The Ringer-Verse - The Black Heroes of Fandom Character Draft | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: February 17, 2022

In celebration of Black History Month, the Midnight Boys assemble to draft their favorite Black characters in all of fandom (07:12). They battle it out to see who drafts the best team of iconic characters, and hilarity ensues. Afterwards, they run down a list of animated non-human characters to find out who among them is Black (64:21). Hosts: Van Lathan, Charles Holmes Producer: Steve Ahlman Social: Jomi Adeniran Additional Production: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join Justin Charity and Micah Peters and Sound Only as they discuss their deepest, darkest thoughts about the millennial lifestyle, rap music, video games, anime, YouTube, social media, and their underlying themes. Check out Sound Only on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia 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. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease

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Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Tramphiara Radio.com. 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 Pee's, peach apricot rose Italian soda. Perfect for a picnic or brunch. As is their trending mango

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He's got answers. We are Steve Almond Joy, the cuddly Selma Sactivus bear. And we are. man van. He of the receding hairline together. We are known as a of the midnight boys. Hey guys.

Programming. The House of Midnight returns this Friday. Mal, Joe. And myself, we will be breaking down the season finale of Peacemaker. I'll let you guys know something. Originally, Charles

was scheduled to be on this podcast. Oh, don't do that to me. And he literally backed out. I didn't back out. Before we were shooting this one, not only did he backed out. I didn't back out. He triggered me by saying something that I wasn't aware of. We'll talk about it in a later date.

I talked about that. I was very upset. I was being your friend. Honestly, I gave you a heads up. Gave me a heads up. More than certain filmmakers did. I'll tell you that much. Put me in your movie.

Don't even ask me how I feel about different shit. That's fine. It's okay. Next week, the Midnight Boys will be back with our preview episode to lead up to the Batman. Now, look, this is what we're going to do. We're not going to get deep into it right now, but I want a pre, pre, pre, pre, pre, pre, pre, pre take right now

the Batman quickly from everyone. Thumbs up or thumbs down, Charles, thumbs up. Thumbs up. Jumby, thumbs up or down. Thumbs up. Steve, thumbs up or down. Big thumbs up. Guess what?

I'm going with the thumbs up here. Okay. I know that I've been lukewarm on the bat, but I've swerved. I've swerved. I've sacked. Okay, because I'm looking at all this bat stuff that's coming out.

The bat and the cat. You know? I'm seeing crazy-looking characters and I like this crazy, funky little emo Batman. I'm gonna put the hot take out here right now and I'll argue it on the next episode. The way Robert Pattinson is talking in the press, he might go down as the best batman

if he pulls this off. Does he have the potential? He has the potential. It's there. The body of work isn't there yet, but he's the way he's talking, I'm about to ride the bat and sit train. Yeah, that was what I was going to say.

Does he need like multiple performances to take it? Yeah, but I'm just saying he's in the conversation. Okay. Steve, we don't see. I don't. Steve, give it to me. No, no, I like this. I like this.

Whoa. Temperate expectations. Tempered expectations. Steve, wait, you're going to tumble by Stop the Cap? I can't get a Stop the Cap on that? Thank you. Okay, wow.

All right. All right. That's a soft stopter cap. Soft because... I'll turn the volume down on it. It's a soft stop the cap. It's just like one of those ones where it doesn't play. You know how...

Because sometimes he just looks and it plays like softly under it. All right. Today's show, we have a soft. a very special game in order of Black History Month. I don't know if you guys know it is of course the shortest month of the year, which means that it's the year that America takes the time

to recognize the accomplishments in the history of black people. It's what we like to call here the Midnight Boys as Oh, Jesus Christ. No. Oh my goodness. No. Leap that out.

Come on. I need a new drop. I need a new drop for when Van says something that's like, all right, hard stop. Can't do that. There's no way that makes the podcast. That's not making the cut. There's no way that makes the podcast.

They're definitely making a podcast. I regret, I regret this episode already. The fans get mad every time we bleep stuff. They're like, why y'all bleeper stuff? Because Van keeps acting out of pocket. That's why. I like Steve. So we're going to be drafting the greatest black characters in all of fandom.

Black characters. Now, of course we all know that they only started putting black characters in fandom in like 1980. But once they went into it, they went heavy. Obviously, that's not true. We had black characters in the 60s. We've had black characters. In the 70s, we've had black characters. As long as they've been fandom, what we're hoping to do with this podcast, I think Charles and the rest of the midnight boys can agree, is that we're hoping to, throughout this draft, just talk about some of the amazing black, characters that have gone down in history in these fandom spaces because they've been really enriching to the fandom culture and they've been really enriching to us as people who enjoy watching and being a part of all of this stuff right it's very important you know and we're hoping I know that I am can't speak for Steve we're hoping that in the future there are more rich black characters for us to choose from right guys hell yeah absolutely Charles said that very little militant. Charles was like,

hell yeah, we hope it's, I mean, I was prepping for the draft and I was just like, damn, there ain't actually as many

scourages that I thought there was. We'd be like, me and Kalika, I would just like to say, Kalika. I would just like to say Kalika helped me

prepared for the draft. Kalika! And we kind of got a little frustrated. No. Why did you get frustrated, man? No way.

We got frustrated because I would like you to come here, babe. You helped me prepare for the draft. Did you not? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. We were getting a little bit, we were getting a little bit taxed trying to think of black characters that we were going to use, right? Yeah, it was. I definitely had a hard time.

It was harder than we saw. Like, we're thinking about all of this stuff and we're like, God, damn, man. This shit is like a little tougher. I now would like to choose Jacks. I'm like, oh, what the fuck? All right. Let's go ahead. Without further ado, the preamble is over.

Let's get into the draft. Steve, give us the rules. All right. Each Midnight Boy will have their pick of four black characters from across fiction and fandom. Each pick comes with a recommended property, movie, TV episode, etc., from where they would recommend that character from Snake draft rules and regardless of who goes first

Steve's going last. Thank you Steve. That's about. You should even be in the draft. You should even be in the draft. Whoa, whoa. No, no. Van's right. It's courtesy. We're standing a bridge. You know, you know?

Y'all don't let us to your drafts. I mean, I was going to say if Steve got a part of the draft, I know the listeners are like, oh, Steve doesn't like black characters? It would be so crazy. Yeah. This is like a reverse NFL what we're in right now. Three black owners.

And you're just allowing me. It's just allowing you. But see, we'll even have an owner in the NFL. We don't even get to own the team. Steve, we love you. Steve is one of the blackest Midnight boys ever. All right. Let's get into it.

Maybe Arjuna can pick a number between one and ten or whatever. And then the three. By the way, this is so interesting that you just worked this out with Arjuna. You guys fucking fake this before. But that's okay. Go ahead. I'll say you come in and pick a number. Okay, Arjuna, you want to do that?

Pick a number between one and ten, Arjun. Okay. You got your number. And it's one between, it's one through ten. Yes, one through ten. Okay. Who goes for, I'll go first. Six.

Eight. Seven. It was seven. Woo. Jomey goes first. Jomey, you pick the order. I picked the order. Uh, hmm.

Now, I think I'll go first. And then if we're doing prices, price's right rules. that means Van goes next and then Charles goes next and then Steve is last. All right. And then Snake rules. So that means that I'll get two picks come the end

and then we'll go back in that order. All right. Jomi, you're up. Okay. I mean, there's really no other first round pick to go in this greatest black superhero draft. You've got to go with, you know,

the first, well, not the first black superhero to get a movie, right? That's not true at all. Yeah. But the first, black Marvel character to get his own film Zimba. Zemba.

