The Ringer-Verse - "What If... ?" Episode 1 Instant Reactions and Video Game Movie 3-on-3 | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: August 11, 2021

The MCU multiverse opens up in the form of the Disney+ series "What If... ?" and the Midnight Boys are here to give their instant reactions to the premiere episode (04:50). Van and Charles discuss the storyline of Peggy Carter as the first Avenger and what they liked about her turn in the role (19:35). Then they are joined by Jomi and Steve to play a game of "3-on-3", discussing the best in video game movies (42:35). Hosts: Charles Holmes and Van Lathan Producer: Steve Ahlman Social: Jomi Adeniran Additional Production: TD St. Matthew-Daniel and 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. Tramphaya 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. Tremfaya 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 Tramphiatoradio.com.

The playoffs are here, and you can predict the action all the way to the finals with Fandul Predict. Predict the spread, total points, and even the game winner. Sign up and get a $25. bonus. Offered by Fandual prediction markets LLC, a registered futures commission merchant. 18 plus. Bonus is non-withdrawable and expires seven days after receipt. Trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable

for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tool. Restrictions apply. See terms at fandul.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash terms. Welcome into the ringerverse. This of course the ringers Nexus podcast fee for all things

fandom. I am Van Lathen, host of higher learning with Rachel Lindsay and Van Lathen. He is sick Steve Alman. He is Jomey the Explaner a dinner on. And we are, of course, here. Wait, I don't get a shout out? Yeah.

I'm about to shout you out now. I thought you forgot. No, it goes, we got to do, we, we, you're the anchor leg of the midnight boys. Oh, shit, okay. I say, hey. And then I say, I come back and I say, of course, we're here with Charles Holmes hosts of the Ringer music show. But together we are the midnight boys. Boom!

Now, Charles, I have to be honest about something. I hurt my neck. I can tell you're not looking good, man. You seem a little injured. I hurt my neck, bro. I heard my neck. I was reaching for something and my neck twinged. And I knew it was going to be an issue.

Then I went and I laid down and I feel like I made it worse. I heard my neck. I heard my neck, Charles. I'm older. I'm 41, 41 years old. My neck hurts. You're young. a Spry 41.

I'm a Spry 41. I'm a Spry 41. It's catching up. You guys, make sure you follow and share the show anywhere you can get it. That is Facebook, Instagram,

and of course, over on the Tweetasphere. All right. We are also in the middle of Nick Week here at the ringer.com where we explore all of the wonderful world

of Nickelodeon, including the ultimate Nickelodeon character bracket. Who is your favorite Nickelodeon character of all time? Who, me?

Yeah, who's your favorite Nickelodeon character of all time? Who is it? Off the top, today, it changes day to day. I think I got to go Gerald from Hey Arnold. Gerald from Hey Arnold.

That's pretty good. Yeah, man. That's pretty good. I want to go with the Good Burger guy. Oh, wait, Kel from Good Burger? Kel from Good Burger. Kel from Good Burger. Oh, Mom of the Good Burger.

Can I take your order? Also, I got a, I don't know what's in the water. I don't know what the populace is. But last time I checked, Patty Manase beat out Uncle Iro. I saw that yesterday. And I was like, yo, this is why we can't have fucking nice things. Y'all are fucking insane. So, respect and justice for Uncle Iro from Avatar.

Are you an Avatar The Last Airbender fan? Yeah, I am. I'm an Avatar The Last Airbender fan. I really dig it. I wrote one of the worst, most scathing reviews I've written about any movie, though, is when I reviewed M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender movie. Still haven't seen it. Yo,

fuck, bro. Boy, M. Knight Shamalan is just, he's so interesting. M. Night Shyamalan, I want to do a whole podcast on M. Knight Shyamalan.

I don't think there's been a more interesting career. Like, I'm telling you, he bides his time, he gives you split, and then you think, okay, shit, M.

Knight is back. And then three movies later, you go, he's not back. And then he hits it out of the park again. I don't know. Anyway. But,

but, But yeah, shout out to that. You guys stay witherringer.com. It's Nick Week of the Ringer.com. But today on The Midnight Boys, we are taking a look at the highly anticipated MCU Disney Plus series. What If we've been looking forward to this, Charles.

Of course, what if is based on those amazing Marvel One Shots that we grew up reading where they would take a character, throw them into a brand new set of circumstances, a brand new universe, a brand new set of powers, a brand new set of friends. And then you would be able to read about some of your favorite characters

had their lives gone differently. This what if, though, threatens to permanently alter and fundamentally alter the landscape of the MCU as we know it. All right? We're going to talk about that in a second. Also, House of Mal was back on Friday,

a deep dive analysis of what if she'd get in there, getting to Mal some of the deeper, deeper dyes, as well as some of the fun surprises she's going to have on there. Midnight Boys, instant reactions, House of Mal, Deep, Deep, Deep, Deep, Deep, Deep, Deep, Deep, Deep, Deep, deep all the end.

Oh, that was pretty good. That was pretty good. You know, so they're going a little deeper right there. All right, Charles, it's time to get into it. Are you ready? Yeah. Let's run that spoiler warning, Steve. You know what time it is.

We're getting ready to talk about the episode. You're listening to a reaction podcast. The spoilers are coming. Here come the spoilers for episode one of what if. episode one of What If, we have the story of Agent Carter, Peggy Carter, becoming the first Avenger. Okay? Charles, your thoughts. All right.

Before we get into first thoughts, I want to give a like just a blanket statement. Okay. I am going to be very honest about the first episode of What If. Here we go. I do not feel like this is just my feelings on it. Okay. Please, guys, if you liked it, more power to you. you. This is just

I got to be real. If everybody's like, we want Marvel movies and all superhero movies to be treated the same as, you know, Oscar movies and all this stuff. If that is true, then we need to be able to be critical about these things. And I just, Blankett did not really feel

the first episode. Like, I'm really trying not to go in too hard, but it was not it. Van, I believe you watched it twice. What was your initial? Not your second after the second. What was your initial reaction after you watched the first episode?

So here's the thing. I'm glad you asked that. What was the initial? The initial, after I watched the first was, that's it? That's the whole thing. But after I watched it again, I think I was able to fall into the show a little bit more. So this is what happens to me. I don't know if this happens to other people that are out there.

I think I almost have to fight with my expectations and enjoying some of these things sometimes. It's not my expectations, but it's not expectations so much as it is my premonition of the show. I have a premonition of the show. I almost tell the future about how it's going to make me feel. And if I don't get that immediate feeling, then I have an adverse reaction. But that's not fair to the art. It's not fair to the show. You have to allow the art to imprint upon you something and try to examine it.

and enjoy it in a vacuum as much as possible. And on the first viewing, it's difficult to do. On the second viewing, it's a lot easier. Same thing happened with Suicide Squad. I think I told you that. So I actually enjoyed it. I actually enjoyed it because I think the second time, I enjoyed it for what it was.

What about it for you didn't land? All right, there's a couple things. I think the big blanket thing is that the first episode is essentially a retelling of Captain America, the first adventure, which is a two-hour movie. And the twist of this is that Peggy Carter gets injected with the Super Soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers. I think the big on just the fundamental story level is they try to condense a two-hour movie into 30 minutes. And at points, the episode more so felt like a Wikipedia entry for Captain America, the First Avenger, instead of telling its own story.

A lot of like the beats of it, I just, it wasn't enough of a twist. I think the greatest what-if stories like fundamentally make you think about this character differently or the story differently. And I don't think the twist was big enough for me to get that, wow, I never thought of it like that. It was just kind of like, oh, oh, okay, sure. So I think you said it yourself, the first viewing,

I definitely did get the, that's the big salvo, that's it. That's the only thing we're getting. So what do it, like story-wise, did you feel like it was too similar to Captain America the First Avenger? Well, yeah, of course. I mean, it's not too similar, but of course it was very similar.

It's sort of retelling that story as if Peggy were the First Avengers. So you're going to get similarities and there are going to be some things that are the same. I think if I was to agree with you, what I would agree with is not even so much the beats of the movie.

are Peggy Carter and Steve Rogers dissimilar enough for their stories not to be nearly identical if she had gotten the powers and not him? Wouldn't this be a completely different story if Howard Stark? That's exactly what I was thinking.

