The Ringer-Verse - Things We Missed in 2022 | Mint Edition

Episode Date: December 12, 2022

Jomi and Steve are back to dive into some of their favorite shows this year that they weren’t previously able to discuss, including ‘The Legend of Vox Machina’ (5:00), ‘Cyberpunk: Edgerunners��� (09:00), ‘Pantheon’ (14:00), ‘Catwoman: Hunted’ (19:30), and more. Later, producer Kerm joins the conversation to highlight some of his favorite Marvel comic books of 2022, headlined by ‘Immortal X-Men’ (37:00). Hosts: Jomi Adeniran and Steve Ahlman Associate Producer: Jonathan Kermah Additional Productional Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An Instagram post gets an unexpected boost. A TikTok catches in the algorithm. Sometimes that's all it takes to launch someone into internet fame. But then what? This Blue Up is a new podcast documentary that reveals how social media stardom is made. It's a different kind of fame. That's not always as glamorous as it looks. From Spotify and the Ringer Podcast Network, I'm Melissa Bereznak.

You can listen to This Blue Up 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

and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and 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 Trimfairadio.com.

This episode is brought to you by Sweet Green. The date doesn't ask for permission. Lunch window? Gone before you saw it coming. You deserve a break that actually satisfies. Sweet Green's new wraps have got you. Real ingredients? Zero shortcuts.

Everything you love in one hand. Think green goddess chicken. Garlic aoli. Crumbled bacon. Corn salsa. 40 grams of protein. Made to keep up with whatever comes next. New sweetgreen wraps hit different.

Order now at order. Sweetgreen.com. Welcome. into the ringer verse Ringers' podcast feed for all things fandom welcome back to Mint Edition

a once in a while podcast about the latest fandom that you can't live without I'm Steve Alvin senior producer at the Ringer and joining me as always is my co-host Ringer social coordinator

Lord of the memes explainer the Midnight Boys and I didn't even think to write an intro that goes further than this it's Joe Me and Dinner on Hey listen, this end of the year, you feel me? We got things popping off.

You know, what we could do, right, is just go through what was our favorite bits, you know, for this year. I think for me, the favorite one that you did was the light year one. That was great. That was pretty good. That was really good. I was a big kind of. I think that was me coming to terms with the hierarchy of power changing finally. It's tough.

That was it. That was probably in mine. You didn't lose $100 million, though. So, no. Good for you. But we're not going to lose the plot today as we get into our programming of minors before we begin this illustrious show. The Midnight Boys are returning this Wednesday.

This Friday, Ben Lindberg and friends are going to discuss their favorite video games of 2022 talking a little bit more about video games on this here feed. I'm liking it. Yeah. It's fun times. Maybe we hear a thing or two about it today. But that's coming up very soon as well as next month. Monday the House of Midnight returns to give their thoughts and impressions on Avatar the way of water.

How excited for you are you for that, Jomey? Listen, not the pod, but the movie. I've been a big fan of Avatar, man, you know, Ang, Cora, you know what I'm saying? So the fact that they're getting, you know, a movie, what's that? You mean, you mean, oh, oh, it's a James Cameron sequel to the Avatar movie with the Unoptanium? A quick correction, five James Canteran sequels. Oh, no. Oh, boy. Oh, dear. I mean, I'll go see it.

You know, we'll see if the way of the water was truly the way of the land. You feel me? Like, you know, let's go. That's the way of the box office, because apparently this needs to make like two billy in order to, you know, break. Oh, my gosh. Listen, listen, as long as James Cameron keeps changing the way we make movies so that other movies can be better going forward, it's a success. So you may say that the hierarchy of movie making is about to. change once again, as James Cameron brings it to us. So on today's show, we take a walk down the

road less traveled and talk about some of our favorite things that you might have missed this year. It's been a big year in 2022. The ringerverse covers a lot, Jomey. We can only do so much, though. And you know what? We have our own podcast. We have our own things to talk about. And we might have seen a few things that the ringerverse didn't get to talk about, but you know what? They gave us an hour and we're going to talk about whatever we like to talk about to day. And it's going to be some of our favorite picks from 2022 across fandom and some of our favorite things in general. So with that in mind, a light spoiler warning for all these things that we'll be talking about today. We're going to say well in advance, the name of the thing,

where you could find it. And if you don't care to be spoiled fully on it or don't want to hear anything about it at all, just know that we wholeheartedly endorse all of these picks. And we can encourage you to check them out regardless of what you want to hear. But to begin, Jomi and I have made three picks for our favorite things of this year. We're going to be going back and forth in no particular order or ranking. We're just going to be freestyling it. We're just going to be talking about the stuff that we love. And then range across movies, TV, games, comics, and later,

Kerm is going to give us one of his personal recommendations in the world of comic books is X-Men lover if we ever seen one. But for right now, let's get into our first picks. Jomey, why don't you kick us off? Well, you know, this show came out at the top of the year. And I didn't know what I was getting myself into, but ultimately, when it was all said and done, I had a great time. At a fantastic time. First of all, starting off with a ringing endorsement.

Listen. At a good time. Legend of Vox Machina. Okay. I'm not, let me just set the stage. I'm not into. D&D. That's not my thing. You're about to be, though.

2023, it's happening. Listen. You know, I said it. When Mike was out there playing D&D, I was like, hey, bro, you should be worried about 3&D. That's me. You know, like I'm all about hoops. I'm all about, you know, sports.

