The Ringer-Verse - 'X-Men '97' Episode 10 Instant Reactions | The Midnight Boys

Episode Date: May 15, 2024

The Midnight Boys are here at the end of it all to give you their instant reactions to the electrifying finale of 'X-Men '97' (09:04). From the fallout of Bastion to the dramatic cliffhanger ending, the boys are here to talk about everything and pick apart all the little details that they loved about this series. Hosts: Charles Holmes, Van Lathan, Jomi Adeniran, and Steve Ahlman Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Social: Jomi Adeniran Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. I wanted to tell you about the launch of our new YouTube channel. It's called Ringer Movies. You can follow us right now on YouTube at Ringer Movies to get full video episodes of the rewatchables and the big picture. Plus, a lot of our archives with much more coming soon. To celebrate the launch, we're going live on Monday, May 13th at noon Pacific with our first ever live rewatchables with me and Sean Fennessee and Chris Ryan and Vian Lathen. Follow Ringer Movies on YouTube. don't miss it. YouTube.com slash ringer movies. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters.

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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 1-800-526-77-3-3-3-3-3. to learn more or visit trimfire radio.com. This episode is brought to by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and make it 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 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. Into the ring ofers. This is, of course, the Ringer's Nexus podcast, feed for all things, fandom. We are, John me to explainer at dinner on.

You've got questions. He's got answers. We are. Steve, the architect, almond, the builder, and tinker of things. We are. Old man, van. He of the receding, resurgent hairline. We are.

Baby Chuck the 24-carric closer, aka the brunch haiti. Together, we all know it as other midnight boys. A-hoo! Also, socials, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok. For now, save tommy shop. Here's Dink. Is Reddit a social? Sure it isn't.

Not for me, it's not. So tell me why Reddit isn't a social. Oh, boy. Because all those other channels are owned. by the ringer and the Reddit is not. It's not officially admin by any ringer subsidy. Yeah, it's real simple actually. Okay.

So then that is, when we say check socials, we're saying check in with us. Our social. We're not necessarily saying that any social where people are talking about Midnight Boys, Ringerverse content is on the same levels. What you're saying?

Essentially. At this point. Wop, wop, wop, wop. Jummy, fuck him up. Wow, wow. It's great. I'm going to do myself. How's things going over the social? Oh, it's going great, man.

Listen, we got some exciting things playing. I can't talk about them. I can't say nothing. I hate what people do that. But you know I can't. You know I can't. I hate it when people do that. But you know what we're doing.

You know where we're cooking up. I know. But why? I'm just, they follow so they can be the first to know, Van. Yeah, I get it. I don't like that. I don't like what people do, people do like an interview. It's like, I'm in this great big movie.

Can't talk. about it. Who are you playing? Can't talk about it. Who's directing? Can't talk about it. When is it coming out? Ooh. I don't like it. But I see the vision, though. See what I'm trying to do.

Tomorrow, or House of R, they're going to give you their season two trailer of House of the Dragon along with a look back at the five-year anniversary of the Game of Thrones finale. here's a deal. I'm interested to see what they say

because I'm wondering whether or not the Game of Thrones finale is going to be remembered as being overhated or if it's aged well at all. Accurately hated. I feel like it might be accurately hated,

but I feel like it might be the thing of like does the finale actually ruin the show or not? Because I feel like it might not. Well, I don't think it does it. Also on Friday, the House of R dives into the X-Men 97. Thank you for completing the document, Steve. Season finale.

Now, very important to say, we're not giving you any half-bate teasers here. We're telling you. Tickets are now available for the first ever Ringer residency at the L. Ray Theater, which includes the Ringerverse. Tickets are still available. Go to the Ringer.com slash events for full. details, you guys, Ring of Residency

is going to be up at the L. Ray. I saw the clips there back in the day at the L. Ray. Wow. Yeah. What year was this? 06? Damn. Oh, 6? How old are you in 06? 26. I saw

the clips there. 06. Keys open doors. Keys open doors. Keys open doors. Keys, keys open doors. You know what I mean? I saw the clips that we were going fucking crazy in there. Y'all showed up and it goad up.

What a do, what it do. What do? What do we do? Can you remember who opened for them or is it just them? Some L.A. niggas. That was the thing about when I first came here, the West Coast would be riding hard for their people. It's the clips and then it's Palm Tree Jimmy from Englewood.

What the fuck? You know, some L.A. He had a good hit. I remember I was with my then-girlfriend, Candice Stein. Okay? She loved the clips, maybe too much. And it won't go there. Oh, right.

Okay. Okay. And so the clips in them didn't go on until, that's the night I became old. Oh? Oh, because they're, like, they're taking too long. The clips didn't go on until one o'clock. Whoa. And I'm like, I'm like, yo man, what the fuck is going on?

But, you know, we went to the clip show and then and everybody was, it took me three songs to get into it. Now, was it like, were they late or was it more of a like the bill was so front-loaded that like they didn't go on until. It was like a dance club party for like an hour and a half, two hours. They're just playing different. Oh, shit. Okay. Once that goddamn, what's that goddamn hit though? Woo!

Once that cod damn hit. God damn. It's a new day. Bitches and bitches. And Star Trek Star Trek Everybody's like Down

Ding Dittan The clips is going crazy In that bitch When we have the L Ray We're going to turn that bitch

To a clip So we're all coming out to the clips I will say Is The complexion of the ringer audience Dark enough to understand, like, when Goddamn comes on,

be like, all right, it's like... You know what's crazy, though? Probably not. Probably. But I feel like the clips got a lot of white fans, man. That is true. I feel like... Fantasy and Chris Ryan Rob Hard for the clip. Oh, my gosh. I can tell you right now,

I never even heard him talk about it, but I know right now that Sean and Chris both love the... Oh, Justin Sales throw them in there, too. Justin Sales was probably the roadie for the clips. Hey, hey, hey, it's me, Justin. Pusha can't make it down, okay? We need to bring the goddamn food up. We're at the Delano.

He's here with LeBron's ex-girl. What? What? You don't even know the whole deal. You were too young. I definitely was too young. Whoa, whoa. You've never heard this song before, Joe, me?

Popular demand? No. You've never heard popular demand? Nope. What's your favorite Cameron song? My favorite Cameron song? Probably the one they played. Oh man, I can't think of it.

