The Ringer-Verse - 'The Batman' Instant Reactions | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: March 4, 2022

The Midnight Boys are vengeance, and they are here to bring you all of there thoughts on the DC Comics blockbuster 'The Batman' (05:13). They break down what they thought of the key villains and the twist and turns they take us down in the exhilarating film (44:01). They even have a few nits to pick (65:05). Later, Van gives superhero names to the rest of The Midnight Boys (84:16). Hosts: Van Lathan, Charles Holmes, Steve Ahlman, Jomi Adeniran Producer: Steve Ahlman Social: Jomi Adeniran Additional Production: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Twice a week, Van Lathen and Rachel Lindsay dissect the biggest topics in black culture, politics, and sports on their show, Higher Learning. They discuss the most important and timely conversations while also frequently inviting guests on the podcast and occasionally debating each other. Check out Higher Learning on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Trimphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required.

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Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Tramphiator Radio.com. This episode is brought to by Paramount Plus. Beth and Rip are back in a new series, Dutton Ranch. Kelly Riley and Cole has it returned, and this time they're taking on Texas. As Beth and Rip build a future together, peace will have to wait as they face corruption, danger, and a ruthless rival ranch

willing to protect its secrets at all costs. Legacy is a beautiful thing, but only if it survives. Dutton Ranch starring Colehauser, Kelly Riley, Annette Benning, and Ed Harris now streaming on Paramount Plus. Welcome into the Ringiverse. This is, of course,

The Ringers Nexus podcast feed for all things fandom. We are Jomey, the Explaner, at Ditteron, you've got questions. He's got answers. We are. Steve, Alvin Joy, Cuddle Luce Lama's activist, bear.

We are Coke Baby Chuck, the 24-carat closer, and of course we are, old man, Van, he of the receding hairline together. We are known as of the midnight boys.

I mean, Remindy! On Monday, the House of R is going to give you their long-awaited deep dive on the Batman. If the movie's three hours, how long do you think

the deep time is going to be six? I say Mal goes five, five and a half. Good look at that edit, Steve. Yeah. You guys will see Steve next Thursday.

You'll see Steve. You'll see the whole beer. I'm going to look like Gallum coming the end of that pot. But it's going to be good. I saw the movie with Mallory. Joe was the first to see the movie. The thing I love about Joe

and we love Joe here at the Ring ofverse, the thing I love about Joe is that Joe saw the movie. and she knows how to get you ramped up. She's like, oh, my gosh, she tells you stuff, but she doesn't really tell you stuff. You can tell she has a specific journalistic background

because I just come from the movie, I'd be like, yo shit was crap. And then people would be like, Van, calm down. She got us all amped up. And then the movie, we'll talk about it, but, you know, we're mostly delivered. Deliver.

Deliver. All right, next Wednesday, the Midnight Boys return. We're going to have some great fun on the Midnight Boys. That's what we do. Let me tell you guys something real quick. Okay. If this were a television sitcom, this is where they would push in on me,

and this would be the very special message. I remember back in the day, go ahead and play it. Time for old man, Van told you a story. So back in the day, there was an episode of Growing Paints. Oh. Damn. Taking us back. taking you back.

There was an episode of growing pains and it was Mike Seaver played by Kurt Cameron who went to a party where they were doing drugs. I'll never forget

you guys should go watch this episode on YouTube. This girl had a locket around her neck but the locket opened up and inside of the locket

was that cocaine okay and this was the height of the war on drugs in the 80s you know and that was a very special episode and they pushed in

on Allen thick, rest in peace, pushed in on the Seaver family, and then they gave you the message. And this is what I want you guys to take from what I'm about to say right now about the Midnight Boys. We're all about the fun. Okay?

We're all about the fun. All right. This is the fun part of the podcast. We're not claiming to be 62 Easter eggs and two minutes. That's not what we do. All right. Shout out to M.T.

shout out to Eric Voss. Shout out to Mal and Joe. What we do is we bring the... That's what we bring. We're here to get you fucking excited, jammed up. That's what we do. Can I disagree, Van? Oh, Jesus Christ, already.

About fun? I am vengeance. I know nothing about fun. I've been on this podcast for two years, and I can't clean. it up. Fuck your fun, van.

Wow. Why, it's not bad. That's not bad. Today's show, though, is the big one. The big one. Now, we're giving you instant reactions to the Batman, baby.

Give it to me. I know Steve got to drop for me. We're giving you interesting reactions to what? The Batman. Wait. Are you talking about the spoiler warning? No, but you don't have a drop ready to go for the Batman?

I mean, I have the spoiler warning drop ready to go for the Batman. But you can't like press a button and then give me that just like the Batman thing. you can't do that? Oh, I mean, I could give you something. I'll whip something up then, I guess. No, that's no. No.

It's making me, slacking. Slacker Steve already. Jesus Christ, you fucked it up already. At least we know Steve doesn't have prep time. Yeah, Steve has no prep time. Steve has no prep time. You don't know a cart right now. I don't know what you do.

You know what Steve is doing? He's taking bombs right to the face. Jesus Christ. That's what he says. All right. Without further ado, you guys, let's get into it. And of course, even though this is an instant reaction podcast, we have to make sure that we don't spoil anything for the movie that you came here to talk about.

Interesting. Run that spoiler wearing, Steve. We're getting ready to talk about Batman. You're listening to a reaction podcast. The spoilers are coming. You know what? I like that. You should have gone with the Jack Nicholson one.

The Batman. That is good. I had a lot of options. they didn't say Batman a lot in the trailers to this movie, so I had to pull from a new one. They did the whole Man of Steel thing where they really never said Superman in the movie. They just, you know, you see the Batman on there, but whatever.

All right, Charles, to begin our reactions, we have to get in the know on the Batman, and there's no way to do that other than to have Charles give us what's known as the Midnight Manifest. Chuck, take it away. All right, the Midnight Manifest for the Batman, directed by Matt Reeves,

written by Reeves and Peter Craig, starring Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Paul Dano, and Jeffrey Wright. Guys, this plot is intricate, so do not get mad at me. I'm not going to gloss over a lot of this. So Bruce Wayne has been Batman for two years, and despite his crusade, crime has continued to rise in Gotham. On Halloween, a new Sierra killer called The Ridler murders Gotham City's mayor, Don Mitchell Jr., and Lieutenant James Gordon brings in Batman to investigate.

much to the chagrin of current commissioner Pete Savage. The Riddler then kills the commissioner, but starts to leave clues for Batman to follow. Batman ends up at the iceberg lounge to question the penguin claims he knows nothing. During his club visit, though, Batman meets a cocktail waitress, Selena Kyle, who is acting pretty suspicious. Batman follows Kyle home and sees her interact with roommate Onica, who was having an affair with the deceased mayor. He stops Kyle at the deceased mayor's mansion. the two decide to work together, Catwoman to save Onica and Batman to solve the larger mystery. While investigating the club, Kyle discovers a vast conspiracy.

Savage was on Falconi's payroll, and so is district attorney Gil Colson, the riddler of Dux the DA, straps a bomb to his neck, genetigans in Sue, and Batman and Gordon figure out that the penguin is the rat that the riddler is searching for. Batman finds a penguin at a drug depot, Catwoman finds Onica's body there, Batman chases Penguin and ultimately realizes he isn't the rat that the Ridler wants him to find. Batman and Gordon follow Ridler's clues to an orphanage and discover the Ridler was an orphaned, hates the Wains for a variety of reasons, is now targeting Bruce and sends a bomb to Wayne Manor that Alfred opens and is almost killed by. The Riddler leaks information to the press that Thomas Wayne was corrupt,

had mob boss Carmine Falcone, kill a journalist who threatened to leak Wayne's secrets to the press and that the fund the Wayne set up to help the city is a front for various mob and police members to launder money through. Bruce confronts Falcone, who backs up that information. Then Bruce questions Alfred about his father, and Pennyworth assures Bruce that Thomas made a mistake. Falcone killed a journalist to have leverage to use against the potential mayor, which Thomas was running for, and that Balconi had Thomas and Martha killed when he tried to go to the police. Selina tells Batman that Falcone is her father, and she figures out that Onica was killed. by her father because the mayor told Anika about Falcone.

Selina tries to kill Falcone, but Batman stops her, and Batman and Gordon arrest Falcone before he's shot by the Ridler. The Ridler is apprehended at a diner, but in a talk with Batman, reveals that his plan isn't over. Then the riddler floods the city. Batman saves it, and realizes that vengeance isn't the way, but hope is. Whoa, Jesus Christ. Guys, the movie is long.

It's a two hour, 55-minute movie. I don't know what you want from. That was amazing. that was the best midnight midnight manifest ever I was about to stop you and give you a break but you powered through I was like one of those people he would have a long sentence just like and then the reason it was like a twist of hers

when people are running a marathon and you have those little people that like run up to them and give them a water shout out to them people what a great human being that's what I was trying to be for Charles look he just took a drink of water all right so midnight manifest now we're in the know now we get the privileges talking about this movie.

Initial thoughts, Charles, what were your initial reactions to the movie coming out of the theater? I had that special feeling when you don't expect anything, you sit down and you're like, all right, I want to be transported. And when I left the movie theater, I'm like, God damn, they did it. Matt Reeves and Rob Patty really like did the thing. I was blown away. I thought we had been talking for months how we were like, there's a little bit of Batman fatigue. we don't know, we don't know. It's a three-hour movie.

By the time I left the theater, I was like, damn, if I wasn't entertained. It was, it was, it was everything I was hoping it would be. How were you feeling the minute credit started rolling? The minute credit started rolling, I was elated. It got there.

