians of the Galaxy where a director and a writer, or a couple writers can go play. Where it's like, they're not, to your point as like, hey, we need this to work in XYZ market. We're selling these toys.

did it da-da-da-da-da-da-da. This movie very felt like, all right, yeah, Sentry can be like a methhead at one point. Like, that's fine. Well, who gives fuck? Yeah, I think they're probably less precious with these characters. Yeah. So being that they're less precious with them, they probably felt like every single decision that the characters made had to have some background and story. And also, there's something else. When we talk about, we've known these characters for a while. Not really ghost in a way. We saw ghosts in one movie. Ghost comes back. We kind of, but we've known these characters for a long time.

We got a whole season with John Walker. We got a whole, we got years and years with Buck now. Buck's going to be doing it until he's 90. We got all of these, so there's less that they had to do anyway, but also they could take more chances. They could make

Red Guardian into kind of a lovable bozo that doesn't have to do very much other than be the dad of the team. Bucky could come in and show that he is actually the most capable hero. He's the only hero

out of all of them. He essentially, through his example, kind of shows them how to hero in this. Even Mel, I will say, like, even a character who I think Mel is, like, supposed to be Songbird, who's, like, an original member of the Thunderbolts, I thought even that actress, what's her name?

Geraldine, I can't. The first name's Geraldine. I don't want to butcher the last name. But I thought that that was, like, also like an old school marble thing where you can introduce like a character that's not like superpowered or not like in the center of the frame but she gives valentina some shit to do like they have a little bit of chemistry i was just like oh okay like everybody in this movie i pointed to i was like i like i want to spend more time with them but my are we ready are we

before we get to the new avengers part i want to go back to something you said did i thought when after the fight with the century, which was great, the void part where the void is starting to take over kind of like Manhattan and they all get their moments to like prove that the heroes and like save people

was like a master class. I was like, this gave me the Avengers like the first Avengers feeling of just like like oh I can believe in these heroes again. I like this, I love that part. It's essentially a replay or a take on the Avengers Battle of New York.

By the way, if you're in the U.S.U and you still live in New York, you're a fucking moron. Especially that, like, block when the Tatarie attacks. If you're anywhere near the Old Avengers Tower, just don't. There's like a subsection in New York in that area

where not only you were you attacked by the Tatar, you also might have got snapped and you mind got turned to Ash. And it's funny because there's a scene in the movie where Yelena is talking to Red Guardian and they're having a full on, they're in superhero people just walk and bomb

the New Yorkers are just like people just walk in by there's a lady wait there's a lady look down and like that extra

dude that extra was just like yo it is my no to me I feel like that's so New York where somebody will just have

be having a screaming argument on the street and you just got a pass I've done broke down and cried on the subway not one motherfucking care people like what

I watch there's a guy on Instagram and I try to have him on higher learning but he charges for appearances. I'm not paying for no appearances.

Okay. And he does his thing where he pours milk on himself. What? And gives inspirational messages. You ever seen this guy? I know. You know what I'm talking about? No. Okay. So this guy pours, he goes into Walmart and he

like, he'll take chocolate milk and he pour it all over himself. I'm sorry, this niggas, I wish. Is this some Eric Andre's stuff? What is this? Find out, I can't think of his name right now. But he's the funniest guy in the world to me. Because he'll pour milk all over himself and he'll go, you can do it, you can do it. Don't let nobody tell yourself that you can't do it. You can't, and it'll be a different message every single time.

I forgot his name, but I did find him and I reached out to him and he was like, yeah, he'll come on a podcast, he charges, but so I can't have him on a podcast, but still shout out to him. But he was on the New York subway one time and he did one. He walked by... Is it called to McAllister? Let me see, is this him? That's him. C underscore the truth.

go follow. Okay. But he did one on the New York subway, and it's so funny when he did it, because he starts to pour this stuff, no one on the subway freaks out at all. Just watch the people, just get up and move to the back of the car.

Look, look, just watch the people just get up, they just get up and move to the back of the car. They don't even give a fuck. Yeah. Like somebody's freaking out on the subway, doing something, they just get up. Everybody's just like, just going about their day.

Yeah, they're cereal, he does cereal, he does water, and then he points to the camera and it's hilarious to me. The ones at Walmart are really funny because he runs, he slips down on the ground, there's chocolate milk everywhere. I always think about who has to clean it up, but it's funny, whatever, I'm stupid. What do you mean?

Somebody who's getting paid minimum wage. They probably make him clean it up. There are things that I want to call that man right now. Jesus is correct. I get it. Wow, wow, wow. I get it. I get it.

Leave it, I get it. I get it. But no, you got to move out of New York. Or like, what do you think, though, like, because here's the thing in Manhattan, you think people are getting some, like, nice deals on the condos gal? Oh, my God. Rent's dirt cheap and they have to be. You got to be paying $500 a month, man. Because you, they got to say that, you know, Green Goblin, well, not him because he ain't in this world.

When they said Ox Corp at first, I thought they meant Oz Corp. Was it, it was not Oz Corp. It was Ox. I was just like, what type of fucking Aldi's Trader Joe's Oscorp? But, like, you never know. They should, in New York, in the New York, they should have a superhero activity zone. You live in a high superhero activity zone.