All right. Put it on the spot. By the way, I have a go ahead. Like the camera. No, I don't know. It's the camera on song. It's probably, oh boy, which the fact that you can't conjure it. I can't think of it.

You put me on the spot. I can't think of it. Is it Hama? There it is. Oh, you like Hema? Yeah. Doesn't like it. Steve had to save you.

That's a point for you, bro. Yeah. You got a half a task point. I meant like negative 7,000 now. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. On today's show, we will react to the season one finale of X-Men 97. And let me tell you guys something.

The Midnight Boys don't know this, but I'm going to debut a new segment on the show today. It's called The Gauntlet. I'm just going to lay down the gauntlet. I'm just going to say something. It's true. Is it? I'm just going to lay down the gauntlet. I'm not even going to let you guys know when I'm going to do it. But Steve, I want to affect.

Okay. I want a k-ch-ch-oong or something like that. You don't want the offended of the gauntlet? I'm just going to lay down the gauntlet. I'm not going to tell you when it's coming. We're already on bullshit. Shut up, Charles. In order to get into the show, X-Men 97,

we have to let you guys know that we're going to be spoiling some things. And since we are going to be spoiling some things, you need the trusty spoiler warning. We're getting ready to talk about you're listening. to a reaction podcast. The spoilers are coming.

All right, I have to put you in the know about the episode so we can talk about it. The only way to do that is the Midnight Manifest. The only person who can do that is the one and only Chuck Wagon. And this is your Midnight Manifest for X-Men 97 Tolerance's Extinction Part 3 directed by Chase Conley, written by Beau DeMail and Anthony Salidi.

Gene used the remnants of the Phoenix Force to defeat Mr. Sinister and stop bashing from controlling the Prime Sentinels. But Gene isn't powerful enough to stop Bastian for good, so he rips off Cable's arm, becomes more powerful, and sets his site on the remaining X-Men on Asteroid M. Meanwhile, Professor X tries to repair Magneto's broken mind as the remaining X-Men fight Bastian in space. The U.S. government uses protocol Magneto and launches nukes at the asteroid, beast takes over Sentinel and gets Earth X-Men to space.

Cyclops tries to become best friends with Bastian, but Bastian chooses death instead. Professor X states Magneto, who stops the asteroid from crashing into Earth. And before they die, the X-Men are transported. across time, some go to Egypt, others go to the future. And in a stinger, we see apocalypse in the present picking up a card that looks like gambits. And that has been your midnight manifest for X-Men 97. Woo! Daddy!

Rick Flair. Let's get into it. I'm so excited. X-Men 97. Guys, the finale, let's get into it. Boom. Whoever, shoot from the hip. Who's going first?

Who's coming with me? Jerry McGuire. We just did it on our... Who's coming away? I loved it. Shoot from the hip. It's nice. Woo.

Chuck. That's what it means. Chuck, what you got? Come on, Chuck. Woo. Chuck it. Who, who? Chuck.

What you got for us, Chuckie? Give it up. We know you love it, Chuck. Come on, Chuck. It was everything that I thought it was and nothing I hoped to it. Wow. Give it up for Chuck, everybody. We know...

Never let you down. Never let you down. Kanye West. Oh, yeah. That's, that's I always knew that one day They try to break me that No, wrong song

You lost your points Damn it never let them down When it can't They never let me It's true to me Oh yeah One thing I found One thing I found

No you never let me down You know You know that deep cut from a Kanye album but you don't know a camera on song That was a huge album Come on, man Dogg Charles is so upset

Be for real How old are you, Jomey? I'm 27. You're supposed to know some camera on, but we'll get back to it. You are, let's say on the X-Men. Okay, finale. Lots happening, very dense. It's a typical X-Men 97 episode.

Oh, just let you guys know we're going to do some nerd news after this. I will lay down to Gondley. But typically dense in the way that an X-Men 97 episode is a little bit longer, which, as soon as I saw that, I was like, good. We couldn't get to where we were going in about 30 minutes. there were a lot of things that we had to a lot of loose ends that we had to tie up I was once again

blown away by the finale it felt so important the stakes were so high I was on the edge of my seat every character was dealt with in the proper way I thought starting it with Magneto and Xavier and ending it to a degree with them

was the same way the X-Men being displaced what the team was, Bastion, Cable, an appearance by the Phoenix, just every, I've never given a fuck about Beast ever as an X-Man. I care about them a lot in this show.

I love this show. I thought the finale was spectacular. Sensational, smashing. I think the biggest thing, again, you mentioned the runtime. I think that was kind of the most impressive thing that I gathered right off the bat because the show never,

like the show feels like it's been given a lot of cachet to both take its time and never feel rushed to know that we start an episode with like kind of a 10 minute long scene of like Magneto and Professor X talking at a bar

inside of his mind which what I thought was a flashback until we realized that we're both inside of each other's mind was a really great way to start as much of like a violation as Eric thought that that like inside like that mind meld that they did was I never felt like Professor X was

like very much overly righteous in what he was doing to Eric. He was trying to save his friend. Yes. I mean, it got, they broke it down from, hey, this is my vision of how mutant kind should be. This is your vision of how mutant kind should be and how we should integrate with human beings. It went back to the moment that they shared an intimate truth together. Yes. Which was, I'm a mutant, you are a mutant.

their relationship was formed not in a shared vision of how to change the world that's not what it was formed in it was formed in a secret and understood struggle that they both connected over that's what the thing was

hey I'm a mutant I can do metal their trauma and their experience is what bonded them and it's the reason why Xavier can't do what he's all

what he should have done a long time ago which is half-magnet Magneto killed. Okay, he should be dead a long time ago, cost thousands of lives, but there's an understanding there.

And a part of it, and it's always felt like this in the comics and it feels like this in the show, is that Xavier feels like if he can't save Magneto, he can't save the world. Right. Because if the reason that, like,

if I can get humanity on my side, great, but I also need to get mutants on humanity's side. and there's nobody else that's like the bigger roadblock to that than Magneto. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Chuck. Give it a huh.

About which part. Chuck, we want the takes, baby. Just give it up, Chuck. No, it's not time for it. It's not time for the tag. It's not time. You know, guys, you know, you guys are enjoying this so much. I'm just Coke, baby. I'm happy seeing my friends. Enjoy this show. I want to hear more about what you enjoyed about

I know, but we want to, everybody keep the song going. Chuck, gotta give it up. No. Chuck, Chuck, gotta give it up. Chuck, Chuck. Chuck.