Like D&D is not something that I was ever, ever tapped into, right? Right. But this show, you can find it on the Amazon's, on the prime. Mm-hmm. With Tan Lines, people were like, oh, yo, you got a, you got to tap it. All right, for sure, we'll see.

And I, I had a great time. No, it's an agent of Vox Machina. You know what? It starts like everybody who's ever voice acted ever. Is that? And all of our great critical role friends out there. Yes, which I didn't know, which, you know, shout out to the research afterwards. this is a thing that happened.

This is an actual D&B campaign. It's a very, very popular Twitch and YouTube series called Critical Role, and it's based off of that first initial campaign that they did. It is wildly popular, and they have so much so

that they've been given a show for it. And it's surprisingly good. It's quite fun. Surprisingly good? Jesus Christ, Steve. Were you going in there? Like, hey, man. I don't know. These D&D shows, ah, you know, he, who knows? I'm not overly dismissive of D&D shows.

I was, I was honestly, like, when I went back and I was like, so man, this is a great show, man, oh my gosh, we're having so much fun. We're getting a season two, bad, awesome, let's go. And then I did the whole deep dive. I was like, oh, my gosh, this is like a whole thing. Like, this is like a, not even like an empire of content that I completely like, because it wasn't in my wheelhouse, completely missed. Ultimately, I'm glad I hopped on the wagon because this show is great.

I can't wait. They've already coming back for season three after the season two. I'm ready. Let's get it. I couldn't agree more. And especially if, like, now we know that this is based off of a like long years running IP, I guess we could say, a called critical role. Like you don't need to really know anything about the lore or backstory that you would listen to from years. years of content from critical role.

This is very introductory. This is getting to know all of these fun, cool characters that were played in an actual D&D campaign, and then they focused this nice little story around it, and it's pretty fun. Do you have a favorite character? Do you have a favorite little plot line? Because, again, like, these are, like, what I liked about

this show is kind of that you get like little scraps and pieces of everybody's individual story that you can hear about, and it's like, oh, this one person has a cool thing. This person's got a cool thing. Did anybody stand out to you? Well, so, my favorite character was Vax. Right.

Like me a good rogue. You know what I'm saying? I'm all about, you know, the ops, you know, being the sneaky little guy. But I've got to be honest. Scalind had me rolling, bro. Of course. Man, got the jokes, bro. You know, I'm not really, you know, I can't really play a tune.

I'm not really great with music like that. But, man, I was like, man, if I could, if I could be him, because he's funny. That's what you want to be. won't be funny. I can't everybody that funny. It's just kind of serious. But, uh,

Calvin is hilarious. I don't know. I'm a good fan. I'm a big fan of, I'm a big fan of like somebody that can accessorize a lot of their stuff. So I can, I can appreciate all of that stuff.

Um, so that's one of our first picks. Legends of Vox Machina. What about you, Steve? One of my first picks, um, is probably going to be a wildly stunning spinoff to a video game that was, initially released to

horrendous critical acclaim. It was the hottest mess in video games probably that I could ever remember. But the spinoff anime that was based on this is actually kind of incredible. Cyberpunk Edge Runners on the old Netflix. Where did this come from?

I have no idea. Absolutely incredible. Following a completely different story from the rest of the video game, taking place in the world of cyberpunk, following one of one of like the again the stereotypical anime hero of being an absolute loser

until he gets superpowers and then maybe he's kind of cool but still kind of a you know a little shit oh yeah just kind of yeah just kind of what did you think about this about this show because I genuinely like rolled my eyes knowing that

cyberpunk got a spin off anime I was probably the last of our group to actually watch it yeah so you know Everybody was like, yeah, Cyberpunk, everyone was like, I'll tap me, you know, it's on their old Netflix. She was going on. And like, one of the first thing I noticed was like, oh, boy, this is, this is going to be one of them ones. Like, what, the first scene is when, you know, the dude is, you know, shooting up the police. And it's just like, just bloody and foul.

And you're like, oh, boy, we're going to be into it. And then to get into the story with, with the main character. And it's sadder than you could ever hope for. Oh, yeah. Yet just as brutal and just as sad. You're like, oh, my God. This is what I signed up for. Ten episodes of this.

Ah! Our main character, David, is pretty much a doubt and out student that's... The world of cyberpunk is really like this great sort of dystopian, like, technology can be used as both drugs and human augmentation. and he quickly gets into this underground world of crime and deception, and we meet our, you know, femme fatal, love interest, all of these other things, that are incredibly compelling, but also still playing up to, like, a lot of tropes that, like, some being not that great and some being quite fun. The world of cyberpunk, while I having played it,

making a rather like in my opinion like unremarkable video game perfect template for perfect template for anime because they incorporate all of these powers that you could see in the show are in the game and like described and the visual language of this show actually pretty well illustrates a lot of the things

that you can do and see in this game it's probably one of the better advertisements of the game itself rather than just watching people play it Because then I wanted to pick it back up again. I was like, oh, yeah, that's what this game is about. Yeah, I mean, and that's the, that's the best part of this, the show is that it expands upon a world where, you know, if, if the game was, you know, made correctly, you would have fallen in love with when you played, right?