And because of that, you get like $500 off a month in rank. Wait, wait, do you think that's why all the extras in this movie were just like... They probably live in the superhero activity zone. They was like, we, we, Spider-Man was fucking this shit. Because we never see these niggas in the Bronx. They don't care what happens there. Like, every time it's always in Manhattan, maybe the Spider-Man of Little Queens. But we don't...

No, so I feel like Spider-Man don't. Like in the first movie he was getting down in Queens after that, after he got the suit, that motherfucker went to Europe. You know what I'm saying? He went to outer space. He wasn't protecting the brown people anymore. But when they did do all of those saves, it's kind of just like the first Avengers movie

from the standpoint that you start to see the Avengers care, not just about defeating whatever enemy that they're defeating for their own personal reasons, right? the death of Colson, death of Colson, was the thing that galvanized the Avengers and made them decide to fight as a team, but they were almost doing it for themselves at this point.

They found their heroism when Captain America is arranging search and rescue, when they're saving people, when they're actually thinking about how is what's happening going to affect everyone around us and like what's the North Star of the reason that we're doing that? When we see the Thunderbolts do that, and come together to do that,

that's when they become heroes. And it shouldn't work because we've seen it before. But it always will work. Yo, it's fucking peanut butter and chocolate. It's just like I can have it as many times as I want, but I'm like, still fucking hits. The cynical read of it is being formulaic, but like if the formula works

and you actually stick to the formula, there's a reason why we keep coming back. And it's because of movies like this. So I have to ask, though, one of my favorite lines was when Bucky was And it shows you so much of who Bucky is because, like, Red Guardian's like, do you got a plan? He's like, hell no. No, no plan.

He's not the planner. Steve's the plan. He's like, I've never had to make a plan, but I need to ask you all this. We have three people on this team with Super Soldier Serum. Even Red Guard, he's like, which one did you get? And he's like, I got the Hydra one. And Red Guard, he's like, shit, I got that fucking Russian knockoff. Yeah, yeah.

If we had to rate the Super Soldier Serums in the MCU, who's got the Primo? uncut shit and who's got kind of got the whack shit. Because Captain America is obviously number one. Can we just talk technically like have like that's the whole thing, right? He's got his is the wackest. Who's the wackest? Colt because he made him turn to the

well. No, but his is the most, I would say he would be number of two if they're putting him under the program because he's one of the most powerful. I mean he's got the side effect of also you would Coke and these are the ones that this is how I would rank them. I would rank actually the heart shaped herb first. That's but

That's not super soldier. You can argue it's a form of super solacea. It's a form, but we're talking about you got to get the injections. It's terrible. Well, well, wait, hard shape herb is natural. That's that natural shit. Haka Hokeby on it. Part of the same program.

The heart-shaped herb, to me, is a super soldier serum. It's just a natural super soldier serum. That's from the earth. That's the doctor's sebi. The heart-shaped herb is the Dr. Sebi super soldier's. Okay. All right, don't do that. We don't know.

Rest and peace, Dr. Sabby. Fuck out of here. I know what they did to you. We're not, like, rest and peace, I know what they did to you. We're not doing that. We are not doing this. We're doing the Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds. The heart-shaped herb is a natural homeopathic super soldier serum.

But I'll say it out. Anyway, you guys don't want to believe. I bet you take it out. Because if that's the case, then the Hulk is not one either. I don't think technically the Hulk is one. I don't, but right. But once again, that's because if we're just going off the three people in this movie. And we're just going off the people who have super soldier serum, which the heart shape of herb is,

but people who have the super soldier serum injected into them, then is Rogers. Yes. First. Bucky. Bucky. Bucky, yeah. Bucky. Wait, why not Bucky?

Well, Bucky shit is all fucked up, right? Well, I think that's a little. I thought that was more brainwash. There's some fendul in there, but like it still works. But I mean, here's the thing. Okay, that's okay, folks. So then Bucky. Because U.S.A.S. is fucked up too.

He got the worst one for show. Yeah. Well, kind of, he got the best one now. No, he was rude. He was royd raging out. I know, but that's because of who he is. Yeah. Right.

Because the Super Soldier serum accentuates, like, who you are as person. But if you remember back to Falcon and the Winter Soldier, by the time they got to John Walker's Super Soldier serum, the guy felt like he had perfected what Erskine had done and he was like, we don't need to make you bigger we don't need to do that, we just need to do whatever and you look the same way

in the Super Social Serum, but I can see what you're saying. But if that's the case, the only person who really acclimated well to it was Steve and that's because of Erskine and the Viterase and all that stuff. To me, are we saying that Bucky, I think Bucky would have gone down maybe a little less but a similar road with Cap if he's not abducted by

fucking hydrant. Maybe. But we don't know. But Red Guardian, to me, adapted pretty well. He did all right. You were straight. Like, it's like, he, so, okay, so let's get a definitive ranking. It's Cap, Bucky, Red Guardian. Cap, Bucky, Red Guardian. U.S.H.

But what about Century? Is he last? To me, that's not real. That's not real super soldier shit. That is the Super Soldier's sound. Yeah, it's an iteration. It's an iteration, but, like. What are you talking about?