Guys. Chuck, Chuck. Chuck. Chuck. I was going to wait to tell you guys this towards the end of the show, but I've changed. Oh, I want to hear it.

Oh. You know, I've been blessed here in LA. I bet you have. The things that I deem important in life have changed, honestly. Okay, tell us what, tell us. Tell us about you and then we'll get back to the show. Chuck's personal journey.

Chuck's personal journey. Tell us about you, Charles. That's what this is about. I just woke up and I was like, Charles, it's time for something new. Okay. Leave this nerdship behind. Oh, wow. I'm getting into home decor.

You know, I got some hand towels. Some bathmashes came in. Where did you go? Oh, so some of them from Amazon, some from home goods. You know what I'm saying? Home goods is hard. I got a new spring duvet because my duvet was like feeling a little too wintery. So it's like when the shoddies come over, they're like, damn, this is like light and cool.

They've been sweating in your other shit, is what you're saying. I mean, I'm sweating. Yeah. Coming from New York, you got to dress. Whoa. They've been sweating. They don't like that. They don't.

Can we talk about X-P? Just real quick. Just real quick, we can get back to it. They don't want to sweat. They'll take the duvet and they'll throw it off in the middle of the night and just be like, It's so hot, but then that's an opportunity you go, yeah, it's hot, all right. Why are you taking my wholesome journey as homes to core and fucking impacting it negatively with your horniness? Don't do that.

I'm doing this for myself. Guys, I got a lamp coming in that is going to bring the living room together. Fantastic. X-Men is just, that's another. You will talk about it. You will give us the takes. that we deserve, and you'll do it now. What did you think about the finale?

I just think it was kind of a microcosm of everything that I did not like about the show. And I think that it was kind of rushed. And I think the thing that kind of like rubbed me the wrong way was that there was like a lot of points in this finale where I was just like, there is actually a very like interesting transgraph series show here. was like there was definitely between even like Wolverine and Morp when Morp turns into Gene. I was like, oh, that's like a really interesting

into these characters where it seemed like the whole season we're like Wolverine and Morph kind of what's their relationship? Does one of them have feelings or whatever? And this complication because Morph is non-binary all this stuff. I was like, I want to know more about that

but this is the X-Men and this Disney show so we're never getting that. Same thing with Professor X and Magneto. I was like, there is almost like very, their conversation was very queer coded, which I think kind of worked for me in a lot of ways where it's just like they're talking about obviously being mutants, but the way that it was written, the way that it was delivered was very much two friends being like, can I be vulnerable enough to reveal something deep

and dark about me? And it was just like, it got just up to the point where I'm like, oh, this is cooking, this is getting interesting. And then it just kind of nothing happened. I disagree. Hold on. I could, so I get what you're saying. I think that that was the thread in the entire, whenever they would come back to that, the fact that they were both incapacitated and the Xavier had no other place to be except inside of Magneto's head.

It was just in its construction vulnerable. They're in each other's head. They're both incapacitated. They're right there. and in order to save the day, Magneto has to ignite his power and get out of that. Their relationship has to be so strong that Magneto has to find himself again,

find his vigor again, and get out of it. That was, the X-Men might, wasn't going to save the day. The Phoenix couldn't have saved the day. Like we got a lot storm, an omega-level mutant, couldn't have saved the day. The Avengers and all the cameos,

none of that stuff was going to get it. What was going to get it done was trust, belief, reverence, hope, and love between two friends, which is what the X-Men are about. And that kind of is what got Magneto up. And Magneto says, I am Magneto.

And it was a very, very, very amazing moment to me, like a fucking just sensational moment. He remembers who he is and who he doesn't want to hurt, which is mutants. If the whole world dies, all the mutants die, he has to remember who he is, he wakes up, he gets to it, and Xavier was the reason why that happened. And I think the testament to the writing,

the fact that we don't actually get something that's like either consummated or outright stated between somebody like either Professor X or Magneto, or even the small things like Wolverine and Morph where they're like, their relationships kind of like a lot more than meets the eye there. I think the subtext is actually the nice fine line that the show walks to not even explicitly state something,

but while also it's not inherently important to the story. Like I guess that's the kind of depth that we could get in the comic books or get into a story that had a lot more time or a lot more time to get into depth. But like the show is actually really good about like having little tiny moments and winks and nods to being like, okay, well, I can't say it, but Gene can say it. even morph just like turning into Gene to say that

Gene and Morph love him that's kind of all that I personally need in like that level of subtext and like obviously you feel a different type of way. Oh it's not that I need any of this to be consummated like I don't need Professor X and Magneto to kiss to make the scene work. I mean yes no it's more so it's like I think those are the qualities of it where I like when I say that all of this felt rushed. It was like, Professor X a couple episodes ago was in space. And then it was just

like, Magneto turned evil. And now it's just like, all right, I invaded your mind. I used your powers against your will. And now I'm going to be the one to help you. And it all has to kind of get done in about five or ten minutes of airtime. And I was just like, oh, okay. And like, I think that is the issue where it's like, I think a lot of times people have probably taken issue with me saying that this is just kind of a Saturday morning kids cartoon and the way I think critically we talk about it is like it's more and there was parts in this episode where it was like the Phoenix part I was like

all right so we have a deuce ex machina in the Phoenix coming back that is powerful enough to take away the genetic mutations of Mr. Sinister but can't stop Bastion but what does stop Bastion is a heavy Sentinel's foot I mean after you got the shit kicked out of him every other X-Man. It was like

there was like but that kept happening where it was just like they're like the Magneto protocols and I'm like wait what and they're just like

we're sending nudes to asteroid M and I'm like okay just like back up a little bit what the fuck's happening let me make a point here just real quick

it's something that I had to realize in my own life so growing up just real quick I'll take I'll take a little latitude right here

so growing up in my life I'll use another food example because I like to I'm a big boy So growing up in my life, I would eat the different fast food burgers. I'd have tried them all. I had a special order for each fast food place I went to.

We'll go to Burger King. I would say give me a BK. Big Fish, double fish, dressed like a whopper. Oh, that's an order. What? BK. Big Fish, two fish patties dress it like a wopper recipe. And they'll do that for you? Have it your way. Clearly.