You know, with all the bugs and just the disaster was at launch, it kind of ruins that, it ruins it for you. But the world of cyberpunk is, fruitful and giving and has so much content there to be explored. You know, we got it in the anime. Hopefully, you know, I don't think there'll be a sequel, but maybe there's more stories to be told in that world. Ultimately, the video game didn't do that as well as it should have,

but it's still set enough of, still set enough of an example that you can reach in and find great things from it. I think if you could take away anything from cyberpunk, I think that's what's one thing, take away. To the unfamiliar with how disastrous that the cyberpunk launch was,

here's a little illustration. The game stars Kianu Reeves as a character named Johnny Silverhand. Just gruff talking you and basically telling you like he's your subconscious. When Keanu Reeves is your subconscious and you still can't sell a bunch of copies

and you get pulled from the PlayStation store, you're done messed up. you're really done messed up. But the show didn't. We definitely, definitely enjoyed it, and it's well worth checking out. Jomi, I see two picks on your list right here.

What are you the most excited to talk about right now? Oh, man. Okay, so I'm just going to get this one out the way real quick. Let me just get it out of the way. It's one of the best things I saw in the last year. It is hidden behind the AMC Plus banner. I peeked my head in to see

interview with the vampire and then I just piqued my head right out. So you got to sell me on sticking with AMC Plus. If you are listening to the sound of my voice, you have to watch Pantheon. I literally had to Google this before we started recording and I had never seen this before in my life. It appears to be an animated show

about adults looking a little sad. Please elaborate for me. It's a little said. So it's created by Craig Silverston. It's based on these books by Ken Liu. And it's, man, how much time do we have? The short summary I would give you is that imagine if you could upload your consciousness after, you know, you died. Okay.

and what ramifications would that have on your family? Sure. And how would people try to monetize that? How would people try to, you know, take advantage of that? Okay, so I'm synced to the cloud. Mm-hmm. And it gets, I don't want to spoil it. No, no, no.

We're not going to heavily spoil things. But, like, again, what's that thing that grabs you about this? Because I've heard of this premise before of this like, okay, people, like, uploading their consciousness from the beyond. to some sort of like technology or this relationship with, you know, the eternal. There are mysteries in the show that you're like, okay, oh, okay, what's going on here? Okay, for sure. Theories, you know, just there's not a, not a say a lot going on,

there's too much, but there's a lot of stuff going on that, like, okay, this intersects here, this comes here, you discover stuff. And you're like, okay, every episode adds another level of either knowledge or questions that build upon themselves. So when you get to the last episode of the season finale, you're like, oh, okay, this, you know, will this happen? Will this happen? Da-da-da-da-da. So you would say that this is kind of like in the same vein as like a theory show. Maybe not so much hardcore as like a lost.

Like it's not like asking a million questions. It's not asking a million questions. but you have to, you know, it was one of those shows where as I'm, well, first of all, I see it, I'm like, hey man, this looks like Invincible.

Is this what they've been doing this whole time? That's what, and the people that have been invisible have been moonlighting on this show. I was like, hey man, this kind of looked like, what's going on?

But you're just like, you're interested in the, okay, wow, you know, if it turns out that some, like, it turns out, oh,

you know, you're talking to somebody, who you thought was dead, who is now an AI, cool, and the ramifications that just snowball from that discovery is just, was legitimately one of the best shows I watched on TV last year. You know, it has our boy, The Riddler, Paul Dano, Daniel Day Kim. Daniel Day Kim, again, running these TV streets.

Running these TV scenes. Aaron Eckhart, you know, you either die, a hero or live long to see yourself from the show. Exactly. Right. It's just, it was so good. I was, I was sucked in from the,

first episode. I had, again, I had to buy AMC Plus, you know, and I'm telling you, you got to spend your break tapping into the show. It's getting season two. Okay. I'm sorry to confirm, we straight, you know what I mean? But, yeah, I'm telling you all,

I cannot give away too much info. I do not want to ruin it for you. Just go in. I love it. With a blank slate and an open mind, I'm telling you, if you're in, if like,

I will say this, there's a lot of technological talk. Like a bunch of tech jargon. There's a lot of tech jargon. You know, I'm like, hey man, I went to school for communications. That's all gobbly good for me.

Yeah. It's right. It's like, you know, but it honestly didn't like ruin the show, you know, obviously. Right. But, you know, please don't be scared if they're,

like, oh, yeah, man, well, the mainframe of the da-da-da and the thing and the black box and the you're like, don't let that dissuade you. This show, I'm telling you, trust me on this. This is a fantastic show, and I hope that when you watch it, you let me know, and you're like, man, gentlemen, you were right. The show Pantheon, now you do have to get AMC Plus. I keep saying it. Again, again, that's fine.

You fire up the N-Rice machine after you watch interview with the vampire and then while you're there, just throw over the pan-air. You get like that weak subscription, that free subscription. You know, it's only eight episodes you be doing that. Get that trial in you. Yeah. Get that trial.

It's worth it. You will have to get it again for the second season, though. I don't know it's a diet. Well, if it's good enough, we'll re-up. I promise you that. It's a great show. Or get another email address. There we go.

There we go. You know me. Curman was outside. Kermin knows what this is about. All right. Well, you don't crack down on the password sharing

just yet, Netflix. This episode is brought to by Borris Head. What if we told you the taste of deep fried turkey is now available at your local deli? Well, Borishead just did that.

Bursting with flavor, perfectly seasoned with that indulgent taste that usually means pointing your whole day around it. Presenting the Friars turkey breast only from Borershead. The backyard tradition

now available behind the counter. Visit your local deli today. discover the craftsmanship behind every bite, Borishead committed to craft since 1905. This episode is brought to by Viori. When it comes to clothes that score high and both comfort and style, Viori is my MVP.