Like, this is working on it, yeah. This is comic canon. It's the Super Soldier Serum. Then Hulk is in this shit too. No, he's not. Like Hulk. What was he doing? Why did he get the Hulk powers?

So the Super Soldier Serum that they gave him is a thousand times more powerful than Cap Super Soldier Serum, which is why he's a thousand times more powerful than Cap. So that's, like, that's what they basically put Robert Reynolds through that. Yeah. But so then he's the last because his fucking psyche broke off. Yeah. Everybody in the movie, they can't even use it. him. He on a team just eating Cheetos. There's one guy that did it

right. And it was the one dude. And they even say in this movie, they was like, you give Super Soldier Serum to Steve Rogers, you get something good, you give it to the guy who's high in East Asia. He's basically the dude from White Lotus. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Like, you know, he's that guy. Give it to Rick. Yeah, yeah, no, not Rick's partner. Sam Rocker. Oh, Sam Rock. He's a guy. Like, you know, give it to him. Don't give him Sam Rock. going from White Lotus and the juice

That's crazy That's what happening It's again That'll turn to Hancock Looking at Asian girl Wait so I Wait We have we have gone over this

Have y'all ever seen the Hancock Deleted scene Where he's outside Yeah And he shoots He shoots the load Hey man

I gotta say this That's a wild Shout to a young actress slash director Haley Marie Norman because she is the actress in that scene

And y'all seen Haley before Very beautiful Young actress With the Like And she's directing out

She's doing a great job but I did not believe that that scene was real when I first saw that. I had to find it on YouTube to believe that that scene is real. What the fuck were they doing in Hancock? That's my favorite Superiors. I was just like,

also that was a point where I was like, yo, Will Smith on us this. Yeah, he was trying shit. I have a knit to pick. Wait, before you have a knit to pick, let's go to a quick commercial break. And then... This episode is brought to you

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Man, if you guys are going to just extend me some attitude, there go. We're watching the movie. Oh, no. And there's a scene in the movie where the Thunderbolts come up in the elevator. And it's real like, cool, man, they're a tea. They're assembling. And you pan over. And there's Valentina making a drink in a bar on the top of Avengers Tower,

like trying to chastise Thunderbolts. And I was disgusted. because how dare she invoke the legend of my goat, my guy. Tony Stark in Avengers 2012 when he's pouring the drink

when Loki having the conversation I was like, how dare she stand where he stood? I was hurt to my stomach. I'm not sure I follow. I get it, but what's the knit? Why was she trying to be my guy? Why actually oar farming off my goat? Oh, because that's what she does. Yeah. I mean, it's her watchtower now.

Yeah, I was disgusting. You see Julia Louis Dreyfus in this movie? Fuck Tony Stark. That's fine. Hey, hey, I'll be honest with you. She was one of the, to me, one of the best I'm a step ahead of you type of I'm still under the gun, egghead people that's running all these people in a movie. Nick Fury, Waller, types that I've seen. This is basically V.

Like, her, like, it was just like. That's actually funny. She was a question at the premiere, and she was like, with Val and, uh, and, uh, and. her character for me get along. She was like, no, they would hate each other. They would absolutely be discussing. No, but it's an unsurious knit, but I think to your point, like her gambit, at every turn, she was like, all right, how can I twist this?

How can I move this? I thought as like the secondary villain, she was. And she's getting new information, too. Yeah. Because she thinks the century is gone. And then when she realizes the century is there, how can I use them? She thinks that these heroes or these anti-heroes are useless. But then when she sees that there is a use,

she goes, how could I use her? She is nimble, which is something that you'd have to be to be that type of villain type of person or CIA handler or whatever. She's nimble. She's like, okay, I have a plan. That plan is done. What's my contingency, like at all times? I mean, if I had a knit, I want to kind of go because I don't feel like we've delved into the void enough where I was actually surprised how much, like I liked how The void looked.

I thought it was like a very smart choice, especially in the beginning of the movie, where I feel like it was designed in a way where they give us a lot of set pieces. But to break that up, they're like, okay, we're going to give you a little bit of Yelena in the void or U.S. Asian in the void. I was like, oh, that's a really smart way to kind of like situate us in where these characters have been and like catch us up in that way. But I felt like the whole void of it all started to kind of lose me in the third act. That was when I was just like when they have to hug it out.

when they have to like basically like all go into the void, I was like, there's something about this that feels a little inert. And I like, I get it on a thematic level of what it's trying to do in terms of like talking about depression and like being less than and having to overcome that like,

that dark voice in yourself. But there was just like a cheat. There was like a cheesy part of it. I was like, I don't know if this is fucking holding together the way I would want it to. I don't know. I think for the most part,

the mental health aspect of the movie plays. And it plays well. Like, I think that, yeah, as clunky as like the physicality of that scene and that final, like, sequence is where they have to like, kind of like, Alice in Wonderland their way through like different aspects of-hand-shake that shit. Come on, bro. Get this shit out of here, man. I mean, they can't beat them hand-to-hand. We've seen that. There's no way if they were getting the ones, it was not going to go down like that. But here's the thing. I feel like if you really, if you really got that pen, you got to think about like, all right, how we're shutting this motherfucker down? Again, it's one thing when you have the Hulk and Thor and Dr. Strange and Scarlet Witch. Again, we got a lot of kicky, kicking, shooty, shooty people out there.