That's the only number one pick. Black panda. That's the only number one pick. Had to represent. And everybody knows. I'm going to post this picture on Twitter so you all can see it. But when Black Panther came out, it was a big deal. I had me dressing in my Nigerian clothes.

The whole nine, the whole way, had to represent for the king of Wakanda. and, you know, we talked about a lot on this podcast before, but how much Tachala and Chadwick Bowesman met to all of us. And so he was the only way to go. I know we've all seen Black Panther. We all love it. But yeah, that's my number one pick.

My king of Wakanda, Tachala, Black Panther. The Black Diblek Penda. Okay. So it's on me now. It's on you. I didn't think that I would be giving you the number one pick. I just knew something would happen

where I wouldn't be getting it, right? So I planned to actually have the number two pick. I planned... I know what the number two pick is. That's what I was right. That black panther would be off the board. That's what to see.

That's everybody says. Who do you go with if you have the number one pick, the number two pick? There's so many people out there. I thought, hey, maybe Falcon. Fuck, no. Don't give away a couple picks.

Can't give away your picks. Don't give away your strategies. Don't give them the game now. I'm going. with the character that had the greatest Spider-Man movie. Damn. Ever. I am going with the character that we all grew to love,

that we all came to love, that we all think is the future of the Spider-Verse. From into the Spider-Verse, I am choosing my brother. Miles Morales. Right. This is rough. This is rough.

I mean, that's a great big. How many times have we collectively seen that movie? By the way, just round table. Like, I've seen this probably, in the theaters I've seen it five times. Yeah. I love that movie when it came up. I saw three times. I saw three times in the theater and I'd never buy physical media anymore.

That's just not a thing I do. I bought the Blu-ray HD DVD edition of this film. Right. That's how much I love it. Had to do it for the culture. For the culture. What a culture. Ooh.

Oh, Miles. By the way, I would like to say something about this movie. This movie personally resonated with me. Even before the loss of my father, seeing Miles Morales go back and forth with his dad, two generations up against one another. The scene where his father is trying to connect with him from outside of the door is particularly moving to me. And I went into this film. I hope people remember when Into the Spiderverse came out,

there wasn't a ton of hullabaloo around it. No. It wasn't a movie that was tabbed as one of the great accomplishments. It was a film that, hey, there's a Spider-Man animated movie coming out, and you just sat down and really in a lot of ways, I don't mean to be hyperbolic, but had your fucking life changed by this film? Like, it was just fantastic in every way.

And so if Black Panther was off of the board, I was going to choose Miles Morales and had thought to choose Miles Morales, maybe even if Black Panther was on the board although I wouldn't have done that. Okay. So I'm done. All right.

So this is the character that I thought fan would choose for sure. This is the origin. This is where it all begins. The number one enemy of vampires and the IRS. Okay?

I'm choosing. Christ. What? Slaying those W-2s. I can't believe you. You fucking son-of-a-bitch you. If you spend all your money, you don't have to pay taxes.

That's true. Leslie is a legend. Like, people, here's a thing. You know, everybody thinks it's a Black Panther. Black Panther is the one that really broke through. But, nah, like, I would argue, not only is Blade that those movies, one of the most important black superhero movies,

I think it arguably started this whole shit. Like, it proved. that you can take a character who, like, Blade wasn't the biggest character but it proves that you could take a character if you adapt it well enough, you can start, you know, this whole superhero thing off.

So I got to go with Blade with my number one pick. Blade, fantastic. Blade coming out in 1998. I was eight years old. Van, do you remember seeing this movie in the theater? Yep. And so this is what I remember.

So Blade comes out, and we do Blade, like comic book fans, we do Blade from Spider-Man comic books and everything, Blade. had done. But a lot of people didn't know who Blade was. Right. So Blay was unique in the fact that a lot of people thought that Blay was just like a made up new guy because there's nothing about Blade that says Spider-Man comic books that says in a bigger world. Not exactly like the iconic character that we know him to be now. Right. And to have Wesley Snipes be in that role and

utilize all of the martial arts master's that we know that he had to have the cast that you had serious movie stephen dorf and bush a right uh chris christopherson uh even in smaller roles like donnell logg people like that to have those people in this movie and for the movie to be taking itself seriously was just an amazing thing to to watch and later on there was a debate that would happen so let the matrix comes out the next year but they were existing in the same time period. And a lot of people would compare which movie had better fight scenes, Blade, or the Matrix.

That's an unfair comparison. But that was something that would go back and forth. And it just depended on what you wanted. But it was a game changer for me, a game changer for me. And the defining role, in my opinion, of Wesley Snipes' career. Most definitely. So Steve, you got two picks. Where are you going?

Wait, hold on. Why does Steve get two picks in a row? Because that's a snake draft rule. Snake draft. We see it's a thing, right? If we're trying to do real black hair stuff, if we really trying to step it up, right? We could do the snake draft where Steve goes, but then Charles goes. At the end of everything, that's when Steve goes.

You get what I'm saying? He gets all. That's it. Oh. You get all the last. That's a Slytherin draft rule. Yeah, you get picked last no matter what. Wow.

Right? So you'll go, Charles will go, Van will go, I will go. And then you will go again. And that's how we run that thing. That's tough. Okay. that's really, that's really kneecapping. Steve is going to end up with

Hawkman. I'm going to end up with I'm going to end up with fucking Frozone coming at this. Whoa. Frozone, somebody who I didn't have on my list. I'm going to put Frozone on my list. Oh, I'm old. Steve. Hey. Hey. I did some preparation here. Wait, mate. You just said a superhero day.

Steve, you just picked Frozo. Steve, you just picked. That's crazy. Ring it up for Steve. Ring it up for Steve. Ring it up for Steve. You would have made it to my list, but no, I can't, I can't let that be my first pick. I can't possibly let that be my first pick.

Go what you got for us. All right. This will be one of the earliest superheroes, one of the earliest black superheroes that I can remember from watching this cartoon as a kid. He's the coolest green lantern. Oh, wow. He's the best green lantern from the Justice League of America version. Yeah.

John Stewart, aka the Green Lantern. Yeah. That's it. Love that character. Boys by the great Phil Lamar. Yeah. Legend. Like fantastic.

I didn't think he was going to be taken. I'm shocked that we are not in like active pursuit right now for a John Stewart, Green Lantern movie. They are. They fumbled around and fucked around with him for something. Things were so fucked up. Remember, he was coming at the end of Justice League, but they have to switch it out, making Martian Manhunter.

Yes. Because the Green Lantern Court, people said no. So they've been fumbling around and fucking around with it for a while. But who would you like to see play them? Listen, let's go real quick. Who would you guys like to see play John Stewart? Tyrese.

Shut. Ooh, yeah, Tyrese. That was the running joke. That's actually a great question. I go common. Stop. Common. That's enough for that.

Y'all don't think common would make a good John Stewart. Hey, Steve, I need the music. I need to music. Oh, common was in the one. Come on. What's wrong with that choice? What about, okay, what about Amari Hardwick? Amari could be good.

I like Yaya. I like Yaya for, wait, guys, do you, wait, do you guys realize that common was originally in the, in the running? He was cast for it. Yeah. Yeah, that's wild, bro. That should have been a bad one.

I mean, okay. That would have been a bad. I'm kind of glad that I did. Yeah. That didn't happen. Right. You guys are hating on common to the if degree. right now. Common would be good as the...

All right, no, no. We've seen commons acting career, okay? Okay, all right, let's move on. You didn't like smoking aces? Okay. All right. Want to support your gut health? Take Activia's gut health challenge by enjoying two Activia yogurt today for two weeks

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may help reduce the frequency of minor digestive discomfort, which includes gas, bloating, rumbling, and abdominal discomfort. Back to the top. What are we doing now? Charles. No, no. Doesn't Steve get two picks? No, we're not letting Steve get two picks in a row during Blackhurst. Ooh, all right, cool. Damn, who's still in the running? You know what?

