The Ringer-Verse - ‘What If …?’ Episode 5 Instant Reactions and The Midnight Mailbag | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: September 8, 2021

Van and Charles dive into the world of zombies and break down the most violent episode of “What If ...?” yet (04:56). They also take a look at the latest nerd news regarding the newest ‘Matrix�� film and some of the suits in the next ‘Aquaman’ (41:01). Then they answer your listener questions in the first ever Midnight Mailbag (56:17). Hosts: Van Lathan and Charles Holmes 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

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Restrictions apply. See terms at fanduel.com slash predict slash bonus dash offer dash terms. Welcome into the ringerverse. This is of course the ringer's nexus podcast fee for all things fandom. We are sick. Steve Alman. We are Jomi The Explaner, Adirond,

we are old man, Van Lathen. And of course we are Coke Baby Chuck, a.k.a. to Kobe, aka a closer, Charles Holmes, host of the ringer music show. I almost didn't give you a show credit.

Of course, Van Lathan, host of Higher Learning with Van Lathen and Rachel Lindsay. But together, along with Arjuna, we are known as, as of the Midnight Boys. All right.

Programming reminders, we are the Midnight Boys, of course. This Friday, Mal will have her deep dive into even more what if. Hope she doesn't dive too deep because if you dive too deep into what if, you might come out on the other ear of the despair train.

If you dive too deep, come out on the other end of that. Like this, what if, what if it's, who, past weeks, you know? Yeah, for the, we're going on the month now. What if is really, really, really had Van wrapped around there, gnarled, depressing little fingers, but we'll talk all about it next week. Stay tuned for even more Midnight Boys. This is a lot of stuff and we're scrambling and covering for you guys as much as we can. Also, make sure to follow the Ring Reverse

on social Facebook group. Shout out to you guys, Twitter, Instagram, and everywhere we are talking this fandom talk. In this episode, we are going to go right into episode five of what if. We've had a couple of special things for you guys the last couple of episodes, but right now,

we got to talk about what if. We have to have a very special episode of the Ring Reverse Midnight Boy Show right here to talk about how what if is manipulating us emotionally. This show is really going for us. So we have to, we're in a what if centric episode right here. We're going to touch on a little bit of nerd news

and we are going to get to your mailback questions. The very first ever midnight mailback. I'm very nervous. You're nervous about it. I'm very nervous. Talk to me about it, Chuck. The midnight writers, they're a passionate group.

They're a passionate, passionate group. You know what I'm saying? One week they love you next week, you know, they're beating up on us. They're beating up on the boys. We don't know what's going to happen. See, here's my thing that I wonder, because there are two different factions that listen to us here.

Seriously. We have the mid-term. Night riders, which are the people that are down for the midnight boys, they ride with us. They're basically with us. Like, we're here and they're riding with us. You know, you ever see young guns, Charles? No. You never saw young guns.

All right, so this is what we're going to do. This is what we're going to do. We're going to have an old man van film festival when you come in to town. And all day long, we're not going to give the chicken tenders to the end until so Jomey stays. if we give the chicken tenders out in the first movie, then we're going to lose Jomey. And so we can't do that. We're going to sit around here all day long

and we're going to watch movies that I think are important. Two, I'm telling you right now that we're going to watch for sure, Howard to Duck and Young Guns. Jeez. Old man, band movies. Fine.

And by the way, maybe this is something we should do with all the Midnight Riders. Maybe I should rent out a theater. I could do this. Maybe we should rent a theater and have like a Midnight Riders LA Film Festival where we go through all the old movies that I like. We should do Howard the Duck.

We should do Howard the Duck first. See how many people we can get in to watch Howard the Duck. Howard the Duck is fucking amazing. And also before you go, there is two factions. The Midnight Riders riding with us. Then there's the Midnight Mob who want to burn us at the stake every other week. That's what I was about to say. The Midnight Riders are out there and they're getting with us every time.

But then I love the fact that you named them the Midnight Mob. Then there's another group that they really come. just to get us, right? Just to be on us. On our ass. On our ass. We love it. We love it.

We love both factions. We love both factions. We love both factions. All right. So we're going to touch a little bit of nerd news. And of course, we're going to get to your mailback questions. But look, we're already five minutes in, which means we've stalled enough. In the time that we've stalled, 10, 15 million new zombies have been made.

So we have to get to this before there's nobody. else to kind of help the world out because the zombies are running the muck in this episode of What If. So we're going to get to this. But before we do it, Steve, please give us the spoiler warning. We're getting ready to talk about the episode. You're listening to a reaction podcast. The spoilers are coming.

All right. Episode 5 of What If? It's called Zombies. these past two episodes have been super bleak super bleak it's actually been three episodes that have been bleak we started off the bleak train myth bleak is we started off the bleak train

when all the Avengers were being killed what if Earth's Mighty's heroes you know never came together then we picked it up with an episode that I have been so obsessed with that I've watched it literally like 10 times which is the Dr. Strange Dr. Strange Supreme episode

because it is just so bleak. And then, whereas I thought that we would maybe take a little bit of a lighter turn this week, we did not. Nope. And we got the long-awaited MCU debut of the Marvel zombies. And the episode doesn't even pretend,

pretend to be sunny. It takes you all the way through your typical zombie be fair. And then at the end, you get the kicker, which is things might really be coming to an end as it leaves you on that cliffhanger. Yo, what were your initial thoughts of what it was that we just watched, Charles? They did it. Everything I was complained about what if. Like, you got to show me something, people, you got to show me something that you cannot do in the movies. And finally, they did that. It was violent.

No one was safe. Oh, like it was, this might be the best or the second best. It's between this and the Black Panther one for me. Because I felt like this is something that they're never going to do in the movies. I damn near was just like, man, like scrap this whole what if season and just give me a Marvel zombies animated show. If we're going to go this violent, I loved it. Did you like it? I know you're, you're emotionally a little, a little fraught right now, a little tired.

So how did that issue? No, I liked it. Of course I liked it. It was great. It was a lot of fun. I liked the fact that they played with the zombie genre a little bit. They did some things that we're familiar with seeing

when you're talking about zombie fair, making existing rules for a world and then, you know, introducing the different archetypes of characters that exist typically when you're watching this type of zombie stuff. And it had the energy. And not just the energy, the frantic energy and the panic energy

of a good zombie story. They really were able to capture that. And it's hard to do that with superheroes. The thing I like about zombies is every sort of different zombie universe has its own take. The Walking Dead, the zombies move very, very slow, and they're not a problem unless you have a whole bunch of them. In World War Z, all of the zombies are basically fucking,

and Usain Bolt, and you better get away from them. And then, of course, in Dawn of the Dead, it's kind of more of the World War Z type of deal. But I think, of course, it adds an extra added dimension when you have metahuman empowered zombies, people who are control of their powers because now the average human stands zero chance against a Captain America or Wanda Maximoff

or a Hawkeye zombie. The Hawkeye zombie in many ways might be the most scary because, you know, he never misses a shot. you're over there, sitting over there and the arrow through and he comes over there and he comes over there and he... Can I just say really quick? One thing I loved about this episode,

we're talking about kind of taking what we know about zombie movies and flipping it on their head, it would have been so easy for them to pick the coolest characters, to be the survivors. And for this, they had a great mix of superheroes, kind of sea list level superheroes,

just side characters. The whole time, with all of them, I was just like, damn, who's going to be part of the group? like they were pulling out Akoye and Hope and all these other people I thought it was a very, very good send up of a zombie movie. I, this was such a episode.

No, it was. Like now, like I said, not a very hopeful episode. No. And they're really drag and Spire Boy through a lot, you know, by putting him in the situation that he was putting in this episode.

All right, if we're going to be real, and this is Tom Holland fans, I actually like Tom Holland. Like I really, really do now that that's behind us. but Tom Holland would not survive a zombie horde. Like he's the first one to go. Wow. Why are you saying that?