The Avengers, the Avengers took down the fucking Chitari. And it was basically a bunch of shooty, shooting, shudy motherfuckers. Yeah, but that was just an alien board. Yeah, but I was like, all right, three of them motherfuckers is basically just like humans. Like, there's cat, there's Hawkeye, there's black kids. The jitori are basically space. soldiers. Look, what a rocket column, the weakest soldiers in the galaxy or whatever?

Yeah, there's an alien horde. I guess this is the way I look at it. It's, um, so, you know, when you have a superpower being like that, uh, the question is like, how do you beat them, right? The boy, it's the boy's homeowner question. How do you beat it? Well, I mean, yeah. I mean, certainly.

But in this situation, the, there's a defeat thing or is there, there's a, get them to stand. down thing, right? With this one, the way to save the void, the way to save everyone was to save Bob from the void. And the only way to save Bob from the void was to connect with them. So the guns and the bullets and stuff like that

wouldn't have worked anyway. Like, the only way to save Bob from the void, the only way to save anyone from that is to be like, hey, we got you. And it was lucky that they had learned that lesson because if it was the first scene of the movie, they'd have tried to shoot and punch with the void or with the sentry

and they got fucked over it because they did try that they tried to they already had tried to shoot and punch with the sent the century and it didn't work so after they've seen what everyone is going through inside of the void I like and when you see Bob there

like literally a kid in his room by himself reliving his trauma in the only safe place that he can get away from the void you go the only way to really save the day here is to give this superpower being a safe place. But what I'm saying is that they figured out that the only way to save the day

was to actually connect with him. No, no, no, I get it on a thematic level. It works for me that way. There just is a comic book version of me where I'm like, all right, punch the sick of. They can't punch him. They can't punch him. They tried to punch him.

He was playing with them. I got to get back to that scene, right? He was, right. He was playing with. with them, as a matter, he got tired of just getting punched, and he just started stopping him with the telekinesis. Yeah. He was, and, and, and,

boy, Bucky, here's the thing. Bucking, he took his jacket off. But he did, Bucky, tried to do that Henry Cavill and mission to Bobbush, that that thing catches his arms, like, Baf! Get out of here. Not when he's going to kill a Red Guardian for a second. Also, why does no one call him the white

wolf? Like, I feel like they just, like, quite, just like, it's not working. That's only the white people that, the only the Wakanda is the black people could call him that. Only Wakans can call him White Wolf? Yeah, you know. Yeah, we're not going to, you know. That'd be crazy.

Maybe they only know to call him White Wolf. Maybe. Man, I'm sure it got around the superhero circles and the text trade threads and stuff like that. What would be a better name? Winner Wigger? Winter Wigger. Yeah.

Winter Wigga. It's not bad. It's not bad. Yeah, I mean, that's all kinds of stuff. Winter Soldier's pretty, it's pretty. I mean, it's loaded, though. He killed a lot of people. Yeah, you can't be calling a senator.

They're like, Winter Soldier. I'm like, he was a terrorist. Like, I mean, we got senators that were war heroes. I mean, we got senators that were terrorists, but I could make a dis, that all of these mother, anyway. Hey, not on this. That's the, that's the Tuesday and Friday podcast. You drone a whole family with no due process.

I can make it as a terrorist. But, like, last on that scene, though, I, here's the thing. I, even the cornyness of the suit, I felt like worked. I was just like. it worked the more you got busy. You're right. Like, I was like, at first I was like, at first I thought he looked.

He fucking looks terrible. But then he flew and I was like, oh shit, that's Century. Yeah. And this is where I, a little bit got annoyed. Whereas like when they go down, like the elevator,

he lets them go, I was like, I at least need to see Century like kind of fuck up the city a little bit. You know what I mean? But Century didn't want to fuck up the city. Yeah. The void did.

The void did. I don't know. The Century didn't. looked at that out like, hey, yo, I'm a God. What the fuck? Like, he was getting a little bit over his, that is true.

The turn, was the turn a little bit too. That was one thing, my nit where I was like, this turn is really fast. He went from being our lovable Bob to be like, but that's how it would happen for real, though. Like, that's how it would happen for real. But it was unclear whether or not the century was actually our friend.

Because he was showing restraint and not killing them, to your point, when he threw Red Guardian out of, the window and then brought him back, I was like, oh, this nigga here cooking. Like, this nigga, this, this motherfucker, he ain't playing with y'all, dumb asses. It's like, hey, y'all, kill the elevator, go back down.

It's the gorilla versus the 100 people. Nah, I got to check higher learning. We're going to talk about that. Y'all listen to Hower Learning right now. It was out earlier this week. I got a plan. Last thing, oh, no, you're going to say something to see? Only the smallest Nick.

If you were to have a hashtag not it's kind of hashtag not my taskmaster a little bit. Well, I mean, Techmaster got dogged. It was never our taskmaster. That was the reason of the season. Oh, it got me so sad. No, no, no, not.

To know the Ghost. I mean, absolutely. But my reading of the situation was that they were like, listen, we actually got to do Taskmaster right in order to do that. You kind of have to get the other taskmaster out here. The thing that's dirty is that they got Taskmaster on all the promotional materials. Got them in the commercials, got them on the Wheaties box. But they weren't slick, though.