I'm going to take it back. I'm going to take it back. I think this, this character was super, super, super important to kids everywhere. I'm surprised he hasn't gotten to a movie yet. But like the TV show, I think, introduced people to this milestone character. I've got to put down static shock.

Yeah, yeah. I figure out of that. Okay, okay. Super, super iconic TV show. Incredible. Yeah, so it's just the comic. Shout out to Dwayne McDuffey, RIP. Yeah, static 3.

You can't say enough about how much this did for the culture. Absolutely. Absolutely. There was that episode with the school shooting, man. That one was crazy. It's insane that a kid's show did that. Yeah, I was always surprised. And look, I was obviously a little older

when Stag Shop was coming home. How old were? Dog, I was a little dog. Bro, I was old. bro, I remember I remember I was waking up to watch that as shock and this girl named B. And she was like, like, it's a cartoon? I was like, yeah, but it's like a black guy.

She was like, I like how that's the qualification. Like you watching cartoons? And I was like, hey, man, get your clothes and get the fuck out. Damn! Let me watch my cartoons, man. Like, what the fuck is wrong with you? Shout out to her. Bleep her name, by the way.

She was a very nice lady. She was a very nice lady. She was a very nice lady. Okay, is it my turn or is it your turn, man? That'll be Van. Your turn, man. Okay, easy one for me. He has not been taken yet.

We talk about how much Blade matter to people. This is an iconic character in both comic books and cartoons and movies, a three-for. A three-for. This comic book, when it came out, was part of a mid-90s comic book revelation by some of the most absolutely iconic comic book writers and pencilers ever, right? They started their own deal from Image Comics. When this guy came out, everybody ran and bought his first issue. Oh, no.

Everybody ran out. It was a cultural phenomenon when this character dropped. When the movie came out, starring Michael Jai White and John Lowe Zama, It was another feather in the cap of film that I still love. And then even past that, this character went on to have his own cartoon on HBO, which is criminally underrated. Dang it. The Hellscape Master himself, the Desperate Demon, Tom and Farned Spahn is my number two. choice. That's an excellent pick.

That's an excellent pick. Very strong pick. Yes. Tom McFarlane Spahn, loved him, always loved him. He was the character that for one second broke me out of my X-Men obsession because you guys, we talk about the Avengers now. In the 90s, nobody gave him fuck about the Avengers. No. It was X-Men, X-Men, X-Men, X-Men, X-Men, X-Men. And the character that rattled me out of, let me look at another book and kind of get into another book was Spawn, so I got to shoot Spawn. That's a great pick. I remember my homies in high school

put me on Spawn. Like, you got to read this. I was like, I don't, I don't really read comics at all. Like, what are y'all talking about? But this Todd McFarlane Spawn run, just great stuff. Just excellent stuff. Shout out Keith David, by the way. Incredible voice. Oh, yeah. And he does the voice in like the Mortal Kombat games, too. Oh, yeah. Like, it's awesome. All right. Jomey, that's you. I'm actually really surprised that my pick is still on the board. I thought they would

go early, but honestly, thinking about it, if you have Black Panther, you gotta have Storm. I knew it. I knew it. I'm going with Storm. This is very important which iteration of Storm. Yeah, you got to

pick the iteration of Storm. This is very important because there is a right answer for me. There is a correct answer. I'm going to go with I'm going to go with Storm from the X-Men animated television series. That's right. Correct. Yeah.

That's my storm. Gotta go with Aurora Monroe. You know, and it really sucks that we haven't, we didn't get to see Black Panther and Storm falling love on the screen yet. But that them falling in love the comics is great. It's great. So got to have them together.

I'm really shocked that she was here. What if we see in multiverse, of madness, a version of Black Panther and Storm. I would love that. That would be really good for my heart. That would be amazing. I love Black Love. I love black love. Let's just move on from Halley Berry, but I love black love.

Respect Hallie Barry. You know what happens when you electrocute a toad? The same thing that happens. Everything else. I'm a be honest with you. Cultural icon, lover to death. Top five, worst cast decisions in movie history.

Oh, man. All right. Movie history? I don't know. I gotta feel like that's a long list. Oh, you guys, out of your fucking minds? That is horrible. Listen, that is horrible casting.

It made sense at the time. No, he did not. It was like the biggest, like, Hollywood actors that, like, ever at that time. First of all. How would you not? No, she wasn't. Not even close.

This is this. In the late 90s? Yeah. What are you talking about? No, she wasn't the biggest Hollywood actress ever. No, she was a big actress. Okay? She was a big actress.

Number one, remember, this is pre-monster's ball. So not like she did Monsters Ball, and then it was like, boom, Hallie Berry, she was the biggest black actress working for sure, right? Maybe, probably. Angela Bassett was also pretty big. But what I'm saying is just to cast the role, and what I will say about the X-Man movie,

even though the movie to me wasn't great, I didn't like it at all. They did great. They cast it the characters great, except for the fact, even then we looked at it.

Hallie Berry, a storm doesn't make any sense. She doesn't look like Storm aesthetically. She didn't have the gravitas to pull off Storm. She had zero, zero ties to anything African. It is a great,

complete, she, they lobotomized the character. How long have you been holding on to this, man? Yes, I need Steve to put this to be under this. This is not a controversial take, guys. Like, this is not a controversial take. I don't think she was a great storm, but you're acting like this was the worst possible choice. Terrible casting.

I don't, look, I can see where you're coming from, but to call it like institutional malpractice is a lot. It is horrible. And I hope someday that when they cast storm, They will actually have the nuts to cast a woman who looks like she's Kenyon.

I hope that at some point when they're casting Storm, they'll have the unmitigated gall, Stephen A. Smith, to cast a woman that looks like Storm, how we see Storm. That's all for me. That's all for me. Great pick. All right. I think it's my pick now because, correct.

I'm back on the top. I don't have two picks yet. All right. I'm going to swerve a little bit here because I'm going to divert away from comic books and comic book characters to the world of television and science fiction. This TV show meant a lot to me as a kid growing up

and I think this is probably one of the coolest characters. When you talk about Star Trek, I grew up watching the next generation. I don't think there was a character to me that was any cooler than the chief engineer of the USS Enterprise Jordie LaForge. Pretty good fact. played with a plume by Lavaar Burton.

He was weird around girls, which who can't relate. And he would often have great adventures with data in the holodeck playing Sherlock Holmes. He was like one of my favorite characters of all time. Van, why are you looking at Steve like that? Jomi's looking really skeptical at me. Yeah, it's like, yeah. I'm like, a lot of you, Steve. That's tough.

What's what you're talking about? Why are you how to start to, right? Let me be clear. Let me be clear. I love me. I love Lovar Burton. That's my guy, right? Reading Rainbow.

You know what I'm saying? Like, he's a trust of my heart forever. Right. That's your second pick, my guy? That's your second pick. That's your second pick. Listen, I've freed up some board space. You can play with the rest.

That's tough. That's tough. I mean like, look. Hey, he meant a lot to me. No, no, no. And I understand. You mean, my thing is if anybody votes for Steve during this portion of the podcast,

then like, that is kind of racist. I'm not going to lie. Like, I'm not going to hold you. Like, Steve should have a, of zero on the board. Steve, that's nuts, Steve. I'm like, I love shout to Jordan. That's a Reese.

That's a Reese. You just drafted, you just drafted Tebow in the first round, Brian Mansell. That's drafted. Jordan Love, right? Baker Bayfield number one overall. I think this is a dark horse pick.