Wow. This is, they mean that shit. This is an insane order. Wherever I will go, I love it. I will go to Wendy's. Baconator, okay? Double baconator. One layer of cheese between each layer of meat, please.

See, now, actually, I kind of love this because you could do this yourself by just ordering two, but you make them do it. I say, hey, I need it the way I wanted. Yeah. Then I came out to L.A. and I started going to this place called 25 degrees, which is in the Roosevelt lobby. Okay. And it was my introduction into an elevated hamburger. Okay? It was my introduction into a hamburger that had,

I remember even, it changed me so much that I tried to like make hamburgers different at home. I tried to get like, you realize, but you don't realize they're baking their own buns. They're going through this whole thing. They care about a hamburger there. And after that, I stopped, stopped with fast food hands. I was like, you just can't get it.

I need a restaurant quality hamburger. If I don't get a restaurant quality hamburger, then I'm not going to enjoy the burger. Then Shake Shack came. And what Shakeshack was able to do was take a fast food quality hamburger and elevate it to the point to where you got the same feeling of the gourmet burger that you had had before. This show is Shakeshack.

Is it a Saturday morning cartoon? It is. But it is a Saturday morning cartoon that is elevated to the point to where you get the same feeling from a deeper, to me, examination of the X-Men or a deeper examination of story. It has been able to do something and adapting these characters from the pages of the comic books that a lot of other iterations of the X-Men that failed to do. Does it move faster? Absolutely. It flips like the pages of a comic book. flip. Sometimes you're in a saga in your book and it takes three or four books. Sometimes you are

on a story and then the next book you get, you look at the cover and you're like, shit, we're on a different planet somewhere else. Right. Just plot, plop, pop, blah, blah, blah. And then in the first couple of panels of the comic book, they go, we've been here for two months. And you're like, shit, niggas, two months later. Yeah. Like, we were just in San Francisco. Like, what, like, you know what I mean? And so I think, number one, reading comic books, and reading as many books as I've read has almost primed me for the way this is. But when I'm talking about why I love the show so much,

I'm not talking about the construction of the burger. I'm talking about the taste. I'm talking about the taste. I can tell it's not McDonald's. I can tell us not. McDonald's is, it's on a different level. I can tell that it's something different. That's the way I feel about it.

It's definitely a Saturday morning cartoon. For sure it is. Moves at the pacing of a Saturday morning cartoon. It looks like a Saturday morning cartoon. They want you to feel that. They want you to feel that. But the subversive thing about it to me is that it does things to me

because it does things to me that a Saturday morning cartoon can't do. And it does it because it's made with a different sensibility with both DeMayo and his staff. And it also does it because of the place we are right now. We know that a paint-by-numbered Saturday morning cartoon is not going to be enough.

We know we need a lot. It can't be. both, for me, I'm not criticizing your criticism. I'm saying, for us, it'd be a long time was not enough happening. We're not getting enough stuff. Well, we're getting a lot of stuff here, a lot that's throwing at us, but it's never ever at the sake of the story. It's never at the expense of the story. They never abandoned story to me to give us a cool power or a cool moment or Wolverine or fatal attractions or the goblin queen or whatever it all works within the story that they're trying to tell jolly me you haven't spoken at all i've spoken too much fan quiet

five minutes oh man you're fine no i love this episode and i love this show i think the show in this episode did two things that i really i really liked like one micro one macro we'll start with the macro uh time is in a line it's a circle that's why clocks around and they really brought it back from the first episode to the last episode. Because in the first one, Gene and Scott are having that conversation. And they're like, yo, we should leave. But like, what are the X-Men without Professors? Like, what are we doing here, quite literally?

And in this episode, they're like, they figured out. Cyclops is like, here's what the X-Men do. We save people regardless of the persecution, regardless of what it means for us. do what we have to do because we're the X-Men and that's what we're supposed to. We're supposed to be bastions, quite a pun there, we're supposed to be bastions for light for mutant kind everywhere, right, regardless of how it feels for us, regardless of like how we could look upon us, we have to do the right thing at all times. And that includes giving Bastion a helping hand in his moment of doom, right? And then I love that. And then the micro thing

is, you know, X-Men has been, at least in the movies, like most pop culture, has been a Wolverine thing for how many years? Since he took over and I would say since Wolverine took over, what would the Wolverine take over, Chuck? What would you say Wolverine became?

I mean, debut in the 70s, by the mid-80s, by the 80s, because he got, like, he was one of the only X-Men who, like, he had an ongoing series. Like, he was going to fucking Japan and shit. So it's like, it's probably the 80s, I would say. He's just, It's Wolverine, Wolverine.

And in the final episode, the biggest moment of the season, he's not there. He's getting, you know, the people are like, yo, we need you to heal. Morph is like, I love you as Gene. But he's not present. You know, it's Cyclops. It's storm. It's everybody else. The show has done such a good job to where you don't even miss Wolverine, right?

Especially if you've grown up on this stuff. And so it's just been a massive job of character creation and story. I thought it was awesome. Say this, that's interesting. Even that, though, when I talk about the intentionality of the show, to decenter Wolverine, we act like it's a massive risk. But if you've read a lot of X-Men, there's just plenty of stories where Wolverine is not the big swing. He's always involved.

It's a big deal. It is a risk, but at the same time, it's not something you would think they would do now. But Bo DeMay is on record as saying that, like, we wanted to sideline Wolverine because he's had a lot of cultural, of the cultural spotlight for many years. The point of this show was to highlight this as a team. And we all know Wolverine. Like, we get what his deal is. And, like, we know that, like, he can be used in spots and be a role player a bit more for this show. Chuck, the cameos.

What did you think about him? What's the one that you liked the most in this episode? Cameo. You know the group Cameo? Mm-hmm. Y'all know them? Yeah. I know you know.

Why would Steve know? Camio's great. Steve is probably the type of motherfucker that would listen to Cameo. Why would I be the type of person that listens to cameo? You know, you know. You know, you know. Everybody around the world. That's a way.

That's a good. It's that rubber-combed. You know, bro, let me tell you out real quick. So I had a friend back in the day, and I liked him. He was my friend. I'm not going to, like, fucking. All right, you can't say someone's your friend. And the person you say, so I liked him.