They're too altruistic. Like Peggy and Steve have very similar moral compasses where it's like a lot of the stuff that like Peggy does in this, And that's exactly what Steve would do. So it's not, you're not, I didn't feel like I learned anything about Peggy as a character through this.

And if you, let's say you gave Howard Stark. Howard Stark, even in this what if, they were just like, Howard, get in there. And he's like, no, I'm the guy who pushes the buttons. Like he, like Tony is a very self-centered narcissistic. He's like, I'm not doing that. That makes no sense. Why would I want to become Captain America? And I think that actually probably would have been funnier and interesting because Howard

Stark is not Steve Rogers. and he probably would have failed in ways that Steve never did. Well, that being said, though, I really enjoyed watching Peggy on point. I enjoyed watching her. I enjoyed the dynamic of watching her leading to Highland Commandos. I enjoyed seeing some of these same things play out with the spotlight on her. You know, I did not watch her ABC series, Agent Carter. I never saw it.

Here's the thing, though. I love the fact that it existed. I love, I want to do a podcast one time when we talk about. Jomey says that he watched Agent Carter and Stephen watch Agent Carter as well. But look, this is not specifically about Agent Carter. I never watch Asians of Shield either,

and I hear that that's a really good show. I didn't watch Agents of Shield. I didn't see any of that stuff. We do need to talk about some of Marvel's pump fakes. Some of Marvels. We want to do a whole show. I wanted to be tired.

the MCU, what didn't work. I want to do that whole show because we never talk about the inhumans. We act like the inhumans are an outside bastard child. I did watch the inhumans. That was one of the worst superheroes TV shows I've ever watched. Right, right. It was pretty bad. So, but what I say

this is because I didn't watch that show, it was so fun watching Peggy get to do her thing, man. It was fun to see her big. It was also fun to see, I think, the best part of it. It was fun to see a reverse of the relationship between her and Steve Rogers, because it confirms something that I always thought, which is that she liked Steve even before. That was my favorite part of that episode.

Yeah, that she liked Steve even before he underwent the experiment. Before he took the serum, she had a soft spot for Steve. She liked his heart. You know, she didn't look, so what? Maybe he's not, you know, a big episode for the short Kings. Maybe he's not as, you know, he became more after these big muscles. Chris Evans looks great. But I think she liked him before.

And I like to see their relationship maintained because it really drove home the fact that they're actually soulmates. And she's not just going after the quarterback of the football team. I actually think Captain America, the first Captain America, the first Avengers, are not one of my favorite MCU entries. I think it was important to like set up Chris Evans' cap. but it was during that weird phase where like the MCU still kind of had

misses like Iron Man 2 or Thor of the Dark it was like a weird phase for them. But the thing that I actually liked about What If is that it did a very, very good job where I think the first adventure failed a little bit in selling Peggy, Cap, them being like like capping someone he would like rearrange

all of time to go back and be with this woman. I think it did sell that in a way where I was just like, I actually want to see now more of this version of Peggy, this version of Steve's relationship. Now, the other thing that I think was like an uncanny Valley thing, and probably I think the worst part of it is I'm a big animation buff. I love cartoons. I love animation. Anime U.S. like cartoons, whatever. Animation did not work in this. Well, if the animation doesn't work in this one, then that's going to be a running theme for the entire show because I don't think that you're going to get much stylistic deviation in terms of what the animation is going to be.

So you fundamentally don't love the animation on what if. At least not in the first episode. I think there was a couple things. I think them so heavily basing this off of how the characters look is like a fundamental flaw because a lot of these characters, some of them are voiced by the actors that play them in the movies,

but some are not. So there were moments in this where a character would talk, like my mind, would be seeing them. Even if they were a cartoon, I'm like, this still looks like the character. And then they were talking.

I'm like, that's not their voice. And like that immediately did the thing that you never want a TV show or a movie to do, which is take you out of the thing. You know what I mean? Because there were some points where, like, I was like, that's not how that character is supposed to sound. And I think if I was like giving edits,

I would be like, is there a version of this show where stylistically the characters look less like the actors? So even if we cannot get their voices right, at least when you're seeing them, we're like, oh, I know that's like a version of Captain America or Iron Man or whatever, but they're not waiting for this actor to show up. Is that totally unfair?

No, I mean, look, animation style is always, that's one of the things that I think as a fan, if anything, is the most subjective. Sometimes when I'm watching DC-EU content, I'll turn something on like the DC expanded universe you know when you're watching those DC animated movies

or even like just the Marvel animated stuff I'll turn it on or even I'll watch a trailer for it and if the animation doesn't work for me I won't even watch it like they're like sometimes they did Batman and shout out to all of my attack on Titan fans

right I like anime but some of the Batman movies that they made were in an anime style animation. For some reason, that doesn't work for me. Yeah, it's harder to pull off for Batman. I want to see Batman the way I envision him from comic books. You know, it just, it meshes things up for me. It was hard for me to wrap my head around it.

So for me, you know, if animation doesn't work for you, then there's nothing really, that's a completely personal thing. Like animation is one of the most embedded things into our subconscious. ask kids who grew up watching stuff on Saturday morning and we know what we like when we see it. Even when Toy Story first came out back in the older days, it took me a second to get you said at, you know? It didn't take you a second because...

I was a kid. It was just what I knew. You know what I mean? Give me the cartoon, Daddy. That's what you were saying. This was you when Toy Story came out. All right, go see it. Hey, it's Troy Story, Daddy. It's just, I want to see it.

Charles, we can't go. see it. You guys forgot. I want to go see the movie. That was you. You know what's going to make you feel old? What? How isn't even old enough to see Toy Story in the theater?

Wow. Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! I want to see Toy Toy, To me? With me, it was like, hey, man, y'all want to catch the City bus down there to the Quartet and go see Toy Story?

This shit does. They got that Toy Story shit out. Yeah, hey, bro, drop your son off. We're going to go see Toy Story real quick. Like, put your kids and daycare. Like I was old. I think it was like 94 or 95 and something like that. I was I was 14, 15 years old.

So I was like, mama, let me borrow the car. We're going to go see toys. But here's the thing with animation that I think this show could have done but doesn't really nail is that I do think that like at its best animation does does something that like live action can't do. Live action is expensive. It can't really do as much as like, you know, it's endless. It's your imagination. I think, like, some of the best ones, like, were you a fan of Batman,

Batman the animated series? Of course. Yeah, yeah, of course. Like, that did something that the movies couldn't do. It did something that the Combooks didn't do. Like, visually, I could still see that. You know what I mean? And it informed the stories.

I think with this, the style doesn't do anything. I'm like, the style just looks like an MCU, approximation of, like, the MCU live action movies. And I think if I was, like, retinkering it, I would ask them, I'm like, Is there a version of this show where you say, like, what if every single episode is a different animation style? What if you did a robot chicken episode, kind of like they did with Hulu's Modoc? What if you did like a Rick and Morty type episode or an anime type episode?

And it changes based on what the story is instead of doing the static thing where it's like either you like it or you don't. And I'm guaranteeing there's probably like 50% of the audience is like, no, I'll check you. I'll check you when Miss Marvel comes out, when Hawkeye comes out. So to your point, though, the reason why it works for me is because there's a certain, offness about it, which to me lends itself to the types of stories that are being told. This is done in sort of like a twilight zone way, a twilight zone feel. You know, you have the watcher coming in and at the end of it. So there's a weird otherworldliness to the animation.

It seems like we're watching. We're watching stories like we're, the animation style almost allows us to your point earlier to put the actual people in the place of what it is that we're seeing. Almost like placeholders for what our memories know really exist. And I think that's the reason of why they're doing it. But to your point, though, if you're not digging

an animation style, you're not digging an animation style. I wonder how you're going to overcome that in the future episodes. I mean, do I think it'll reach these heights? No. But like Invincible was a show that early on,

I was just like some of the animation in this is just not great. Yeah, yeah. But the story, how they pulled it out, like towards the end of the season, I'm just like, you could get over that. Like, I like, there's a bunch of movies like, I don't fuck with the animation.