I like this. A dark horse. No, no, no. I think it's a dark co-pick. It's what I think. I think it's a dark. Wait, Steve, you didn't think Jordan LaForge would have been there like at

at four? You could have got Jody LaForge last. Maybe, maybe. Maybe. Most definitely. Shout out to Jory LaForge. Shout out to him, bro. By the way, this is in no way.

This is in no way of reflection on how I feel about the delightful and lovely Levar Burton. If you're smirching Jory to LaForge, you're really like taking a shit No, don't do that. Steve. Hey, listen, no, you listen to me.

This is a damn good pick. This is, okay. It's a great pick at like, you know, round two. Or not right round two, but like, you know, I met like, you know, like maybe like pick 67, you know, like way down the line when you're not reaching. This is a reach, Steve. All right.

Okay. All right. Who's next? It's me. Again, really surprised this person is still on the board. I've been watching a lot of. Clone Wars. Damn! Yeah. And you got a lot of this character, you know.

And if you ask any any black person, you ask any black person on the street, hey, what color lightsaber you think you want? They're going to say purple. Because of Mace Windu. Now it gets tough. Got to have Mace on there. You know, that's the guy. The only, you know, black Jedi

that we see. Man's got the skills and the only brother out there with the purple lightsaber, had to be stunning on them, you feel me? You had to be out there like that. You know, you can see them,

of course, in the prequels, but you really get to know Mace in the Clone Wars series. Even though the Jedi Order, we got to have a conversation about the Jedi Order. There was some frauds, like legitimately bad at their job.

I just got finished seeing what they did to Asoka, right, just like dismissing her claims as she was trying to be like hey, I'm innocent it wasn't me even though the bad guy was in their midst the whole time and then like everything that happens with Order 66 and Luke like

we need to have a conversation like all the Jedi order were they always fraudulent I mean they fucked up yeah they really fucked up yeah they fucked up. But like they consistently at every turn make the wrong decision. Well the Jedi well see what happened with the Jedi

was the Jedi lost their way because the Jedi is supposed to be in line with the will of the force, and it actually became a political instrument. And so when the Jedi decided to not serve the will of the

force and actually serve the Republic as essentially like foot soldiers and minions of, they thought they were doing the right thing, even when Obi-Wan says, my allegiance is to the republic, to the democracy,

see what Obi-Wan should have been saying is my allegiance is to the will of the force. And when the Jedi lost sight of that and they became a political organization, then the reality is they were going to be inherently flawed and do fucked up shit.

Separation of church and state. That's what it was. Yeah, for sure. I'm really mad because just because of how it all shaked out, Jomi's really cleaning up. Jomey's doing this thing. Yeah, it's a tough one. It's a tough one. For Jomey. I don't know, Van Cis is a good one. But this also, more so speaks to how like if we're going to be

honest, there's not that many characters. It was tough. It was tough. It was tough. Going through the list is hard. That's why, you know, we speak on representation and why it matters, man. But see, here's the deal though. And this is my thing. Now I's going to separate the men from the boys because after the characters that we've chosen, there's a major drop off. Yeah. Yeah.

Like, no, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Jordy Laforge could have been available. There's still a whole bunch of Jordan LaFourges. I'm playing chess over here. I'm playing chess. There's a, there's a, like, a major drop-off. So I was almost, I was banking on getting Mace Winddue. Oh, I was banking on it too.

Almost to the point to where I thought about going with Mace Winddew before Spawn. Yeah, you should have, you should have done that. Wait, so I'm going to ask you guys. I had to have Spawn. I had to ask you. That's the personal pick? It's a personal pick. What do you guys think was the top three prospects in this trap?

It was obviously Black Panther, Mousmer House. Black Panther, Blade, and probably. Miles Morales. Or the Thoris Morales. Storm was right after that to me. Storm is right after. Storm was right after that to me. So now we're a little bit,

he-hoo. Yeah, we get to the weeds now. Now we get some fun. We get some fun picks coming up. Had to have them fun. So I'm going to take a controversial pick right here. Oh. Now, there are a lot of people I could pick.

Yeah. I could pick a guy who actually has his on television show. Not going to pick them. You guys can have them. Lost too many fights for me. I don't think he's getting to He's not making my team I'm taking my team right now

He lost too many fights for me He's not making my team No sir I could pick another guy That had his own TV show That was a huge huge deal for a while Never fucked with it that much It was cool

It was dope Part of the Netflix run I'm gonna pick somebody else who was only black In this particular television show I'm gonna pick Yaya Abdul Mateen the second's version of Dr. Manhattan

from the HBO Watchman season. Very nice. That's a deep cut. Dr. Manhattan, a guy who can do anything and who obviously was using some prosthetics during that season.

Jesus Christ. How do you know? You got the inside information? I don't know nothing, but damn. Dr. Manhattan, who we know got his powers from being in the particles separator, you know, comes back. So he was white the entire time

during the 50s and the 60s when it was fucked up. But when he wanted to get with Regina King, he knew that wasn't going to work. So he showed up as a black man. Y'all, yeah, yeah, I'm doing a T in a second. Isn't that, I mean, Jeremy Iron said it, but like, isn't that not some kind of appropriation?

Who cares? He's not the Manhattan. So a guy who can pretty much do anything, I would argue, is one of these strongest characters in the entire DC extended advanced universe can pretty much do anything. Godlike character to make another world on Saturn. So I'm going, Yahyab to him, but Yaya Abdul Mateen the seconds, Dr. Manhattan from the Washington series. Got it. Wonderful. For my choice, this is going to be a controversial choice, but this man.

The white people put him through a lot. Okay. He's from another world. He had to take care of the white man's child, raise him as his own. God damn it, Charles. When he was abandoned and turned him into one of the greatest fighters in the universe,

I'm going with Piccolo from Dragon Ballsie. Wow. Piccolo. Wait. What? Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I don't know. Hold on. Wait. No, no, wait. Let's just give everybody time.

Let's all go Google a picture of Piccolo real quick. Wait, wait, hold on. I mean, like, first of us, I've always thought of Piccolo as, I don't know if we can go Piccolo, bro. We're not allowed Piccolo, bro. We can allow Piccolo? I don't know that we can allow Piccolo, man. Like, I don't know.

This is pure intuition. I can't, I can't say, yeah, you can't. I can't say yay or nay. Come on. Like Piccolo, I've always imagined Piccolo as a black man. Kind of the only black man in Dragon Ball Z if we're going to be honest. So here's the deal. Here's the deal.

First of all, Dragon Ball Z doesn't need any black people. Dragon Ball Z is, it doesn't. It doesn't. Dragon Ball Z is made for a different place. So they make a show how they see themselves. You know what I mean? It's some manga. So I'm not tripping that Jagal Ball Z doesn't have.

We should, we sometimes you have, like, that would be beginning. to attack a Titan, attack on Titan doesn't really have any black people in it, right? So, like, I'm watching it. It's like, sometimes let's just transmute ourselves and get to somebody else's story. Wow, having said that, I don't know that we can allow Piccolo. You're telling the younger version of me who was listening to Jack while he's being like, I think to the uninitiated, I think we should say that Piccolo is a green alien.

He's great. Yeah. Like, he's green. Like, you know. And fucking, yeah, yeah. is a fucking blue guy with a big dick. What are you like, what are we doing? He's black.

He's black on the show. He's black on the show. He's black on the show. He's black on the show. I mean, like, like, he's black on the show the whole time. I don't think that we can allow people. I think we can allow people. I think we should let the people vote on whether we can allow Picklow or not.