They edited their out of, like, one or two scenes that people noticed and were like, ah. They didn't have to do that. They didn't do a good job of, of, just don't put Taskmaster in the shit. They didn't do a good job of hiding the fact that Taskmaster gets killed. Is there any other villain or anti-hero that you could have put in there? That's a good question. That is it Taskmaster that could have, like, given us a little bit more flavor. I mean, you could have had Zimo in there, which would have been comic accurate as far as Zeno.

Well, he's still in prison. He's still in this shit. Yeah. You could have Zimo. God, I love Zimo. I don't know. Again, it's a lot of punchy, punchy, shooty. I mean, he does have hairs and he can't do that.

That's true. You know, Punisher, I guess, but I don't think at this level. Let's not, no. Nah, he's... Bullseye? Hell. Yeah. He might be too evil.

Somebody that's got an international assassin level thing that Yelaine could employ. That Valentina could employ. Is there a Spider-Man villain that could have been in there? Let's think about it by franchise. Is there a Sean? villain? Probably not. Is there a Spider-Man villain? Is there a Marbles villain? It would have to be somebody new, but

again, I get the fact that you have Taskmaster in here. We've seen her before. Deadpool? No. There's actually, when you think about it, there's not a lot of MCU characters that I can think of that would just like slot into this, because most of the villains we know are dead.

And we don't have any mutants. We don't have no mutants. Yeah. And I'm trying to think of like maybe the more popular Thunderbolts where it was like Hawkeye, obviously was on the original. But Juggernaut was on there for a while. There was a lot of different people. Would you have wanted to bring back Clint or no?

That would just... For the Thunderbolts? Ronan? I think that's a... That kind of would be a Bucky stand in as a fat. It's another kind of like kicker. Yeah. We only have one regular person on it.

What you would call it? From, he was actually in Shang-Chi, the Hulk villain. Abomination. Abomination? Abomination. Abomination. I just like, I don't know. I just wish we had more time with Taskmaster, you know?

Tasmania. We just love Tasmasters. I think the reason they did that is so we can get the actual tag. I get you. I get you. And the one that is, yeah. All right, guys, two, like, let's start with the first because I feel like there's two kind of big twists that happened in this movie, not that big.

Find out what the asterix is. At the end of the movie, they got Val dead to rights. And she basically does the thing you were talking about. She maneuvers her way and she announces that these are our New Avengers. So our new Avengers are U.S. agent. Black Widow, Bucky, Ghost, Red Guardian, Bob is just the homie hanging out at Avengers Tower. Van, how did you feel about that?

It was a twist that we all kind of saw coming if you had watching it and stuff. I like it because it centralizes the characters and makes them ask more questions about themselves. If we get them as the Thunderbolts and they're sort of a Black Ops team working for Val or something like that, it becomes very easy to understand what their place in the MCU, greater thing is MCU. You don't say MCU universe. It's the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I just say it like that. It's easy to know what it is. But them as the new Avengers, they're still mystery to what it is that they can do. This team doesn't seem like it's a team that's ready to face an intergalactic threat.

It seems like they have the firepower for it. They seem like they're a group of Avengers that's always going to be fighting for respect, which we're going to talk a little bit more about that at the end, but it's intriguing to have them as the new Avengers to see how they navigate that.

As the Thunderbolts, as a team that's like a rag-tag offshoot of the Avengers, they're kind of not as many curveballs you can throw with them. I mean, I saw just coming from a mile away. I think the thing that like, when we get to the last stinger, that I was like,

is that I like this version of the team that was down to the ground, aesthetically, just like you know, like washed out very gray, very like giving us a different, a different corner of the Marvel universe. And then when they are revealed as the new Avengers at the end, we're kind of back to the CGI guppy. Glossy thing. And it was just like, I get that they were kind of playing. Huh? How do you know that?

I mean, if we look at them in the new Avengers Tower. Like their new outfits. Like, their new suits. Like, Bucky's kind of like wig, like his fucking luscious lock. But I kind of like that. I just felt it was like. Yeah. Can't come up in a world? First of all, I just thought it's...

Charles, one of these guys that only liked the rappers when they're independent. Yeah, man, that nigga signed with electric, fuck him, bro. You got to change it. He's sold out, man. That thing was corny, bro.

I don't know, I fuck with US agents and the beret. I like... No, the barrette. I liked that. The first main credit scene isn't really anything. It's kind of funny,

but I like the last mid-credit scene because it once again showed that they're having trouble acclimating to the title. Well, I think the put... I mean, to the first point of, Like them becoming the Avengers, obviously, it wasn't, like, too crazy. I thought, like, it was, I thought it was well done, obviously.

But to your point, if Dr. Doom coming, even if Thanos running it back, even if Loki coming back from, he's doing the same gameplay as the first Avengers movie, those guys aren't getting the job done. I'm sorry. These motherfuckers never been to space. They're like, what space? I mean, USAG don't move. No, right.

You think about it, Yelena just over leveraged them into a job. basically. Yeah. I mean, she was like, we own you now. So we get to do everything you want. We like all the bread, all the money. Like, because now we can snitch about Century. You're cooked.