The movie got there. The movie did the thing. The movie did the thing. Come on, man. I was happy because I was ready to go. but this is my thing. To take a Batman character,

a character who is a hero going into the movie. So Batman is a hero going into the movie. We know who Batman is, which is the hardest part of doing a new iteration of the character. He's a hero going into the movie. To take Batman and then make him into a hero, to show us how he actually evolves into somebody who becomes a hero.

like he starts off as something outside of Gotham, even though he's inside of Gotham, and by the end of it, he has made the decision to be a part of the community of Gotham City. That is something that I don't think we've ever seen portrayed and captured in Batman before. He seemed at times in Tim Burton's Batman, he was like an apparition.

He was a ghost. You know what I mean? In Nolan's Batman, he was all-purpose. Everything was, oh, my father, what my father would have wanted to do. He was purpose, purpose, purpose, purpose, it was all purpose, right? In this one, he starts off as vengeance, but then he morphs into being one of the people on the roof helping out. Just a guy in the costume doing the best he can, right? And so I thought that that was fantastic.

one of the best scripts in a Batman movie that I've ever seen. And I was not expecting for them to show me a card that I hadn't seen on screen before. I really enjoyed it. I thought Matt Reeves is a fucking badass, man. I thought going into this movie, I'm like, there's no version of Bruce or Batman that you can show me that'll be new. I've seen too many of them. And what Robert Pattinson did with Bruce, I left being like, oh, shit, he found something new. him and Matt Reeves in the writing

found something that I had not seen on screen before which is so difficult because I'd been going back through the Burton films the Nolan films, the Schumacher shit I was like dog there's nothing new under the sun so I was that was probably the part that really got me the fact that like I was like oh shit there's still there's still stuff to uncover about that man

so let's take the first scene and Charles you couldn't be more right you couldn't be more right listen to us were jammed up Let's take the first scene And I wrote this down in my little notes As I was there on the phone We were all at Ringer family

Eating Impossible Nuggets Sitting there delicious I didn't get any but impossible nuggets This is the- Those Impossible Nuggets Not they were great They were great It's back

You mad at the chicken tenders That's what it is It's revenge I'll share my popcorn with you I'm not giving you any more chicken-based products Yeah Jumbies looking gift horses in the mouth All the time

What are you talking about all the time So the first scene, Gotham's a big play. So normally how do they start a Batman movie? Somebody's fucking up and Batman shows up, right? Yeah. So that's how they start a Batman movie. Somebody's fucking up,

Batman shows up. Now, Batman begins is a little bit different because it's an origin story, League of Shadows, mind your surroundings, you know, all of that stuff, Quagongin. But normally, somebody fucks up, here comes Batman.

That's how you get it, right? in this movie, they show you Batman's limitations. He says, it's a big city. I can't be everywhere at once, right? But he also shows you the influence that he's having on the city, right?

So the influence that Batman is having on the city right now is fear, which we've seen, right? Like, the guy in the first movie, who are you? I'm Batman. You know, all of those things. We've seen Batman. Batman puts fear in people.

He puts fear in them, right? Right? And then by the time he does meet up with the gang of guys who have the face painted like the Joker, he saves the dude beats the crap out of the guy. You can tell that he's emoting. He's taking out his emotions on the assailant that he has on the ground. He's punching the shit out of him. He's upset. He's getting it off. He's mad, right? That was a very interesting way to start the film because it both depowers Batman. man a little bit and shows you his relationship to the city. Right now, he's just a guy out there in a suit trying to do his thing. And when he does it, sometimes he might even overdo it because he knows that he couldn't

get to the other two people. He can't be stopped. He can't stop everything. He knows he's in over his head. All he can do is try to scare people. But he can't really be a part of what's going on because he's existing outside of it. I thought to start the movie there, to start the movie with him in the whole detainee. Technist of Noir type thing, talk about what it is he can't do.

Then number two, show how he affects stuff when he gets there. He doesn't literally like go crazy. And he takes some shots. He takes some hits. He does the whole thing. It was like a completely new take on what I understand the character to be. He seemed out of control. He seemed like just as another thread hanging in an unraveling.

city. And you got that almost immediately. You got like when he comes into the to the, to the crime scene with Gordon, nobody wants him there. They're talking that shit. He's just, is that the first time we've seen that in a serious type Batman movie where you have Batman just hanging around cops? Like that shit would happen like the Schumacher films and a little bit in the Burton ones. But in this grounded reality where like no, Batman is in the city and the cops don't know what to do. He's crazy. Should we arrest him?

What are we doing? Let me tell you how they flipped it. It happens in the Nolan movie, right? In the dark night, it happens. Batman comes to a crime scene and that cops there. Batman is talking shit to the police in that situation. Remember, he says, he says, I need an opportunity to look at this before your department taints it. He's dictating to them, right?

And in this scene, he feels unsafe almost. It feels like he's only being shepherded there by Gordon. He is completely unwanted. He's completely out of place. It always feels like a guy who's struggling to keep his head above water. And that's a different way to look at the character. By the time we get to the dark night, we see him around the cops. Like I said it before, he literally tells the cops, hey, I need to look at this first because your guys are going to fuck the whole crime scene up.

So I Batman, the mass vigilante, have so much of the guy. authority here that I get first dibs on this crime scene. Totally different. And I wonder if that was a conscious decision of Reeves to totally flip. He's almost whispering his thoughts to Gordon. He's very reluctant. He doesn't, like he's confident in who he is, but he doesn't know just yet how he fits into that world.

I mean, also, if we go back to that initial scene, all of the previous movies, they tell you that Batman scary, or you see. on the criminal's faces. But in this movie, what I love is that feeling that Matt Reeves gives you because you're near the bodega, you're at this subway stop. You're like, where's Batman going to show up? Where's Batman going to show up? He's like, I'm vengeance.

And then you realize, you see the light in the sky. You see the bat signal. And you're like, oh, the bat signal scares these villains. This is the comic book. When it goes up, every villain in the city, if you're spray painting on something, you don't know where he is. and I love when Robert Pence and you hear his footsteps

and he finally comes out and I'm like, oh, this is like, this is like the Batman the animated series. This is a creature. And when he starts beating up all of those thugs, the way that Matt Reeves shoots the fight, you realize that like at any point Batman can lose.

He's not going to, but he makes the fight, it's not easy for Batman. Like you see how like, All right, all of these goons, if they rush him, is going to be bad, but he's so good at his job. He's going to dismantle them. How did you like Robert Pattinson's performance as the Batman?

I'm going to be honest. It might be top two. It might be top two. I think what Pattinson found is, all right, the best way I can describe it is, is that when I was in high school, I lost both of my parents. And what I liked about this betrayal is that in so many other movies, when Batman loses his parents, he becomes Batman, he fights for Gotham, and he finds something out about himself. It's this seamless transition.

What I felt was so human about Robert Patton's betrayal and how Matt Reeves wrote the story is that Batman is still, or Bruce Wayne, is still the age when he lost his parents in this movie. He is still arrested development. He's a little gremlin child. He has not gotten over it. Batman isn't the thing that got him over this. That is a little kid dressing up as a bat trying to deal with this traumatic event. And what it spoke to me as someone who's lost people

is I'm just like, no, that is how it is. It could be 10, 15, 20 years later, and you're not over it. You almost, this movie is Bruce Wayne having to learn how to be a human again. out in the real world. When we see Alfred for the first time, Alfred is telling fans,

he's like, take a shower. Like, this is a man that stinks. This is a man that's forgetting what he's doing. This is a man that is on the razor's edge. He's not all there. And I thought it was something so beautiful about grief that grief takes years. It takes decades.

And what you get towards the end of this movie is Robert Pattinson's betrayal. He's learning how to trust again. He's learning how to love again. He's learning that he can't be vengeance. He needs to be hope for the city. And I thought Pattinson, especially in the beginning,

portrays that gremlin type of Bruce so well. People have been calling it emo. I call it he's a recluse. He's someone who literally just does not know what to do with his emotions. He doesn't know what to do with his grief. I thought he was fucking fantastic. What about you?

He was great. It's grating over time. time. It was a point near the end of the movie where he was walking up the stairs. He was skulking up the stairs. I was like, nigger, walk up the fucking stairs, bro. I was like, I was like, come on, bro. Walk up the stairs, man. Walk up the stairs. And I loved the betrayal because it was something different. All of this stuff is worked for me. I loved it because it was certain different. And once again, it was challenging. It was challenging to watch Alfred wake up

After having half of his face blown off And have Bruce look at Alfred And before even asking if he's okay Before even asking, do you want some grape juice? Alfred, you want a cracker You've been out for a while. He looks at him. Alfred wakes up, Bruce goes, you lie to me. I'm like, yo, man.

I laugh. I laughed. I'm like, yo, man, this mother, they look, this is the fuck I'm talking about. It's not about, like, if you're going to do it different, do it different. Wait, no, wait, it happens before that. I was just like, dog, like, Bruce is an asshole. When I'm talking about he does not know how to be human. Like, Alfred's just like, where's your cufflinks?

Bruce is like a little child. I don't know. I lost him. He's like, here, he takes the cufflings off. And Tom, he says, Thomas gave these to me. and Bruce looks at Alfred and is like, you're not a Wayne. Are you a Wayne?

No, he said it before that. He said, bro, I was up. He said, he loses the cufflings. They said the W on him and he says, you're not a Wayne. And then he goes, your father gave him to me. What the fuck?

I love that because it's like, once again, he's like, he's a spoiled little child. That's what like Selena speakers out about him with knowing him. with knowing him within a couple fucking hours. He's just like, this is a spoiled little child. And it's grading.

I do agree with you. It's grading. But I did think I was just like, yeah, that's probably how someone who lost their pants very early, dresses up as a bat and has no social life would act. But the Alfred shit in the hospital was hilarious. It was funny. He wakes up. He's like looking at Bruce with so much love.

And Bruce is like, hey, fuck your life. Like, yeah, like, bro, I swear, bro. Like, Bruce, Alfred wakes up And the first thing he does is see Bruce smiles Bruce, yo, you lie to me. Everything you ever told me was a lot. I'm like, yo, bro, I know he can get to that. Can we just let's check the vitals real quick?