But I'm just like, if the story's good, The story's good. You know what I'm saying? Like there's some trash. Like there's some movies that look like trash, but the story is so amazing. You're like, I don't even care, bro.

I really don't care. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business. They keep companies of all sizes connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, mobile services, plus 24-7 U.S.-based support. Millions of business owners already trust

spectrum business. So visit spectrum.com slash business to learn more. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas. So let's talk about the story then. Let's talk about Agent Carter herself. So some of the biggest changes, obviously Agent Carter becomes Captain

Britain in this one, Captain Carter. They didn't call it Captain Britain. They didn't call it Captain Britain. They didn't call it Captain Britain. They didn't call it Captain Britain. They called her Captain Carter. Captain Britain is a completely different. And maybe the reason why they didn't call her Captain Britain in this because there's a Captain Britain core in Marvel comics, which are sort of like a galactic police force.

I think they're like a multiversal type police force. And there's like a bunch of Captain Britons who like police their own multiverse. Right. Brian Braddock was the was the Captain Britain here. He was a member of a team called Excalibur, which by the way, I had an Excalibur phase like crazy. Really? Bro, I had such a crazy Excalibur phase. I don't know.

People out there tell me if you fucked with Excalibur. So there was a point where Excalibur had Captain Britain, it had, Nightcrawler was in it, and had a couple other guys. And I really enjoyed Excalibur because they were all part of the same X-Men universe world type of deal. Like I was reading X-Force. I was reading X-Factor. You know, I was reading Stripes, Strike Files, which was a one-off. And then Excalibur was, you know, Nightcrawler was in Excalibur.

He had been tied to the X-Men. I really got an ex-C-Milber for a while. It was Rachel Gray. I think Kitty Pride was in it. Kiddle Pride, Kitty Pride, yeah, they had some people in it, and I was digging them. I was really digging them as a team. So, you know, I'm very familiar with Captain Britain, and they didn't go full long by making her Captain Britain. Although, she does do a little interdimensional shit here.

And we'll talk about the big villain that shows up, who I believe is a big villain that shows up at the end of this. But I dug it. I thought the most important changes to her character with the fact that she actually gets to Don the Shield, which is a very important mantle and Marvel. And also, just that as Captain Carter, she took on a leadership role and not an auxiliary role, which put a little bit of peg on Front Street differently than I had seen her, right? Because I told you I didn't watch the show. And also seeing her Will Powers and figure them out and go back and forth with Howard and have a love story where it's actually a love story from her perspective and not from Steve's perspective.

It was cool. It was a little hors d'oeuvre of it. It was a little bite of it. It was an appetizer of it. But I dug it for the 30 minutes that we got to see. What I want to post to you. Now, we know the future of the Marvel Universe. I don't think we're ever, like, unless it's your first movie,

we are never seeing a solo movie again, unless it's your first. Captain Marvel, her is going to be the Marvel's. She's going to have Miss Marvel in it. I think I heard rumors that Blue Marvel is going to. be in Marvels. They just, rumors are they cast Blue Marvel in it.

Same thing with Dr. Strange. Dr. Strange is going to have Loki. It's going to have Scarlet Witch. Like, if you get a movie now, there's going to be multiple in it. Do you think there is a version of Captain America 4 that has

the Falcon in it, but also has Captain Carter and potentially maybe Bucky doing his own Captain America thing? Yeah. They could just call that bitch the captains. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like, I wouldn't be surprised if it's just going to be the captains and there's just

going to be a bunch of Captain America's running around. But see, I tell you why that's going to be a problematic for Marvel. If Marvel were to do that, a lot of people are going to say what? They're going to say, oh, okay. So you got a black captain of Marvel, Captain America. And now you got to do Captain Americas of the whole fucking Serengetty. You got to do Captain Americas a worldwide.

It wasn't a million captains when it was Steve Rogers. Ooh, speak on it. People going to say that. I'm not sure if they're going to do that, though. I'm not sure where this character is going to go from here. I mean, but Spider-Man, the rumor is we getting two other Spider-Men in it. So it's like, it does seem like this is their way to like backdoor, hey, like everybody, like women, y'all get a Captain America,

black people, y'all get a Captain America. Hey, Maga Bros, y'all get a Captain America. Shout out, U.S. Agent. Wow, U.S. Asia is Maga Bros. Captain America. U.S. Asian definitely would have stormed the Capitol. Oh, he'd lead the charge, bro. He'd lead the charge. Like, can you imagine?

That's the what if that I want to see. You know what, Marvel? Let the Midnight Boys. Let 6 Steve, Jummi Nexplaner, Coke Baby Chuck, and Old Man Van, let us do the what-ifs. Because our what-ifs would be dope.

Can I have a corner? I have a bunch of you asked me last episode. You were like, what would be your what-ifs? I came back to you with some. After we're done with this episode, after we're done with this episode, we'll do that. If you stick around post-credits,

you'll hear Charles What-ifs. But what if U.S. agent Storm the Capitol. Storm the Capitol. What do you feel like was the best pure action scene in this episode? Oh, I loved when Peggy came in.

She was riding on the motorcycle. They're all showing that like, like she kicks the motorcycle into the watchtower and shit. Like that was, that was hard. That was hard. That was definitely hard. I enjoyed that.

I actually liked, I think it's an action scene and it's obviously a drama piece to push the narrative of the episode forward. I liked how, they redid the actual experimentation Super Soldier serum Viterase scene.

I was wondering how they were going to do that. I was wondering if they were going to kill Steve Rogers. I was wondering if, because remember, you couldn't just do something where she took the serum because it wasn't the same formula that we see in Captain America

and the Winter Soldier. It's a different formula. So that serum needed the Viterase. It needed all of that stuff. So someone was going to have to volunteer for the experiment in Steve's place. And I liked seeing how they did that. I enjoyed seeing that they had somebody bust in. She saw it.

Steve got shot because Steve Rogers is trying to do his heroic thing because that's what's in his heart. He's still got the same heart. He's down, although no one ran over to attend to Steve who was gut shot, okay? Good shot. Like, gut shot's like, okay, you chill here. I'm going to go jump in the thing.

It's like, at least in a medic out. My man, Steve, like, he's frail. So I like seeing the way they did that. And then she comes out, she's all big. She's buffing the whole thing. Carter makes the sacrifice play in the end. She has to push the monster, which we're going to talk about this monster,

the hydro monster, through the door at the end. Do you feel like it was as dramatic and as hard hitting as a sacrifice play that Steve had to make when he, you know, flew a plane? into the Arctic or whatever to save the whole Eastern seaboard. I'm going to be honest, not really. It didn't have the same emotional weight. If I was doing a what if,

because we know that Captain Carter is going to be here, I was just like, damn, they could have done the whole, like, flying over the water because what I would have wanted is this version of Steve Rogers to become Winter Soldier. But instead of them, like, injecting him with stuff, he's just basically, like, Iron Man for, like, the Russians.

You know what I'm saying? But in this version, like, we're never going to get a winter soldier because she just does the chop, chop, top, chop to the monster goes to another. And it's not as emotional. Like, you don't feel like she's losing as much. You feel me? Because she can go home. That, I was wondering about that, by the way.

I was wondering about whether or not we were going to get a parallel winter soldier's story because it's really not. Because the winter soldier wasn't, it's not a one-to-one, right? I guess Steve would be her winter soldier, kind of. Maybe, but it would have to have been somebody that she was friends with when she was a kid that followed her. So it's not exactly the same thing. And you had buck there. So it's not, it wasn't, there

wasn't really a natural place to have a winter soldier character pop in and be that same thing. But if they had one, I guess it would have been Steve because it was the person that she had the biggest connection to and the person that she probably would have been shocked, super shocked to see turned into a hydro

agent after, you know, after all of that time. So I guess that would have been the thing. Steve in the Hydra Stomper. So Peggy Carter remains, even in Captain America the First Avenger, a very heroic character. She's able to do that because of the skills that she has. One of the things that they had to do in this particular episode of What If was the fact that Steve Rogers doesn't have very many skills, which is why he was pre-experiment Steve Rogers. So how were we going to make Steve Rogers into someone that could still contribute to the things that were going on

when we know that there wasn't much he was going to be able to do in a fight? the hydra-stopper was the way that they did that? What did you think about Steve, essentially becoming the first Ironman? I thought that was a smart choice. I thought that, like, it kept Steve in it. It made you, like, realize,

and I think we all realized this, that, like, Steve is a hero, whether he, like, has a super soldier serum or not. Like, when, in the first adventure, he jumps on the grenade, that's when, as an audience, we realize, oh, this is why he's Steve Rogers.