Sure. So keep in mind where, where it runs it. As that pertains to the mid-credit or the last credit scene, I think it is important that they are kind of cooked. And they are hashtag not my Avengers. Because when they see the Fantastic Four ship coming up, they're like, what is what's happening here? I mean, that was, I think that was, I got a little irked with that.

where I was just like this whole movie. I was just like, oh, y'all made something special, y'all made something different. You really believe in this? And I'm like, dog, let me watch the... Let me watch the... Let me watch...

Like, I know what's happening. Just let me watch Fantastic for... You're Charlesing right now. You're Charlesing right now. You don't have to do it. That post-credit scene couldn't... Like, could have just not existed and you would have been happy.

The post-credit scene has forever existed to be the thing that's the connective tissue to the greater hole. Yeah, your trails are right now. No, because I just... There is a level of... I know intellectually they're going to have to do something for the Fantastic Four to get to our universe, for them to be like, we're going to reveal it.

Well, it's not. Okay. Well, here's the thing. Just the way I look at this. Number one, there's a version of the world where people, you or whomever else, is over the mid-credit, post-credit scene entirely. I get that. I understand that. I am over the useless one.

Yeah. I am over the, let's revisit this character playing the drums or something like that. I'm playing the track. If you're going, if it's a mid-credit or a post-credit scene, if you're going to make me listen through, not listen, if you're going to make me wait through all of those credits. Oh, wait, those people work really hard on the movie.

Shout out to them. I really do. But I don't give a fuck. Actually, you know what? I don't say this. But wait a second, if you're going to make me wait through the entire end of the whole thing to see something, the mid-credit or the post-credit,

it has to be material to the ongoing narrative of the entire MTV. They wanted to sell Wheaties box. So, look, that's fine. If you're going to do that one, then between the two of them, if there's going to be a mid-credit and a post-credit, one of them has to be story-focused and story-central. All right, so I will agree with that. If I had to choose between the ones we've been getting

where it's just like, motherfucker, I'm never seeing a Hercules again. Like, I don't get fuck. And this one, I would rather have this one. It was more so I just wish, like, the reveal had, I guess, more to do with the movie and the Thunderbolts and less kind of like stepping on a movie. that's about, that literally is coming out in a couple.

That's what they, okay, all right, whatever. That's what they've done. They've done this in 2008. I don't know what you're talking about. Avengers Initiative, Thor's Hammer, hold on. The Avengers Initiative is way different

than being like... But Thor's Hammers in the desert. I mean, we could go through this. Right. Those are different. And the... It's not really. Yeah, it's kind of something.

We know how Fantastic Four is now. I'm like, God damn. How else was it supposed to end, brother? But they haven't even been, they've let us know their world is dead. Okay, they fail. Galactus is up one.

I could not disagree with you more because I left that big, like maybe this is, again, maybe this is just me. Why not if that post-credit's thinking, like, man, I'm going to see my dad's where, obviously. I love these characters. I love the movie that, I hope I love the movie coming out. But I'm like, man, if we get a post-credit scene

of them landing and the Thunder Bowl show back up, I'm like that. That's kind of nice. This is a whole lot of leak album. It's just kind of like, I get it. You got to sell records. You can't be mad. 90% of that post-credit scene was just them riffing together.

I got to say something about the post-credit scene. I'm sorry to cut you off. You don't like the eventual with the Z? Let me tell you something. Forget about the Avengers. Oh, yeah. This is what you're about to say is important. This is another fucking loss for Falcon.

What are they doing? They got Falcons suing in a lot of it. This is another. fucking L. What are we doing a Falcon? They don't give a fuck about Sam Wilson

in this universe. So of all the stuff that they done He was trying to train fuck the knee. I was like, no, dick.

Of all the stuff that they've done him shehawk all this stuff that they've done to Sam Wilson, the ant man lost. The fucking

he's the nigger that dumped and got what's his name killed, right? War Machine. War Machine.

Black on black. The literal entire last episode of Falcon and George. Of all the stuff that they've done to Sam Wilson, of all the stuff, why I got to be Sam Wilson that suing? Like, he's suing. Who else are going to be?

Bro, why would he sue? After this entire narrative about Drake suing doing a rap beef, we got superheroes suing each other, and the person that's going to sue is Sam Wilson after all? All of this stuff that we know, why he got to sue? Why they doing them like this?

Wow, so Bucky was up in the streams. That's crazy. Bucky the Botter? Wow. Bucky was a Bader a little bit. But so, then, he's suing his boy. He's suing his guy. Again, that's good.

I mean, it's a good story. I mean, the credit scene goes on for like five minutes. It's a whole thing. But there's a lot of Bada where he's like, yeah, got on the phone with him. I didn't go well. It was really bad. Once again, it's a CML. because just because you want to be

Mr. Independent, you can't get mad at your boy that they signed to the major label. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, you had the chance. Fucking Red Hulk was just like, do you want to be the Avengers? And he's like, nah. And I'm like, well, it was going to have to be someone. You're a hater. Well, why are you a hater?

It was offered to you. You said, no. Captain Falcon hating outside the club? Well, he's got the shield. Join their team. Lead their team. He probably don't think like all them killers. That's fine.