Sunday performance joggers, oh yeah, they have the perfect I could watch a game and then go out to dinner vibe. And the metapant, that's my number one. I need to look like I tried option. Get 20% off your first purchase

at Viori.com slash Simmons and discover the versatility of Viori Clothing. Exclusions apply, visit the website for full terms and conditions. All right. Well, it's on to my pick. And I was a big advocate of wanting to dig into my HBO Max subscription, which will now be called Max. Because, you know, HBO is irrelevant now.

Who needs HBO? We just need to Max, baby. Jesus Christ. Max it out. But as the home of the animated DC universe, I don't know if you know this. There's a million animated DC films. out there. And in my quest to kind of

dig and find the good ones this year, I stumbled across Catwoman hunted. This, and like, this, I wouldn't even call this in my top, I guess, 10 of all time DC animated films, because a lot of those

are great. Like, DC animated films, like, if anybody that's watched them would know, some of the best content from DC out there. Yeah, absolutely. Catwoman hunted is one of my favorites that came out this year, and it is... It's directed by Shinsukee Teresawa,

and it is an anime director taking a crack at Catwoman, and it is entirely emulating vibes from cowboy bebop, all of these fun, jazzy thief movies, Lupin the Third. There's so many great... cavalier, fun,

plucky little moments with Catwoman who is basically on a heist to find this one jewel. That is apparently a big giant McGuffin for yada yada. You don't need to be spoiled too much. But the key scene. There's always like one scene from every DC animated movie that's like incredible. Where it's like there's like one interaction between like

Batman and Wonder Woman where they're like flirting. They're like, holy shit, this is amazing. like you finally see those interactions in real life happening. There's a scene where catwoman is flirting with Batwoman to get information out of her and to basically just try to steal her phone from her person. Okay. And it is the greatest moment of catching someone lacking.

Wow. That I have ever seen in, ever in film. Oh my gosh. Well, first of all, how does Bruce feel about this? Trust me, Batwoman takes a hard L. Oh, no. My God. Oh, my God. Like, Selena, of course, Selena,

laying on the chart, laying on that quotation. And she just ices her out in the most, like, in the slickest, most city girl way you have ever seen. It was like that, that's seen alone. worth the price of admission, but it's a really fun, fun heist film. Black Mask is in it, a bunch of other fun cameos.

It's really, really, really worth your time. And it's only like a brisk hour 20. Like, you're good. That's, that, like, I'm all about the action. You know what I'm saying? I love it. Here's a thing.

I love me, some flirtation. I love with somebody. This is coming from the Harley Quinn stands here. like you are going to love this. And she goes out sad, you say? Goes out so sad. Nah, say it ain't say it ain't so. Not bad woman.

Oh, man. Rest of peace, bat girl. Like, God damn, this was a rough go for you. That's tough. Uh-huh. It was great. You hate to see that. You hate to see it, but like, I just love a well-written, like, romantic tension scene.

And then it just, like, turns that heel on you. And it's, it's so fun. It's so, so fun. Great jazz playlist for a soundtrack. It's great. A lot of good voice cameos here. A lot of good voice. We got John Carl Esposito in here.

Oh. Oh, yeah. Elizabeth Giles is Catwoman. We love that. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You're telling me that our homegirl from Victoria's. Mm-hmm. It's Catwoman.

And you should have led with that! Oh, I buried the lead on this one. Guess who's Batwoman? Who's Batwoman? Nothing but Brooklyn Nine-Nine's very own, Stephanie Beatrice. Oh, wait. Wait, wait, wait. So you got Jade and Rosa flirting.

Flirting. You should have just said that. I'm watching that tonight. Recommendation over. I'm watching that tonight. What? No, it's amazing, bro. It's amazing.

my God. Keith Davidson's this. Morax? No, he's in here. Davidson? Yeah. You should, oh, lock in,

man, lock in. I would have been, man, you buried the lead. I really, really did. You buried to lead. Elizabeth guys, as Catwoman,

I'm gonna lead to podcast. We'll be, I'll be right back. I watched that right now. Yeah, that's good. It's great, man.

I really, really had a blast with it. Again, these animated DC films sneak up on you because they'll just be out. And to no fanfare at all. Like, I didn't hear about it.

Like, it just shows up. Yeah, nobody will ever tell you when a DC movie comes out or a DC anime movie comes out. Got to periodically check your HBO Max. There's 20 Constantine movies. All of them are good. Dude, okay. Well, here's the thing, right? Let's get into a little bit.

Okay. Those are the best ones. They truly are. Justice League Dark? Justice League Dark? Just the Dark. Like, Coppulix War? Oh, so great.

There's a trilogy. of like three Constantine-centered DC animated films, I think pretty much around the same arc that starts with Justice League Dark. That's like so good. Again, like... So good. Okay, I'm ending this recommendation with like, just take a stroll

down animated DC lane in your HBO Max account and then start with Catwoman hunted. It's great. All right, Jomey, you're up next. Oh, boy. Okay. I had to end with this one

because this show is honestly my favorite show that comes out every year. Every year in July and August, I am glued to my TV on Thursday nights. I swear one day I'm going to watch this. I promise I'm going to watch this. You have to, everybody, you have to tap in the Star Trek Lower Decks.