I think it's two against one at this point. Yeah, I don't think, I don't think, wait. And look how I went with them. I'm like, oh, yeah, great pickle. Wait a minute. No. I don't know that. See, well, that's interesting.

thing, though, that you just assumed. You're really going to say, I can't draft people. Well, I'm going to be real with you. I'm going to be real with you. I'm not saying that Charles isn't right. I mean, we claimed Piccolo. Yeah. For sure.

Now are you claiming Piccolo? No, like, he's not black. Like, there was this one little point where Piccolo was the most powerful character, and we was going in on that. But we can't have Piccolo, Charles. I don't think you can do Piccolo. Like, I'll think you have Piccolo. We're celebrating the greatest black, you know,

superheroes. Yeah, we got to be respectful. I can't put him to do. You can't put a piccolo. Like, come on, man. Charles. I was like, heart broken. He is sick.

I'm sorry. You're breaking my heart. Oh, shit. Oh, my goodness. There's a lot of people out there, Charles. You can't, you can't have piccolo, man. Piccolo's not going to work, bro. All right, fine.

If I can't choose Piccolo, guys, if you think I should have able to cheese pickleow, please defend me in the comments because I think this is an egregious choice. It egregious. Okay. Ooh. You know who I'm going to pick then? Who you got? I'm going to pick another leader, all right?

Uh-huh. Someone who the only thing that's important to them is La Familia. I'm going to doubt it to Redo. No Vin Diesel's a black Wait Oh, wait Oh, wait

No, bro He's, bro He's not plain black He is not playing black His name It's Dominic Tarretto He's a black man We didn't just, bro, come on man

Like you just, we are He's not playing, he's not black His brother is John Sina. It's not going to cut it. It's not going to cut it. Like, bro, like, his brother is John Sina and they made a little, come on, man. He's not black, bro.

You really take it down. You really take in Vin Diesel's blackness away from him. See, this is how you do. It's not going to do. Like, we're trying to unite all of our people under one side. It's just not going to slide. And you're trying to say Dominic Torretto is not black. Right.

By the way, this is disrespectful for the Hobbs who was right there for you. Like, you know what I'm not picking up. Why wouldn't you pick up? jobs. Because he's the fucking man. He's the police. Like, it's Black History Month. I ain't putting a police officer. Fair point. That's what makes sense. Fair point. So I can't, all right. Fine. No, no, no. It's fine. It's fine. Two black men that you're saying, I can't fucking cheese. This is fine. A little egregious.

Whatever. So, you know what? Since Jomi picked the animated version of Storm, I'm picking the superior version of Storm, the one who beat Cyclopsie's fucking ass and took his team away from him. Okay? One of the greatest X-Men of all time. I'm going comic book version of Storm. Chris Claremont version of Storm. Can I not pick that? It said in the rules. We could pick any. The same character. The same character.

Charles, I'm going to be honest with you, bro. You are Rob Polinka right now. You are a fucking in Strugglesville. No, because here's the thing. Here's the thing. Here's it. No, no, no, let's be clear. I should have been able to pick Piccolo. No. No.

I should have been able to pick Piccolo. No, no. No, Charles. You picked a fucking Dr. Manhattan. Like, what are we doing? He's black on the show, bro. He's black. He's black.

He's black. He's black. On the show. He's got storm. You can't pick Storm, bro. Storm's characters off the board. Like the, like, guys, guys, guys. Why can you all keep saying these?

No, you can't. do that. I can't do that. Like, bro. You can do this. We believe in you, bro. There's,

there are outsutes. You can't stop. Well, here's the thing. This shit was not in the rules. Charles, bro. Come on. Just fucking pick Falcon and call it. I'm not.

I'm not. I'm going to die before I pick Falcon. Let's just be clear. I just want to be very clear. I want to be very clear. Charles would rather pick Piccolo Dominic Toretto or another character

before he picks Falcon I want to win this job, bro. I want to win this Jack. I'm not picking fucking Falcon, yeah. I'd rather die. Rather pick three people that are not eligible

to pick Falcon. I got tears in my eyes. Oh, shit. Piccolo should be, I should be able to pick him. Oh, you can't. You can't pick him.

Oh, you can't pick him. Yeah, I'm sorry. Why could you, you can pick those black, dog? You can't pick piccolo. Pickleau is black. No, you can't pick Piccolo. Charles, just make a choice, bro. Come on, man.

It's like, we're 46 in. I'm so mad. Fuck this crap. I'm so mad. I'm so mad. You know what? It's, you know what? It's fine.

It's fine. You know who I'm going to pick? I'm going to pick Mr. Shades himself, the pill, man. I'm going with Morpheus. Okay. Fantastic pick. Oh my God. You're going to work.

That was right in a whole time. Like, what are you? You just wasted. You just wanted us to get some comedy. No. I wanted Piccolo. I'm worried Piccolo. Okay.

I'm mad. What a great big. No, man. Morphia is great. Oh, man. Jomi, for the graphic, I need like, a line through Piccolo, a line through Dominic, a line through. I think Morphi is.

is a better pick than Piccolo. No, he's not. Morpheus is a great thing. Morphi is a great pick. That's a great pick. Morphi is a hot think of Luke Charles. And for the third round? Hell yeah.

I think Morphias is a better pick than Piccolo. That's a strong pick to put you in the draft. You sniked one of my picks. That's a great pick. That's a really strong pick. That's not speaking much of Steve, though. He had Jordan LaForrest in the second. Okay.

Well, with my pick, now that we're all settled. That was hilarious, man. I think this character in a major re-edit got a lot of redemption. I think we owe a lot back to Ray Fisher, and I think his portrayal of Cyborg. Damn, good. That's good. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You're picking Justice League movie Cyborg. I mean, is he the best Cyborg? No, but I liked that Cyborg. Wait, wait. The Teen Titans version is right there. Yeah, but that's fine. I don't, I don't know. I don't like, I love Boo ya, but like let's like, I want to, I want to pick Ray Fisher. I'm picking Ray Fisher. Damn, that's tough. Ray Fisher's cyborg.

He was great. I like genuinely, what a 180 turn from Zach Snyder's Justice League to whatever the fuck that first movie was. Yeah. Fair. Yeah, fair. It's, it's very true. Okay, who's next? Who's next? That's actually a good pick. Charles is next again. Oh, I'm next again. All right. I'm choosing the greatest leader of all time.

Okay? The greatest leader of all time. He saved our planet countless times. All right. I want you guys to roll out. I'm picking Optimus Prime. No. What are you doing?

What are you doing? Optimus Black. No, he's not. No. There was only one black Autobot. His name was Jazz. and he died first. Yeah.

That's racist. Those two little guys that they put in the movie it made us boycott. Yeah. Remember those little more? No, Charles. I'm just promised up.

I mean, like, I wish she was black. I feel like you guys, here's a thing, talking about the Illenadi. All right? They got into your fucking mind, okay?

Disney Michael Mouse don't want you to know that these characters are proud black men. It's fine. It's fine. Charles, I can see if the guy who voiced them was black, I could see if he had the coofy.

I could see if he had. I could see if there was anything. A little robotic coofy. I love Prime to be black, bro. Prime is one of my favorite kids. Prime ain't black, bro. Prime is not black, bro. I would give you, I don't like, like, like,

I might pick him. I might pick him. I might pick him. That's not. You better because I want to, I just want to set the rule. Are you telling me that no robots are eligible because robots can't be black? I'm no, I'm telling you if there is somebody

on the Autobots that's black it ain't prime. I give an example. Somebody who I wanted to pick that I think is clearly black but is a cat. I wanted to pick Pantro. Oh.