Who he going to get? It's not a lot of people out there. Yeah. Whoa. His team going to be the JV, JV team too. Okay. Who is Sam's team? Who is Sam?

Is Sam Shanchi? Right. Sherry. Okay. I'm fucking with her. Yeah. Maybe. Maybe.

We don't really know who. I got to be honest. Maybe. I got to be honest. Even with those names, I got them over to do eventual. I'm not going to like to you. Yeah. I've seen them work.

Now, we were talking about this in the theater. Whoa. our Captain America could barely be fucking Ant-Man So you know what I'm saying? Yeah, but I mean like U.S. agent Like for real, you know what I'm saying? Bucky is really the only like

If it was between Bucky Captain Falcon's ass. You think so? U.S. agent. He don't have no Super Soldier serum. He's got the taco shield. He was kicking his fucking ass before. Bucky, if it's a one-v-one between Bucky

and Captain Falcon. Oh, yeah, I mean. Yeah, he's a super soldier. Yeah, but I'm saying like with the teams, though. Like if you, like I think if you, If you can make a call to Thor, you know what I'm saying? Smart Hulk is somewhere over there. All right.

You might have to guess. You have to guess. Oh, geez, man. Let's be real. So, Bucky's winning against Cap. Yeah. Yelaine is winning against Shang Chie. He don't got the best hands in the universe.

He doesn't have the 10 rings. He's fucking her up. He fucking her up. Even without the 10 rings. He's supposed to be the best martial artist in the galaxy. He's talking about. I got Yelana. Over Shang-over.

That's wrong. That's right. I ain't enough from Shanchi. That's wrong. That's wrong. Sean Chi, if we're being honest, Sean she don't got feats. You don't got,

I've seen what Yolanda can get busy. I haven't seen shit for Sean Chi. You didn't Kennell Dragon. He wasn't. This is crazy disrespect. This is crazy, Sean Chi disrespect. I like you later. I'm a fan of her game.

What does she know about cameras? Oh, they got the Century, bro. Century Washington. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa. If they, if they, if that's the, that's the thing. He's actually. He gets up from reading the Ray Rubin's book.

He really Hachamara, bro. You show up. If he's good game, it's over. If Century comes to the party. Yeah. So, yeah, yeah. Come on. Century is picking Falcon up and throwing him in the outer space.

Like, you know what I mean? Like, you say, you know, this is, if Citry. But let's be real. So it's Captain Falcon. We really don't. We really don't know. We, we, we, who can he get? Okay.

So could he get Hulk? Could he get Hulk? He could get Dr. Strange? Wong. He could get Dr. He could get Dr. Strange. He could get Dr. Strange.

Supreme. We don't know who he's going to go get. We don't know. Dr. Strange? Dr. Strange? Yeah. He's off doing the thing, though. He got the fucking eyes. I'm just like literally thinking about who was at Tony Stark's funeral that he would

know, you know what I mean? He could go get Spider-Man. I don't know. That group chat's pretty dead right now. Spider-Man might be around for it. Spider-Man, Spider-Man not joining that team. He can get Hulk. He can get Hulk, Thor, Spider-Man, Shuri.

I don't know if he can be, he might be able to make a call to the Guardians. Rodi Wait a minute We have Captain Marvel Hold on Consider the Wakandan contingent On Bucky though Who do they

Who do the Ocondon's like more Bucky or Sam? Demeter makes the call first I think I think it's fuck with Bucky more They fuck with Bucky more I think they do too Yeah

Dang That's tough for Fawkes They do He stayed He worked up He worked to fear Herish Remember at the end of the post

Cretace of the Black Panther Yeah Sheree's helping him Get through the thing Exactly You know They fuck with Bucky The Woffie

The Wakanda is white one for a reason. They like them a pen white boy. You got to have, wait, everybody's got to have one around. It's true. Happy to be here. Chuck. All right, guys, it is, it is time. Midnight meter.

Y'all know what it is. Scale 1 to 12, 1 to 10, normal. One being the worst. 10 being very good. 11, 12 reserve for game changers. Mint boys, where are we at? This is the strongest possible seven I've ever given. Oh, shit.

I'm not even going, here's the thing, I'm not even going to hold y'all. I'm happy with this. This is a very strong seven to me as well. Like very strong, strong set. I don't have any disrespect behind this. Yeah, that's not a disrespectful seven. No, I do not. No, this is a very great return.

We didn't bring this up. I think that this is the best Marvel movie since Spider-Man No Way Home. But I don't think that this movie is bad. I think this movie is better than Spider-Man-N-W-W-A-W-A. Well, I think it's better as a, I think it's better as a movie. Yeah. But as a spectacle, I still think I think this movie is better at the spot. It is better than spot.

To me, I want to give it a nine bad, but it is the strongest eight I have ever given out. That's right. That's right. That's the strongest eight. Wait, then why were you looking at me and Steve? Like, we are crazy for giving a seven. That's one point. Because the seven is seven is.

Seven is two of. What? I mean, we can't give half. This is, yeah. Again, I can give it a half. It'd be a seven and a half. This is legit, and Eric Voss tweeted this, I got all the press, but this probably is the best movie we've got in the MCU.