Listen, I, just like the legend of Voxmarketer, I am not like a big Star Trek fan. Like I don't have like the, I didn't watch Deep Space Nine. I didn't watch the next generation. You know, I'd even watch the movies. Please just watch Deep Space Nine.

Like I know that NextGen is like the fan favorite, but Deep Space Nine is like the most consistently good. I would say, in my opinion. Steve, I'm gonna keep it a buck. Series. I gotta do that. I, like, I know that I'm coming at you from a weird place of like, I don't watch lower decks,

but I'm like, could you watch a Star Trek show? Could you watch like a live action Star Trek? My only live action Star Trek are the JJ Abrams movies. Okay, great. The one clip that Bill Simmons would post when we was talking about the former Timberwolves GM. Khan! Okay. I'll give you, I'll Venmo you a dollar if you can name what movie that's from.

Oh, that's from Star Trek to The Wrath of Khan. me my money, Steve. Okay, great. Great. Great. I'm running your money. You thought I was, you thought I would catch me slacking. I mean, low stakes.

Low stakes. I gave you a dollar. I'm getting a, I'm getting the three musketeers bar, baby. Right. Watch it with Catwoman hunted. All right. That's right. What's so great about season three?

So, yeah, season three came out this year. And I mean, the characters are just are fantastic. You've got Boymler, who's played by our homeboy. Jack Quaid from the boys, right, Huey. You've got Tendi. She's the medical ensign aboard the Cerritos, Sam Rutherford, and Becca Mariner. Those are your four main characters.

And they're lower deckers, right? When we spend time with Star Trek characters, always the captains, you know what I'm saying? The Spock's, the Huras. Nah, these are the people who make the ship go. These are people you don't spend time. time with these people who you do. These are the red shirts who die when the ship explodes, right?

These are these people. And they have so much fun exploring the universe. They, you know, you find out what they want to do in Star Trek. You know, like, Brad is so set on becoming a captain. You know, Tendee wants to become like a medical officer so bad. And it's easy. And it's just so much fun to see them go through. all these experiences.

Of course, they have wild Star Trek adventures where somebody on the bridge becomes a god. And, you know, uh-oh, we have to go save, you know, the other ship, the ship Ventura in the Delta Quadrant type thing. You know, it's, it's all those Star Trek things. But there's so much humanity and so much fun that's had on the show. Like every single time, I'm so sad. Like, I can't erase my brain and go back and rewatch all 30 episodes. again for the first time and fall in love with the show again for the first time. It's so much fun.

It's so good. Even if you aren't in a Star Trek, I'm not in. There's a lot of like insight jokes. That's probably the best endorsement that you have because you've never seen an actual Star Trek series. No, I was talking to Arjuna about this. He's also, he's a bigger fan of Star Trek than I ever could be. And we were, there's, every time you go into like the Reddit threads or even like the

hashtags on Twitter, people are talking about like the references, like, oh man, you see that? Oh, that dude. Oh, he was from, um, he was from the next innovation. Yeah. Oh, he was from, uh, Star Trek 3. And I'm like, yeah, man. Sure. I'm sure that's true.

But even with that, all that stuff going over my head, I'm still enjoying the show. Like, I think that's wonderful. Like, it's still so much, so incredible. Mike McCann, listen, Mike, I can't, but I said that wrong. Mike Mahan, listen, listen, you're doing a great job. I need, I need, I, more than, you. I need more than 10 episodes, my boy. I need 12.

I need 16. Listen, sometimes these animated shows get a short leash. Listen, no, listen, this is the best thing that's on Paramount Plus right now. Okay. I mean, this is a lot of Yellowstone Slender right now. It's better than Yellowstone. It's better than 1945, 1938, 1875. I don't know what year.

Whatever that Harrison Ford Joint's going to be. Yeah, it's better than all that, right? it's better than all of this. Star Trek Lower Decks is fantastic. Mike, if you're listening, I can do voices. All right,

you need me to do that. I come into the booth, you feel me? I know you're listening to you're a big fan. No, but seriously, this is... You're moonlighting just like

those invincible writers now. Hey, listen, you got to get a bag, you feel me, you got to get the bag. No, but honestly, this is my,

like, my favorite show that comes out every year. And I really hope that you check it out because it's so much fun. It's so well done.

There's just an earnestness to the show that makes you feel like you're aboard the Cerritos. The Sherritos is a family and you feel a part of that family when you watch the show. So I hope you tap in because it is incredible. That's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. What's your last one, Steve? My last one.

I said that I would mention a video game before. Now, we've got our, stay tuned for Friday for the games of the year discussion with Ben Lindberg and friends. We're going to have a lot more video game goodness for this. So you're going to expect a lot of the big ones, the AAAs, the Eldon Ring, the god of wars, all of that stuff. But on the off chance, they don't mention this one. I wanted to get this out there. It's a game called Cult of the Lamb. I play this on my Steam deck.

It's available on the Switch. It's available on PlayStation. PC as well. I loved, loved, loved this game. It's basically, imagine a, hybrid of the very popular game, Hades, and a dash of animal crossing.