You know what I'm saying? Let's make sure Alfred's okay, man. Alfred, who got a bomb, sent to the crib because of you. Alfred's not Batman, okay? Like, it's your Bruce Wayne. it's you that they were going for. Anyway, to this point,

there's not very much Bruce Wayne in this movie. Five scenes, six scenes, maybe, maybe. Let's count the Bruce Wayne we get. We get Bruce Wayne at the funeral. We get Bruce Wayne at the hospital. We get Joe Me Steve jumping here and try to tell me where else we get Bruce Wayne at the funeral, Bruce Wayne at the hospital. Calconi when he goes to.

Bruce Wayne and Falcone. A couple of times when he's in Wayne Manor, just kind of figuring out the things with Alfred. A couple of times in Wayne Manor. They sit at the table. but not very much Bruce Wayne. Also, I want to talk about the three scenes of him showing up to the door. Because the three scenes of him showing up to the door

show the evolution of the character in the movie. The three scenes of him showing up to the door. Jumma, you got something? The twins were a fun gag as well. That's a fun gag. The twins just trying to make. Their faces got more and more fucked up every time they opened the door.

Like they had like cauliflower ear by the last time. No, Vin, tell us this. Because I hadn't thought of that, but that's like genius. Okay. Tell us really quick before he forget

the evolution of like every single time he comes to the door. Okay. So the first time he comes to the door, he's Batman. Yeah. Right? The second time he comes to the door,

he's Bruce Wayne. The third time he comes, he's Batman and Bruce Wayne. Hmm. He comes, he skokes in there because he can't, So the first time he punches his way in, right?

He punches his way into the place because that's what Batman does. He fights everybody on his way in. The second time he comes in, he says, do you know who I am? I'm Bruce Wayne. He's the opposite of who he was before, right? To say, do you know who I am, I'm Bruce Wayne? And they just let him in because he's Bruce Wayne. The third time he comes in, he sneaks in as Bruce Wayne and becomes Batman while he's inside.

like it's a complete 360 of the character right there. Because you're right that third time he stops Selena from killing her father, Carmine, and you realize he's talking to Selena, but he's talking to himself. So you're right, damn, I didn't, but think about it, he slips in,

like wearing his regular clothes, he slips, and then he becomes, he changes into Batman while he's inside. So he's like, he's both by the time he gets there the third time. because he's still figuring out the right way to make an entrance. He's still, like in real time, he's figuring out who he needs to be in order to make change. Do I punch everybody?

No. Do I, do I, do I, do I, Bruce Wayne everybody by coming in and saying, hey, do you know who I am, let me into the club? Because think about how do you ever move that is. I know he did it out of grief, but it's like, hey, don't you know who I am? Like, that's something that an asshole does at a restaurant, right? That works for me. He gets in.

every time he gets in, but the last time that he gets in, that's going to be the blueprint as to how he moves forward. He's going to have to be a little bit of Bruce Wayne and a little bit of Batman to do his thing. And he's going to have to do it a little slicker. Like a little, like he's going to have to have different sort of ways

to be as effective as he wants to be. Because every time he goes, there's more on the line. Every single time he shows up at that door, the stakes are a little bit higher. Once again, the script itself of this movie, the script of the movie itself, the script is crazy.

It really is a fantastic script. The script is crazy. Steve, what you got? And to your point about him showing up at the door with how little Bruce Wayne we get, what I absolutely loved is the fact that he hates having to be Bruce Wayne. He hates having to go out to that funeral,

just for the sake of fulfilling the case. He's so downtrodden when he has to come up to the club as Bruce Wayne just to show up to Falcone. Because the only way that he thinks that he could adequately solve a problem is by being the bat. He can't think about anything else. And it's so great when he can finally think about

existing in both of those lives. But even think about it, think about the beginning of the movie. And this is what's so, to advance point, so genius about the script, we get a tease of where the movie is going in the beginning when Alfred is like, think about your family's legacy. And like Bruce is like, this is the legacy.

And like that is such a like, the way Alfred is telling him is just like the wanes are so, they've done so much for the city. They mean something to this city. And throughout the movie, you're realizing, you're peeling back the layers of like the wanes and the Arkums who are the second half of his bloodline are not what Bruce thinks they are. They're not what Alfred thinks they are. Also, knowing what Alfred knew when he says those words,

a very loaded statement, think about your family's legacy, because he knew what his family's legacy was. He had a chance to change that. You wouldn't wake up and you wouldn't be like, you like, you like, you're like to me. Yeah, you got to understand. You got to understand. By the way, I figured out why Batman puts people back

into Arkham Asylum instead of like, you know, getting rid of them. It's good for the family brand. It's good for business. Damn. Good for business. It's like, I never knew that he was, is that something that people knew? I never knew.

No, I think this is new to, this is at least new to this type of movie can. I never knew. He's like, yeah, like, yeah, like, look, he probably goes in there, puts drops the, drops the criminals off, goes upstairs, rifles through some files, have some cookies, some milk, he probably has access. He knows all the nukes and crannies used to play in Arkham asylum as a kid. The whole nine. He's controlling the demand and the supply.

That's fucked up. think about it. Batman's work. I'm telling you now. He's like, do you ever think Bruce is at like one of the Arkham Asylum like board meetings

and they're like, all right, we need to expand. Like we have a couple empty cells and he's like, I got y'all. I got you. He goes out just has a real

productive day. He's probably going to put those graffiti people in Arkham Asylum. But we didn't talk about how we actually feel about the movie being so Batman heavy. Did you miss Bruce Wayne?

I don't feel like I miss them that much. I, here's the thing. I personally think we have been Bruce waned out as a society where it's like every single movie. It's just like, as a society. We've been Bruce Wayne down. Like, it's just like, I get it. Like Bruce Wayne's going to come.

He's going to drink a whiskey. You know, he's going to flirt with a blonde woman. And like, all right, cool. We get it. I like that Matt Reese is like, what if? Fuck Bruce Wayne. We just get Batman the whole time. And I'm like, exactly, pumping in my veins.

Like, that's my feel. It makes sense because, again, this is an earlier. Batman, he doesn't know how to balance being Bruce Wayne and Batman. He's just full Batman, Batman all the time. Batman's all I saw my problems. The mark of a fully realized Batman is knowing when to be Bruce Wayne and when to be

Batman, right? But this Bruce Wayne has no idea how to do both and he's just set on wearing that rubber suit all night. I think he wears it to sleep. Let's be clear too. Batman don't know how to spit game in this. Like Bruce Wayne Oh, man. It's bad. Don't even get

me started, bro. It is bad. He whacked. dropping the ball for all of us. Man, that woman came out for that thing. I'm sorry, guys. I can't, I have to do it. That woman, that moment was holding the tray and she was walking for it. I'm like, God damn it now. I'm like, come on.

Let's run this loop this. They should have a, you should be able to be in a movie theater. And if you like a scene, you should be able to loop it. You should be able to loop it. Like, you should be able to loop one scene. And like, I should be able to scream to the rest of the theater. Hey, I'm going to loop this one, cool? And everybody's like, yeah.

And then I just loop. That's the one I would have looped. I would have looped it. I would have loop the hell out of it. Okay. But we'll talk about her in a second. I'm sure it'll be sufficiently horny enough for the people out there. We have no shame here on the Midnight Boys.

I have a little shame. Just a little bit. You have the least of mind of shame. What the hell are you talking about, Jome? I'm lying. Like, Jomey, yeah. I'm lying. I remember how you was talking about Haley.

Hey, let's sign for that. Come on, nobody's, who said all that? Nobody said that. Yeah, what I tell me? Come on, bro. The least am I ashamed. Want to support your gut health? Take Activia's gut health challenge by enjoying two Activio yogurt today for two weeks and see if you feel a difference. With billions of probiotics and 20 years of scientific expertise, Activia is one of the easiest and tastiest ways to start your gut health ritual. Try Activia today.

Enjoying Activia twice a day for two weeks as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle may help reduce the frequency of minor diet. digestive discomfort, which includes gas, floating, rumbling, and abdominal discomfort. Now, let's talk about this low-tech Batman. He didn't have gadgets, okay? He was a hard-boiled detective, but not a lot of gadgets. He basically had a pair of contact lenses. That was it. Besides that, we didn't see very much of the high-tech,

Wayne Enterprise wizardry that we normally see from the Batman. We saw he has a couple of tricks up his sleeves, but mostly in the communication stuff, we didn't see very many. He's a very low-tech Batman. After seeing possibly the highest tech Batman that we saw in Nolan's Batman, and then, once again,

Batflect, supremely high-tech, like ridiculously high-tech. Had an iron bat suit? Had an iron bat suit. Come on, be respectful, Charles. How did the low-tech Batman work for you guys. I thought it was,

when I first saw his suit and was seeing stuff from the trail, I'm like, I don't know, this low-tech Batman, I don't know. Talk, it worked. It looks so fucking cool. He's, his suit in action,

the different pieces of it when he would like take off the cape when he had to, that first, and this is, this is why the low-tech thing worked for me. Because the low-tech version

of Batman told you so much about his character because he runs out of, of the iceberg lounge or he runs out of somewhere and he's at the top of the skyscraper and all the oh it's the police it's the police um precinct the police are chasing after him and he has to escape

and he's scared to jump like that is the first time I remember a Batman being scared to jump he was afraid to jump off the building because I always be thinking to myself yo this n-hs don't give a fuck like he just he's just like

you know but but I think he just doesn't give a fuck he's just but dead I was great He stops. He like, stutter, like, he's like, am I going to jump? And then he gets out his little batwing suit. And that's why, like, the low-tech bat,

Batman of it all, is because in the Nolan trilogy, like Bruce, he's just, like, flying through the air, doesn't care. It's like, I've been doing this forever. In this one, you see how much, like, Bruce has to, like, get it up to be Batman and to do all of the wild, crazy-ass shit.