Okay, you don't want to know. Jesus. Pantro is clearly the black thundercat. Whoa, whoa. Here's the thing. You're telling me that Pantthro is black

but Piccolo is not black. Brough, Panthro is bald with two hoop earrings, dog. Like, come on, like MJ at 97 like a Jordan, dog. Like, like, Panthro. Yeah, bro,

Panthro is black, bro. They, everybody knows. Everybody knows Panthro is black, bro. Panthro is black, bro. Piccolo, who is also bald and also

has been known to wear earrings is not. But, but, but, Panthro is different. It's different. Piccolo just, Panthro is different. on that bitch like hey motherfuckers let's head back you know panthero black bro like panthero black

but it's okay uh you can't now you can't you can't do optimist this is gonna make for the interesting game that i have planned for us later that's fun that game is gonna be fun but man we gotta do that game then but you can't you can't have you can't have optimist prime right all right this is my final pick this is my final pick all right I'm looking at who's taken hmm hmm hmm remember joy of the forge I got to order to the for that's off the board off the You know what? Ooh, this is tough.

This is tough. All right, you know what I'm going to go with? I'm going to go with the zombie killer herself. We need some more women on this. I'm going with Michone from the Walking Dead. Oh, that's dope.

I'm going to Michelle in the Walking Dead. That's dope. Michone is great. You guys fucking around with all this shit. This is great. This episode is brought to by Paramount Plus. Beth and Ripper back in a new series, Dutton Ranch.

Kelly Riley and Cole Houser 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 Colehous, Kelly Riley, Annette Benning, and Ed Harris, now streaming on Paramount Plus. It's Van's turn, fourth and final pick. Okay, fourth and final pick.

Now, here's the deal. This is a tough pick for me because I don't know what to do. I have a couple people here on my board that I think would make for interesting picks. Okay? Like super interesting picks. I have a couple of people on my board that I think are better known. You know, so I'm trying to think, do I go for a super powerful, if I'm going for the most powerful character left on the board, I know who I go for.

But not a lot of people know this character. I feel like all of the people who watch fucking I'm gonna go ahead and do it anyway I'm gonna pick Blue Marvel I'm gonna share So shut up Charles So let me tell you why

Oh no no alright Van I gotta be real with you You're my boy I gotta be real with you What Jomey's gonna fucking run away with this shit If you pick Blue Marley Jami's doing Jomi's doing great

No he's gonna run away with it You are the only one still in contention You cannot make your last pick Blue Marvel. I kind of feel like I already did that. I kind of feel like they made the call

to the league office. No. It's harding in. I'm picking Blue Marvel. And I was like, and so shit, man. It took Christop's fourth overall.

That's what it is. So I'm picking Blue Marvel. Here's the reason why. There are a lot of characters here that I could have gone with. A lot of characters that are better known. But I personally am going to pick a

character that is hyper-powerful maybe the smartest man in all of Marvel comic books, perhaps the strongest character in all of all of Marvel comic books, the leader of the multiversal Avengers, a character whose backstory, if you don't know it, quick backstory on Blue Marvel, Blue Marvel was a hero in the 60s in Marvel Comics,

and he was fighting off this big, huge villain that the Avengers could not stop. In the middle of this fight, Blue Marvel's suit was ripped, it was exposed that underneath his suit, he was a black man, a black man. President Kennedy then asked Blue Marvel to step down from saving the world because America wasn't ready for a black superhero yet. His memory of him was wiped.

He came back years later on, and now he is one of the biggest characters. You are going to see Blue Marvel in the MCU pretty soon, but this character is a very rich character, maybe the most powerful character ever. President Kennedy gave Blue Marvel a medal. He was pissed. He chucked the Blue, he took the medal, he took the medal,

he took the medal, the metal almost hit the moon. That's how strong he is. He's beating up all kinds of people. He's great. Adam Brashear, Blue Marvel, he is a brilliant guy. He is a powerful guy from the comic books.

I am taking Blue Marvel. That's my final pick. Wonderful pick. All right. That's a solid pick. The last pick that matters because I don't know what Steve's doing over there. And there's a lot of options.

You know, Falcon, you know, War Machine. There's a lot of, as a lot of places I can go, but I'm really stuck between two two thoughts of mind. I can go with like a pick that means a lot to me and my heart, but also like just one of the legendary heroes of our time. It's just, it's true. I'm going to go with the pick in my heart because everybody who

listened to the pod knows about my Young Avengers agenda. And so, it's going to wrap it all up with my boy Aqualad. Great pick. My boy Aqualat, the leader of the first iteration

of the young justice team, the hair to Aquaman, who, when my boy first told me, Oh, Isaac, he was like, hey, you got to watch Young Justice. I'm not trying to watch No Young Justice. What he mean? He was like, Aquilad. I'm not trying to watch no Aqualad. He's like, nah, you got to tap in.

The boy with the water, you know, he got the water weapons and the magic. It's just like, I mean, I've been speaking about it for how long. I'm down with Aqualad. That's my fourth and final pick. That's my team. Flawless victory. That's a good one. I don't feel like Al-Ala.

Al-Ala is a great pick, but I don't know. I don't feel like Aqualad like seals it, Charles? I think there's a wild card pick there. It's a wild card pick. But here's a thing. Here's a thing. It's just like there's no weakness here. There's no weakness.

I'm so jealous. Here's the thing. Starting off with Black Panther, this is what, this is the thing that I think is really, really tough about this. Starting off with Black Panther, the fallout from him to every other character is massive.

Charles. I'm not saying like creatively who the characters are just in terms of like moments. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, Charles Black Panther was a very important choice. Yo, cheer the fuck up. I'm, like, here's the thing. I'm heartbroken because here's the thing.

Here's the thing. I don't get to talk about anime a lot on this podcast because who the fuck cares, to be honest. Who fucking cares? But you broke my heart because you said to you, the little child in me,

you're like, hey, fuck you, fuck your love of anime and fuck Piccolo. Go pick a more face. That's what you said. We love Piccolo. We love Optimus. We love Optimus.

Optinus. I still contend was a better choice to pick. No, he's not. Pickle-Las. Charles, your team might be better than Morpheus. Steve, what's your last pick? Go ahead. Go ahead and pick Sanford from Sanford and son. Go ahead and pick some other TV character. Yeah.

Be careful. No. No. I'm surprised that he wasn't even mentioned here because we we caught him in, I'm sorry, I'm just, like Falcon was just done so dirty by Charles. And nobody picking Falcon.

I know. It's so funny. Here's the reason you can't pick Falcon or War Machine, in my opinion, is because like the MCU has kind of done them dirty for too many years. Like they, they just, and I mentioned that because I'm picking somebody

that was also in his own show, but wasn't Falcon. I'm talking about the second Captain America, Isaiah Bradley. the old man from the MCU? Or the comic books? The comic books. Yeah, okay.

I feel like, let me tell you why I feel like that that's a pandering ass truth. I was, do you say that? I wasn't going to say that. I was saying my head. I was like, Steve, no, no, no, no.

You want my repeat? Keep it. No, no. No. No. No. That's it. Ain't a real fourth pick.

You trying to get the votes? You're trying to get you, you're sarcophism. You're sceptivism. This is top tiers, Pete, this top tier sactivism. You had options, Steve.

Right. That's the sactivist pick. It's like, yo, I'm going to choose the real dude who they fucked over and like, come on, Isaiah. Do we feel bad for you,

homie? Yo, Steve, pick Luke Kate. Like, pick Lou Cage so we can wrap this up. He already picked him. He already picked him. He already picked him. Like, he already put him.

He picked him. He picked Isaiah, Joe me, if you don't put the old Luke Cage from the MCU on it. I'm going to do that. He already picked him. It's Isaiah Bradley and it's going to be the picture of him.