It doesn't matter if he's strong or weak. He's going to save people. So making him, this version of Iron Man, that worked for me. And it gave us more time to just see not only Peggy and Steve Fall in Love, but to see how they fight together. That's super interesting to me. Yeah, yeah.

And it was finally a time where they were able to kind of be in a battle at the same time, both really kicking some ass, you know, because in the film she takes more of a strategic role. You know, she's very involved. Don't get me wrong. Peggy can get down, but she's like an agent, not really in the fields. that's even said to her in the show. One thing that was interesting to me is that Steve has,

Steve is a master military tactician. That's probably Captain America's superpower to me. It was interesting seeing him miscast out of that. It was interesting to see him just as a tasker. Like Steve Rogers doesn't have all the answers. He comes in in a scrape, but somebody else has got to be there to figure it out. and make the big sacrifice and really come up with the big play.

It was cool. It was cool to see Steve as something other than the leader because in all of the MCU, we only ever got to see that Steve Rogers for, what, 45 minutes maybe? And other than that, you know, we were watching a buff guy find himself in a brand new time. So I like, I like seeing more of the character. I miss Steve Rogers, man. I had missed him. I miss him.

The MCU ain't the same without him. I do have to ask you a moral question, a moral dilemma. Can I ask you this question real quick? Please do it now. All right. So let's say Captain Carter does keep traveling through the multiverse and she ends up in our MCU. Like let's say she ends up in like a Captain America film, an Avengers film, whatever. If one of our heroes, either Falcon or Bucky, shoot their shot at Captain Carter, is that a foul play?

No. You don't think so? No. Because they know their boy, they know their boy is still alive in another timeline with a, with a foul. version of Peggy. But if it's a different dimension version of Peggy, it's not a foul play. So this is why. So I'll tell you why I have to think about it.

Part of me looks at that and they go, of course it's a foul play. But let me tell you why I don't think it is. I don't think it is because I wonder if the Peggy that fell in love with Little Steve is going to have the same feelings for the legend

Steve. At this point, she's swole, right? She swore. She swore. She can do all kinds of things, right? Maybe she don't want to go back and forth. Maybe she don't want to arm wrestle with her man. Maybe she don't want to go on distance runs 13 miles and 30 minutes. Maybe she don't want to do that.

Maybe she likes it the way she got it. Sisters are doing it for themselves. It's not what she wants. She probably wants somebody like Falcon, right? Because let's face it. If Captain Carter and Falcon get together, guess what it's time for Falcon? Back to the sidekick roll, Team Mobile. Like it's like

Like it's back to the T-Mobile sidekick roll He's just not going to be the one It's going to be like yo I think we should go up here and do this Captain Carter Yeah man maybe Let me think Let me figure it out Falcon

You know you look good taking orders You know but Falcon might like that We get into a whole Relationship dynamic It's turned into an adult conversation But Falcon might like being dominated Who knows So my whole thing is like

I think it would be My first thought is it would be bad But my second thought is She just can't come here and not have love, you know? No, I was saying, is it a foul play if you're boys? Because Falcon and Bucky are like, are Steve's boys. They're his best friends.

And now they're shooting their shot at another alternate version of his wife. No, I think, I don't think it's bad. All right. I don't think it's bad at all. She comes from a different dimension. It's different time. But, you know, I think it would probably be best for Bucky, you know? I think Bucky has the most, you know what I mean?

I think Bucky has the most to kind of. They could trauma bond over it? trauma bond over it, you know, talk about how little Steve was. Remember little Steve? She probably, he probably, he probably looked at him. He used to put newspapers in his shoes. Then they kiss. All right.

Okay. So at the end of the episode, we get a Hydra monster because we haven't talked enough about Hydrant here. The Red Skull is back. Hydra's back. Hydra plays essentially the same role in this episode of What If as they played in Captain America, the First Avenger, not too much deviation from what Hydra wants. Hydra wants the Tesseract.

Hydra wants ultimate power, and the Tessaract is going to bring them to that ultimate power, power of their tech. We see Armizola in this. We see all of the regular suspects, the usual suspects, shall I say, from Captain America on the First Avenger, and of course the Red Skull himself.

At the end of this episode, the Red Skull uses the Tessaract, which is, of course, the Space Zone, to open up a door, and through this becomes a tentacled hydra monster. Now, the minute that I saw this monster with the tentacles coming through and the tentacles coming out and grabbing people and Peggy Carter has to fight the monster and push it back through the door and all of that, I thought that's Schumegorath. I thought that that was Schumelagorath. People that at home don't know, can you break down the history of Schumegorath?

Can't break down the history of Schumagorath. I mean, Schumogorath is an interdimensional, huge, gigantic, villainous thing. You know what? Lord of chaos, you know. Lord of chaos. and he's going to be, he's going to show up in the multiverse of madness. Dr. Strange, the multiverse of madness.

And, you know, if you're familiar with Marvel, you've seen Chumagorth, who's one of the most powerful beings in all of the Marvel universe. Definitely one of the most powerful beings all of the Marvel universe. Ancient, hell-bent on destruction, and a frequent foe of Dr. Strange.

And because Schumegorath is going to show up also, a cool curveball character to play at Marvel versus Capcom 2. It's one of those characters, if you play Marvel versus Capcom 2 and you see a guy picking Schumegoroth, either he doesn't know what the fuck he's doing, or he knows what the fuck he's doing so much

that he's picking Schumegov to show people that his Schumegov can beat your sentence. Wait, let's stay on this really quick. Van, who is your go-to character, Marvel v. Capcom? Like, can't lose. Oh, it's God to here. So Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is going to be Storm, Sentinel, Cable, Storm, Sentinel, Magneton.

If I want to play like a rushdown team, it would be Magneto Storm SILOC. You know, that's a very, very common team that people play. But it got to the point in the game where the characters in Marvel versus Capcom 2 were so powerful that you could literally only pick three or four characters and hope to win. You had some assist characters that were great, but you could only pick three or four and you had to have Sentinel. Sentinel is by far the best character on the game.

He's just ridiculous. So yeah, it would be that. about you? Did you play the game a lot? I didn't play the game a lot. I only played the game. The only time I played the game is just like at friends houses. So I was the dude who would come over. You're like, dog, you're mashing buttons. Like, stop fucking mashing buttons, bro. Like, learn how to play the game. So I got to tag out. I am not as deeply into the Schumegorz and the Cothones and all of these guys that are part of the Doctor Strange universe as I will be. Of course, I know where

chaos magic and all that stuff comes from as it as relates to Cothone and all of those characters, but Schumeligroth is one of the big, huge bats. The question I'm asking you is, was that Schumeligorth that we saw? Because the tentacles looked like it was Schumel Gorth, but we did not see what's signature to the character, which is the gigantic eye that is in the center of Schumeligorth. And it seems as if it would be a cool time to introduce him, but I can't be sure if that was him or just some kind of other crazy monster that they came up with. The reason why I wouldn't be surprised if it's him is that, like, we

talked about it in the previous episode, if they're saying all of this is canon, all of this exists, there has to be a reason why they made all of this canon, you feel on me? Interesting. And if people are like going to go see Dr. Strange, I wouldn't be surprised if by

like the mid-season towards the end of the season, like, oh, this Shumagoreth to watch his next adventure, go see Dr. Strange. Like, I could see that being a thing and the reason why they had to make this all make sense, canon was. So, question. does it matter if it's Schumann-Gorreth?