The Batmobile, look, sick. This shit was demonic. That's what I liked. It looked like a bad out of hell, bro. That is what I see, this is what I'm talking about. It's when we're on the same fucking page, Chuck. This is what I liked. The Batmobile wasn't

a high-tech like a machine. It was a relentless growling demon. Yeah. It stood there for a second, revving itself, giving you different colors And coming after you, it was the, like, the penguin was doing all this stuff. He couldn't escape it.

It wasn't like a Batman superhero car chase. It was like drive or deathproof or bullet. One of those joints of Jason Bourne where he's just, he's just got to have it. He's got to have it. I loved it. That scene was just, he's coming, he's coming, he's coming, he's coming. It's got the horsepower. It's got the precision.

But it's just, it was a piece of mechanic emotion. I loved that about. the goddamn Batmobile. That chase was, no, the chase was amazing. But what you're saying when, like, he's revving it, and you just hear the, and you see the fire coming out, and you're like, oh, shit, what's going to happen?

And here's the thing. I loved all the bad vehicles from the Nolan one. But how low-tech Batman was in this, the car just being like a fucking souped out car, the motorcycles where I'm just like, oh, Batman can't have a Batmobile in the middle. middle of a city, he's going to have to ride this motorcycle, and it can't be like the bat tumbler. It's going to be a regular fucking motorcycle.

How could you not love that shit? It was great, man. Like, he struggled to get the Batmobile started at first. Yeah. It was stalling. I mean, he could have been showing off a little bit because it's just like he was revving it a bit and then he probably blew it out for a second and then he had to start it back up again. It looks scary because you're like, uh-oh, like he bought to get this thing started.

Like the light coming on and like, what was that? but literally he was just like I don't probably in the car like it like stalled out for half a second yeah like how like get to see him going you know it's probably too sad it's probably too sad to start it but like thinking of like

just him and his suit specifically when we see Batman like let's look at Nolan's we know like his helmet is like Kevlar plated like we know like it's meant to resist bullets you know Beth like the dude was taking punches for Superman

like he was straight if you I don't know if y'all saw this in the theater. We saw it at IMAX. You can see like the stitching. The stitching in the nose. On the nose. Yeah.

Right? Like, it's a leather. It's a leather mask. You can see where the bullets pierce. Like, towards the end of the movie, you can tell he's been through shit. Because there's, like, chunks of the bat soup missing. I love the plates on the shoulders and how they, like, articulate, like, forward. Yeah.

Yeah, it was great. Like, there's no way a long-standing Batman would have a leather mask. You know, people would be shooting in your head mess. You know what I'm saying? Like, you just wouldn't do that. But like for this guy, like this is what he's got and this is what he's working with. And yeah, it was seeing him like just go through, you know, the motions of being like, I don't, like, I'm just out here. Like I know what I'm doing, but not really.

It's just great. It was just great. Before we get off Batman, Van, I also wanted to ask you something that I thought was like, at first I recoiled because I didn't realize after, after years of reading Batman comics, watching Batman movies, TV shows, us as an audio. feel how Batman feels about Thomas and Martha. They are good people. How could you take, how could a criminal, how could Joe Cho, how could anybody take them away from Batman? And the radical thing that this movie does is like,

what if Thomas and Martha were a little fucked up? And I think what was so ingenious about that is when I was sitting there, I'm just like, come on, man. Thomas would never do that. Tom, everything we know about Thomas, he would never do that. But what I think was so human about that part is that, like, when you get older, you start to learn stuff about your parents that you're just like, oh, they're human. You're just like, oh, like.

Brough, I'm going to be honest with you. This is the best point you've ever made on this podcast. I'll be real with you. So I lost my father last year, right? I lost my dad. And every time, and even when I say that, think about how I say that. that. I say, I lost my father last year, right? I don't say Van Lathen Sr. passed away. So my dad is not a person insofar as he's my father. Like, I'm not saying, like, I don't say,

hey, Van Lathen Jr. passed away. No, my dad passed away. So I center my relationship to him is asked to give his life some sort of meaning and relevance to you guys. But his life had all of these twist and turns and ups and downs and don't have anything to do with me. But because I need someone to be like a primary figure in my life, I tell my things, I tell myself all of these things about my father, not thinking about the ill shit that he had to do like before, not thinking about what went on in my parents' marriage, none of that. And the Batman series has always looked at Thomas Wayne, not just like he was his father, but he was like one of our fathers too, a parent.

All we know about him is his relationship to Bruce Wayne and that he was the best guy in the world to Bruce Wayne and that he was the best guy in the world to the other people in Bruce Wayne's orbit. And so what you just say is so real because, yo, this motherfucker was running from there. Like he had enemies. He had people.

He had shit he had to do. All that stuff comes at a price. So how does that change what we think about the Wayne's? Bro, in the Nolan movies, they went through such, bro, do you remember in the Nolan movies at one point? They were like in the back cave and they were like, this elevator was built down here because the old Wains used to help people during the Underground Railroad.

Like the Wains were so good. Like they were so good. It's like, the best people ever. And here's the thing, what I love is like, you know, when I lost my parents, and I noticed something happening. everybody for a couple years would like deify them. Like everything that they ever did in their life was the best thing ever.

And they were great parents. Everything that they did was amazing. All I would hear about from their friends, from my uncles and my aunts was like all of the great stories. And then as I started to move and get farther and farther away from that moment and I start to get older, your uncles and aunts start telling you the real stories. Yeah.

And it's not that my parents were bad people. They were great people. But you start hearing about... They were people. You start hearing about choices that they made. And you're just like, what the fuck? And they're like, oh, wait, they were 30 once. They were 35.

Like, they were doing, like, and I was like, oh, this is the first Batman movie where you're like, the Wains had a life before Bruce that wasn't just about them fixing Gotham. It's about all of the shit that they had to do to become billionaires and to stay billionaires in the city. And I'm like, that storytelling wise is fucking amazing because that is the realest shit ever. Like, man, I know you've gone through where you hear a story about your parents. God, what? Yeah. You're like, what does happen?

And what they would do to protect and propagate the image that they have of being so super clean? Yes. You know what I mean? Like the way to get to the Wains would be to threaten this completely saccharine sort of lily white sort of undaunted. looking for what's the word like this fucking pure image that we have him that's the that that would be the way to get to him and when it was threatened they got a little dirty you know what I'm saying so it's interesting it's very very interesting choice like that my last point is that the funny thing about Thomas is that Thomas saves Carmine and he's not of this world so when he goes back to

Carmine uh to help him out of course carmine is going to take advantage of him of course he's going to do that shit. And that's what I love too is that you're like, he was a good person. It was just he was in over his head. Yeah, you had to do it. And the funny thing is Bruce having no idea how to react because I'm like, Bruce, yeah, you're smart as shit.

That doesn't mean your dad was a super smart person. That doesn't mean your dad was in the cesspool with you trying to clean up the city. He was a mayor who thought he could do good and it got in over his head. All right. It's time. It's time to talk about the villains. First

villain. We're going to talk about it's not really a villain. She's really a villain. Somebody is very special to all of us. It means a lot. Change our lives. Let's talk about catwoman. Look, guys, we're going to try to... Wait, can I quarterflip for you guys really quick? This is my first quarter flip of the entire pot.

You're allowed one quarter flip right now because we're going to flip a little bit later, but go ahead. All right. At the end of the movie, Yo, Selena Kyle looks at Batman. She's like, yo, I'm going to. in a Bloodhaven. I'm going up north. Why don't you leave the life behind? And I was like, dog, if Selena Kyle asked me to leave the life behind, I'm folding like some origami, bro. The little kids would be like, would be flooded. Gotham's flooded. They drowning. And they're like, Batman, can you save us? And I'm like, guys, come on. You see her. Like, I'm going to

bloodhave. Like, it's my thing. I was just like, there's no way anyone would be like, yeah, man, I just got to stay bad, man. I got to clean up Gotham. I'm sorry. I can't live a life with you. What the fuck? No, that would never happen. I mean, it depends.

I would have went. I thought it was more interesting that she asked him to come, not knowing who he is. You know what I mean? Like, she has no clue. She had no clue. That could have been a realtor under there. She doesn't know.

Like, she doesn't know. She's like, yo, let's go start a whole life together. Dude in a suit, who I've kissed a couple of times. I loved it. But yeah, I can see your point, though, Charles. Like, because he, and he hesitated, you know, he stopped and let a turn. He looked in the rearview mirror, but he's got something to do. He just got started, man.

He just got started. He just, this was Batman's coming out party, the whole saving the people at the end of the movie at the, the, the, the, from the terrifying, which we're going to talk about later. What did you guys think about Catwoman? What did you think about the twist of her being the daughter of Carmine Falk? call me. I loved catwoman. I thought that Zoe Cravitz, like, being 100% like real. Like, she killed it. She gave, and I love Michelle Pfeiffer. I like, I love Batman Returns. I love that portrayal. But what I think that Zoe Kravitz found in this catwoman, that's very, very, that's very, very similar to the Frank Miller, Batman Year 1, is that this is a woman who's had to

fight and claw at the bottom of Gotham. And everything, she's not just a cat burglar to do it. In a lot of the comic books, it's just like, I like stealing stuff. I like diamonds. I'm just going to steal shit. And every single time we see Catwoman stealing something in this movie, it's rarely for herself. It's a lot of times for someone else.

When she goes back to the mayor to get Anika's passport, that's, that's, that's if she can get out. The money that she's stealing from the penguin, it's to start a new life somewhere else. I thought it was a beautiful portrayal because it gave her a reason to be a cat burglar. Besides, I just like diamonds and money.