And I was just like, bro, I hear a really big butt coming. Yeah, you can't hear him because sometimes when they walk, they clap. But you can hear him coming sometimes. Jesus Christ, man. You can. Y'all ain't from the South. So look, I'm at their house, and I'm staying at night, didn't I want to stay the night?

He was my friend, but they were kind of a weird family, lived in the neighborhood. He said I didn't want to stay the night. I did not want to stay the night. I remember the night was just like a terrible night. Like, wait, how old were you? I was maybe like eight or nine. Okay, it was a terrible night.

First of all, they ordered pizza, and I put my pizza down, and then, like, I was raised. was about to eat my pizza. I went to go get something to drink. And when I came back, his little sister had ate in the middle of the pizza.

Oh, no. I ate out the middle of the pizza. And they just didn't get nothing else to eat. And I was like, I'm not eating this now. She's like, oh, just eat the... She literally took her hand and put it in the middle of the pizza, and then took the pizza out and ate the middle of the pizza. And they were all eating.

Oh, wait. She grabbed from the top. Yes. Oh, no. I thought she took your slice. Nasty little baby hands. Oh, yeah. And they were just eating the rest.

Like they were eating the other parts. They were eating around it. And it's like, it's fine. Just eat the top of it. It was like, no. No. Like I'm not, I'm not fucking doing that at all. It was just a bad night.

They had a child and the dog was mean as shit. You ever seen a child before? Like the dog was super mean. Oh, the dog kept coming at me the whole night. I was like in the corner. And so I'm in the corner trying to avoid being attacked by the child. and a cameo video comes on and they run

to the TV. I swear I'm like, I'm living in these people a cameo video. I'm in the corner the child is the dog was like low growling at me and his dad is like Van she just wants to play. I'm like yeah, I don't think so. Yeah, she doesn't bite. She doesn't bite.

Van she just wants to play. I'm like, yo, I really don't think so. Like can somebody put the dog outside or something? like that. It's like, Van, just play with it. I'm like, I don't think she's fucking around, guys. Like, I'm scared. So I'm in the corner. I got a robe on. Oh, man. They gave us robes to wear. What? I'm telling you. It's weird.

They gave us. Everybody's in a robe. They gave us robes. Wait, the whole family are in robes? The whole family are in robes. I would have walked home. I'm like, and it's like, you can wear one of chips rob. So I have the robe, and I'm wearing it, and

I'm there, and the dog are, the dog is not fucking with me and I'm tripping and then the cameo video comes on and they all run to the TV and all I'm looking over as a dog is growling at me I'm looking at the TV and I see that

dude in the red cot piece this is the first time I had ever seen cameo oh wow okay so I see the dude in the red cop piece and the top he's got the flat top and he's got the red cop and he's going hey pretty ladies around the world and they are going

going fucking crazy. The dad, the mom, the little pizza stealing baby. Everybody is going nuts. And I'm like, at this point, I'm really starting to freak out. Everyone except the dog. The dog fucking hates came up.

Locked into you. Locked into me. I slept in that corner. What? No. No. Fell asleep right there. And then when my daddy came to get me in the morning,

I literally walked out of there in my robe with my little back and daddy was like, you have fun with your friends? I'm like, yo man, drive. I can just imagine like you trying to fall asleep. I was hungry. I was, like, I'm telling you, I was tired. I was scared of the cameo.

And the dog and the whole nine, it took me years to fuck with cameo after that happened. I promise you guys, That sounds like a true story. The family just let you fall asleep in a corner with the dog about to attack you? The dog had probably left. But for most of the night, the dog was fucking with you. The cameo video had come on.

I fell asleep in a corner. I woke up in a corner. I remember his mom was like, man, your dad's here. I was like, for real? I was sprinted out the door. I was like, for real? I got up, didn't even change my shit, got on there.

He was like, well, I come outside. Daddy looking at me like, what the fuck? Drop. Just drive. Just drive, bro. Just drive. Wow. That's wild.

So the cameos. The cameos. Charles, your favorite cameo? Oh, I'm not talking about the cameos. I don't care. I don't care. Charles, I need a cameo. No, I don't care.

I barely remember him. Chuck, I need a cameo. Do you think Clooken dagger was getting busy with there? Fuck, Glock and dagger. Let's go back. It is kind of fuck Colchon. Shout out to it. A bloke and here's the thing, if we being real,

Dr. Omar, if you showed him cloak and dagger, he'd be so pissed. But the fact that they got their powers from drugs is also wild. That is bad. And he, she's able to, she pacifies him from being like evil because the cloak is like demonic and like, so she has to throw her white little daggers at him.

And she's like, he's healed by the power of her whiteness. It's true. I'm not saying I disableness. but I don't know why he's looking at me like that. Do you all disagree about being healed by whiteness? Crazy. So let's go through the cameos

real quick. Cloak and dagger. Daredevil. Daredevil. Peter Parker and Mary Jane. Peter Parker and Mary Jane right there. Cap again and then Iron Man. To Chaka.

Silver Samurai again. But Silver Samurai did not move. He was watching shit. He just like, he's been there for three episodes. Daredevil. Because boys, Daredevil a cop in this shit. I'm just like,

yo, if you don't let these motherfuckers... New York's going nuts. Whoa, what's the Luten Peace? And Daredevil's like, I have to protect New York's property. I'm like, motherfucker, sit this out. That's actually a good point. He's street level. I'm just like, bro, it's fine.

But he wasn't the world. He wasn't stopping anybody from beating anybody up. He was protecting property. Which is fucked up. I got to look back at what he was exactly doing. He was not stopping any. He was not. No one was fighting. He's just like, y'all are looting? not on Daredevil's watch.

I was like, nah, Daredevil, don't be in a lot. That is kind of, that is kind of true. Then. Tony Stark saying nothing. Tony Stark did nothing. Peter Parker, Mary Jane, Flash Thompson. Tachaca. Flash, yeah.

And Tachala. Tachala first. No, I thought it was just Tachaca. Tachaca was the black pan. Oh, so Tachaca was the back. So, okay. Yeah. I thought for some reason it was maybe, okay, no, you guys are right.