Oh, that's what it's going to be. All right. So let's talk about real quick. So we all got our teams. Everybody, first of all, Steve, read your team out. All right. My team is John Stewart, Jordy to the Forge,

Cyborg, and Isaiah Bradley. Jomi. My team, Black Panther, Storm from the X-Men anime series, Mace Windoo and Aqualad. Charles. My picks are Blade, Static Chalk, not Piccolo, not Dominic Toretto,

not Convook Storm, Morpheus, and then Michelle. Okay. And my team is Miles Morales, Spawn, Dr. Manhattan that's played by Yaya Abdul Mateen, and Blue Marvel Adam Brashear. I think these teams are a lot more equally yoked

than people think that they are. The Jordy LaForge pick takes fucking Steve clearly out of this Steve Steve man but here's the thing

here's a good question though because we left a lot of people on the board we left a few people on the board so I'm gonna name some names

is that okay that's great that's great black lightning was left on the board Heimdahl was left on the board Falcon was like like Han dog was left on the board

um Sleep at the wheel Heimdahl all the time he's still like his job Luke Cage was left on the board Shuri was left on the board Nick Fury was left on the board Hancock

was left on the board that Of course, Sherriff is left on the board. I don't think any of us will give her a shot. I don't think she'll get the shot. A train from the boys. Like, A train from the boys was on there. Whatever.

Landau Calrissian. Hawkman, Landau Calrizzian was left on the board. That's all right. You went with Jordie LaForge, Steve. Over Landau. Mr. Terrific was left on the board. Bishop was left on the board. John Henry Irons from Superman and Lois

and some other people I have. mother's milk from the boys. The OG, the O.G. Black Power Ranger left on the board. O.G. Black Power Ranger left on the board. Agent J. left on the board. Philmore. Agent J. left on the board. Deflock left on the board. Power line from a goofy

movie. Martian Manhunter? Martian Manhunter. Nobody chose Martian Manhunter. Well, he, you know, he's Martian. Is he black? Yeah, I mean, if Piccolo's not, a black man, I guess Martian Manhunter can't be either. But Martian Man, but see, here's the thing, though. No, don't do it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

We're not doing that. We're not doing it. Can I keep it going? No, no, no, Steve. Wait, hold on. Let me talk. Let that talk. I should have maybe picked Martian Man Hunter.

I'm not going to lie. Like, Martian Man Hunter at number four would have been great. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. How the fuck is Martian Man Hunter a black man? Because he makes himself into a black man. He's- He's-on-Piclo. Piccolo. No, he does it.

John Johns. All right, I need everybody. I need everybody to go look at Jomi's Black Panther costume that he wore. That is how Piccolo looks. That's how Piccolo looks. That is how Piccolo looks. That is not going to lie.

Hey, leave my act by that alone, man. That is how Piccolo looks. Oh, shit. That is exactly how Piccolo looks. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. That is how Piccolo looks. That's a solid point, Charles.

That's how Piglo. low looks. Wait, is Arjuna still there? Yes. Yeah, Arjuna really, really quick. Can you get, just give a recap? How do you think, as an announcer? How do you think the draft went? I thought it was great. I think Jomey's a clear winner. All right, we already knows that.

I mean, you know how it is. Jomey, Ben, Ben, you, Charles. I'm in a distant, distant, fourth. I'm sorry, Steve. Steve. That's right. That's Johnny LaForge is wrong. That's honestly where I should be. That's where I should be for this. The reality is that getting Black Panther was going to be huge for whoever

what was in the draft. But Jomeby drafted a good team, though. That was that was... That was... I maybe, I maybe, I maybe should have gone Mace Windu second pick because I maybe could have got Spawned down the line. But I think that if Spawn was there,

Charles, would you have taken Spawn? I don't know. He would have been in contention. The only reason... Here's the thing. The reason I pick Static Shock over Storm is that I feel like people have more of a connection

to static because Storm has been so mistreated for so long. But she's just such a big deal, though. She's a big deal. But like, like, people love that. Because I used to be like, hey, y'all overrated in static shock. Like, the cartoon was good,

but it wasn't that good. And people kill me when I say that. Van, I'll tell you this. If you had taken May 2nd, I would have went with Storm with my second pick and then went spawned immediately

with my third. Oh, for real? Well, I would have taken it because that would have come to me first because the Spawn would have been my second pick. Yeah. So I had to get spawned. But you went with Jordy Laforge.

That was third of my life. Let me tell you something, Steve. Let me tell you something, Steve. Like, you know, you're not going to win because, you know, they can't vote for you during this month. This is not your time. Right. But if they did, if it was like all even and Doordy LaForge was your second pick, that would

have some of the saddest stuff I've ever seen, bro. Steve, that's nuts. I can't believe that you're trying to get on me harder than. He would have been. He would have been there the whole time. Can you walk me through kind of the mental gymnastics you thought that Jordan LaForge was going to be taken. Hold on, really.

You thought that you were going to say, because we should go back and run that back. Hold on. Hold on. I want, I'm asking, if we could do a breakout for the moment that you picked

Jody LaForge. And like, there's so many to get a moment from this pod, man. I don't think that it can't be the Jordan of the Forge moment. It's got to be Charles drafting three in a row.

First of all, let's not move to go post to Charles right now. We're talking about you. All right. So, like, the moment that you picked Jordy LaForge, crickets and the look on your face, you thought that was a good pick. You thought he was going to kill them with that one.

You thought he's going to be like, first of all, when you said from Star from Star Trek, I thought you was about to pick Wharf. I was like, yo, Worse. I love Wharf, but I was like, when you did Wharf, it's pretty dope. But like you go, Jordan LaFourge. I'm like, come on.

What are you doing? He's not in this conversation, I'm sorry. I'm not using this. I'm not using this way. Jordan LaForge is not in this conversation, bro. Johnny LaForge,

then Mace Windo, dude, you can't come out. You can't. Joyne LaForge is not in this conversation. He's not, oh my God. Oh, my Lord.

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Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit trimfireradio.com. Should we do the quick side game? Yes, please. Let's go. All right. So, inspired really by Charles's picks of Piccolo, possibly Dominic Tureto.

Definitely Dominic Torretto and Optimus Prime. Let's be real. Right. There's a running list that I saw from a Vice article called All Your Favorite Cartoon characters are black. and it's a list of non-human like non-conotically black characters from animated television shows or whatnot that have been presumed black

and I wanted to go around the rest of the Midnight Boys and see what the consensus is about certain fictional characters and whether or not you think they are black. Are you guys ready? We are. Let's get it. Bugs Bunny. Is he black? No. Hell, no. Bugs Bunny. No, no. No. No. No. If I

All them hijinks? Like, there's way too much hijinks. Why, like, why? Why, people don't like hijinks? We can't get away with them. Yeah. He's been doing, he's been doing the same hijinks for years. Bugs like,

hell no, he ain't black. No. Okay. Goofy and Max. Nah. What is Max? Who is Max? From a goofy movie.

From a goofy movie. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't have them being black because they like the buffoons. I mean, like, let's be honest, right? How many white people go on right that hard for Powerline? Like, let's be real. Ooh, that is true. Let's be real.

Mm-hmm. You know? I think the theory is that, like, Max is half, right? Max is, like, half black. Wherever his mom is, she was the black one. Goofy's his white dad. And Max is half. I will say this.

If Goofy isn't black, then who would be the black characters in Disney then? They don't have nothing. I feel like Donald is maybe a little bit, you know, always hanging out with his nephews. you know what I mean? I feel like Donald is a, he's kind of, no, Donald kind of got like a chip on his shoulder a little bit. No, you know why Donald can't be? Got a rich, got a rich uncle.