You play as this adorable cartoon lamb that has been sacrificed by the gods, to the gods, I should say. And the wrong god gets delivered to you, and he says, no, you're my chosen one. You will punish all of the unbelievers, and you will build a cult

in my name. So, you're basically this prophet to this actual Eldritch God, and you start to build your own cute little colony, and cult and you start to indoctrary to all your followers and you could build this cute little base with like, you know, little toilets and

make them food and all of these things. It's great. And then at night you can go into the dungeons and kill a bunch of monsters and then get resources for your base. You keep saying cute and cult in the same sentence. Like that's a normal thing that occurs. Take a look on the Google

machine. Have you seen this video again? I have. cute is not the word I would use I would It's definitely I definitely would I think this is adorable I think it's absolutely adorable

It's developed by massive monster and published by Devolver Digital Devolver Digital is probably the I don't want to say like 824 of game development houses but it's like very highly curated in the projects

that come out of this. And I don't know if they've made necessarily a bad choice with the games that they've had, but they have all been unique. And they've definitely all been something that's been like, you know, grabbing your fancy that you'd like. Calls of the Lamb is probably one of the games that I poured some of the most time into outside of those big AAA titles.

I was, I sunk into it. It's super fun. Very easy to pick up, difficult to master. A bunch of great resource management. You can do fun, like sacrifice rituals.

and sermons and all these things to get buffs and, like it's a great, great little game. I'm curious if you've ever, like, wanted to grab something that's like this game, or if you've ever played something like this. Not even close.

No? You get, look, check the side. I got my switch right here. Okay. Got my switch right here, but it was like,

play Hades. It was like, I'm good. I'm good. Did you ever play Hades? I never played Hades. I don't know. Oh, my God.

My brother, listen. It's the one, it's the one video game that I recommended to Joanna that she played this year. She only plays one. And I'm like, okay, if you make it one, it's got to be this.

Jomi, I know you've been playing a lot these days. I'm locked in on a lot of games right now. You're on dad of boy, god of war. Dad of boy. I'm on, uh, that's it, actually. That's it. Okay, that's fine. That's fine.

But again, if you want to explore that palette a little bit, I wholeheartedly recommend this to, like, honestly, most people. Because if the baseability doesn't grab you, you can kind of put that a little bit on the back burner. and start to just hack away in the dungeons and gameplay areas. It's really, really fun. Okay. Well, you say, I mean, if Devolver Digital is A24 of, you know, game companies, then is... I wouldn't go, maybe not A24. I'm trying to find a better comp for that.

But again, it's like they do interesting choices. That would make... That would make 2K the Warner Brothers. Yeah, no, it's 2Ks in Chambles. 2K is just burning it all to the ground. No, but I can see why this game. Like, I'm looking at the heart and like, aside from the one where the lamb is like, you know,

floating above the satanic ritual with the candles on the ground, it is kind of cute. You would like get pulled in. If someone said, hey, man, we got this lamb game. You want to play? Like, oh, look, you're just a lamb. No, you're fighting vicious monsters and killing religious zealots. Oh, boy.

Wow. That looks adorable. They're little animals. Beautiful! Wow, you should what you should do, you should get like a plushy. It's one of my favorites. You should get a cult of the lamb plushy. I mean, don't put it past me. Listen, I understand. It looks real cuddly.

And then you got the all seeing eye on the top of their head. Exactly. That's what they do. They get into a trance. And they worship you. I love it. Cult of the lamb, check it out. And with that, that's, that's a thing. our recommendations for 2022. This episode is brought to by Paramount Plus. Beth and Rip are back in a new series, Dutton Ranch. Kelly Riley and Colehouser 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 Colehouser, Kelly Riley, Annette Benning and Ed Harris now streaming on Paramount Plus. That was a quick little rendition. We gave you the spice.

We gave you all the things that you might have missed, but we're not done here. Kerm, come back on here. We've got a little comic corner with you. Our X-Men expert, extraordinary. A, relative expert. I'm a young boy. I mean, they've been going since the 60s.

You literally just said that you listen to X-Men podcast. on the side. True. If you go on podcasts for the thing, I'd say you're at least an enthusiast. Definitely an enthusiast. I'd like that much more. But yeah, thank you for giving me some time today, guys, to kind of just talk about some of the comic books I've been reading this year. I don't watch enough TV. I waste way too much time reading comic books. So let's kind of get into it. So I guess I'll start with my main suggestion of this year. I'd say it's comic book of the year. Of course, I have a bias towards X-Men clearly. But a more. Mortal X-Men is phenomenal, written by Kieran Gillen, drawn by Lucas Warnack, as well as Michelle Bandini.

And what makes this comic so amazing is it pretty much focuses on the Kurokohan government, which is now in the comics, the mutants now have their own country. And so it's focusing mainly on their council, which is a mix of both previously good and bad mutants. including Charles Xavier, Hope Summers, Emma Frost, Storm, Sebastian Shaw, Nightcrawler, Kate Pride, Colossus, Exile, Destiny. But the star of the show is the ever-so-evil sinister. And with that, you can just really kind of get anything and everything happening from assassination attempts by certain council members on other council members to Kaiju's being brought into the mix because, you know, someone didn't get a spot in the government. It's very interesting, but I will say this before you dive into immortal X-Men. There's definitely some required readings. I recommend Jonathan Hickman's House and Powers of X as well as Jonathan Hickman's Inferno,

just to kind of give you a little bit of context of where X-Men is nowadays and the fact that they are literally immortals. And so, yeah, you guys have any questions before I jump to some others? Yeah, I got a question, Kerm. Yes, Erskie. Where would I be able to find these comics on? That's a great question. Marvel Unlimited is a great app to use. That's about, I think it's $10 a month.