Because if it's King Tachaca and he's like, he looked relatively, not young, but like, which is weird because in the comic books, De Chala and Storm basically are the same age. Right. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Which is a little bit of a... Even in the movie, there was a point where Tachaca,

and I'm not as up on the Black Panther solo books as people. I've only really read a couple of runs. But there was a point in the movie, there was a point where Tchaca was the king and Tchalla was the Black Panther. Yeah, I'm trying to see... And let's just go on... This is actually canon. the day that Tony Stark announced the world

that he was Iron Man was also the day that Tachala became the Black Panther. Right. So what I'm saying is there's at least a chance in this one that Tachala is the Black Panther and Tachaca is still the case. No, because Tachaca was wearing the Black Panther suit. If we're going by the animated series timeline,

which is I'm guessing what the show itself will be going on. King of Kondam made a brief cameo. in X-Men season four and it was Tachala that can be seen observing Magneto transporting African mutants into his new base, Astroida M. African mutants?

That would sound right. Go ahead. Tachala's around could theoretically still be Black Panther but if Tachaca is the king still. They, Tachaco was communicating with the president. He's the king of what I'm this. So look, I think the cameos are important. Obviously,

they're a little fun. Not really Easter eggs because they're not really hidden. But I think it's an exercise and integration by letting them know that we'd always ask these questions. Like where are the Avengers blah blah blah? Like what? In this situation everybody has a job. And also if they go to onslaught,

if that is what they do, which I'm not so sure. I feel like they would like I could have sworn that like Bastion was going to please stay away from onslaught, bro. Nothing good can come from Onslaught wasn't fantastic in the comic books and I don't think it would be necessarily fantastic To last year that that was where they were going I was like are y'all doing onslaught? Yeah because you melt their minds and then you say hey onslaught's gonna be born from that and it still might happen Could it seems like they're going in a very age of apocalypse it does seem like they're going into an age of apocalypse

I'm kind of so over now man I tell you what man when that Egypt hit on a screen I knew exactly what it was I did the whistle I put it on what you I was like, oh, I know what's going on. I'm there. Wait, before we get to Apocalypse, can I be real? Did Cyclops pull a Naruto in this shit? I was so pissed off.

So basically, when Bashan's about to die, he's just like, I know how to fix this. Oh, trying to be his friend? Yeah, I was like, I was like, whoa, whoa, all right. Power of friendship?

I was like, so we're doing a power of friendship for the villain that committed genocide against your people days ago? What is? And I'm just like, y'all basically almost fucked Magneto's mind up and like almost killed one of the biggest mutant leaders. But Cyclops is like, you know what we got to do? We got to welcome this genocidal maniac into the X-Men. Bash, and you want to be part of the club? And I'm like, stop. I was just like, stop. The X-Men always do that. That's their thing.

That's their thing. And Sabretooth be ripping people's heads off. And every time they catch, they catch Sabretooth, they're like, let's bring them to the match. There are levels to this. There are levels to this. Bastion, quite literally, killed an entire country.

Sabretooth be just killing random fucking white people and mercenaries and shit. God damn. Why was race important there? Because he's in Canada. He's killing people in Canada. Wow. He's killing mercenaries and like white folks

in Toronto and shit. Maybe all the United States. They got black people in Toronto. This motherfucker is going crazy. What? What? What? What?

Wait a minute. Can you imagine? Sabreto just rampaged through the embassy? What if all of these people showing up at Drake's house were Sabreto? What if it was?

Wolverine is not fucking with OVO compound. He's Alpha Flight all of Canadians. They're all Canadian. So all of Alphal flight is showing up to Drake's house. Wolverine gets there. He's, Smill a p.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Guys. Guys, it's all jokes. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. It's a joke.

All right. It's all jokes. Okay. Just let everybody know. Alleged, alleged, jokes. I don't think any of that stuff is true. I don't think any of it's just,

it's funny. It's like, you know, it's like it's fucked up. It's funny. Well, it's just, but all I'm saying is there are levels to how many, because here's a thing, Rogue was a villain, the X-Men,

it's a revolving door, like Mystique, they'd be like, yo, Mystique, you can come in, you fucked a sober five times. Emma Frost, yeah. But there's levels where it's like bashing quite literally, like, killed an entire country.

I'm just like Cyclops, they ain't no saving him, bro. There's no saving him, bro. But you know what? You didn't, they didn't fully, like, if I was Scott, I'd be like, yo, come on your friend.

Like, just to let his guard down and then I'll just kill him. That wasn't what they were trying to do. He was trying to be friends. He was trying to be friends. But, I mean, like, they all, Magneto's the homie too, you know what I mean? Whoa, whoa, whoa. They were about to off Magneto.

Magneto's killed. So many people. So many people. Whoa. First of all, not mutant, so not my problem. Second of all. God damn, Charles. What?

It's the truth. It's the truth. Not my fault. Not my fault. He literally just tried to kill Wolverine. I mean, Wolverine, that was just like, he was just getting his leg back. He's like Wolverine tried to murder. Fair enough.

In the old dream, he's like, dog, Wolverine just tried to off me, bro. Yeah, fair enough, yeah, fair enough. But so you think Magneto has killed just as many people as Bashian. Magneto over the course of, Magneto's a terrorist. Well, first of all, Bastion killed innocence, and I could make the argument that for a lot of people that Magneto killed, like, a lot of them were like military people. So it was just kind of like... Nah, this is going to get too real. Wait, whatever.

It's just like, I don't want to, you know, it's like, I don't want to get into this, but I would say that Magneto's body count is as comparable. Yeah, as any villain. As any villain in X-Men. How many, look up really quick, how many mutants lived on Genosha? I just want it, like, I just want just for numbers sake. Okay. But I mean, Magneto has been doing it for decades.

I mean, but it's also wild that they just had the Magneto Protocol, and I'm just like, y'all just have enough nukes lying around just be like, these are for Magneto. I'm like, do y'all have something for like Galactus and Thanos or is he just Magneto? It was specifically for Asteroid M though. Because Ash, it was specifically for also, what's a new going to do against Galactus? Genosha, apparently according to this in fandom, it's 16.5 million mutants. That's what I'm saying, bro.

Millions. Did he kill a million mutants? Hey, bro. 16.5 million mutants. So let me be real with you. Here's a difference. My mind can be changed. I don't know about it.

So my mind can be changed, bro. If he killed 16 million people. I don't know about that. If he killed 16 million people, bro. Half that. That's still 8 million people. That's right. That's right.