He's just not built for it. It's just a fact. See, I disagree with you. You know why? Because he's all, he's one thing that they do a good job, he's very resourceful based upon movies and stuff that he's seen. So like he always actually comes through

with a way to kind of figure stuff out. And, you know, I'll be honest with you. when we were doing the midnight court, Mal and Jomey missed that. They missed the fact that even though he's in over his head and a lot of these battles,

he's always able to take his plucky youth and use it to his advantage. They didn't even bring that up because they suck. Van, you can think about this. I'm going to ask you a question and we'll get back to it. Okay. Out of all the midnight boys,

who do you think would be the first to die in a zombie invasion? Oh, that's, I mean, all right now. Do you want to save it for the group? Let's save it. Let's save it for the end, but I already know. I have, I know. I have absolutely 100% true. I know.

Anyway, what do you feel like was the best kill in the episode? Because we saw some pretty amazing kills. They blew up Sharon Carter from inside of her body. Captain America was cut in half, Darth Mall style by his own, fucking shield. Cap and Falcon were cut in half, just different ways. Horizontally and vertically. I'm going to have to go with like the cap and the falcon kill because that was like when

Falcon gets sliced up the middle, I'm like, God damn, they really going for it. The Sharon one also was, wasn't as surprising as it was disgusting because you see hope dripping in the turquoise rotting blood. Yeah. I knew that Hope was done for after that, by the way. Obviously, obviously. Can we just say really quick? What?

The one thing when we talk, we're going to talk about scaling a lot in this what if. We talk about it every single episode. They got the speed of how fast people turned into a zombie. So all over the place in this episode. Why you say that? Because Hope it took her forever once she was infected. Smaller cut.

Versus Ebony Ma. Yeah. Became a zombie got killed and Ebony Ma became a zombie right away. Like I was just like, what? And then Hope it took her like forever to transition. So this is something that happens typically in zombie movies, and I have an explanation for it that me and my brother came up with. Okay.

All right. So the first of all, Ebony Ma has, telekinesis. Everybody's going to, ooh, he's telekinesis. He doesn't read minds.

Telepathy is when you read mine. Telekinesis when you move stuff on. Yes, yes. I know that you know that. I'm just saying the midnight mob. It's going to get at me. That's fresh meat for them. See,

thank you, fellow midnight brother. You protect me. I appreciate it. That's fresh meat for the midnight mob. Okay. So me and my brother talked about this because we were white zombie movies together and then he would do this thing to

where he would scream and yell in different parts and try to scare me and drop my anxiety through the roof because that's what brothers do. So her cut was small. So the saliva of the zombies is what turns you. So what we've deduced is that because she had a smaller cut and it was just a little bit, her infection moved a little slower. Do you remember in Donna the Dead when there was like a little slight bite when you were barely bit. When they jumped on you and they were like, ah, ah, then you turn quickly. But if you have maybe like a smaller bite, like maybe they just got you, they nicked you. It's just like a little cut.

It takes a longer for the virus to get through the bloodstream. It takes a longer for the virus. Because when they, when they bite you and they're all on you, it's like, ah, right. Now, by the way, this has zero scientific weight. This is just what we do. I like this, though. I like this. That's why you saw, like they saw, like, they saw.

the cut. Question from Steve, should they have immediately chopped her arm off? Here's the deal. Unclear, depending on which zombie universe you're in, if the decapitation of the arm actually stops the virus from spreading. And also, it was really high up, which also, like, let's say, like, you get caught, usually in a zombie movie, if you get bitten

on the forearm, to chop, you could chop it really quick. Right. Her cut was pretty high up. You know what I'm saying? Really close to the heart. Yeah, it's true. It's true. The Cloch of Levitation. I love the Cloak of Levitation. Great guy. The Cloch of Levitation is one of my favorite Avengers. It's a separate Avenger.

I think we do. I think we disrespect the cloak of levitation when we discounted as part of Dr. Strange. It's its own deal. It always comes through. It was the MVP in this one, man. What did you think about the quote? I will say after the last episode

where the Cloak of Levitation gets dispatched super quickly, the Cloak of Levitation drops 40 in this episode. So saving everyone. Honestly, most valuable player in the whole, in the whole zombie crew, trying to survive the most valuable player easily. Yeah. Yeah.

It was dope. It was dope. So if you were going to pick some nits here, because we talked about rules of the zombies right here, we'll go back to the zombie rules real quick. These zombies are dumb, zombies, right? But they still maintain all of their fighting prowess and their superpowers. This is my first question. I'm glad you, like, this was my first question when I was watching it.

I was in, I was excited, but I'm like, wait, how does zombie Ironman still have all of his faculties to understand how to operate one of the most advanced suits on the planet? Same thing with, like, Wanda? Like, Wanda, like, is a zombie. I'm assuming, like, she's, like, she's dead. Like, there's no brain function. Still knows exactly how to use her magic, all of that. I have no idea how to explain it besides, like, it's comic books.

don't, like, just don't look too hard. Thought about it. Is it possible? Think about it. If me and you were zomified, right? If we turned into zombies, okay? Then the both of us would theoretically still be able to walk, move, do all of that stuff. Even we'd be able to, like, scream in zombie voice, right?

Because that's a part of what we're, what we've trained ourselves as human beings. to do over a large portion of time of our lives, these things are second nature to us. Is it possible that maybe their powers are so second nature to them, that these skills and abilities are so second nature to them that they're using them almost instinctively and impulsively, just like a zombie would walk or fight or roar or roam around? Is that possible? or is using the suit itself a little bit too much of a detailed thing for us to possibly believe that Stark was doing it by instinct? So I personally feel like the rules of this world,

how Spider-Man tells us how the zombies operate, it's on instinct in terms of just like them walking, them like, wraying, them smelling, all that stuff is just for them to get human meat. to me using the Iron Man suit is one level above instinct. It's like one, a little higher. Now, the real Marvel Zombies comic book,

they did a little bit differently. The zombies in that, from my memory, it's been a long time since I've read that, they were a little smarter. That's how Robert Kirkman built it in. Like the Iron Man, the caps, and everything, like the zombies in that still had higher brain function. And this, they did not.

They didn't talk. They didn't, like, and that was maybe my one. nitpick. If I'm going to really, really nitpick, is that either you make the zombie smart or you make them dumb. You can't have both. But am I being a hater? I don't think so. I read the book

I am legend. It's totally different than the movie that you guys watch. The book, I am legend, so different than the movie. But in that one, the creatures were more vampire-like and they actually had their own society. And the crazy thing is they were afraid of Robert Neville. So the difference in the whole thing was like Robert Neville, they feared him because the book is fucking with perspectives.

Like he's walking around, like killing them during the day. But basically, the human beings have evolved into what they are now. So they were scared of him. So it wasn't until the end of the book that he goes. the I am legend, he's the legend. That's why it's called I am legend. Like the legend is about him. He's the legend.

He's their boogeyman. And so I say all that to say, really, I said that for no reason because I just want to talk about how cool that fucking book is. But they always do this with these creatures because the amount of brain function that they have denotes how far you can like take them in the worlds that they exist in. So in the Marvel zombies, there was a completely. different point than what it was in this in this particular episode of what if this particular episode of what if was more about using the zombies as an obstacle rather than you know a means

to dictate a world that they now exist in you know um it was just like another enemy for the avengers to fight uh and they did so with varying degrees of success speaking to that vision jesus when we talk about dark think about how dark what if just got and this is another thing the let you do. In this episode, Vision was feeding Black Panther to Wanda. Crazy. Bro. Think about how dark. That crazy white family, like Vision was just like, uh, Wanda, you want, you want a leg?

You want some dark meat? Yeah. And it was just sawing into that Wakanda meat. I thought, that was haunted meat. You stupid. Um, yeah, like Vision is feeding. And by the way, we have to start asking a question right now if Vision and Wanda's love is toxic.

It's past toxic. Think about Vision, think about what they're willing to do for love. I don't think they're well adjusted enough to be in a relationship. I'm anti-Vision and Wanda's relationship now. Vision was feeding Black Panther to Wanda to keep her alive because she was a zombie. Wanda imprisoned real human beings and took away their free will

to build a whole realm where her envision could be together with their family with all types of consequences that we're not even fully aware of yet it seems like they always go in the extra mile for some bullshit. You know what I'm saying?