That don't mean much. But that's what I'm saying, though. So I'm saying, though, so if you give a seven, after all the scores he's giving it. Like a seven's too low. I mean, that's a, you got to score. I'm teetering for sure. I would, I would, man, I'm going to be honest with you. I want to give it a nine, but it's just there's not enough there for a nine.

Sure. A nine has to be a little bit more. I don't know if these characters are capable of a nine or ten, movie. Iconic-wise? Huh? Like just being iconic-wise? Yeah, a nine, a nine or a ten

might have to, not, a nine or a ten has to be, with this group, would they have to either be flawless? Sure. Like, Guardians of the Galaxy level like execution. Like, just a complete like, the Guardians of the Galaxy to me is like an 11, 12, like 11, 12, 10, and where. You know what? Don't fuck it, bro.

I'm going nine, man. I'm like, I'm going nine. Like, I'm going nine. So here's my thing. I'm going nine. I'm in the same, the same headspace. But I think what I'm bumping up against is when I think about... Because I can't give it a 10. You can't give it a 10.

You can't give it a 10. But a nine with these... I'm going nine, man. No, but here's the thing. I don't... I think this is going to suffer from Spider-Man, no way home of it all, where it's like, there's a part of this movie that I can re-watch,

and then there's a bunch of this movie that I... I can re-watch the whole thing. I got my tickets already, bro. I'm going to re-watch it again. Are you swaying me up to an eight? I might be... I might go up to a night because, again, I left the theater going, like, it's a nine. But then I went back and I'm looking at, like, all the, like, where I've got all the Marvel movies.

I think this is in, like, the third tier where, like, you find, like, the Doctor Strange is. Dr. Strange one. Yeah, the first one. Yeah, the first one, obviously. And, like, that's a really good movie. But that's what I'm saying. Like, those, like, from, like, 11 to, like, 16, 17. You're talking about the upper, upper mid.

So there's S tier, A tier, B tier? So this is B? This, but I feel like it could also like, I'm going to knock. It can sneak in depending on how I feel. But like when I think about like Dr. Strange, when I think about the first Spider-Man movie, when I think about Guardians,

Guardians 3, like those films that are like really, really, like really good. But like, obviously you can't put them above Civil War. You can't put them above Winter Sold. You can't put above all the Avengers movies. You can't above Ragnarok. Like, this stat, like, next level. where it's like, this is really good,

but when you think about all the movies that have come before it, I might be a little tough. I think, I think, I'm got to give you credit. I'm going to go with the nine because there is something about this movie. Again, maybe it's just we haven't been here in a minute. Maybe we're just like, man, it's been a long time. But legitimately, I left the theater and I'm like, I haven't felt this way leaving Marvel movie in a long time.

Either it's been like just legitimate dread or, man, that was cool, But it doesn't sit right the next day. No, you're absolutely right. We're grading on a curve. Actually, no. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

That's okay. No, I mean, to be honest with you, I just think, I don't know. I really enjoyed it. I'm not even mad at a night. I had fun. Can I like retroactive? You swayed me up to an eight if I'm allowed to expect it. That's all.

I appreciate it. No, you're right. You're absolutely right. You guys, most important things, we have fun. We have fun talking about the movie. We have fun. Another L for, for, for, for Falcon.

I don't understand why you guys are doing it. Oh, he's going to come up in doomsday. He's going to get a shot. You're talking about to play? Fuck with him. Yes. And I don't understand

why we're leaving. Maybe they just put it out the wrong time after the drink lawsuit and all of that stuff. We're winning the lawsuit crazy. Like literally, we watch it a movie. We watching a movie

and they said San Wilson's Sue Kleekekewin. Like, why? Honestly, the MCU just has to like hire some niggas and be like we just like, This is what we don't with Sam Wilson. Like, how's this looking? And I'm just like,

eh. Charles, you're cooking now. Okay? You're cooking now. Why he got a suit? Why could a Bucky be suing? Yeah. Well, yeah, why he got to sue?

They should have a fucking Hawkeye. Like, that's what she's a click would do. Half, like, half clean. Come on. That's a wrap. We're coming to you from a different set because we just executed an interview with Thunderbolt's director,

Jake Shrester. trying we have to change the setup for the question is do you guys like this set look at this let's let's be casual midnight we can't use our our laptops on this yeah but here's the thing this is i like this is this is our joke buddy do you guys no we need to everybody get distinguished right now i can't cross my leg i like that my thighs are too thick What, nigga? My thighs are too thick. You can't...

You just made Kerm leave the set. Kerm just left. I'm too thick. You can't cross your legs because your thighs are too thick. My thighs are too thick. My thighs are rubbing together when I walk. All right, man. That's why I'm the five-in-twenty.

This week on the ring of verse feed. This week on the ring of verse feed. Sunday at Midnight Boys, it's the reactions to the Last of Us. Monday the House of R gives you their deep dive on the last of us. Wednesday, the Midnight Boy is, are back with more Andor coverage. Our producers are Steve Alman.

Jonathan, Kerma. Jomi Adineral on our socials, hashtag. Claps when he walks, Jomi. Oh, my. No, that's right. Mr. Thickhams, what y'all mean? An additional production from our Juna Ramgapal. Shout out C.T.

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