That's a lot of that. No, no, no. Even, I'm saying even half of that. If he can't be convinced. I'm not to say Steve. Hold on. If it's in the, bro, first, no, hold on. Like this is way too many

Like what are you talking about? Yeah Like the numbers are so crazy That's like fucking crazy No that's nuts So everybody on Genoia died I mean it seemed like the bulk of them Yeah let's say yeah

Let's say a lot Nah Because here's the thing we only saw Here's the thing It might be different in the animated series I mean this is from the Yeah it's different from the animated series I mean you're talking about something that happened in comics

And like there's destruction of the island of Genosha That killed 60 million munitions 2001. That's different. I don't think, I'm pretty, it was like, can somebody call Kerm? I'm being serious. I think, Joe Me, I got to call Kerm.

I mean, call him. Guys, I feel like we are getting very dangerous where I'm just like, it was a whole country, so there's a lot of motherfucketting. I'm with you now. You know, like, I was thinking it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Guys, I'm sorry. I know Jomi's going to

hate this. I got to call Kirk. I got to call Kerm. You can call. Of course you can call Kerm. That's not a problem. Yo, Kerm. What's up? You're on the midnight boys right now. Okay.

What was that? What was that attitude, man? You don't want to be on the podcast right now? First of all, hold on. Are you at the office right now? No, I'm about to walk into a comic book store. Perfect, perfect. Okay.

So we're having a discussion here, and I have to call you in, are X-Men big guns. Because you're ex-man. You look like Xavier would. So you're ex-man. That's who you are. All right, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't say I look like Xavier.

I'm about to hang up. Okay, please stay. The island of Genosha. Charles, make your point real quick. All right. My point is that what Bastion did to Genosha is worse than anything Magneto ever did because there's 16.5 million mutants on Genosia and most of them were killed. Right or wrong.

Oh, yeah. No, I'm with that fully. That's a full-blown genocide. That's all right. Magneto is a full-blown genocide like that. I got to give it up to Chuck. That's a good point. So, Kerm, is your understanding, first of all, have you seen the finale yet?

Yes, I watched it like, hell of late last night, but I did watch it. So is it your understanding that everybody in Genosia was killed? Yeah, I mean, they haven't cleared that up, right? We didn't get Gapit back. We didn't get our Mellon of Pryor back. So I'm just too, man, all the niggins, except for Emma Frost is dead. Right. Except for Emma Frost.

Emma Frost. Okay. Well, I got to be honest with you. If we're talking about 16 million people. then Charles has just made this point, guys. I don't think it's 16 million people. We're not being friends. But here's the thing.

That's why when Cyclops was just like, yo, like, we got to change this. Because Professor X, if he was successful and your mama wasn't so racist bashing, shit would have gone different. And I'm like, motherfucker, the minute you kill, even if it's not 16 million. I'm just like, just for it to be a, like.

If it's like, yeah. I'm like, a couple hundred thousand would be too much. I don't think it would be too much. Mainito has killed, Mennito has killed a lot of people. I don't think Mennito has killed a million people over his entire time. I think.

Which feels, it's getting weird to like, okay, how many people do you need to kill him? Justifying it. No, fuck it. No, no, no.

We are comparing comic book people to each other. And we're saying which person has done more damage. I'm not doing that pussy shit. Right. Like, we, we're comparing comic book villains to each other.

and we're saying, hey, if you kill this many, that's what the conversation is about. Bashing is red skull to me. Like, Red Skull is just like, Red Skull has killed millions of people. Maybe he has not pulled the trigger on all of them, but it's like, Captain America, he's like, this is my number one op.

You are a dictator. You've killed millions. Okay, so I think the... Go ahead. Go ahead, John. I think the piece of the calculation we're missing is that the whole, like, tenet of the X-Men, right? Like, one of the core pillar of the X-Men

is that humanity and mutants can live together. They can coexist, right? They are one, right? So for them, Magneto killing humans and Bastion killing mutants is like,

I don't, I want to say it's the same thing, but you know what I mean? Like, if you're being addicted to humans, you're being addicted to mutants, we're going to see you the same way, right? So ultimately, I think that's part of why Cyclops at the end is like,

hey man, this is what Xavier would do to Magneto. Here's what I'm a dude for you. I'm going to offer you an olive branch. I think ultimately that's what it comes down to. I think that that's who they want to be. I will say that, you know, millions of people, a lot of people, I think.

Well, you got to remember. How many people did Magneto just kill with the EMP? That's what I'm saying. But also, to be clear, if Magneto did not do that, like, let's be real. Like, if Magneto did not do all that shit with the EMP, the Prime Sentinels were quite literally going to kill every single mutant on it. Like most of mutants that like the remain,

because Genotia's already happened. So he's just like, wait. So like my people have already been decimated and now the prime sentinels are coming for the rest of them. And they just don't know. Your mom could wake up and be like, all right, you're done. So I'm like, Magneto had to do what he had to do

because what else were, like the X-Men weren't going to fix that shit. Back to the crux of the question. I think it's who they are. You're probably right that it doesn't make any sense with what they just, you know, their friends not. But it's who they are. They do it to everyone. So I wasn't that surprised that it happened,

that they tried it, that they were like, this is what we got to do. But this brings me to Bastion. I think Bastion being the villain was an excellent choice. Yeah. I think it's the coolest she's ever been.

It's the coolest Bashian has ever been. I love taking smaller members of your road gallery and making them into these big, huge forces. Because what bashing is and who bashing is, prime sentinels, even blurring the line between human to mutant. You know what I mean? Blurring a line between human and mutant and sentinel and human and making you ask who is your enemy,

like a zombie type of aesthetic. I think all of that worked. perfectly, rather than having, you know, apocalypse. Sinister's always involved in some kind of way in these situations, but rather than have an apocalypse or Magneto or the Shadow King or someone like that pop up and be the villain of the X-Man, I think Bashan was a fantastic choice. And if we were ever to get the interview with Bo that I want to get,

which I emailed Bo, if we were able to ever to get that interview with Bo that I wanted to get, I would ask them why Bashan? everybody that's listening to the Midnight Boys right now. Tweet Bowdo Man. Oh, right. And ask him to come on the Midnight Boys. I'm serious. I've never wanted to...