So I don't know, man. I'm anti-vision in Wanda at this point. In every single universe, it seems like they fuck up everything. Yeah, they're going nuts. So for you, And it was full of love. Paul Bettney's back.

Have you ever had a boy who was a vision? Who was just like he would do anything for his girl? You're like, man. Yeah. You got to come down. Yeah. Yeah. Of course I have.

Quick story. One of my homeboys, one time, his girl was on punishment, right? His girl was on punishment. His parents were- I don't like where this is going. We're in high school. So his girl was on punishment. So he asked me, he said, listen, I have, have to see her. I haven't seen her. She can't come out of the house. She's on

Plungement Dad. Stayed out too late. So he asked me to go to her house where she lived with her family, knock on the front door. And when her parents came out of the front door, he was then going to sneak her out of the back door. And then I was going to drive around the block and pick them up. I remember looking at him, I'm like, bruh, I'm not going on a fucking caper. This is an Ocean's 11 type shit. Like her daddy is a policeman. Like he's in the police. Her dad was a cop.

Yeah, I'm like, I'm not going on a fucking caper. That sounds like fucking kidnapping. There's some weird shit to me. You want to do that. You do that. Don't, or just have her sneak out and go pick her up. I'm not fucking causing a diversion, bro. So y'all could be together.

What type of Scooby-Doo diversion is that? Yeah, you come out here in the front. First of all, why would I go to their house? barely know me. They know me as being your friend. It will make more sense if you went out there and then I went around to the back. We still put the drive on him about that today. They're married now.

Wait, they're married. Yeah, they got married. What? They got married. They like, it was just one of those situations. Everybody knows a couple where they meet each other and they just like, from the time that they meet each other, it's just sonnets and poems and all of that. They're just super in love.

They married. They have five kids. This is the sweetest story. God, damn. They're married now. You couldn't handle it. Anyway, I got a question for you guys. What?

So we've seen Vision die four times across the MCU. He died twice in Infinity War. We saw him get wished away in Wanda Vision. And then in this last episode of What If? He took the mindstone out of his own head. which raises questions about Affinity War, but let's get into that. So my thing is,

is Vision's death an absolute point in the MTCU? I will say this. If we're, as a comic book fan first, they kill my boy Vision in the comic books every other issue. Like, it's just like, oh, like he's dying? All right, cool, he's going to be back in six issues.

Bet, like just me, since I've been reading comics, I must have seen Vision die at least five or six times. And I think, And I think that this is kind of, Vision is the third member of the Star Trek crew, right? You know, Star Trek crew that's going to a planet. He's the Redshirt. Yeah, he's Kurt, whatever, and they know he's going to get killed.

Because Vision, we can rebuild Vision, right? Even in Wanda Vision, you know, it's like, remember. And now White Vision probably has the consciousness of the old vision. We don't know where they're going to go, what they're going to do with it. But you can bring Vision back. you can't rebuild Tony's start. So I think Vision is actually, Vision gets killed because he's easy to kill

because, you know, this is a little probably human privilege going on there. But I did think about that. I did think about that. I thought, you know, Vision to rip the stone out of his deal. He does the whole thing. He should have been ripped that bitch out. Should have ripped it out. I'm serious.

He should have been ripped it out. But they did take, and this was an interesting story, wise. They took, so Vision's distance from humanity has always been an intriguing part of his character in the MCU. His distance from humanity, he's almost like a Dr. Manhattan type of character where Dr. Manhattan gets to talking about human beings and you start to, and you go, yo, dog, do you fuck with us? Like you having sex with our women and doing all this? You don't really like us, do you? You hate us. So Vision's distance, the distance between human and humanity has always

been interesting because he admires humanity for the temporary nature of being human, for our frailty, for our mistakes. He admires humanity. But there is a distance. And there's a distance that always you could fill that space up with a little villainy if things went the other way. and Vision realizes he's not human.

So when Wanda needed something, humans became another means to an end. It was interesting to see him take that term because that's always been there. It's only the fact that he's made up of so many different things, Jarvis, Tony, whoever, that it's kept him off that path.

But love drove him to using humanity as basically Kibble for Wanda. And I thought that was very interesting because it always makes you, of course you're going to be distrustful of something that doesn't have the same sort of makeup that we do. So let me, then let me ask you this. You know, when we're intro to vision and age of Ultron, he's almost like a baby,

but he's like a noble baby. He doesn't know much, but he does have this kind of like regal air to him of goodness. Do we think his relationship with Wanda fundamentally makes him compromise a lot of that, makes him compromise his logic, makes him compromise his ideals, because every single time Wanda is in the mix and that love is in the,

you know, is all up in it. Vision doesn't make the best choice. Yeah, of course. Love makes everybody do stupid things. Even a robot? He's more than that. Android, sorry. He doesn't know. Plus he has the mindstone. So, like, he's more than that. Love makes everybody

do stupid things. Like, haircuts, past curfew, getting your homie to try kidnap your future wife. All of that type of stuff. Love makes us do all super stuff, but not all of us have the power that vision does. And so that's the scary part. Now, the leg he cut off is Chad with Bozeman,

who's coming back again. Excuse me, Tachala, who's being played by Chad with Bozeman. Tough, tough fate for Tachala in that situation. Tough fate for Tachala in the situation. Easy to think that Tachala would be overpowered by vision, though. Black Panther can't stand up next.

Division, right? So easily think... I'm asking, I'm asking. Because I'm asking, there's like, I do feel away just on my revolutionary shit. He chose the black guy to feed to Wanda, man.

It's like, let's not do this. What was vision? What was vision holding on? What was vision holding on to? You know what I mean? You know what they say? You know how like everybody's like, oh, all that shit that Facebook builds, about face recognition on Twitter, you know, when you put like a white face and a black face next to each other.

It always crops the black face out. Vision was made by some white boys, so. Yeah. Was Vision, is part of Vision's AI from like FoxNews.com or something like, why did Vision choose? I watch that brother sit there. And they always do us so bad in the zombie movies, man.

The zombie movies, they always do us so bad. It's a great send-up to the zombie movies. movies because if they wanted to prove that the black guy always dies first, like, hey, they're just like to, right. Let's chop your out leg off. Let's meet you to, uh, old carrot over there. Yeah, he's sitting there. This dude got powers and stuff. He got, he down there missing the leg, missing the leg, Wando over there, eating. Damn, it's so terrible, man, Qing on. All right, Spider-Man, Peter Parker. Uh, he is not voiced by Tom Holland in this. He is voiced by Hudson Thames. the story all suffered because you didn't hear Tom Holland's voice.

It didn't for me. Not at all. I actually, like, I knew it wasn't Tom Holland and I did not care. This was one of the rare instances. It totally worked. I will also say what totally worked is that they very smartly married a lot of the energy of those Tom Holland Spider-Man movies into this. When he's making, like, the whole movie of how to, like, survive in a zombie attack,

I was like, this is so creative. This puts me not only in this world, it teaches me the rules of the zombies immediately, which like any good zombie movie, any good zombie TV show, first five, 10 minutes, you got to tell me right now. What are the rules? You know what I mean? And it did that amazing. Right.

And obviously, different zombie movies have approached that in different ways. Sometimes you just learn through exposition, hey, and walking dance like, hey, these guys move slow, but don't get me wrong. If you get a bunch of them together, they can be formidable. In zombie land, they actually do it close. to what they do in this one, to where they actually give you an on-screen graphic,

and Jesse Eisenberg takes you through the rules of the zombie apocalypse as they're showing you scenes that demonstrate those rules, which this scene, this scene with Peter Parker would have obviously lifted that whole thing from Zambiland, which, you know,

whatever. That's, I mean, what I'm saying is, it's very smart that they did it that way. It's smart. It's fun. It was a nod to it. Zombie land is a very, very fun movie. So I was happy.