You have access to pretty much every Marvel comic out there. And except for, I guess, comics that have come out in the last three months, then you can use the Marvel Comics app to buy it or go to your local comic book store. But yeah, each issue focuses on the perspective of one of the council members. So, like, one of my favorite issues this year, you know, just focusing on my favorite Nightcrawler. To the listener that might not be seeing this, Kerm just had this issue of the comic book, just ready at the ready just to show us on Zoom.

I got it on talking about. Well, that was my favorite issue until this week's issue actually came out, which is focused on Kate Pride, but it's really just sinister again being the star of the show. I stay ready. I stay ready. When Kerm keeps that thing on him, he keeps that thing on him. And by that thing, it's comic book.

Yes, sir. But yeah, this comic book, while it's great that you get the backstores of all these different characters, Sinister just steals the show and the fact that he's, Kieran Gillen described him the way he writes him as Deadpool with a PhD, which is just so accurate where he's clearly, he's the smartest in the room, but he's also an idiot at the same time. And it's just amazingly entertaining just the hijinks he gets into with all these issues. Quick question.

For the completionist in the room, are these available on trade paperback or are you going to have to get them as single issue? They just released the paperback for, I believe, the first volume of Immortal X-Men. So I think it's the first five issues. And then it's going to be 10 issues total with the 10th issue coming out in January. And I guess I'll move on to my next pick unless you guys have any other questions. No, that's perfect. So for those looking for like the Marvel major crossover scenario, look no further than Avengers versus X-Men versus Eternal's Judgment Day.

That came out around July. Kieran Gillen is also the main writer on the main issues, but there's a lot of side attached comic books such as obviously all of the X-Men. So you can look at Immortal X-Men ties into it, X-Men Red ties in, X-Force ties into it, as well as obviously the Eternal's. comics and even there's a couple fantastic four issues

issue 47 and 48 also tie into it a little bit but yeah this story it comes based upon the fact that you know the X-Men are now immortals on their own country and you know Eternal's being like yo that sounds like some deviant type shit

and they wasn't they weren't feeling it leading to war between them and if you're interested in just you know big crossover events Celestials getting involved, definitely worth checking out. I'm curious about who sends in the starters and who doesn't, because I don't think Avengers send in their starters against the Eternals. Yeah, Avengers in this run, they are very much kind of like,

they're involved, but they're not really, they're not the big players in this, you feel me? I knew they would be like, all right, we're just going to let them sort that out. Typical Avengers. Yeah, Tony Star, I always say Tony Stark, you know, he tries to get smarter than everybody else, and it leads to bigger, Calamity and that's where you get Celestials involved. Tony's never done that before, so that's a very new thing.

Right. Of course not. So it's definitely, it's interesting. I will say the rising action of that series is better than once you get to the climax and after it, it's kind of like, you know, that ride was fun, but like, y'all didn't satisfy what I was looking for by the end. But it's still, I think the ride to the top is very fun. And those are the two main suggestions, I guess, question.

quick hits that, you know, are currently still transpiring. So we got Dan Slot Spider-Man run, which is pretty much the, there's no adjective on the title, but in parentheses, it's the end of the Spider-verse, which is kind of interesting. So you can see all these different iterations of Spider-Man that some we've seen before, some that we haven't, and kind of seeing where this war of Spider-Men will go. Very interesting. And then lastly, I'll suggest, which I will admit, I adjust. started this one, so I'm not going to sit here and...

Not gas it too much. Not gas it too much, but Moon Night, Black, White, and Blood, Jonathan Hickman, and a few other writers. Very interesting style. More than anything, I think it's the visuals of this one. It's both, it's black, white, and then obviously with the blood, red.

So red, white, and black? Yes, exactly. And one of the issues within this first, or one of the stories within this first issue is literally told backwards, which was the first time I've read a comic like that. Would you say that this Moon Night art currently is better than the show that we might have seen on a

one Disney Plus? See, I'm not the biggest fan of the Moon Night show. So I will say absolutely. I don't think it beats the Jeff Lemire run, but again, I've just gotten started with this Jonathan Hickman run. But yeah, those are my suggestions. More than anything,

Immortal X-Men, check that out. The other issues definitely really good. but trust me. Trust me. You're an X-Men fan. Immortal X-Men is the one, man. It's the one. So I got a question, Kerm.

Yes, sirky. You have brought up John of the Hickman, you know, numerous times in these last few minutes. And I am, I've got this big Fantastic Four book. Yes. Of the Hickman run. This is part two. Part one is currently literally under my last. Yeah, see, you've got Paul.

Steve, you also put me on to the Fantastic Four John, the Hickman run. I actually, I think I talked to at work one day, and I read all of them about like two months ago, amazing run. Amazing run. Where are you going, Jomey? So, because I haven't finished, I think I'm like a third through the first part of the Hickman run. And so I'm interested to see, like, you know, why is, like, why is he the foremost guy? Like, when I was like, I want to be more Fantastic Four, that other, I was like, you got to get the Hickman run. Like, that's where it starts.

I swear it ends. With Hickman, I feel like he always, he just makes it so much more grandiose. All of these issues, Fantastic Four. You get major arcs that are just mind-blowing with you see, you know, Reed Richards' son doing amazing thing. Franklin Richards, I won't spoil it for you because you're still reading Jomey. For this X-Men run, he completely flips everything on its head. He's still, even now, I told you, a mortal X-Men, it's Kieran Gillen. He's still considered the head of X right now and is helping.

organize all the pieces in these like eight comic books they're running at a time for X-Men. And what he did with X-Men is he flipped it from, oh, we are the minorities. As mutants, we are persecuted, all that. No, we're gods, yo. Let's go get ourselves, let's make ourselves a country on a mutant island. Let's use different mutant powers and synergize them to make ourselves virtually immortal. If we die, we can recreate ourselves because we're that powerful. Oh, that's nice.