Yeah. The rich uncle, Scrooge is obviously white. Yeah, but he might be like a Mr. Drummond type of situation. Like that might not be, you know what I mean? He might have adopted. You know what I'm saying? Like, he might have adopted it because he treat them like he adopted them. You know what I mean?

He might have, like, adopted. You know, he's swimming around and gold and stuff like that, which, you know, physically... If we're talking about Ducks, I definitely think Daffy's black. Daffy's black.

Oh, yeah, for sure. Daffy's blue. Daffy actually, I think Donald, I'm gonna be honest with you. I want you guys to go look at this. I think Donald Duck called Daffy the N-word in,

in, I'm being for real. Is this true? You guys, I want you guys to listen to this. Everybody that's on the podcast, go watch who framed Roger Rabbit? Oh, that part? Okay. Have you seen that part?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's, there have been like talks about like, oh, did he say that? Did he say this? It seems like he called Donald Doug called Daffy to N-word. We used to always, my dad used to be crazy over that. So you may tell me I ain't hear that. He's just called him. My dad used to go crazy anyway.

Well, Snope says it's false. Right. Yeah. So. Here's the thing. Here's my pitch why I think Daffy is black Because Bugs is always framing him for shit That he didn't do

And then he ends up getting shot over it You know? Interesting. I see it. Very interesting. Okay. All right, we got the next one. This is an interesting one. Uh-huh.

Elmo. For sure. Elmo's black. Yeah, Elmo's black. Oh, all right. Time out. Time out. Time out.

You're a black kid. Now, I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. The fact that he won't go for the Rocco shit. Yeah.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. A little black kid that going for that. Can you please? No, walk me through this. Walk me through this. How is a red little puppet black and Optimus Prime and Piccolo or not? What are the things that go into making Elmo Black? Google Google Kevin Clash first.

Whoa, it was a white man before that, I believe. Okay, before Kevin Clash. But don't matter. Hold on. Hold on. This don't mean that we could have drafted Elmo in the draft. This just means that we, okay, so stop. Stop beating this.

I just want to know what goes into this. First of all, it's a feeling. But by the way, I'm not saying that I don't feel as if Piccolo is black because I do. But you can't put Piccolo in a black kid. We're talking about Piccolo next to goddamn Miles Morales. You said you could pick Martian Manhunter, so I don't want to hear it. Martian Manhunter, when he's on earth, he's a mrs. who transforms into a black man.

If anything, if anything, it's cultural appropriation and black lightning should kick him out of the Justice League if we're being real. All right.

Okay. Next one. Arthur. The Arvart? I don't know him. No. No, Arthur wasn't black.

I wasn't around like when y'all was fucking with him. I'll tell you. I don't know much about it. Van is cold. Perfect timing. Skeeter is black though. Skeeter from Doug is black.

I'll tell you who from Arthur is black. Francine is black. and Buster is black. Buster's not. I thought you would have said brain. Buster's, the brain is on this list. Brain is black. You're right. Brain is black. All right. Next one. Lola Bunny.

Space Jam. Nah. No. No. I can't see it. Can't see it. No? Okay. Even though she was voice in Zandaya in the new movie. Okay. Interesting one here. Jerry from Tom and Jerry. And for reference, Jerry is the mouse.

The only reason why I say that is because he's just trying to live his life and he got all these prodigious forces always trying to kill him and keep him in a hole. You know what I'm saying? I mean, he got the experience, if not, by the way, super violent. You know what I'm saying?

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up, hold up, hold up. Who's super violent in this? Let's not be racist on Black issue, man. Tom is super violent. Oh, I thought you said, yeah. I was like, what the fuck? The cat. Jerry is, Jerry.

It's Jerry. They're trying to live his life. trying to chill. They try to him behind his business. Eat his cheese. Oh, yeah. Oh,

you're convincing me. You're convincing me. Yeah. Yeah. All right. This will be a contentious one. Any of the teenage mutant ninja turtles?

Raphael. Raphael's black. Please explain this. I mean, in the movie, they definitely had him as being black. In the movie, he almost came off as some yo, yo, yo. If it came out today,

they might cancel Raphael. in a movie. Raphael's not black. Raphael's not black. Well, no, I think, but like, to Vance point, you have to think about it. Which of the Teenade Meijian Ninja Turtles would have a puffy

and some Timso? Think about it. It would be Raphael. It'll be right. But here's the thing, they're brothers. One of them can't be black if they are, not all black. They're not all.

They're adopted brothers. Yeah, they're adopted brothers. What are you talking about? All of the fucking turtles are from the same cohort are turtles. They're blood brothers. Yeah, we don't know that. All we know is that he found little baby turtles.

Do we know? Do we ever talk to the turtles, mom? Who? What's her name? I'm sure that I'm, all right, guys, I'm sure that all of the turtles are different races then. That makes sense. Charles, I'm not going to lie, Charles.

You are edgy right now because of the results of the draft. The Pink Panther from the cartoon. Nah. No way. No, no way. That's a reach. Reach. Nah.

Okay. He's smooth the cell, though. I fuck with him, but he ain't black, though. He like him and them. Okay. Where did they come from? Because, I mean, we used to fuck with him and he ain't black. I love Pink Panther's performance at the Super Bowl halftime show.

He took that knee. Right, he took the knee. It was after us. That is a good question. Would Pink Panther take a knee at the Super Bowl? Ooh. I don't know. Wouldn't he be too busy?

Doesn't he steal or something? What does the Pink Panther do again? He'd be trying to steal the trophy? trying to steal jewels and stuff. So he definitely can't be black, man. We're not bringing no thieves. This is the list. This is the list.

Steve did not make this list. I did not make this list. And we have Optimus Prime here, but I don't want to start another argument. Let's not start that war again. What he is. All right, but yeah, that's it. That's it for the list.

That was very fun. Man, this was a contentious episode. I'm sorry. I apologize, guys. I got out of myself a little bit there. I'm back to time. Charles, you're toxic. Wait.

You're toxic, bro. Charles, this is so funny, bro. It's so funny. We got to go. That's a wrap. You guys, thank you for indulgent us. Please go on social and vote with who you think had the best. Drafted team of all black superheroes.

This was fantastic fun. I'm not even going to lie. Make sure you follow at Ring Reverse on Twitter. Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit. Don't forget on Friday. Friday, we got a House of Midnight episode coming for the Peacemaker finale, which I am very excited about.

I've been really digging peacemaker, really been loving peacemaker. So we're going to be a peacemaker finale on Friday. That is going to be House of Midnight minus Charles. Backed out of it right before we did this podcast. I didn't back. Come on, man. Okay.

Producer credits. Our producer is Steve Almond Joy. The cuddly Black History Month pandarus. Jomi Adiron, Free Jomi, is on social. And additional production is from Arjuna, Robin Kapal. Charles, please, please.

Tread carefully, please. Happy Black History Month. I can't wait for more, but I can't believe my favorite white boy pick fucking Jordan. I got one. This is a famous question from the show Syke, if y'all, if you all seen that one.

Is Grimmis Black? Oh, man, that's a good one. I don't know enough about him. I have to look into it. We'll have an answer for you on the next point. You say Grimmis, this is the McDonald's mascot, correct? Sorry, I'm just full the picture of all the mascots.

Not the hamburger. There's a white man. Right, yes. Very much so a white man. Jory Burrow looking boy. Mary McChese? Mayor McChese. Nah, he's a white man.

Well, Mick cheese, so like he's Irish. All right, we got a couple more. A couple more. All right. You're going to have to bleep this, but Scrappy do. Okay. I'm being real. You have to believe that. But like that's it. That's a lot. I'm earning it today. I'm earning it today. Wow. Okay. Feels like every product claims real protein these days. But real doesn't start on a label.

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