And I think that Peter is the perfect person to lead this because his youth sort of insulates him from the calamity that's going on. When you have those zombie movies and you have these kids, there was even another show on Netflix. It was called Daybreak. I loved the show. They canceled it after one season, but it took place out in Glendale. and it was like a zombie apocalypse out Glendale with this guy and all the kids and it's almost easier sometimes to see it

through the eyes of people who haven't come to terms with their own mortality yet because they're having a little bit more fun than people like me would be having fucking breaking down every single day. Well actually the fun thing that they did in this which I was just like I think the movies suffer from a lot is that in this when he's talking to Hope

and Hope is kind of this representative of like a jaded adult. And Peter Parker is just like, you know, I lost my Uncle Ben. I've lost Iron Man, blah, blah, blah. He's going through everything he's lost. And that actually makes him a great survivor in this because he's so used to death and he's so used to having to conquer it. Hope is someone who isn't. It's actually the zombie apocalypse is partly her fault.

She couldn't deal with the death of her mom. And this is the thing that kicks it off. thought that that was so smart to pit two insect heroes against each other, an older, very competent person against a younger, pluckier person. They did a great job with that. I love this episode. I'm honestly mad that this might be the last time we see this world. Yeah, yeah. It was very special for me to kind of be in this and have this pace. And I thought the pacing of the episode was perfect, too. Yeah. Yeah, they really, really nailed it. They really did. Wait, can we rip the Band-Aid off real quick, Van.

What? How in the world would anybody fight off zombie Thanos? The minute he was on... That's the thing. The minute he was on screen, I was like, I don't... This is O.P.

Like, I don't even know how. Like, I literally... It was one of the best what-the-fuck moments in a while. Oh, man. They're taking it to Wakanda, and I'm like, oh, okay, cool. Like, and then you see Thanos there missing a one stone,

they're bringing the, I'm like, oh shit. What? It's like super duper nuts. You got zombie thanos. He still got the infinity. I was like, God damn. And like, I will also say we haven't touched on this. I love the weirdness of putting Ant Man's head into a jar.

I laughed. That is just like such a quirky type of thing to put in this. Classic sci-fi. I fucking loved it, man. A little morbid. I liked it. A little morbid just to see the head there talking. But I enjoyed it.

The jokes were coming a mile a minute, and I was glad that there was there for some levity. They did a really great job in this at what if, by not letting us drown in the weight of what we're talking about. Because think about it. Think about what we're watching. And really, all three of them, the last three, have done a good job of this,

even the Sorcerer Supreme episode. What we're watching in that episode is Dr. strange, destroy the universe. What we're watching in this episode is all of our favorite Avengers becoming zombies. But totally, they've done such a perfect job of not letting us wallow in the weight of what these episodes are taking on. They've kept it light with the Happy Hogan, Blam, Blam stuff. They've kept it light with the quips and the one-liners with Spider-Man's energy. Bucky was a hidden. MVP in this one.

You know, I loved Bucky in this. I loved Bucky in this. Also, I loved Bruce Banner. The Hulk and it's like all of this, they just, they're really well done. Don't get me wrong.

I am really hoping for a lighter themed episode of What If Next one. You know, I'm really hoping for a lighter themed episode of What If? I definitely am. what if it's really, really knocking out of the park right now?

All right, all right. Let's not go there. Okay, let's not jump the ship. Wait, you don't think that what if is super good? I'm really enjoying it. I think episodes of what if are super good. I think we've gotten like two really, really solid episodes,

like two great episodes, glad I watched them. The rest of them are okay to not. Okay. There's been literally one sort of just okay episode of what is. We're not going to do this Because people aren't going to get mad

The midnight mob is about to burn Okay, that's fine, that's fine What if it's doing just fine? Charles, we're going to finish up But get back to your question Who in the midnight crew Would be the first to die In a zombie apocalypse?

Me. No way. Really? Yes, yes. Charlie, Steve, turn on your mics. Arjuna, if you're still there, turn on your mics. Everybody turned it on.

We were discussing this in Slack on the side and the results were bleak. Okay. Yeah, it's tough. So let me tell you, let me tell you why it's going to be me. I can't fucking handle it. Now,

I'm going to be honest with you. If I could, if I could handle it, I'd be just the leader that the team needs. I'll tell you why. I have a shotgun. I have a shotgun over there, a Benelli M4 under my bed,

500 rounds of ammo. 500 rounds? For what are you? Are you duck hunting? What the 500 rounds? Are you in color of, Duty? What are you doing?

No, Van, it's from the country, bro. Down from the country. That's true. I have a survival vest. I have all of that stuff because I've always, you know, I'm a gun owner or whatever, people. I'm not, by the way, if the government ever says, hey, Van, come give your guns back. You can have them. It's fine. But I'm a gun owner, right?

And during the pandemic, you know, I went to the gun shop and I found all kinds of things that I needed because I didn't know what was going to happen. So I got some extra ammo. I got like a special blade and all of these scenes. Man, you're fucking lying to me. Did you think it was the end of the world? I wish Kalika was here right now. I bought crates.

Like the ammo that I bought, like my ammo isn't in boxes. They're in Winchester crates. Like I got so much shit. Jesus Christ. What did Kalika think of all of this? Like she was freaked out. Like she, so I kept saying things like,

because remember, you know, we can look back on the pandemic right now. and now that we understand it. But remember, things were happening so quick, I was literally like telling her, okay, if we have to hit the road, then we're going to need all of this stuff.

And she would be like, what do you mean hit the road? I'm like, if things get too fucked up in L.A., we have to drive to Mexico. Where are you going, V? I didn't know. Bitch of a man, think it was judgment day, man. To be fair, to be fair,

We were freaking out over toilet paper, all right? We were. Come on. Come on. We were. So what I'm saying is if I could keep it together, I have all the survival skills I've learned from my father. I know how to make a fire. I can hunt.

I can do all of these things. I can fish all of it. Put me in the woods somewhere. I can live off the land for a little while if I know sort of where the lakes and rivers and streams are and things like that. However, what the pandemic proved to me is that it's not going to matter. Because shortly after I left the gun store, I had a massive panic attack. And we ended up having to like, I ended up having to go into massive therapy. So I'm not going to be able to hold it together.

So I'm going to be, I'm actually going to give you guys all the stuff. I'm just going to stay there and wait for the zombies to come. because I'm not going to be able to do it. So I know my lengths. I thought Van would be our fearless leader. It seems like he's not equipped for that. Jomey, Steve, Arjuna, what did you come? What was your answer to this very fraught question?

So we took, you know, we took our, you know, we took this very seriously. We had a lengthy discussion. And ultimately what it came down to was, you know, age. And so for that point, I'm sorry, Charles, but we thought you would be the first one to die first. That's right. Charles is like, yeah. So I'm making no promises. Here's the thing.

Here's the thing. I'm the person in the group that like, yeah, he's not really a team player. He's too much of a fire. You know what I'm saying? That's fine. What I will say, though, is that I've been in the gym,

hard, preparing for the end of the world. You know what I'm saying? Like hard. I'm like in there being like, dog, if I got to say, scale a tree. I don't care if y'all leave me behind. Scale a tree. Yeah, like a bear. Yeah, you never know.

You never know. Well, let me, let me tell you something. The fact that you didn't use the word climb. You're going to scale a tree. Where the fuck are you from, Charles? Like, you scale the Empire State Building. Like, you scale Mount Everest. You climb a tree. All right. Like this guy, you scale a treat. You know what? We liked Marvel Zombies. It was fun. Thank you guys.

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You don't need weather tech unless you plan on doing summer. Visit weathertech.com today. Please let's get to Nerd News Minute. Nerd News Minute time. Okay, guys, teaser images and footage for the newest Matrix movie just dropped. Tomorrow, the trailer will come out. Thursday, the trailer for the Matrix Resurrections will come out. First of all, Charles.

Are you a fan of The Matrix? Big fan. I don't want you to kill me. Like, The Matrix was one of my most favorite movies growing up as a teenager. But my parents wouldn't allow me to go see the other two. They're just like, it's a little too horny for you. Did you a favor? Did you a favor?

And I never got around to it. So during this pandemic, I was like, you know what? I'm going to go back and rewatch them and see why they're so hated. And I got to be real, man. They've aged like fine. Why? You're lying. What the fuck are you talking about?