Because I was talking to my brother about it. He was like, yeah, it's probably him, but who cares if it's him or not? Like, is like, does it, is introducing the villain like this that's going to be in multiverse of madness? Is there some more, is there some more significance

to the fact that they would do this? The only significance is like, if I'm being skeptical, if I'm being like negative, like hot take Charles, if we're being real, you would say most people are going to look at whatever,

from being like, oh, I can skip that one. You know what I'm saying? Just because based off its animation. I know people, if I tell them to watch an animated movie, whatever, they're immediately like, no, I'm not doing that. Why would I do that? That's kid shit. I do think if they introduce like a Schumegorath in it,

there might be people who are Dr. Strange fans, Wanda Vision fans who are like, all right, damn. They're going to go on Twitter. They're going to go on Facebook, go on Instagram. I'm like, all right, I guess I got to watch it. You know, and that's how they get people invested in something that's going to be very hard to get people. invested in just because a lot of people I know do not fuck with animation.

And I think that's another reason why you've seen the brass at Marvel talk about how this could possibly be canon because what they're saying is you have to watch this. You need to watch this. So over the course of the next couple of episodes, what we'll probably see them doing is putting things in there and planning things in there that have a great deal of importance because these things have to be consequential. They have to be consequential. That's what the MCU has made itself into.

It just all has to mean something. Wait, can I ask you before we wrap up this really quick about being consequential? Okay. When we were doing the Suicide Squad episode, you were talking about how it's going to be tough for Marvel where they are in a space, where they are experimenting a lot. If I was saying the one thing as a fan that I'm running up against, that's making things hard to enjoy, is that it still seems like we're so stuck in, like, the Infinity Saga and the past and remixing the past, whether it's like Black Widow or, like, Loki or some of the stuff in Wanda Vision and Falcon. And I did enjoy parts of all of those, but it does still feel like we are so stuck in kind of like the greatest hits of what the MCU gave us instead of like, yo, what's the

future, what's the present of the MCU? You know what I mean? I can understand why you would be saying that. What I guess I'm trying to figure out is you don't feel like there was more to those stories. I mean, you can't just turn the page. You have to sort of move forward. And you know what I mean?

you don't feel like there was more to those stories? I feel like there was more, but I do feel like, yo, we're at the point where I'm seeing these, I'm hearing about these stories, I'm seeing these stories remix so many times

because they're TV shows and because Black Widow was set in the past, I can't lie to you. I'm like, I'm itching to see like, yo, what's the future? Like I want Dr. Strange

in the multiverse of madness to show me, to get me excited for the future in the same way like the last episode of Loki did, where it's like, all right, cool, we got Kang. All right, cool. We got new villains. All right, we're like, we're marching forward instead of being like, all right, you remember this movie that released 10 years ago?

We're going to do it again. You know, that's my own, that would be my biggest pet peeve. Yeah. Okay. I mean, but you know, when you do the what ifs just as a function, you're going to have to do the what ifs with characters that we already know. Oh, I think you could do it with characters we already know, but I do think that like we need to be, and this might happen in episode two and three. If they push the concept crazy, crazy, crazy, I think then I'll, enjoy it a lot more. Make me do some shit that I would have never thought of. That's what I think the challenge is going to be. Fair enough. Fair enough. And I guess for me, I am solidly, you know, I don't know what separate myself from the people here. I am solidly,

solidly confident that we're going to see a little bit more experimentation and a little bit more what-ifiness from the what-if show in the next couple of weeks. I really enjoyed this one. I thought it was cool to watch. Did it give you the same feel of some of the shows that we just watched where the stakes were crazy? No. But remember, we're watching Marvel's version of the Twilight Zone right now. And I thought that they have done a really good job at selling that this is Marvel's version of the Twilight Zone. So just kind of stay, enjoy the ride episode to episode

and see what they can pull out of their hat. So I enjoyed it. We're going to be checking in on what if every single week here. But I thought that the first one, not perfect, but was a lot of fun. Was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun. And Charles, even though you may have not been as good on this one,

it wasn't enough to make you to sour you on the whole series. I think I'm going to give them, here's the thing. I'm trying to. I'm going to know. I'm like, no, I'm being positive. Like, I just like, there have been, there have been stuff that I have not liked in the beginning of the TV shows. And, like, they end up sticking the landing. So I think I've learned, like, same, like, Loki.

I've learned. Like, I'm like, they ain't doing Kang. They ain't introducing Kang. They're not going to do that shit. And they did. So I think, like, they have enough rope for me to be like, all right, like, let them get a couple episodes in. You know what I'm saying? Let's check in episode five.

And if it hasn't grabbed me in episode five, that's a them problem. But I got to give them rope to, like, show us, like, what they're working with. So yeah, I think I'm going to give it a little bit of rope to see, like, if they can stick the landing. I hope they will. We're up. This episode is brought to by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess. You don't need Weather Tech floor liners in the summer unless you hit the beach or go camping.

Then you'd want a cargo liner. Or a road trip goes sideways. Ketchup goes rogue, ice cream drips. Yeah, you'd be pretty happy about those weather tech seat protectors. So just to be clear as the mud, you're inevitably going to step into the summer. you don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. This episode is brought to you by Nass Energy.

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All right. Now, there is something that was just announced yesterday. Idris Elba is playing Knuckles and Sonic 2.

Knuck, Nuck, if you buck, knock, if you buck, shout to Idris Elba. You guys don't even know Nuck if you buck.

You guys don't know that. Shout out to the black man out there getting a bad, getting the Hollywood bag. Edris is running it up right now. He's doing this name. I won't lie.

There was a couple, there was a couple stretches. There was a couple years stretch where I was like, Ejris is done. out here. Like he picks him roll. When? Like what?

What was the one that got like bashed? It was the Stephen King when he did. The Dark Tower, yeah. I was, I was, I was insanely upset. And I don't want to be negative, but I have to be honest. I didn't devote all of my life to reading about the gunslingers, about flag, about all of these guys, right? About rolling to have them turn around and put out that airblood's bullshit that they put out when they made the Dark Tower.

They didn't even fucking try. That is one of the richest, most textured works of fiction. Stephen King is such a brilliant writer. And for them to turn around and put out that airblood's bullshit, I was very, very upset. I didn't bring him injuries. I just pretended like the movie never existed. Matthew McConaughey never did it. You just Elba never did it.

It never happened. Go back and I'll read the books. Plus, if you're going to do the Dark Tower, you can't do it in the movie. You have to do like a nine, ten, ten. part HBO miniseries or something like that. But shout out to Idriselba. He is Knuckles. And in celebration of him being Knuckles,

we're going to do something called three on three, three categories, three picks per categories based upon one fandom theme. We're going to make our own picks. Jomi and Steve are going to team up for the third pick in each category, okay? It's almost like a mini draft. This is the video games edition that we're doing of three on three. top three movies based on the video game

top three movies with video game aesthetics top three movies you'd like to see become video games and then we're going to direct you to socials and we're going to figure out who won now we have a problem here we have an issue here normally Jomey is he who moderates but Jomey's actually playing

so the question is and I'll ask this to all the Midnight Boys right now who's moderating this who's putting this together Steve we are going to be directing everybody else to see who's their favorite picks are and who even their picks will be. Ooh, okay, okay, okay. All right, cool.

Wait, who gets to go first, though? Van, Charles, and then myself and Joey. And then do we do reverse, or Van always gets the first pick? Van will always get the first pick. This is not a draft. This is not a serpentine. Charles, I see you're offended right now. Wait, but how am I supposed to win?

He's going to take everything off the board. This isn't a competition. This is about you. This is about you. This isn't about taking anything off the board. Oh, wait, so we can double up on picks. I mean, if it's the exact same pick that you like, sure. All right, cool, cool, cool.

All right, I have the first pick in video game movies. I am picking a moral combat. Now, hold on, Van, now hold on, Van. Which year? The original. Oh, fuck. Okay, okay. There might have been a couple of Mortal Kombat movies.

Yeah, the original Moral Kombat movies. original Moral Combat. Definitely not an annihilation. I didn't mind this new Mortal Kombat. I thought it was cool, but I liked the original one better. But shout out to my man, Mikhail Brooks, who plays Jackson, this new one. Why do you like it so much?

What makes it so good? Because let's see, let's be honest, the track record for video game movies, not great. Pretty bad. The original Moral Kombat movie was a delight. It represents the time in my life. It was very fun.