What did you think of how Zoe Criveiths did with Catwoman then? Old character, new flavor. I thought it was a throwback. It was good to see a woman of color in that situation. I know that we had Hallie Berry in the Catwoman movie. Anyway, but but it was good to see her.

opposite Batman in that situation. It makes me think of Earth the Kid, of course, respect to Hallie Berry, who is fantastic. That's two negative things I've said about Hallie Barry. You guys, I love Halliberry. Bullshit. You hate Hallie Berry. I like Hallie Berry performances that y'all have never even seen.

Let me ask you a question. Have y'all seen Strictly Business? Yes. No. You saw Strictly Business, Steve. Wait, no. Am I thinking of, wait, what's the one with Teddy Murphy? Hell no, that's boomerang. That's boomerang.

I've seen boomerang. That's tough. Racist. Pack them up. Pack them up. Y'all, I've never seen Striply business with Tommy Davidson. I was a, yeah.

But no, I love Halliberry, but I thought that this, that Zoy Kravitz brought a seriousness to the role, but not really. How can I describe it? She brought a charisma to the role and she never played damsel in distress not once.

They never fridged her. As a matter of fact, when they kind of fridged her, they came back and let her save Batman. People don't want to talk about this. It's probably closer to the Ann Hathaway performance than it is of any of the other catwomen. It's probably got more of that DNA in it, and I, unlike a lot of people,

loved Anne Hathaway as Catwoman. I thought she did a fantastic job. I'm with you, man. I'm with you. I thought she was great as Catwoman. But Zoe Kravish just brought something to the role that a lot of other people have. It's just this, there are certain people that are on screen, they just sizzle. They don't even, they just sizzle on screen.

Like, they just, like, the camera just loves them. I'm not going to lie. It's like when you used to go to Applebee's back in the day and somebody got the fajitas and they just like, all the smoke. Yeah. And you just look. Yeah, everybody turns. to look at him. Everybody's trying around. Bro, that's the perfect. I don't mean to make

her food. But that's the perfect thing. For me, it was chilis. Everybody sizzling fajitas, yeah. I never once ordered that. I never once ordered that, but I always wish that I did. You always turn your head, like, I'm not saying she's fajitas. I'm saying she's the sizzle. Like, it's like, when she comes

on screen, you like, everybody turns their head. Like, God, yeah. Oh, my God. What's that sizzling right there? I thought it was perfect with the first time Batman saw her in the club and he's like, he has to focus on talking to Penguin, but he's just like, she's sizzling fajita. Batman is a creep.

Yeah. Bel Air goes, he follows Selena home. He's on, he's on the roof, and he got the binoculars. And he like, he keeps watching her and she goes to undress. And I'm like, Batman, you could have put down the binoculars for five seconds. Have some respect, bad. I got to be honest with you. I was surprised.

I was waiting in the scene for her to go and start changing and for him to move it the other way. Ah, he stayed. That was straight up, and he openly admits that he was creeping on her while he, while she was robbing that place. She's like, yeah, you looked upset back at your place.

Yeah, yeah. And then, damn, you are, you not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. It was a little creepy that Bruce is in the back heap, replaying scenes of Selena, and then Alfa comes in like your parents

when you teach you. Oh, sorry. is just a close new tab, new tab for me, see, for me see you guys, the early days of the internet

didn't have tabs like that fuck no no tabs the early days in the internet like if you wanted a different the early days if you wanted a different screen you had to have a whole

another computer next to you just like shut the computer out that is all The early... The early days of the internet, I'm talking about the days

where you couldn't be on the phone and be on the internet at the same time. The screens were like tube TVs. You had to go ping when you turned on. And it was like, you could be caught not watching the website. You could be caught in mid-download of a picture. The picture took forever to download.

This is how it, dog. Forever to download. It was downloading a titty pics back in the day, bro. This gave man shit. And somebody, somebody come in and you got to turn the monitor off. You know what I mean? Like you got to turn the monitor off. You're like, oh, what's you doing?

Nothing. Solitaire. Yeah, you got to turn the monitor off. That's how I know. That's how I know then is, oh, he was typing in boobies in a Google waiting for it to load. Brough. Old thing, bro. It was different times.

Different times. It's a simpler time. Jesus Christ. The Riddler. Paul Dano. The Ridler. This whole movie, he was actually on the other side of it. He was drinking milkshakes this whole movie.

He drunk a lot of milkshakes. He was fucking fucking over people. He was scary as shit. I'm going to be honest with you. That first scene where he pops up behind the mayor, I'm like, God damn, really? Really? Oh, when he was behind the mayor, like, he was just like, bam, I'm here. I will say, I will say this, I would have, if I'm nitpicking just a little,

I would have liked if they didn't make the rid, the ridler, the actual villain. because the whole, like for at least for 75% in the movie he's speaking facts. Like he's not wrong. Like everybody's like, oh, we got to stop the serial killer. I'm like, killing people, Charles.

Like, who cares if you kill, if you, they didn't deserve to be hit with carpeting tools because they were bad. Like, come on, Charles, you see. The mayor, the mayor hit a Russian immigrant and then had her kill.

Yeah, that is true. The mayor was fucked up. You know what I'm saying? Like the DA is she, Eric? But Bruce Wayne, did Bruce Wayne deserve it? Did Alfred deserve getting blown?

getting his face blown up? It's unfortunate. Yeah, that's right. What do you think, though? The movie had a very seven feel to it. The movie literally was a lot like seven. If you took seven and put it into a superhero movie and you have your older Morgan Freeman character

being played by Jeffrey Wright, who we haven't talked about on this podcast, who was sensational as Gordon. And then you had your younger Brad Pitt character sort of being played by the movie fits that archetype very, very well. What did you think of, of the Riddler's place in that world.

And to have the Ritler be less of a super villain and more of a very grounded sort of cerebral serial killer, how did that work for you? Oh, it worked wonders for me. And the way I'm going to describe it, and I'm going to try to land in this plane is, Van, have you seen the movie Good Time by the Saffty brothers? Yeah, of course.

That's the movie that Matt Reeves saw Robert Patton and he's like, man, this guy would be a great Bruce Wayne. And Good Time is the name of one of the bodegas in it, a phenomenal movie. What I think the Ridler did in this movie was he allowed this movie to have

that good time energy where the Ridler is so smart and so ahead of Bruce that this entire movie, Bruce is running from point A to point B to point C, trying to put out all these fires. And what I love about the performance of the Ridler is that you have to believe that he's smarter than Batman, that he would send Batman on

this chase, that he knows more than Batman. And that is something that like, your average audience is like, there's no way. Batman's too smart. But through that performance, I'm like, nah, man, I get this. I get that this is like a little bit too much for Batman to handle. And I like that good time energy of this guy in Batman running, running, running, trying to solve this thing, trying to clog up a sinking ship and failing.

And this force, it almost felt like the Riddler wasn't even a villain at sometimes. It was like he was a force of nature. Malevolent force. Yeah, that like Batman just could not outrun. He could not pin down. And I thought that was so genius.

Paul Dano fucking killed it. He did overact a little bit, but I'm gonna. Always does. Like, but that's him. That's him. That's what he tells.

Always does. It's part of Paul Dana. You know what I mean? Like, get out, devil. Get out of here, ghost. Like, it's part of Paul Dano. What did you think of this scene with Paul Dato? It's at Arkham.

Bruce is there, and he's just going for it. This is the scene. He's like, this is my scene. And I'm like, dog. Just. I want to be honest with you, that scene, there's always one scene in every movie that I want to, want to direct or want to be in the room as the actors go through it.

If you guys have never been on set before, which I'm sure people who listen to this have been on set before, if you think you are caught up at what's going on on the screen, when you're in the room and they're going through that and there's a hush over everyone and two actors are feeding off of this invisible, unseen, unfelt, almost psionic energy between them, it is fucking amazing. And you can get it on the stage sometimes, but when you're, you can get it on the stage a lot of time. But when you're right there, that scene more than any other scene, maybe, maybe the scene, you know, an apartment would have been nice. But that scene more than any other scene is a scene I would have wanted to be on set for. Even though Paul Dano did ham it up a little bit. He was hamming it up. It wasn't a bad scene.

But at certain points, I was like, my man, did. Halming down a little bit. He hammered up. If we could stay on the scene, were you guys confused? because at one point I was just like, oh shit, are they going to out Bruce Wayne as Batman in this? Okay, that's what I was going to say. Like, that scene is great, you know, for all the reasons Van said. But also, it's a misdirect.

We're supposed to think like, oh, he's got him. He knows that Batman is Bruce Wayne. But ultimately, we find out he has no idea. He's just like, we missed Bruce Wayne. Like, we were supposed to kill him and we didn't. You know? And it's like, oh, snap. Okay, so that's what was happening?

I thought that he knew that he was Bruce Wayne. Nah, he had no idea. Like, he's saying Bruce Wayne, Bruce Wayne, there was a telling line where it's just like, I know that you hate, like, you say that you wear a mask, but I know that this is who you really are. Well, yeah, but he doesn't know.

The mask is just the mask, right? Underneath, whoever you are underneath is the facade, right? It doesn't really matter who this. I interpreted that as the Riddler reading that, like, you hate being Bruce Wayne, you are really Batman. I mean, he didn't call him Bruce Wayne, though. The reason I thought that he thinks that he's Bruce Wayne is that when he starts talking about it, he starts talking about how the Waynes have forgotten about this orphanage. Everybody in this orphanage are now drug addicts and that everybody was so, everybody was so concerned about Bruce Wayne up in the, up in Wayne Manor because he was the billionaire who lost his great kids.