No, they haven't. It's the same shit. The third matrix movies. Not as bad as people said. You're out of your mind. No, not as bad as people said. Okay. This is your opinion.

Why am I jumping down your throat? Go, so you said they were great films. I just like, I think like with distance, like, like, I think the second one is very, very entertaining. And I think the third one, that's the one where they're in like the subway and shit. And like, Neo is trying to get back. Like, not bad. Not bad at all.

The second one is fine. The third one sucks. The second one, so... Go back and rewatch it. The second one's fine. The third one sucks. Like, the second one, I remember being in the movie theater. So when the Matrix first came out, obviously culture was in a much different place.

And the tag to the Matrix, nobody can tell you what the matrix is. You have to see it for yourself was the reason why we went to go see the movie. Right. And so, like, I didn't really know very... much about what the matrious was going to be. I saw Keanu dodging the bullets in the trailer. I didn't go read up on the internet. The internet was less accessible now than it is today and there was less stuff on it. But I remember going into the movie and being a part of a theater that was delighting in unbridled wonderment all at the same time. Trinity jumps up.

The camera gives you the 360 and everybody's like, oh! And I remember going to go and I remember going, going to the second matrix, which is the matrix reloaded, we keep calling it the second one. I remember going to the second matrix and just realizing that none of that wonderment was in the crowd anymore. Like, they had seen that and they were waiting for what else they were going to see. And even Neil Flying was in the first Matrix movie. All right, but let's be real. The original Matrix movie is one of the greatest movies of all time. Is there any version of Matrix Reloaded?

that could have matched. Like people were seeing shit we've never seen on screen before. That's why it's amazing. There's no way you can top that. Right, right. So there's no way you can match it, but what they did was their best to undo it.

So what they did in the Matrix revolutions was they bloated it. The reason why the original Matrix was so great is because it was sexy and lean and sleek and to the point all of these great big, gigantic concepts that it had stuck through a pinhole, right? They had took all these great big things like fate, destiny, reality,

perception versus reality. And they stuck them through a pinhole of the story of these people and they did it in a very small way. What they did in the next movie was there was a council and there were all these other ships and we're going to Zion and it's this whole thing. And they expanded the world to a point to where they lost what made the the first film great. And they took on...

I totally agree with that. And they took like a little bit of a Star Warsy type turn. Well, now everybody has to come together and make decisions. Now, like, Morpheus is actually a zealot and all of these... And it just...

And it didn't work for the world that they had set up. If they could have made another movie that was comparable to the first Matrix, had they stayed true, in my opinion, to what made that movie good. And they kind of got away from it.

The first movie makes you look at the world in a different way. And the second and third movie make you look at the world that you're watching and think that this is the dumbest shit ever. And I will say watching the second one, I was just like, wait, to culture, did we all forget in the intervening years how horny?

Like, there's a whole orgy scene, just all of them together dancing where I was just like, this is like, this happened in a theater? This is unculture. Yeah, that is what would be happening though if we all lived underground. They'd be going down, bro. especially in a situation like that. So we don't know if the send those are coming, it would be going down.

What are your thoughts overall on them just, obviously we live in the bring back my IP era. Itman. I like it man. My nephew calls it IP man. IP man. That's what my nephew calls it man. IP man is hard, bro.

It man is so hard. That's a great breakup. That's a great breakup movie. I was going through a breakup once. I just started watching it, man. It man. It's great. Take your mind off of it.

But now that's what every studio head is. Every studio head is It Man. IP Man. That's what my nephew calls him. IP man. Every studio head is IP man. So obviously with the Matrix having a place that it has in the culture, they were going to come back to it in some sort of way.

What do you think of even the idea of a brand new Matrix movie? I think it shows how the depths that are on creativity, our lack of creativity better, has gotten. is since the last Matrix movie has got, has arrived because we went from like getting a movie like The Matrix to people, like heads of studios being like, you know what? Instead of creating something that'll blow people's mind, why don't we just double back? Why don't we rewind? That being said, I'm so excited. I don't care. Like, just give me the slop. I don't care if it's bad. I don't care if this greatest of all time. I want to see Keanu Reeves. He looks amazing.

And I want to ask you this, fan. I think people need to stop with these dumb jokes being like, like Keanu Reeves just looks like John Wick and in The Matrix now. I'm like, guys, this is the most beautiful man. Why would we shave off this beard? Does Neo need to be clean shaved in The Matrix 4? I don't really think so. We're not shaving the beard off. No, he looks too good.

We're not shaving the beard off. Keanu Reeves is 57 years old and he looks fantastic. We're not shaving the beard off. We're not cutting the hair. We're not cutting the hair. Okay. He got other movies. make. If he looks like John Wick, he looks like John Wick. Stop nitpicking shit. Really,

you guys, stop nitpicking shit. All right. He's got a beard. He's got longer hair. Y'all have been through this with other people. Tom Cruise wore a long hair from Mission Impossible. He wore a couple of years. And guess what he did? He cut the fucking hair. It happens. You know what I mean? So we're not cutting the beard. He looked great. I also will say this as someone who's had a beard for a while. Like my girl asked me one day, she's like, yo, are you ever going to cut your beer? I'm like, I want to keep you. I want, like, I want, like, I want, like, you. Like, you You don't want to see me with that beard. The Travis Kelsey.

You see what happened to Travis Kelsey when he cut his beard? Travis Kelsey went from, Mr. I'll take your girl to, will that be fries with that, sir? And with one beard, Travis Kelsey went from literally, literally, I'll steal your girl to, let me get this from the, let me see if we have more these in the back. I'm saying, like literally. So no, like, I'm, no, get off Kiyanu. Get off. Yeah, come on.

Yeah, come on. So, Yaya Abdul Mateen is in this movie. He's also in Aquaman coming up, which is a film we're going to talk about a little bit after we talk about the Matrix. Do you have any clue who Yaya Abdul Mateen could be in this movie? I do see him in one scene. Looks like a still that he's getting freed from the power plant there, the battery deal. So apparently we weren't able to figure that out. But there's definitely a scene where he wakes up and he's bald.

and he's got no eyebrows, and so it looks like he's being taken out of being power for the machines. So what do you think his role could be? Is he like a new Neo? Is he a new recruit? Like, what's the deal? I wouldn't be surprised if they sideline Neo a bit

and introduce us to someone new. You feel me? I don't know who that'll be, but what I will say is the one reason I do like the Matrix trilogy is like the Wachowski's love them some black people. They will let black people into their movies. Like, I forgot.

how much the Matrix is like a black movie. And it could have been, and it could have been blacker because they offered the, they offered the lead to Will Smith. Yeah, like the whole movie. I'm just like, God damn, there's a lot of black people at the end of the world. Shout out to the Wachowski's. So I don't know what Yaya is going to do. Once again, handsome man.

I will watch him do anything. Handsome man. I will tell you this. I don't know any of my homies that will have taken the red pill. I don't know when I, as a matter of fact, it was a consensus leaving the movie that you probably take the blue pill. Okay. It's like, okay.

So you get there, you know the truth, especially after, see, this is my thing. I would like to think that I would take the red pill and maybe now I would. Now I probably definitely would, but then I probably wouldn't have.

And the thing that I was like, red pill, red pill, red pill, team red pill, then something that the Wachowski's did so amazing. And this is a subtle little thing that they did in this movie. when Seifers having dinner with Agent Smith and Seifer, there's never been a steak that looked that good in a movie. When Seifer cuts into that steak and puts the steak in his mouth and then he drinks the wine and he goes, ignorance is bliss, that scene is so amazingly captured.

You have been watching them eat cream of wheat slop. for the last hour and you see that you could have steak and the central human question is if you could have steak, would you eat anything else for your morals and principles? That's all, that's like central human question.

What if you could have steak? If you could have steak, would you sell your homies out? If you could have steak, like steak, you know what I mean? And like, they made it look so good. I'm like, I don't know, man. Blue pill means. I'm taking a steak. I'm weak.

I'm taking a steak. I'm not going to fuck out of here. What did you think of some of the stuff we got from Aquaman? Are you looking forward to Aquaman too? I love the original Aquaman. I'm looking forward to it. The suits are pie. I got to see them in movement.