Like, we all went to the theaters to see it. We had the lowest expectations of any possible. movie that you can go see and because it didn't because they spoke coherently and the movie had a three-act structure and they were able to make Goro

not look terrible. It was a rousing success for us and when I go back and watch it now, it's still a lot of fun to watch. Great martial arts fun. I have some character arts. I love Johnny Cage and so that's the reason why I would pick that one. I think that still remains the greatest movie video game adaption of all time.

Very good pick. Charles. Oh, all right guys. I saw this. I saw this in a theater and similar to Van, I had the lowest expectations for this movie ever. Like, it just had to be semi-coherent for me to think it's the best thing ever. I love Detective Pikachu. Detective Pikachu.

Oh, wow. That's a good pick. That's a good pick. It was funny. Like, it made me believe that Pokemon could be in the world. Ryan Reynolds did his fucking thing. Like, Detective Pikachu is not as bad as people might think it is. Like, it's a real.

No, Detective Pikachu is good. Yeah. Now, what did you, what did you initially think when you first heard that Ryan Reynolds was going to be cast as Pikachu because I'm not going to lie that that was very shaky to me. It was it was the I thought it was going to fail. I thought basing a whole movie around Detective Pikachu was dumb. I was just like give me a Pokemon movie where they're like they're like fucking beating the shit out of each other. But man like Ryan Reynolds held that movie together. I love I love that. And by the way, that movie is a better movie than the original moral combat if just on like judging it from a

straight film aspect. I just have never given a fuck about Pokemon. What? Wait, how old are you when the first Pokemon came out? I don't know. I don't know. Have you never played a Pokemon game ever? I played Pokemon Go for a little while.

That's not a Pokemon. We all did, go. We all did. Ben was like 35 when Pokemon Blue came out. Let's not. Like, we like, Pokemon, like, I was walking around with my phone. Like, literally being angry with people that would be like, yo, man, I love you on TMZ.

like, yo, shut the fuck up. You don't see me fucking looking for the goddamn, I'm looking for the Charzard fucking thing. I'm out at Santa Monica. I'm literally leaving work and driving out to Santa Monica to try to catch water Pokemon. And it's not just me.

It's like 300 people in Santa Monica and we're all on our phones looking around. I was into it for a while. Can I just say that I could make the argument that Pokemon Go was like the only moment in human history of like peace? Like that was a moment in New York. like where you would be talking to your neighbor.

Like you would be like, oh, we both playing Pokemon Go? Like, people were outside. Like, that's fucking wild. It was peak 2016. It was peak 2016. Peak 2016. Yeah, Van, I don't think Van played Pokemon because by the time the Game Boy came out, he was a man.

So, yeah. Like, he wasn't out there like that. Look, you guys, you guys, you can't fucking, I'm old. I don't give a fuck. I enjoy it. I got to see things. I got to do things that you little bastardsers never did. I remember I was, I lived through the Eddie Murphy area.

Fuck you guys. Who you guys got? You guys got Dane Cook. Fuck it. It was better. We got D'Ate Chappelle. Dave Chappelle is ours. Hours.

Who is ours? Who is ours? Killing me softly came out when I was in college. All of you guys were itching your daddy's crotch. Dave Chappelle is ours. That's crazy. So anyway. Van really bragging.

Van really bragging because he got to see John Fennedy Kennedy assassinated. He remembers where he was. He's bragging because he actually saw Bronosaurus's. I was the trigger man Okay I was the guy I took I took him out He had to go

He didn't respect the mafia He disrespect the mafia baby Operation Mongoos He had to go Anyway Because somebody else pick please Because somebody else pick please Thank you

So Jomi and I have come together On this pick I've seen this movie It's it's you gotta dig For games based on movies To be good And there was a very surprising movie that came

This year called Werewolves Within. It is based on a Ubisoft game called Werewolves Within. It stars Sam Richardson of I think you should leave fame. It is a murder mystery with a hometown sheriff figuring out who in his town is a werewolf. It is hilarious. It is very fun. And I highly recommend it. Sam Richardson forever.

I respect that pick. I haven't seen the movie, but I do like Sam Richardson. I literally didn't know that it was based on a video game until I saw a Ubisoft logo come on to the title cards for what this movie was. I was like, what? This is a video game? I put it in movie Mondays. Maybe we should do a nice movie Mondays.

Actually, in our next category, I have a pick where I feel like we should do movie Monday. I mean, I'm into that. I just let me what you guys know that. That's cool that you guys picked that. But nobody gives a fuck about that movie. I'm trying to put you on some game, Van. I'm trying to put you on something that you don't know about.

You know, he's trying to get you outside. Man, negative as fuck. Wow. Sam Richardson hate. Negative as fuck. You didn't like, what if? They're about to kick your ass off this podcast. That's two weeks in a row.

That's two weeks in a row. You came on here, shitting on the suicide squad. All right, so now I get to do top three movies. I get to do based on video game aesthetics. Yes, sir. With video game aesthetics. That's easy.

Scott Pilgrim versus the world is... Took my pick. Scott Pilgrim versus the world is literally one of my favorite films that's ever been made. By the way, the fact that Scott Pilgrin versus of the world didn't make like $400 million just shows me that I'm on a different wavelength

than the rest of these people, that we're on a different wavelength. It is a perfect movie. When I say perfect, Scott Pilgris versus the world is a perfect film. Listen, here's the thing. I don't know if you guys know this. I love garlic bread.

I could just eat garlic bread all the day long. Fun fact about garlic bread, Van. What? It makes you fat. Bread makes you fat. Scott Pilgris versus the world is my pick. The greatest thing about that movie is like, we got so many superheroes from that movie, right?

Like, Brie Larson's in there. Chris Evans is in there. Brandon Ralph, who plays Superman is in there. Like, it's just chock full of stuff. It's, it's an incredible film.

Chris Evans is amazing in that movie. Chris Evans is, like, incredible at playing that doucheback, way back from when, uh, not another teen movie, just that douchebag where,

like, one of my favorite lines that he's ever said. He's like, I like it when I'm, I'm getting blazed in the back of my winnie. It's just an absolute jerk. Yeah, yeah. Love it.

That's a perfect film. Like, Scott Pilgrim, like Scott Pilgrim is in rarefied air. It has a perfect movie. That's a perfect comic series. And it has a perfect video game. Like everything about Scott Pilgrim. Yeah.

It's fucking amazing. Have you played the Scott Pilgrim video game then? I have. It's so good. Yeah, it's amazing. And by the way, by the way, I want to say that Scott Pilgrin versus the world was a graphic novel. right?

Yes. Great graphic. It became a video game. So almost not good for the character. Almost not in the category, but still, we'll make a decision. It adopts a lot of video game aesthetics, and it's a very valid pick. Last thing I'll say about it, since I think we have all the same pick, is that like, Breed Larson's Blacksheet, man.

10 out of 10 song. So good. Wait, didn't they release that on streaming recently? It's an amazing song. They just did. Sure. They did not have a dent. It was weird because it was one of those situations

when she performs the song and I'm watching to perform the song and I go, do I love her? Who is it the song? I don't know. I mean, like, listen. Like, let's be honest, man. Call Van's mom.

Like, she's going to be like, Van, I see your taste is changing. I almost got kicked out the culture early. Because let's say I would have ran into Bree at Starbucks in like, 2011. I'd have been like, oh, my God. Would you have shot your shot, Van?

Would you have done the like, yo, what's going on? I'm from TMZ. Hey, man, I love Scott Pilgrim versus the world. Will you marry me? You know what I mean? And then I'm on TMZ. I got the white wife. And then it just never happens.

I say something to Kanye. And they go, hey, you ain't even down for the sisters. But it didn't happen. Shout out. Now, Van, I'll live with you, man. Like, I was late to Scott Pilgrim. It came out like when I was like a little younger. but 21 Jump Street

I was right there with you Free Larson yeah I was right there with you That one was weird though Because they were old And he was with a college year He was with a high school girl We see you We see you

That would be a perfect movie Monday I would rewatch Scott Pilgrim any day Any day Any day All right Charles All right If I can't choose Scott Pilgrim I think the only other runner up

Would be Rackett Ralph Perfect I love Rackett Ralph Ruff is a really Really really good video game movie Oh yeah, of course. It takes place in a video game. I fucking cried.