Let's go ahead and fuck it. Let's go. I see Mars over there. You know, let's go, let's go terraform that. And let's make that part of our country as well. Like, they are gods under Jonathan Hickman. And I think that's what just makes him so special as a writer because he just makes everything just so much bigger scale.

But it also, it never feels like it doesn't make sense at the same time. It doesn't feel like he's reaching. Okay. I hear what you got to say, man. I love it. I love that, man. Thank you. One more thing before you go, actually.

Yes, sir. I can believe I'm just. the last time we recorded this podcast. Oh, I was about to bring this up. I was about to bring this up. We're ending with a violation. Steve had some choice words. Yes.

Honestly, I barely chose them. I barely chose them. Steve, just one second. Yeah? Give us a second. Steve, you know, we were talking about Groot and how Groot looks like a nightmare from a children's story.

I heard. And how, for some reason, I don't know what was going through his head. But he compared, you, Kerm, to the terrifying new group. And so, you know, I got on the podcast to say, hey, Kerm, got to get your get back. You got to get your ones.

Very true. You know, you got to see him. This is your spot, Kerm. I'm letting you have the floor. Get it back. When I first heard those comments, my immediate thoughts was, that's got to be racist. Gotta be.

I got to be racist. You know, I'm a finalist. I can only be me. I can only be me. But, you know, I'm going to take the high road, you know, the way Martin Luther King would, and I'll forgive you for the racist thoughts, Steve. And I'll let you live and let you live with that white guilt, my man. Really tragic that she's like, I listen to the Midnight Boys frequently.

And I was like, yeah, why are they always on Steve about this? Like, why they always trying to paint him as the villain? And then I experienced it. I'm not to show my true colors. Yeah, it's heartbreaking. And it's all white. That's all it is. Jesus Christ.

We have fun over here. We have fun. We do. It's always love. Thank you so much, Kierb. It's always love. Listen, they call him Swole Group for a reason. I don't know if anybody's seen Kerm, but listen,

Cannonball shoulders in his little Jedi robe, all right? I do got to check out that, that, that end of the Spider-Man first thing. bro. Yeah. And slot, it's only three issues in, but it's been pretty fun. It's been pretty fun so far.

I got to tap in. I got to tap it. I love it. Well, we're going to tap out for right now because that is a wrap for us on Mint Edition. That's a wrap for us for this year.

Guys, it's been a great year. We started this podcast in the year 2022. I don't know if you know that. This is an incredibly, incredibly wonderfully lucky thing that I have gotten to do

with the two of you guys. I've loved every single second of this. When Jomi and I got the call to do this, we were as flabbergasted and excited to get to do something with Kerm for all of you. And I'm incredibly moved by the amount of people are junior men's rocking with us for this year. And we'll be back next year to give you guys even more. and before I toss it to our genuine

close out Jomey I'll let you I'll let you have the floor for a minute oh man again thank you guys all for rocking with this this year it was I never thought I got to have my own podcast on the Ringer podcast network

but here we are and you guys have made it so much fun and so incredible again shouts out to Kerm and Steve and Mal and Arjuna for you know being a part of this but most importantly, thanks to the fans who listen to fans who always like, Jomey, when we get in that Arcane episode, Jomey, when we can the Yen Just episode.

You know, can't make promises, but Arcane season two is coming at some point. But again, thank you all so much for all the kind of words, listening, you know, following, everything. We cannot, we would not be here without you. So thank you so much. And we love you. All right. Well, tune in again with us. I hope you'll stick with us.

and I hope you'll stick with the ring of verse because on Wednesday the Midnight Boys make their illustrious return and on Friday, Ben Lindbergh and friends are going to be talking about the greatest games of 2022. And next Monday, the House of Midnight is going to return for their impressions

of Avatar, the way of water. So don't worry. We'll be back soon. Our producer, I'm not going to call him Groot. You better not, you know. It's John Cannonball Sholos Kerma with a,

Additional production from our best bud, Arjuna Ramgopal. So thankful for you all for sticking with us with this year. And we cannot wait to see you guys again in 2023. It's going to be a great year for us. We've got a lot of fun stuff planned. And I'm so excited that we get to share it with you. Jomi, why don't you take us out?

Gonna give some... Give a nice shout out to our intrepid, wonderful, accutable producer, Dr. Hank McCirm. Do you want to say to everybody out there? Have a happy holidays, and we will see you next year. Feels like every product claims real protein these days. But real doesn't start on a label. It starts at the source.

Like real California milk from California farm families, it's real dairy delivering high-quality, complete protein, with all nine essential amino acids to help build muscle, give you energy, and keep you satisfied longer. So keep it real. Look for the seal. Real California milk. Relax and let Ralph's delivery handle your grocery shopping this week. We start with only the freshest items, then review your list and carefully choose each one. Then we pack it all up and deliver it in as little as 30 minutes so you can feel confident it's what you ordered. Fresh groceries, your way. With Ralph's

delivery and pickup. And right now, enjoy free delivery on orders over $50. Ralphs, fresh for everyone.