I got to see them in movement. That's awesome. You're such a hard guy to pick. What? Like the, it's the, you loved the original Aquaman? I love the original Aquaman. That's an amazing movie. Okay.

Men lie, women lie, numbers don't lie. That's one of the most successful superhero movies of all time. I like the movie. I just have never heard anyone refer to it as amazing. It's an amazing movie. Okay. Okay. I'm not saying it's not, I really enjoyed the movie.

But I just wouldn't have thought that you'd have been like the original Aquaman is an amazing movie. But fair enough. It's original Aquaman. I enjoyed the suit. I thought it looked good. Once again, I try not to get too hyped up on these sort of, this is stills from the set and all of that stuff. Just give me the film.

I'm excited about the new Aquaman movie. I think that they can build on the world. I just don't know how it's going to fit into the larger world of the DC EU now that it seems like they're doing a reset. So I'm interested to see how this movie kind of factors into what DC is trying to do in the direction they're trying to take all of their characters. But I was happy to see it. Yaya is working.

Yeah, yeah, I got the Matrix. Candyman. Yeah, yeah, I got the Aquaman 2. The whole nine, bro. The whole nine, man. Shout out to him, get in the bag. Whoever his agent is, needs a race. Okay, so the costumes you saw the costumes,

you don't like Jason Momor's suit. That's okay. Nobody really enjoyed it. People don't like the suit. What are the worst suits in superhero history? Three worst suits? Worst suits in superhero history? God, you go first.

Okay. You got Batman suit, Batman and Robin with the bat nipples. Horrible. Horrible. Pretty bad. Ridiculously bad suit. All right. That's up there for me. I'm not giving these in no order. You have the animated CGI suit of Green Lantern. Oh, that's bad. That's a bad one, bro. Of the Green Lantern. And you have the suit pants combo of Daredevil and Ben after Flex Daredevil move.

Didn't dig it at all. Padden leather outfit for Daredevil. Not very tactical. Dare wear it for me. Didn't fuck with it. At all. I got some. I got some.

All right. Deadpool. X-Men origins. Bad. The original Ryan Reynolds one. Without the mouth with the tattoos, just bad. Not much of a suit there,

but I get it. Holly Berry, Catwoman. Oh, Jesus Christ. Come on. just like salted the earth for superhero movies for a while. And then my last one, hmm, this is going to be tough. I think I'm going to have to go with the thing from Fantastic Four. Oh, the original thing.

Yeah, bad. Yeah. Bad. Looked like styrofoam. Yeah, well, the decision not to CGI that one, that's interesting. They should have probably CGI at that one. I don't know where we were in terms of CGA. I know they could have done it.

But they were just like, fuck it. We're just going to go full on. he's wearing a suit type deal. We're going to full on makeup. And it didn't work. Those Fantastic Four movies are remembered a lot harsher now than they were when they came out. Like the original Fantastic Four movie when it came out, people were fucking with it. No, they were.

Yeah, they were. No, they were. Yes, they were. Yes, they were. Yeah, they were. Yeah, they were. Yeah. Like, the original Fantastic Four movie when it came out, people were fucking with it.

It was, Jessica Albaugh was on a high. Jesus Christ. Let me tell you something. All you guys. Damn is what Van is saying. Damn. All right. First team team.

First, first string team white girl right there. All right. I'm going to hit the button on you, Van. Okay. Okay. 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.

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every race, every hard-fought place. They're all jammed inside every can of Nass energy. High performance energy for burning the midnight oil in the garage and pedal to the metal human horsepower for the streets. Go ahead, crack open a can of Nass energy and get after it. We are very excited about this. We love interacting with the Midnight Riders. And we're going to do something here very special.

It's not the first, not the last time we do it, but it is the first. We're bringing it to you right now. Let's get to some of your. Midnight Mail. Let's do it. The Midnight May. Good job, Steve. That was amazing. Thank you. All right.

Hey guys. Brandon Russ calling in from Utah. So cool to be on with the midnight boys. My favorite moments definitely. Charles, Charles, giving his hot take about age of Ultron, but Charles, I'm with you. Underrated MCU movie underrated. My question for you guys is about the Star Trek universe.

Where in the ring of versus Star Trek? fall in for you guys. I know my guy Joe May has been watching some lower decks and enjoying it as much as I have, I think. I want to get your guys' thoughts on Star Trek, both Classic Trek and this current iteration of new shows of Trek that we got. Thanks. I'll take

my answer off the air. Shout out to my man, Age of Ultron. There's not a lot of us out there, but we're a strong, like, community, strong united community. But Van, where are you with your Star Trek fandom? I really love Star Trek Zero.

when they brought Star Trek back and they rebooted it and they had Chris Pine and all the kind of things that they were doing with their world. The movie kind of, the movies lost themselves.

The movie, they lost themselves a little bit after that, but I was really a big fan of that. By the way, man, rest in peace, Anton Yeltsin, a guy that we don't talk that much about but someone that was just amazing on screen.

I was thinking about them not too long ago for some reason, you know, just was making this come up in that situation. It's just a terrible thing that happened to Anton Yeltsin some years ago. So rest of the piece of Anton Yeltsin. But I enjoy Star Trek.

I never became like a hardcore tricky. But I've seen all the movies. I've watched a lot of the shows. And I like some of the stuff that's happening right now. But no, I dig it. And the animated show is pretty cool too. So I dig Star Trek. I'm something, I am into it enough to have watched all the next generation,

to have watched Deep Space Nine, and to have watched some of the movies, but not to be like licking my child's for new Star Trek content, if that describes it to you. Oh, that's fair. That's fair. I'm very, I'm a Star Trek newbie.

Like, I like the new movies. Growing up, Star Trek, the next generation, was just like in the house. It was always on. So I'm very just kind of like aware of like Star Trek, the new generation. That was probably the one that I grew up on.

I like Star Trek. I wouldn't say I'm like a huge, like, Trekkie like you Van, but like, well, you're not a huge Trekkie either. But yeah, I fuck with Star Trek. If they come on with the new movie, we'll probably talk about it. So yeah, Trekkies, we love you guys. Yeah, yeah, okay. Let's do it.

Next one, let's go. Let's go. Yes, sir, I got a question from Shane Hummer. Love what you guys are doing. For the people who love the movies, but haven't read the comic books, y'all do a good job of making us not feel like idiots. My favorite moment was the birth of Coke baby Chuck. You're smoking crack cocaine.

almost wrecked my car laughing. My question is, in order, in order, what are the five worst Marvel films so far? I know the Midnight Boys don't run from the smoke, so we need to know what y'all think. Thanks, guys.

Shane Hummer. Worst MCU movies. Wow. In order? Well, yeah, I mean, you could just list you, your worst five. Personally, your worst five or, you know, whatever floats your boat. All right.

Go horror, Charles. This is in no particular order. Right off top we have Captain Marvel. Right. Thor the Dark World. I'm going to go with, honestly, it's a toss-up between like Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3. Don't know which one I would pick. Damn, worst MCU movies.

There's a lot. How many do I have, Jomey? Is that three? Yeah, that's, I mean, if you want to count Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3, that's four. I'm going to go Incredible Hulk And then Which one Maybe Ant Man 2 Maybe Ant Man 2

Okay We basically have the same films So Captain Marvel Iron Man 2 Incredible Hulk Ant Man 2 And I throw in there When we say worse

When we're comparing it to the rest of the MCU I throw in Gardens of the Galaxy 2 Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is not great It's not great I don't know if it's 5 but it's down there Did we Joe me Steve? did we forget any that are particularly been.

Thor of the Dark World didn't make the cut. I like Thor of the Dark World. I've talked about it before. You're wild. I like Thor of the Dark World. I like it. This would be the one time that Mal will join you

on your side in the Midnight Court. Y'all might kill me. Jomey's probably the only one who would agree with me. I think Captain America the first adventure, you can sneak that in there. Oh my God.

No. Man, Charles is here. Charles sees you. You got the vision. Bro, that movie is pretty bad. It's so bad. It's so bad. But it might be six.