And I thought he was directly talking to. Batman knowing that we're the same we're different sides of the same coin. Now he's lamenting that he didn't get Bruce Wayne. Bruce Wayne was the only person he wanted to Johnny is right that he didn't kill. I'm like I'm looking at it up right Jomey is right. Jomey is right. Jomey is right. That's the thing. But it's the great thing about that scene because you don't know. Yeah, you don't know. It's because Batman thinks that he's

got him pinned. They don't know Jumby. You knew. Well, I knew, but I mean like in the in the moment you like, does he know? Does he know? Does he not know? And then when he's Charles, take a step back. when he figures out like okay he doesn't know but then like he goes off with his plan about you know like what did you plan and then

you know that takes over but for the moment say with your chest and you're wrong the two of you I'm glad that that Jomey told us I was kidding he doesn't need to go for the dump why are you trying to pit two black brothers against each other this is a family

Steve's in there too there's no dunk just is what happened Joe Moran, that both of you guys That's that poor bastard That John Moran had ducked on What was that motherfucker thinking?

Oh, Jacob Hurdle? What was Jako hurdle thinking? It's like these guys don't watch the league Yeah, anyway. He's dead now. Yeah, he's fucking got his like His poor, poor bastard Big fucking

All right, Penguin Slash Falcone Penguin was great. I could watch Penguin all day. Penguin was a fucking amazing. I need Spanish lessons from Penguin. That's what I want. Penguin did the thing.

Penguin was great, bro. Penguin, and that's Colin Farrell is Penguin. Am I right? Yes, sir. Unrecognizable. Colin Farrell killed that shit. He killed it. And then there's, of course, we know that there's a Penguin HBO Mac show coming,

which I'm actually hyped for now. I was wondering how a Penguin HBO Max show would work, but the character had so much charisma. The character was so earnest and so, like, it was just funny as hell. Penguin worked. And also, you can tell you have a little bit of, I almost

want to see Penguin rise up now and start taking over the Gotham City underworld because of the place that we found him in when we got to him in the Batman. But I really enjoy Peter.

Also, can I just say that for everybody, yes, this is a dark, this is a very dark run movie sometimes to a stetrement. But it's also like sneakily a very funny movie

and when Penguin easily captured Penguin and he's like, you don't know, Spanish? I was hilarious. The wildest thing to me was when they usher Falcone out of the club and Falcone's talking shit to Penguin and he's like

well how about I give you something? And like he is pulling out a gun. He's about to pull out a gun and shoot Falcone in front of like 80 of the last good cops in Gotham. And he just got lucky that somebody else shot him first. The fact that he was willing to do it. He's like, oh, hey, hey, Hey, I wasn't going to shoot him. I wasn't doing any of that. Like fucking crazy.

You don't know. Maybe he was about to serve him with some subpoena papers or something like that. Pigwin, Pigwin was great. Falcone was great. Falcone was great. John Tutorial played Carmine Falkoni in this one.

They say Falcone a lot. So I'm not sure if we're saying it right. I'm saying it wrong. Is it Falcone? We don't know Spanish? It was Falcone. I'm pretty sure he's Italian. He's Italian.

Yeah, it was, it was, it was Spanish. it was definitely Falcone and Nolan's. First of all, I enjoyed the twist about Selena Kyle and Falcone. I enjoyed it. It was great.

I also enjoyed the fact that Falcone actually seemed like the way these guys are when you actually meet them. I've met some ex-mobsters like in my time doing interviews and stuff like that. And when you meet them,

they are almost always to a tee devastatingly charming. Almost, I'll be honest with you. Almost always. Now, of course, you have the ones that have, like, crazy reputations and stuff like that, right? And those guys are, but, like, some of the ones that I've met, some of the guys out of Philly, some of the guys out of the Bronx, some of the guys that I've met, like, when we're doing documentaries and stuff, there are almost always, you look at me and you go, like, you wouldn't think that this guy would be

able to do that. Like, you wouldn't, and he, he played it in a very gentle way. Even when he was talking to Bruce, it seemed like he was feeling for him. It seems like he was almost empathizing with him. It was like he was talking to his son, right? Yeah. Like a dad, like lending him down like his just went down. Contrast that.

I saw you got caught up in all that. Yeah. Like contrast that with the way, I think it's Tom Wilkinson. Yeah, Tom Wilkinson. Yeah. So contrast that with the way Tom Wilkinson played Falcone and Batman begins. And as soon as he sees Bruce, he dresses him down. Bruce Wayne, the Prince of the City.

You'd have to go 100 miles for somebody not to know who you were. get out. You know what I mean? So it was a little bit, a little bit different, and it really worked for me. What about you guys? Oh, I think it worked also because so many movies, they start Bruce off.

And you're like, Bruce doesn't know anything, but this is one of those movies where Carmine is telling him to his face, you're not thinking about this right. You don't know the game. Like Batman Bruce, he's a rich kid. He doesn't know shit about crime. He doesn't know shit about this city.

And Carmine is the one, he's like, you don't know how this works. And the way he talks to Bruce in that scene, you're starting to realize that Bruce has to think about Gotham and crime in a 360 way. I thought it was beautiful because with that charm, like to your point, Vett, he's talking to him like a son. Like, you realize that like, he's a mobster and he's like, he has, I think he does have some, like, affection for the Wayne. It's like, your dad saved me. I have to fuck him over, but he saved me. So I'm going to give you this one for free kid. Like that's what it felt like.

He's like, I'm going to do you this favor. I'm going to like son you, but it's for your best. Like you're going to be better for it. I love the portrayal. This episode is brought to by Whole Foods Market. Spring is here. So celebrate it with fresh, juicy, seasonal produce and some very tasty limited time flavors. New Whole Foods, Market Peach, Apricot, Rose, Italian soda.

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serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfair Radio.com. All right. It's time for us to do what we do here at the Midnight Boy. It's not for us to pick nits. Charles, you go. All right. I think this one, you know, Jomey's talked about it. We've all talked about it. Is this man's bones made of adamantium?

God damn. Like, there's, like, there were moments in it. Like, when he's at the iceberg lounge and they're all shooting at him close range, I'm like, there's no way. Come on. There's no way. When he hits, his entire body hits the bridge when he has, he has the parachute

and he falls. The parachute came out. The parachute came out. Broke his fall, yeah. But he hits something and he goes flying. And then he gets up he limps, like, he's like, ah, shit, my ACL is a little fucked up, a little so. Come on, bro. Like, what?

Take a nap. Dog. He was built, that's the, that bad bad man was built different because there's no, he took a bomb to the face, guys. A bomb, bro. Like, not, I'm gonna be honest with you.

The bomb to the face scene really fucked with me, bro. You guys know. I'm watching the bomb to the face scene. And I'm like, yo, the bomb's about to blow up. The bomb is about to blow up. Like, what are you doing? The guy's in your face. The bomb's about to blow up. He just lets the fucking bomb blow up in his face.

He didn't even turn up. At least Alfred had to wear with all to, like, throw the bomb. Alfred threw the bomb. By the way, Alfred would have been fucked up. You know what I mean? But, but, but not only that, but he was just, he was taking a lickin and keeping

him, taking. He got shot with that goddamn shotgun, close range. He was like, he was taking a goddamn licket this Batman was. I'll be honest with you. I think part of that is he's a new guy, right? So, like, you know, even if he knows how to fight, you know, he's like, like Charles said near the beginning of the pod,

right? You know he's going to win, but the way Matt Reeves made it look like, you're just like, I don't know, there's a lot of guys. Like, he's not, he's clearly not the ninja that we think. No, he's definitely, this is not League of Assassin's, League of Shadow, shall I say, Batman. This is not. No, Alfred says that.

only thing that he had to teach him. You didn't know how to be a father. All he could teach him how was to fight. So I was like, has Batman had that type of training League of Shadows? Or is it literally just Alfred taught him how to like, how he would, you would teach somebody in the military how to fight?

He didn't go to Razzal Ghul Academy. That's, nah. Wow. Seems like he went to Cape Bishop karate school. All right. All right. All right. You went karate champion. At least he, at least then you

would have found out how to throw a batarang. doesn't know yet. Doesn't know yet. Okay, quarter flips. You guys got quarter flips? I got one. What's your quarter flip? It's mainly just to the goons of Gotham City.

At this point, we just need to shoot him in the mouth. Like, you got a whole. Can I be honest with you? That's not a good quarter flip. To me it is. I'm just more of like, come on. It's, and it was that, it was that silhouetted darkness scene when they're, like, it was just like all, the only thing that was lighting the scene was like the flashbangs

of the guns and like they're just all trying to shoot them. awesome scene. Awesome, awesome scene. But I'm like, they're only just shooting at him in the chest. Like nobody's thinking of anything else. Well, see, the most thing is, I guess for me, it seems like he would have caught one to the face being that it was machine gun fire,

but I'll tell you why we can't quarter-flipped that one. We can't quarter-flip that one because there's no Batman if they do that, right? I suppose. It's like, come on, man. It's like, we can't quarter-flip there because. Because it's like, all this right here. You know, it's like, you got Superman.

It's like, yo, how about this? Luther, sent an assassin to Superman's crib with a kryptonite spear, break in, stabbing with the spear. As soon as you come into the room, he's going to be weak. Because it's a kryptonite. Cryptonite, just take him out. Or how about this? Kidnap Lewis.

There's a lot of things that can happen. There's a lot of things that can happen. Superman's a little tougher one. I'll be honest with you. But there's a lot of things that can happen. But we can't say shoot me in the face with you. fine. It was just like,

it was bugging me so much. Because the shot of the face is 89. Like a dude with a shotgun just like just a little higher. Like it's a very exposed skin. Like that's... And we're corner flipping. The dumbest shit that he did was... It was one of the coolest scenes.