It's so good. Like I was, I saw it at the Grove. I used to, when I worked for TMZ, so when I work for TMZ, I feels like I have a story with every movie, but I'm old. Like, when I work for TMZ, I would go shoot at the Grove, right?

And so I would be there with the Grove, waiting for cameras, waiting with for celebrities, leech, parasite against humanity, whatever. It was a check. So I would go there. I'll be waiting, but here's the thing. I would get to the grove right after the morning meeting

and that would be like, I don't know, 8 o'clock. Nobody shows up at the grove until like 11 or 12 because it's like a mall type of situation, right? Yeah. So what I would do is as soon as the movie theater would open, I would go to the movies. Hell yeah. By yourself?

By myself. And I would be- going to the movies by yourself is the best. But here it is. It was like a private screening though because this was like the 9 o'clock show, 9-15 show, and there was never anybody in there. Never.

And one day, but your picks were very limited. And one day I decided I would see Reked Ralph. I had no interest. And I go in there and I sit down and I'm watching Reked Ralph. And by the end of the movie, he's finding his purpose. And I'm like crying in my popcorn. I'm like, yo. Like I never expected that movie to be that good.

It was just something that I saw, but I loved it. So if I'd have thought about it, I might have also, I almost shows that one. Because like it was really, really good. What are you guys going to pick? What's left? Well, we're here. We coalesced.

We thought about it. We put our heads together. I only pick left. Tron. Tron Legacy, specifically. Never actually saw Tron Legacy. Here's the thing. Unfairly maligned Tron Legacy.

Some would say it's boring. I would agree. Some would say it's very long. I would also agree. But you could do a whole lot worse for a super awesome looking movie with Daph Punk in it and a bunch of cool chase secrets.

It's awesome. There's a dumb CGI Jeff Bridges in it. That doesn't look that bad, but it's kind of bad. Olivia Wilde is great. You know, God bless. It's really, really cool looking, and I think something that we've probably missed out on for a possible good Disney trilogy.

Bring back Tron. Still one of the best, one of the coolest movies I saw in the theater. Ron Legacy? Yeah, I was so, too. I was so excited. Did you see it in 3D when like 3D was popping off? Yeah. I saw it in 3D when 3D was popping off. And the glasses?

That the glasses and stuff. But I really did enjoy it. It's not bad at all. All right. Third category. Top three movie you'd like to see become a video game. This one was a hard one for me. I don't know why.

I don't know why this one was a hard one for me. I was thinking about all the films out there and the films that I like and the movies I would like to see become a video game. But I got one. John Wick. Wait, there's not a John Wick video game already? I don't think there is. There is actually.

actually. Wait, oh, there's a John Wick video game? Yes, there is. It is called John Wick Hecks. Oh, okay. Well, then I can't,

I guess I can't choose that. Well, don't worry. Don't worry. Here's the thing. If you wanted to be a good video game, you could still pick it because that video game is bad. Oh, really?

Yeah, that video game is bad. Oh, let me pick another one then. I didn't know that John Wick was a, I thought a long time about that. I didn't Google it. I thought that John Wick was a video game. So in that case,

it would be a movie that I like to think of as a brother to the with movie, which is Denzel's The Equalizer, because those were the two that I came down with. And I'll tell you why, like, the Equalizer would be a cool video game because he doesn't really use guns. So you'd have to go around and pick up different shit. You'd have to go on different missions to find out people around Boston who needed your help. You'd have to answer the fucking, the want ads or whatever, but then also you'd have side missions with people that

work with you. Then once you were doing these things, you'd have to do detective work. You'd have to avoid people. Then you'd also have to use, like, he means. makes evaluations and he uses like drills and all kinds of stuff like that to do your kills and stuff. So I think it would be a good fight engine. I think there's a detective element. I think all of that stuff. Now I had picked John Wick over that, but I didn't know there was a Johnwick video game. But yeah, so I will go with Denzel's the Equalizer. That's pretty good. That's a good bit. All right, guys, I got too nerdy with this one. I got way too nerdy. All right. Okay. Have you guys played my favorite video game of last year, Hades? Yes. Hades is a magnificent video game.

is a fantastic rogue-like video game. You're going through dungeons. You're getting power-ups. So my pick, I would want an Avengers end game, rogue-like video game, where instead of dungeons, each level is a different Marvel movie and you have to pick one hero,

going through it, getting power-ups, and if you die in a timeline, you've got to start over. So you can be any character, but each character has different powers and each dungeon is a different timeline. I feel like you're just picking a Loki video game. You're in the TVA bouncing through timelines, fighting your way out of it.

Yeah, but here's the thing. I wouldn't want to be, like, I wouldn't want to be Loki. I want to be like Captain America or Iron Man traveling through all of the different MCU movies and having to go beat them in one go, like in Hades. That would be my pair. I think that's good. Hades is probably last year's best video game. And I think knowing that, like, you can interact with other different characters and different timelines

that makes it different levels. I think that's a solid pick. That's a... My runner-up was I want an invincible, like, Mortal Kombat type game. All invincible characters, but with the same level of violence as the TV show.

So, like, the fatalities, like, you're ripping out people's hearts and shit. That would be my runner. There you go. Omni Man's kind of O-P., but all right. Oh, yeah.

Omni-Man. Omni-Man's pretty Opie. Yeah, yeah. You're right. I'm a Superman with a stash and an anger problem. I would like to play as Cecil in that fighting game.

That would be great. CeSoo will be a great fighting game character. Cecil, frustrated Omni Man. Yeah, it was great. You would have the teleportation powers. You would also get the cyborg guys as you're coming in to protect you. You would have incredible taunts.

Your alt is probably like the beam coming from space. Yeah. Oh, by the way, I have a runner-up. A video game I would like to see is a live-action movie, Injustice. We need that. Yeah, we need that. Yeah, they're making an animated movie.

Do you think that they could make an injustice movie? I think it would be fucking fantastic. No, it would be fantastic. Is it possible with the current regime? I'll tell you why. This is another thing that pisses me off about D.C., small tangent. Just take something like this, a story that is inherently cinematic and make it. You keep doing Superman.

Do All-Star Superman. Do it. Do All-Star Superman. It's a story that everybody that loves Superman would care about, and people who are alive and have mortality, all of us would care about, too. But the best stories, they throw them away, and then they do weird shit. So that's all I'm saying.

But injustice would be good too. That would be great. All right. It's our pick, Jomey. Yeah, this is like really simple. You know, I thought about it for like two seconds. Like perfect. Mission Impossible to video game.

I've fucked that. Think about it. You get like hit man, right? Tom Clanty's Splinter Cell, right? Nathan Drake, you know, and that type of energy. with a little dash, just a little tinge, yeah, of battlefield, right?

Because they have all the big spectacles, all that stuff. I'm locked in. It can be multiplayer as well. You got the whole crew. Think of the Birch-Khalifa mission with everybody else in the room. I want to see Ethan Hunt, right?

Have to like sneak into like the top of the freaking Eiffel Tower, right? And then have to jump onto a plane, right? And then fight the baddies of the plane. Drop off of that plane, right? into another mission. Just like, think about it. Right?

I'll just let you know. Excellent. Old Man Van has a way in right here. They did make one for the 64 back in the day. And that was terrible. It was bad. It was bad. For the 64.

The 64. As much as we love the 64, the 64 had a lot of fucked up shitty games. The 64 has some great games. Mario Kart, WCW versus NWO Revenge, a couple of the joints too. But the 64 has some fucked up terrible games. But it's also kind of a beautiful time when they were just kind of making anything and seeing what you could make it. Like they made a Warriors video game. Okay. Like they made a they made a Glover video game. What is Glover? Gex? Yeah. This is how I know I'm young because I don't know what the hell y' all are talking about.

64. Wait, you didn't have a Nintendo 64, Jome? Bro, my first video game, like I dabbled like I went to France House, but my first video game system was the Nintendo Wii. That's, you are a kid. Discraced him, bro. Very disgrace. That's dope, though. We tennis. Yeah, we was living in the trenches.