It might be six. No, it's not. It's bottom third Marvel. Easy. Absolutely not. Easy. Absolutely. Clearly.

Go, go rewatch it. Go rewatch it. I actually watch it. I'll rewatch it all the time. When this is over, go rewatch it. All the time. It's so, it's so boring. We watch it all the time.

It's so good. It's so boring. It's pretty bad. No. No. Please. All right. Here comes our next question.

Here comes. our next one. Yo, midnight boys, peop-poo! This is Chris in Buffalo. I love you guys so much. I love the pod. I just look forward to it every week. Favorite moment for me,

anytime we go to court. I just live for it, especially if Van is outraged by one of Charles's crazy takes. Love you both, though. I have a question for you. Recently, because of your show, because of the House of Mell, because of the watch, I've fallen in the show. back into the world of comic books.

I went into a shop for the first time in 20 years. I love Tom Taylor's run on Nightwing and the Good Asian. What are you reading? What do you recommend? Yo, Van, you want to go first? Really, to be honest with you, I'm catching up on stuff. So, like, the stuff I'm reading right now is I'm still reading. I've missed out on a lot of Hitman's Fantastic Four Run.

So if I look over there right now, I'm reading the Future Foundation. And all of that stuff. Now, I had read some of it, but I don't really, I really, sometimes my problem with comic books is that I read them just to tap into what everybody else is reading. You know what I mean? Just so I could stay in the conversation. I don't know if I really had absorbed them as much as I needed to.

So I'm literally right now on volume three of the Future Foundation slash Fast Task for Hickman Avengers run that leads up, of course, in time. to the New Avengers and the Encourions and stuff. So I'm reading that right now. So like really for me, I am catching up on so many comics that I haven't read. Like so many comics I haven't read, I'm reading Invincible, which I had never read before. You know what I mean? That between that and some of the Marvel stuff that I'm reading.

Also, some of the Batman shit that I've missed out on, you know? the Batman metal stuff reading some of that. It's pretty good. So, you know, it's not, I'm not nearly as invested, haven't been nearly as invested over the past, I'd say three years, three, four years maybe, into comics as I needed to be, but I'm catching up now.

Ooh, this is a question for me, if you're just asking what I'm reading. For those that don't know, like I'm, I go to the comic book store at least twice a month to pick up everything off top. I've loved everything that maybe not loved, but I think it's the most excited I've ever been for X-Men comics. Jonathan Hickman's House of X, Powers of Ten is phenomenal. What he's been doing with the X-Men is really, really good.

So if you have like one comic, you should pick up, you're like, all right, I haven't been to the comic store in a while. Pick up like that nice, juicy graphic novel by Hickman, House of X, Powers of Ten. That's a very cliche answer. On the image side, Ultra Mega is the story about Kaiju. it is amazing. The art is amazing. The story is amazing. On the manga side,

man, I love Dondodon. You can get it with your Shonen Jump app. Jiu-Jitsu Kaizen, My Hero Academia, One Piece, as always. If you're looking for a little bit of slice of life romance, there's a new comic called Sweat and Soap about a woman and a man who fall in love with each other. They work at a soap company,

and the guy loves smelling the girl. It's very, very charming. Other comic books that I've loved, Like if you're a new comic book reader, these are very, very, like, common answers. But like Saga is about to come back. Saga is an amazing comic book.

I give it to everybody who's like, what should I be reading? Saga, if you haven't been to a comic store in a while. And then, yeah, I think that covers a lot of bases. But, hey, if you guys ever want to know, weird comics, comics for kids, whatever, manga for kids, I'm here. All right, let's get another one.

Hello, Midnight Boys. My name is Vic from Minneapolis. My favorite moments are just any Cook Baby Chuck takes because I agree with them most time. So shout out to him. My question is, what is your favorite and least favorite CGI fight scenes? I thought at least the one in Shang-chi was pretty and the dragons kind of looked cool, but I was like, okay, this is just a lot of CGI. So what are your favorites and least favorites? Thanks, guys. Pugh-Pew. Favorites and least favorites.

Dave, what do you got? I know my least favorite CGI fight scene is off the top. The burly brawl in the Matrix Revolutions. It's totally stupid. It's like dumb. Like when he's fight, it looks so terrible.

When he's, and you know what you guys are talking about when Neo is fighting all of the agents' myths, they thought that that would be a great scene. It's not. It sucks. It's whack. I don't dig it. So like CGI-wise,

That's definitely my least favorite. My most favorite is Avengers versus Outriders at the end of Avengers end game. It's a breathtaking battle scene. I think it's the greatest battle scene ever committed to film. It's better than anything in Lord of the Rings. It's better than Braveheart. It's better. It's the best most epic battle scene.

Is it full of CGI? Yeah, sure, whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's full of CGI, whatever. You know what I'm saying? But CGI in that scene doesn't mean. mean what it means. CGI means come get it. That's what it means in that scene. Come get it. Come get some of this. So that's my favorite one. My least favorite one was by far. I remember being in the theaters when I was watching the burly brawl and it's just not great. It's not great filmmaking.

I will say worst, honestly, has to be a Justice League mustache Superman. I remember when that came out just like. Yeah, that's crazy. That's a good one. It really, really derailed the whole thing. I think Green Lantern, the entire movie. The CGI is quite terrible. And I do agree with Shang Chi. Good movie. The dragons took me out of it. The CGI at some parts, I was like, man, we Marvel. I never thought you would do this again. Best, you already took endgame van. I'm going to go with Infinity War. Infinity War's great. The end of Infinity War, like the fight when just everything from like Thor, grew, Rocket. coming down, all of them running

to face Thanos in the army. Just great. They could have botched that and they didn't. It looks phenomenal. So I think those are my answers. For worse, CGI, everything that they did in the Avatar movie, not the tree one, the last airbender.

The tree one. Not the tree one with the big tree, the last airbender. That was, everything was awful. And actually, I'm going to stick with you guys with the Avengers films Avengers one The one shot

Where Iron Man's flying around And they'll go across New York And you stop with every Avenger And they do some Some cool move or a team up thing That was like I love that scene Like every time I watch the Avengers

I look forward to that scene Because that one shot is special So that's like my favorite CGI moment Personally All right great Jomey you got one more written for us All right this one comes from Drew Wallace

This is Drew from Baton Rouge and every time Van tells a story about BR is my favorite midnight boys moment. So my question, if you could relocate any hero to a different main city of operation, who would it be and where and why? Thank you for all the work y'all do.

All right, is it really quick. Is this comic books or is this movies? It can do comic book movies. I mean, you interpret the question how you want. Let's do comic book movies for everyone. I would put Tom Holland Spider-Man in Nolan's Gotham because everybody would just

hate him so much. Can you imagine? Tom Island having to go versus Bain? Like Bays just like breaking. That's very cool, Mr. Bain. I was born in the dog. I was born in the dog.

He tries to get a new mentor and Commissioner Gordon and Gary Oldman's like, you got something for him. He can or not. I don't trust you. It's very good, Mr. Bain. It's cool.

It's so. cool. Why do you it's so crazy. Why are you breaking my bad Mr. Bain? You got a what's going on? You got a face mask that's so rad. Oh, Mr. Bain. You got a nuclear nuclear bomb? Wow,

did you know the density on the E&P and oh, oh, it's so nice, Mr. Bain? How'd you get those scars, Mr. Joker? Hey, I did. Those are cool. A cool scar. You know what I say? I don't know who I relocate where,

but I do know one thing. Miami needs a superhero. Just stop the Coke for you? It's got enough villains. I'll say that. Miami needs a superhero, man. Because it's like I watch all of these documentaries about what was going on in Miami with the Coke.

And I'm like, did anybody care? Obviously nobody cared. So I don't know who. I was sent to Miami? You know who's already in Miami, if we're being honest? Who? Wong is in Miami. He's just like throwing money.

Whoa, that's the answer. Wong is Miami's superhero. Like, think about that. How do you think the Coke is getting into Miami? What do you think he's got in those suitcases when he goes through the portal and Spider-Man? What do you think he's trajus? He's mulling. He's traveling.