I'm like, I love this scene to death. Don't take it out. But when he goes through the front door to the club and like he's surrounded by goons and I'm like, Batman's too smart to do this. And by the end of the movie to your point, man, he learns like, I need to sneak into the club. I was just like,

Dog, why are you surrounded by hundreds of fucking mobsters, bro? This is the dumbest shit batman could ever do, man. A couple of nits for me, number one, this movie is too long, okay? And in the middle of the movie, I started to get that popcorn feeling. It's like, if the movie's really good, I'm too enthralled to, like, eat popcorn. But there was maybe a five to ten minutes stretch while I was getting that popcorn feeling. I started to get fidgety, but it got right back. So the movie definitely could have been shorter.

it definitely could have been shorter, guys. It ended seven different times. It had a return to the Kings vibes. Yeah, I truly didn't get that. When did you think it was going to end of those times? When they, all right, when they captured, that scene where, like, Batman has, like, the heart to heart with Ridler. That's the end of the movie.

I was like, all right, this is the end of the movie. And then they're like, but now we're flooding the city. And I was like, oh, so think about it. That was supposed to be ended the movie. they not only did they flood the city Steve so they flooded the city I thought we were going to flood the city but they didn't just flood the city they flooded the city and then they had

an incredibly disturbing mass shooter scene so they went from the flood so we had two more obstacles we flooded the city then we had the mass shooters if they had just flooded the city and Batman would have to go around saving people out of the city fucking bat boat or whatever that had been one thing but they flooded them yeah and the cat woman comes back and blah blah the movie

just kept going. And then we haven't even talked about the goddamn ridiculously weird borderline out of place Joker thing that is in the movie for no reason. Yeah, I didn't like it. Didn't like that part. Like the look.

Wait, also, can we nitpick really quick before we get to Joker? This is a huge nitpick. I thought the movie worked but the one part I was just like, guys, come on, we can't do it. It's like it's how like, I know the Dark Night Rises was not about Occupy Wall Street, but he came out too close

where we're just like, eh, a little weird. The whole QNod in cells, like everybody being like, Redler, like, yeah, man.

Like, that was like, not a nitpick, but like, just like weird is that not only does this man, the Ridler have like

a Discord page, right? He's got a Twitch stream. He's just like any other blogger. Hey guys, Riddler here. Follow and subscribe for more content. Gotham will burn.

smash that like button. We're sponsored by ExpressVPN. I was like, bro, what? One of the comments on the side, I think, was like somebody asking like, what gauge shotgun should we bring to the? And I was just like. But that was because they were setting up the thing. They were set up to day, yeah.

Yeah. No, no, no. I know that. But I was just like, these are, come on, guys, this is like me. This is like me going to go against Batman. I'm like, what the fuck am I going to do with the shotgun? It was just really wild. Not the easiest thing to watch with a mass shooter at this particular time, too,

mass shooters shooting up guys. Right. I think a worst movie would probably have been, it didn't feel preachy about what it was. I feel like it was kind of like, all right, this is a sort of like real life interpretation of how somebody like this would amass a following

because he was a bit of in like a QAnon lane where like you are being lied to, you are being deceived and the like the annals of power can be overthrown, et cetera, et cetera. I don't know, man. Look, I work in social. That's my day job. Well, that's what I was hired to do.

I don't know, man. 500 followers is not going to get you much. I mean, if they show up, you got a lot. But they all show up. If you got it, it seems like they all showed up. You got about at least like a dozen or so that show up. If they all show up, that's enough for sure. That's why.

Like, I don't know. I don't know how many people with 500 followers. But like, hey, y'all, we're having a meetup at such a park come through. We're going to have merch. We're going to have sales. I can't even organize a dinner party. So props to the Red Ler. I agree with Jomi

because before I was doing this job, my first job with social media shit and I saw the analytics of how many of y'all clicked through on a link. It's real low, bro. There's no way if you got 500 followers you getting all that motherfuckings out there. Like, come on, bro.

I see the click through rate. Yeah, so the Joker situation. Love the actor. What is his name? Barry Keegan. Keog. Bery Keog. Drewick.

Drewick was my favorite Eternal. Oh, I like Drew. Drew was cool. Leather jacket. I got a leather jacket. I can control people's mind. My dear McCarrie. Yeah.

Number one, these are my major problems with the Joker thing. Number one, it felt completely out of place. It felt shoehorned in. Everyone has been saying this. This is non-controversial. Number two, although I couldn't really see his face, the makeup looked bad. It looked real bad. I don't know what it was.

Like, that's the thing. If we can't tell really what he looks like and it still kind of looks off. It looked like his face was like had scars and boils on it. I thought, I was like this looks like Two-Face. It looked like it looked a little bit more like Two-Face. In the theater I'm like, all right, Barry's in this movie. He's supposed to like, they're

most of a T's Joker for show. Like, you know, we knew that like a little bit going in. So he shows up and like, all right, the Joker. Ha-ha. Then like you see his face. I'm like, he kind of look scarring on the left side. Like, was it like, were they playing us? But then he has to clown line and then he does the laugh. You're like, no, that's Joker. Oh, the laughing part was that. Oh, I agree with you, Joe Miazza. Looks a while he did work. The laughing shit went on a little too long. I was like, all right, come on, bro. We've been to a brought back to it feels like they, it feels like they

literally just put, plucked a post credit scene and put it in the last five minutes of a movie. Exactly. Because that could have worked maybe as a post credit scene deep and underneath, but like, it could, it could have though. Yeah, they should just stayed away from it. They could, they got, they got so much other stuff to introduce Joker in. we talked about the fact that they got some DC stuff coming in this same world there could be a catwoman show there could be there there is definitely a penguin show they had more time to introduce a Joker they didn't really need it for this movie didn't ruin the movie of course by any way the movie was still fantastic but it just didn't

work it didn't work I think they didn't realize that it didn't work but maybe they felt like they had to do it not everything can work really really quickly before we wrap then let's briefly just talk about are you surprised that I've been some mixed reactions from this. Like generally positive. Like it's being well reviewed. But I think that some fans are left wanting. Are you surprised?

Absolutely not. I knew that. Just as Jomey knew that there would be people that would like Eternals, that most people, that a lot of people would dislike it, but there would be people that liked it. When I saw the movie, I was like, this is a good movie, a great movie,

a great movie. But they're going to be people that this movie is too much for. It's not a rewatchable movie. Like, it's not, it doesn't. have that Spider-Man No Way Home thing where it's like, oh, I'm going to go back to the theater and watch it. It's a difficult movie. Like, it's a good movie. I loved it.

But it's like, if you're not in on the mystery angle, if you're not really on the same wavelength, people are going to kind of be like, eh. And so here's the thing that, so here's the thing. So when you do genre, right? When you do Logan is like a Western, right? The difference between a Logan

and this movie is that Logan gives you enough comic booky shit to where you can go back and whatever. This film really tries to stay away from this. It has some of that in it. Don't get me wrong. We have an amazing scene at the end of the movie where Batman takes out all of those shooters. We have the car chase.

We have some amazing fights. But the movie stays away from a lot of the popcorn stuff that you would get, like, even in the Dark Night. Now, we talked about the Dark Night as being a very grounded movie. But there are times in the Dark Night that are just fucking visually cool. The whole chasing with... The Bat Pond breaks out. Yeah.

You know, like, it's just cool. The thing gets up, turn around. That's a clap in the theater type of a moment, right? This movie has that in it, but not to that degree. It's not trying to let you go there. And for a lot of people that go to see a Batman movie, they're expecting some spectacle and they might be let down. But isn't that how we felt about Batman Begins?

Like, I think we all look back fondly like Batman Begins. What a great movie. But it wasn't like when that movie came out, it was explosive. Like, oh my gosh, this is going to be the, whole thing that changes. The thing I think that's hard about first Batman movies is you have to convince us that this person is Batman, that this

is a Gotham worth sitting in, and I think the next movie will probably have that Dark Night feel because you don't have to do so much table setting. A lot of the first Batman movies, it's just table setting, you know? Yeah, and by the way, guys,

this movie is not as good as a Dark Night. Stop. People tripping. People tripping. Stop. It's good. It's really good, bro. Can I get an agenda off? Get your agenda off. Get your shit off.

I would argue this is the top three Batman movie. It's not better than the Dark Night though. Yeah. I mean, I'm with that. I'd say, we did a ranking on the big picture. I think it was Dark Night first,

1989 Batman second, and this one maybe third. That's not a bad place to be. I would be Dark Knight. I would be Dark Knight. I would probably be the Batman second. Jesus Christ And

probably the original Batman The Keaton Here's the thing I feel like People of a certain age There's a nostalgia for Keaton that I just don't have Because he was never my Batman

I can watch it Be like this is a phenomenal film But like Yeah I think this is a second You're a piece of shit Since we've already talked about Where we rank the movie

Let's put it somewhere on a midnight meter Okay Let's go ahead Do the midnight meter If you guys don't know What the Midnight meter is That is the number assigned to a film here by the Midnight Boys.

This is the way it works. Normal ranking is 1 to 10. Anything above that is reserved for only timeless game-changing movies. Okay, so the ranking goes 1 to 10. And then if it is above that, it is a timeless game-changing movie. Okay. Started with Jomey. Ending with me.

What is your midnight meter? ranking for this movie, Johnny. God, I hate having to go first. Yeah, I got to sit down. It's a... I'm of two minds here because this is a really, really, really, really good film.

You can even say a great film, but I would not say that it, like, measures up to the upper echelon of, you know, a midnight meter ranking. So, I'm good. going to say it's a 10. I'm going to say 10. Yeah. The 10 is the fair thing to rate it. Steve, what do you got? Oh, I have a 10 as well. I think this is an incredible achievement

for bringing us back into the Batman area that we honestly thought that we might have been tired of and we didn't think that we'd be going for another one again. And not only the fact that we could love this, but like, you know, want to come back again, that's a 10 for me. fantastic. Guys, the Dark Knight is a 12. Everybody out there who's saying that this is better than the Dark Night, like, come on. Like, be for real. Be serious. So if the Dark Night's a 12, I'm giving this a 10. It's a great movie.