I couldn't get the PS3 or the Xbox, but we got the Wii. PS3 was $800, though. But we figured it out, though. The worst game of all time is probably Shaq Fu. Shaq Fu's bad. We figured it out, though. It's culturally important, though, I feel. Culturally important, but a bad movie.

I mean, bad video game. All right. So what we're going to do is we're going to have you guys vote on who you think has the best three films. Is it Van, Charles, or the tag team of Jomi and Steve. So find your way to our socials on Instagram and Twitter at Ringaverse and join the Facebook group on Facebook, the Ring ofverse.

And we will have polls for you to vote on who you think won this three-on-three matchup. I do want to touch on one story that we did not touch on that seems important in the world of comics. And I'm glad we got all the Midnight Boys here. You know what we should do? We should make this a segment. we should do the nights of midnight. The nights of midnight. The midnights.

Like the midnights, because this is like a round table discussion. This is like the knights of the round table. You know what I mean? Arthur, Lancelot, is Charles. And then I don't know any of the other nights in the round table. I want to be Merlin. I call Merlin. You can be Merlin and you be Goyne.

I don't know. I don't know. Gawain. Robin. and Tim Drake exploring his sexuality. Came out as queer. Yeah, this week. Big moment.

Wait, guys, guys, I don't know if you're a comic book fans, but like where does Tim Drake sit in your Robin in your Robin rankings? I only have to. There are only two Robbins for me. Okay. So the only two Robbins. It's just Dick and Damien. Those are only two robes for me.

Not really. Damn. I think Van is too in love with Damien. I love Damien's hard Damien is hard Y'all not outside Dave, I know you've seen the films man I know you've seen the films man

I know you've seen the films bro Damien is he's legit Damien's hard I know he's nobody's fool Damien's nobody's fool but he's just a fucking punk bastard Yeah but here's my thing like It's like I love Tim Drake

I actually like shout out for Tim Drake coming out as queer I think that is That is beautiful That's amazing yeah But I will say like this is This is just comic books, like me reading comic books watching the shows. The minute Damien came like on like screening on the comic books, like he took it Tim Shine.

Like he beat him up in the comic books. Like he beat the shit out of Tim. Like as a kid, as like a 12 year old. You know what I'm saying? Like he was going at Batman's neck. Like just being like, nah, I don't know. Like Damien, like there's a lot of Damian haters out there. Damien's like legit, bro.

I love Damien. Yeah. Damien is the man. Dam is the man. Of course, happy to see, you know, Tim come out like, representation is beautiful and I'm glad that, you know, we're finally here in 2021 where we can, we can do these things and it's not like some huge event. We just love, we honestly just love to see it, you know, from, from D.C. But honestly, she's probably like my third favorite Robin.

Third. He's safely third. Yeah. I had just, you know, you got, of course, the OG Dick Grayson and then Damien, you know, like. And rest of peace, Jason. Rest of peace, bro. Like, Jason is terrible. Jason is terrible. Don't speak killed a dead, dog. Don't, hey, bro. I mean, he's alive. The Red Hood. He's alive is Red Hood.

He's just terrible. Like, nobody gives a fuck about Jason Todd. He's alive as the Red Hood, but really, Jason Todd, really, he's dead. Really, like, really, he could kill that. We voted. You guys weren't even around. Wait, did you actually send in a postcard? No, I was three.

Like, I was like, I was, I was too young. I remember my brother talking about it, though. My brother, my brother was like nine or ten or something like that. I remember my brother talking about it. But no, like, they, voted and they killed him. But they know that they brought them back. All right. And that is it for us today. Jummi, direct you to all of the socials. We're also going to need you to go to those same socials and follow us on Facebook, IG, and Twitter. Please follow and share the show. Make sure to check in with Mallory Rubin for her deep dives on Marvel's What If. That is part of the House of Mal, which will be on Friday. Also, make sure you check in to Nick, Nick, Nick, Nick, Nick week. Nick week here on the House of Mal, which will be on Friday. Also, make sure you check in. And then Nick the New Nick Nick week here on the. The Ringer.com.

They're having a lot of fun talking about Nickelode and stuff, taking me back to my childhood. Shout out until you can't do that on television. Love that show. Love that show. I don't know. Slide. Great show.

All right. Thank you to our producers. Steve Allman, Jomey Adonan, and Arjuna Ramgapal. And, of course, TD. T. T.D. We love you.

Wherever you're at today, T.D. All right. Charles. Can you take us out of here? Yo. People grab your lighters. Grab your splits. Your boy Charles was really so-so.

On what if? Oh, jeez. All right. Peace. I need to pitch you on my what-if ideas. Really, really quick. All right. Guys, number one, if I had my way,

what if the MCU was made by Pixar? A short, 30 minutes, all in the Pixar style. I want it. Do you have a couple million stashed in your bag? It would all be 30 minutes. It only be 30 minutes. Okay. Okay.

Red light next. All right. Peter Parker and Thor and the original Thor picks up me on here. Oh, that's a great. That's a great. Yeah, it's locked in. Right? But we're doing it firestorm style.

So he still has Thor in the back of his head. So whenever he turns into Thor, like he's still like Peter Parker. he looks like Peter Parker, but he has like a mad Thor telling him what he should be doing the whole time. When he picks up Milnear, does he just immediately get like a beard and like the like braids?

I don't know. Should he? Jomey, should he get like a like a... He needs the armor. He needs the armor. He has the armor. No, it's like when Link picks up

the master sword for the first time. He's just like he's a grown man. Yeah, I'm with that. That's a green light. Okay, keep going. So, that's good. Next one, Black Panther, the first adventure.

So during World War II, that Black Panther, and Wakanda decide to open their borders. And instead of Captain America becoming like the hero of World War II, it's this version of Black Panther. He has a vibranium shield and everything. So then Wakanda just becomes like the center of everything.

Instead of like the Avengers in America, it's like the Avengers in Wakanda. Actually, that's a green light because that would also would have changed, you're on the role now. That would have changed like race relations for like 60 years. I was just thinking about that. I don't know, man. Like, do we not get Jim Crow?

Like, it's just, you know, what I'm saying? You know, there are... Or Jim Crow was already happening. I mean, that's right. But, like, do we get significant change? I think, like, that is interesting. Like, I would love to see, you know... All right, there's another Spider-Man one.

This is for Infinity War. Spider-Man never gets on the ship. So all of the heroes get snapped away. So the only heroes that are left that need to stop Thanos are Spider-Man and Netflix Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. And the whole episode is like,

can they stop Thanos with just the street-level heroes? Spider-Man is the leader of the new Avengers. And he doesn't know what that he doesn't know the fuck he's doing. Yellow light, because I'm only curious as to why him not going on the ship changes the 50-50 odds of him getting snapped. I don't know why, but it does. Okay, because he would still get snapped away.

That's fine. That's a yellow light, but I like it. The big one is twist. We realize Thanos is the hero. He's collecting all of the infinity stones for a noble cause. I don't know what that noble cause is. So, like, at the end of the end game, we're actually rooting for Thanos to be everyone. He's trying to resurrect Firefly, the series.

That's his goal. All right. That's a yellow. All right. Last one. End of age of Ultron. After Pietro dies, Wanda snaps.

And she says no more heroes, no more superheroes. So the Avengers, essentially now have no powers. So all of them, like Tony Stark has to replicate all their powers using Iron Man armor.

All right, I got two out of three. Yeah. You got some good ideas. I mean, I like that. That's good. That's good.

That's a good. That's a good. That's a good start. What if Tony Stark was all the Avengers? Yeah. No, I get it. No, I get it. No, that's a green light.

That's a green light. That's good. We should play this game more often. Yellow light, green light, red light. I'm pretty sure that executives don't sit in a boardroom meeting to be like, yellow light, green light, red light. Hold on for a second. Hold on for a second. Steve, is that how you think a black man sounds?

Did you just do black voice? Jesus Christ. Charles. Wow. Jesus. Steve. Sixth Steve, I don't think people,

I don't think people go in the ballroom and go yellow, light, green, light. Wow, Steve. She's on the play. We're penalizing 40 acres on the play. Oh, man. Fox Sports Steve's out here. I'm hosting the XFL next week.

Thank you.