He used the sling ring to get it from Medellian. all the way in there. And this is the scene. I'll write this scene right here. Because this is what if should be doing? It should be like, what if Wong was the number one drug smuggler? Slingering and deep.

Think about this. Wong is in like, I don't know, he's in Bogota. He's in Mexico. He's wherever it is. Not to be smirch, the people that live here,

but these are the places where the cocaine came from. And they're like, well, we have so much cocaine to move. How could you possibly move? that much cocaine. When you have planes, you have boats, and Wong goes, no. And he starts sling rinking. Put it through right here, and it drops out on Ocean Drive,

southwest 78th Street or whatever they fucking do in Miami. Wong could be the best drug smuggler in the whole Marvel universe. Wong's taking pictures of himself outside of the White House with his three families. Yeah, Wong is doing it. Meanwhile, still going back to the Sanctum-Slam Tourm asking Dr. Strange for change for Tuna Meltz. He's holding up the front. He's holding up the front. That's actually, that's what I want to see the next Marvel.

Like, where's Wong? But it's just Darcy and Agent What's his face? Just tracking down Wong. Just like, we got to stop. Tracking them down. Wong, you have to be stopped. But at this point, Wong has been on like a five, six day bender. And he's like, no.

You all just said I've built an empire. All right. Here's our last question of the day. What's up, Bringwell's family? I hope you all staying safe, doing well. This is Lutando from South Africa. Big fans since day one. Best moment has found the Ring of Us has got to be the Spider-Man midnight court.

Greatest hour of podcasting I've ever listened to. A question for you all, who is snitching on the Avengers? Who gave Valentina the intel of what's happening on Vormier? because someone looking for club. Love y'all. Shout out to South Africa. Shout out to South Africa. We got listeners all over the world.

Yeah, that's amazing. Thank you. Oh, who's the snitch in the Avengers camp? There's a lot of candidates. How do you think Wong is getting that Coke by customs? Is Wong an Avenger? No, right? Wong's not Avenger.

I mean, he was there for the fighting end game. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I get it. Because the Avengers in the comic books have, oh, I don't know, a thousand and five members. So anybody, I guess, fought against Thanos as an Avenger technically. Scott Lang. Do you think it's Scott Lang?

I don't know if he's too smart. Like, he just might be like at a bar, you know what I'm saying? Just with everybody chilling out, just being like, yo, and this is what happened. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then, like, everybody's taking notes and shit. Maybe Scott Lang. He's up there. My running theory is that because, you know,

James Rhodes is in the military. He's a colonel. He's the only one who would have to report it to anybody. I agree. He would have to be the person who's like, all right, that's how it went down. Because no one else, like, who you can't ask Cap. You can't ask, you know, Falcon and all those people because they weren't here.

I was about to say that he's the only one that follows orders. Right. So he had to probably give a report, which then went to like, you know, the FBI, the CIA, which is how Sharon knows, which is how Valentina knows. which is how Jimmy Wu and they know in Wanda Vision. Because you're watching that and you're like, how did they know about Captain Marvel?

Like they weren't there. You know what I'm saying? You know what also? He got a bone to pick because they paralyzed his ass. So he's just like, nah, fuck y'all. Fuck y'all. Exactly.

I'm getting everybody in this report. He's the serious. My running theory is Louise via Scott Lang. Louise is folding. He's singing like a pigeon in an interrogation room. That could be it. That could be it. I like that.

I need that scene in Ant Man 3. All right. So boom, I was talking to Scotty, right? And then you put the music. All right. We are done. You guys, I think that the first foray into Midnight Mailbag was great. You guys asked some really, really great questions.

Great questions. You guys are so nice. The Midnight writers really like, here's the thing. You know, we get beat up a lot by the Midnight Mob. But it was really nice and heartwarming to realize people around the world are listening. We can make your days bad. and even if you guys want to kill me sometimes, like it's all said in fun.

It's all said in jest. Charles, you're so sensitive. I'm so sensitive. People are like, I'm really sensitive. It's so weird. It's always weird to me when guys like you are sensitive because you're the type of guy that will come out and be like, fuck Superman.

I didn't say, oh, well, unless I do that. And then like after you say that, you'll be mad when people go, no, Charles. Fuck you. All right, that is a wrap. Make sure to join Mal Friday for the deep. dive on episode five of what if there are a lot of questions and of course

Mallory Ruebman has a lot of answers she's going to need to give the maltreatment to this episode so make sure you check in with her at ringerverse is on facebook iG twitter join us and send us questions ideas ideas and thoughts you guys we love the questions we love the ideas we love the thoughts when we say ideas look out there for stuff that we might not be covering throw it up we might do a whole anime episode because i'm now i'm out i'm now into all anime And I'm with the midnight writers We need to hop on Dune We need to do a Matrix when it drops

We need to do a Venom one when it drops Like I'm ready to talk about To talk about the movies I'm watching all the animas I'm watching My Hero Macadamian nut I'm watching Neon Demon Evangelo Lily I'm watching all of these

All of these crazy ass names And it's fucking with my mental's a little bit I'm not gonna lie So I'm watching all of these Make sure to join this next week for more surprises. Our producers are Steve Allman, Jomi Adoneron,

and our additional production comes from Arjuna, Ramaka Paul. And of course, always better, not heard, not seen. And in the background,

producer TD. Don't do that to TD. We love you, TD. Don't do that, TD. Producer TD, TD, I love with you, bro. I love you, man. All right, Charles,

give us an ultra. The Midnight Boys are the best. The Midnight Boys are the worst. but fuck Jomey fuck Arjuna because Van in the zombie apocalypse is definitely getting killed first Actually I have a listener question

What black person are you replacing TI with In The Ant Man 3? Wow I was just thinking about that They're gonna They're gonna Oh now so here's the thing When you say replace Are we doing a Don Cheadle situation?

Yeah same character Just different person Different black person A little bawa Stan A. Is Lekeith Stanfield too big for that role? Hell yeah. The fuck.

Yeah. Yeah. And plus, if you want to get with somebody that's less problematic, nah, you can't go with Keith, man. That's true. That's true. That's true. That's true.

Start moaning in people's ear. And he's going to get this one. Sorry, Lekeith. Keith, a genius. Keith the genius, but the MCU stuff is not going to be for Keith. He is a. true RT's. So if he decides one day

he's going to walk down the street with his dick out, that's what he's going to do. Oh, dear. I got two. I have two for y'all. Okay. Equally problematic, but Nick Cannon. Stop. Well, you know, he needs the money. He got all those baby moms. He needs the money. Nick would be great. And then Tyrese. Tyrese, you know what I'm saying? Tyrese can't do that. Tyrese could.

You can't. What? Tyrese would be great, but he got he's too busy, man. Could you get ludicrous? With what? Luda. Luda could do it. But you guys are taking people for, I don't like that franchise hop and shit. What do you mean? He got to stay in his world. You hate, you hate Black X.

Why are you trying to stop from the bag, man? What you mean? But Tyrese, Tyrese is three franchises deep right now. Actually, you know what? Well, two franchises. The Transformers and, and, man, Reese is my boy. Like, I would love for Reese to have that role. He would kill it, too.

They all would. These are all great choices. These are all great choices. All right. Wait, what is, all right. And this is my last tangent, my last tangent. What type of world would we be living in if Tyrese actually got Django and change? Come on, man.

Like, what does that do to the world? I was about to sit here and hate on Reese. Y'all start. Y'all got to quit. That's a great guy. I love Tyrese. Baby boys are one of my favorite movies of all time. I love Tyrese.

I'm going to go back and watch the audition again. Look, by the way, he was serious about that. Reese was serious. He wanted the role. This is a good actor. Like, I'm not trying to troll him. I love Tyreeze. You kind of getting in his face a little bit, man.

You kind of coming for Reese. Baby boy is a hood classic. I love that. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. But it would have been a different movie. It would have been great. It would have been great.

Great. Shout out to Reese, man. Making that money, being a great person. What's the difference between butter and butter made from real California dairy? It's the real California farm families behind it. Real people. Real care. Real intention. Why? Because real matters. So whether you're pouring milk, melting cheese, or just grabbing one more spoonful of yogurt.

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