I feel like we should have more attention. I could argue maybe. I'm like, it's a 10. I had such a good time in the movie. But I don't think that this movie is a game changer. I think the next one has the opportunity to be. But every movie isn't a game changer. It's fine, guys.

So I'm going with 10. What about you, Van? 10. 10 is a perfect score. This movie is a, so now that you guys understand what we mean when we talk about the midnight meter, right? So 10 is a perfect score. If, in fact, there was more on the line, it could have been an 11. We don't do, we don't do half numbers.

It could have been an 11. But 11 normally is a movie, it's reserved for a movie that's going to be consequential, but not quite a 12. You know what I mean? So this movie. is a thin. Those are perfect scores for all four Midnight Boys. That is

the first time that it has ever happened. Give us a quick look at the bingo card. Jomi, what did we get right or what did we get wrong on the bingo card that was so well planned out and well thought out and executed by us on podcast. So much prep went into that. So much prep went into the bingo card. It wasn't

us just saying shit. Go ahead. Nailed. So we're going to go person by person and look at their choices, what they got right. Charles killed it. It was awesome. He got three out of his five predictions right. He got Catwoman checking Bruce's privilege.

The Riddler Springs a Trap and the Riddler murder spring. Nailed. Yeah. All of the film. It's all great. I was the worst. I only got one right. Damn. And it was the Batman Irish goodbye to Gordid. Which was great. Love to see it. The dude literally disappeared.

it. rude as fuck. Well, he was in a rush. He had to save Alfred. That's the time that you got to leave. Right. He had things to do. Steve got dose.

He had the villains in the Arkhamselves, right? That was toward the end of the movie with Joker, allegedly, and the Riddler. And the Riddler cries. That boy, Paul Dano. Went out sad. Extremely sad. Man had tears in his eyes. It was tough.

And then Van also. got to man had the Joker tease you know that was set in stone and Batman choosing Gotham and not himself which was like a deep deep cut but that's that that was the thesis of the movie in essence right him not being vengeance

for him for you know losing his parents and him deciding to be better for his city or just taking that left turn with Catwoman that is definitely not choosing yourself no so we did get bingo the middle Ro, including the free space, was a bingo. So we did it, fellas.

That's a bingo. We got a bingo. All right, you guys want your superhero names? Oh, give it to us. Oh, no. Oh, boy. Okay, so we got, you got to set this up. You got to set it up.

So, look, guys, I'm writing a comic book right now. I'm writing a comic book right now. It's going to be coming out later on. And I've been creating characters for, the comic book. So I created Midnight Boys Superhero characters. I'm so nervous. That's so funny. I hope that we're just like throwaway characters and we suck as superheroes. Well, it's not, you guys aren't in the book yet because I'm looking, I'm doing two different books and one book is about power characters

and the other book, there are no power characters and these characters are all powered. But I based these characters off the Midnight Boys, Midnight Boys Personas. Okay. Jesus Christ. I'm so afraid. Number one, is Jomey. Of course. Jomey's name is yes man. Yes man is imbued with the power positive. That means whatever Jomey honestly says yes to, he can do.

Oh. Oh, I like that. That's his power. Whatever Jomey honestly says yes to, he can do. So if he believes it, he literally can achieve it. If he believes it, he can achieve it. However, you know what his weakness is? No.

If something, like, the only thing that cripples him is no. So when you're putting Jomi into battle, you have to know what he wants to do. You have to know what he's into because no completely debilitates him. It takes his power away. It makes him ordinary. As long as he's positive,

then as long as he's positive, he's pretty much unstoppable. I honestly thought his weakness was going to be chicken fingers. Like if you want to start Joe, he just got to throw chicken fingers at it. And then it just leave. Well, I mean, it came around. You know, we might have to workshop the name, you know. Yes, man.

Yes, man. No. Yes man is perfect, Joe. Yes, man is the name of him. I don't know. Steve's name is Captain Sucky Fucky. I change my mind. I like my name.

I like my name. What the fuck? What? No barchus. Steve. Captain what? Captain Sucky. Jeez.

CSF. Steve's power is in sactivist's the power of the sactivist illusion. He deals in, he's a male fatal. That's what he does. What he does is he uses his powers. of illusion over people in order to get them to do what he wants. All right, we've seen this before, like Eros from Eternals,

kind of think of that in the same way. Very problematic superhero nowadays. It's okay. Whatever, Batman's looking at people while they're inside or whatever. That's the same thing. Jesus Christ. The only weakness that Steve has is DMs. Ooh.

Because we told Steve to DM somebody he didn't do it. All right. I'm cutting this. Steve, why are you scared of the DM, bro? He didn't do it. The only weakness that Steve has, he can be thwarted in the DMs. You can thwart him.

If you're in front of him, you can't resist the sacked of the addicts of Selma Steve. All right, you can't. But if, like, in the DMs or over text messages, he can be repelled. Indeed, he loses confidence. Okay. Captain Sucking fucking.

The cuddly sactivist. I'm incensed right now. Can we stop by Wi-Fi. That's tough. Damn, Steve. As long as he's in front of you. Okay. Charles.

I'm scared. I'm scared. It's the beige bulb. You just got a dimmer switch. Oh my God. DC has the Green Lantern. Charles is a member of the beige bulb core. Oh, wow.

Their power, their power is, they are all descendants of their leader Aubrey the Great. Who cannot protect you? From the lever of Aubrey the Great from a planet deep deep deep in the galaxy

called DeSix. So he has a bulb. He has a bulb. And this bulb admits a couple of different powers. It admits the insane unbridled universal power of the beige rage.

which imbues him with enough raw power to overtake a whole planet. He also has sad power, the sats. He can use his deep feeling and deep emotional tie to his baseness to overcome people to where they're so sad that they're like they don't want to do anything. Think about this. Think about a villain. Think about a villain. Think about a villain that like you just use the ball,

but he gets so sad that he's lost. all of his his his his uh motivation to attack and then he has the last one he has the he's imbued not because of his bulb because of who he is with the power wild so he can say such wild shit

in order to distract his enemies all right he can say such wild shit that Zimmy's like what the fuck is he talking about they're distracted he attacks all right well it's actually I've actually liked that you said that though

because you know God forbid anything happens to six and they have to get a, they have to get like a message out. And it's like, if you're reading this, it's too late. It's too late. It's too late. Let's wrap this up.

You know what we're going to do? We're going to do next week. I got to do mine. I got to give mine. No, you want to know why you can't have yours because next week, Steve, Jomey, all of us are going to come up with the powers of it. We're going to come up with a name of powers of it. That's fine.

So I don't get to give mine. That's fine. That's cool. I like it that way. I like it that way. That's good. Bring up to me. You guys, that's actually more fair.

That's actually more fair. You guys all come up with my power. So we got, yes, man, Captain Sucky, Fucky, the breaker apart. And we got beige ball. Those are like, those are our powers for right now. And we're a team, right? Of course. That's the Midnight Boys.

But these powers, I'm telling you, I wrote a whole little thing. These powers work super well in tandem. But I mean, now, since I don't get to be mistaken, yesterday anymore who has the power of nostalgia. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I mean, like, you who knows? We'll come with our thing next week. You already had Vance power. It's going to be great. Bage bulb.

I'm going to have the guy draw you guys, by the way. Oh, by the way, you know what? You know what you guys can do? If we have any artists out there if we have any artists, we should run a contest. We should have, I want to see any artists out there

beige bulb, Captain Sucky, and yes man. We might need to wait until my power until you guys give me mine. But if there are any artists out there that can draw

our superhero equivalents, all of that stuff, put them out there. What we could do for your power, Van, is you have yours already and the three of us have ours. We could all pitch ours next week

and then have the audience aside what your power is. That works. There we go. That works. That works. Jesus. You guys didn't think it was I've really put a lot of thought to this.

You clearly did. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. We're coming back. Charles is so ready. It's the beige rage. You activated the beige rage. It's the beige rage.

It's the beige. All right. You guys, that is a wrap. This coming Monday, the House of R returns with a deep dive into the Batman. Okay. The Midnight Boys are going to be back next Wednesday. we're going to have a lot of fun as we always do. I just want to tell you guys something, everybody listening to this podcast.

We appreciate you guys so much. This is really a joy for us to be here as pals, as boys. It's really as a family and be able to come here and talk to you guys about this stuff. We appreciate all of the feedback that you give us the positive and negative stuff. So keep listening. We are delighted to be doing what we're doing right now. Producer credits. Our producer is Steve Almond Joy.

Our other social producer is Jomey Dineron. Joni, the Explanerner of Daron, you've got questions. He's got answers hashtag Free Jomey on social media. And additional production comes from Arjuna Ram Gapal. Now, Arjuna is listening to this right now. I also have a superhero for Arjuna, but I'm going to wait. I want to wait for Arjuna's superhero because I have a new power set that I think I want to debut with him. Juna's the best superhero best around.

Okay, Charles. It's over. take us out. The Batman pod is done and I'm feeling quite lucky because I might be the beige bowl but at least I'm not Captain Sucky Puckie Puckie.

I hate this. We've had so many Batman movies we're going to talk about it more specifically. I didn't think that there was anything about Bruce Wayne and Batman that could be new. something that I had not seen. So.

Leave it in. Leave it in. Nope. Bring her on here. Bring her. Bring her. Maria, come here. No.

No. Maria, no. Maria, come over here, Maria. Maria. Maria. Come on.

You're trying to work. Hey, Maria. Hello. Oh, she's so lovely. She's so lovely. She's so lovely. Maria, just let you know. No, we're trying to work.

All right. Are you? Yeah, we're trying to work, Maria. What happened to the fun speech earlier? What happened to all that? No, no, no fun. We're doing her thing. And we're doing her thing, and Maria's alarm is going off.

And I'm like, what is that? We're talking about the Batman. It's very tense, Maria. Can we work? Is that okay with you now, Maria? Can we get back to the pot? It's fine. I'll shut the alarm off.

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