I've never wanted to interview someone as much as I wanted to interview Bowdo Man. Once again, are we sure we want to do this on the podcast? Until we know what Bold Demail did, I'm seriously. Seriously, I'm going to treat it as if we don't know. Right? And I'm not going to... And what I mean by that is this. And I hope that everyone...

that is listening to me right now, trust me and knows that I want the best for everyone and I want everyone to be as empowered and as safe as possible. But until we know what Bold DeMail did, I'm going to treat as if we don't know. So I'm not going to ascribe a bunch of things onto the situation that may or may not have happened.

I'm not going to shy away from saying that he was the showrunner and head writer of this series that was an amazing series and it's made me a fan of him creatively. I'm not going to say, any of that stuff, and shy away from saying that because he got fired from his job. And I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why.

I'm sure everyone knows that I was fired from TMZ. I was fired for TMZ for a workplace altercation, right? And I'm just sharing this with the audience. There's not anybody that would know me that would think that any of the things that happened there would be true because the way that it was painted was. not true. I'm not comparing our situations. But what I'm saying is all of that stuff is out and transparent. And after nine years of work in someplace, sometimes you're not your best self. And then you're also not what people said that you were. Right. Now that's all right there for people.

In this situation, I'm not caping for him. I'm just saying, I don't know what happened. And so until I know what happened, I have no issue with who he is as a person. It doesn't make him. It doesn't make him a weirdo or a bad guy or whatever just because Disney fired him. Now, if we learn more about what actually happened, it could actually be the reason that that's the thing. But I don't want to get into the, I don't want to get into a pattern of shying away from talking about stuff that's obviously true because of what we don't know. Now, if we knew that this, that's something that happened between him and a subordinate, him and somebody else, and we just didn't know the details of it, that would be one thing. But we don't know nothing. So until we know something,

Baudemayo, for whatever reason, was let go by Disney. But as the head writer and showrunner of X-Men 97, he did a fantastic job. And I have no problem with wanting to talk to him about how it happened. Now, if we learn more, we change. It's like COVID. At first, it's like, this is what you can do. Two weeks later, you can't do it. And tell you something else, we're learning more. We're learning more. more as we go along. It's not that they're lying, but we're learning more. But as for what I know right now, I have no problem given Bo DeMeo

his props. And I hope that the audience, that hears me, trust me enough to kind of give me some latitude on that. That's all I'd say. But the trepidation is warranted. Oh, I think there's, you know, to your point,

Boe created the show, show ran this, whatever. Like, I think he's called the head writer or whatever, but showrunner. Executive producer as well. Executive producer. So, like, yes, that is, that is, if anybody hears trepidation in my voice, I'm just like, it's not, like, give Bo the credit for making the show. It is, it seems like a runaway hit.

More so my trepidation is like, hey, we just got to be careful because we don't know the full story. And until we know the full story, I just, you know, in a vacuum, what would we want to ask? Why did you get fired? No, not that. But, like, about the show. Like, what would you want to know, like more further insight into? First thing is like, nigger, what happened on? What I would want to know is just from any creative

And look, we have the, we're going to get some creators From X-Men 97 on the show. There's been some people reaching out to have some people on there. We're going to get somebody from there on the show. I just want to know how they decide to go about it at the pace that they did. Obviously, most of us love the pace. Charles had problems with the pace. But I think that it's still a creative decision to move at that pace,

particularly when a lot of animated shows, to be honest with you, are getting away from that. A lot of animated shows do not want to be compared to Saturday morning cartoons. They want to be taken more seriously. They want a more episodic feel to them. And, because honestly, Charles,

I want to ask you this, this past season of Invincible was packed densely with a lot of stuff. And it didn't work as well for me as this did. Well, X-Man didn't take three months off, so in the middle of the season.

Oh, I mean, but here's the thing. If, like, I think I dislike both of, both of those ways where I just, like, I, there's Invincible to your point where I think we dislike this last season of Invincible, probably more than the first, because, to your point, they just tried to pack too much in.

And I think just for me, for X-Men 97, I like a brisk show. It's like, I don't want, I actually think X-Men 97 is, is its best when it's hitting that 22, 24 minute mark. Oh, okay. It was more so just that, like, I think I agree with you that X-Men 97

is the feeling of reading a comic book, but I think some of the problems is, I'm like comic books are a different medium. So it's like you can, you're hearing what the, I mean, you're reading what the characters are feeling. You have the yellow text boxes, you have all this stuff to fill in. And I think because DeMayo and crew kind of assume

that as X-Men fans, we know this lore already. Sometimes I was just like, even though I know this lore, for the TV version of it, I need a couple more beats for it to make sense because I'm watching this almost as a new viewer. I'm almost watching this as I'm like, no, the Wolverine and Cyclops and this

are not the same to me as they are in the comic books. This is a certain version of them. So for emotionally to make sense as a viewer, I need a couple more beats for it to gel. Word up. I feel you? Word out. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business.

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Predictions for season two. Obviously, Apocalypse. I think it was... intentional, you know, the credits go and then they have the scene with Apocalypse in Genosha and he's got the card he's got the card in Genosia we're going to see Age of

Apocalypse and he's going to bring back Gambit and maybe Malimpire and some other folks as his horseman and it's going to be weird because Gambit's supposed to be dead but he's not and a lot of

it's going to be awesome they're going to go back in time and forward in time and everybody's going to it's going to be a lot but I think going to bring Gambit back it's going to be alive. That's my take. I'm sticking to it. I think Gambit will definitely come back

if not in season two, then maybe a potential season three. Because season is back next season. He's back next season. He's a horseman at death. Yeah, he's coming back. Yeah, he's coming back next season. Apocalypse comes and they do the horsemen. I'm not too familiar with what happens in the future

with young Nathan. Young Nathan. A rapper. A little young Nathan. No, yeah. I kind of, it's weird that I'm more interested in where it's like the separation because only Scott and Gene are in the future it seems and then the rest of the X-Men are in the past

so I'm curious to know how just how dire it's going to get for just Gene and Scott the Nathan in the future if I'm not mistaken will be X-Man right I believe I mean if we're no I took that as and spoiler alert for the comics they're doing it a little bit differently but I I took that as when Cyclops and Gene are saying goodbye to Cable, Cable reveals to them that the people that raised him were telling him about the legend of the X-Men and the X-Men stories.

So I took that as if time is a circle or whatever, Gene and Cyclops always helped raise Cable. and this is just them going back to the point in time where he's like I'm like this is just cable like the self-fulfilling bootstrap paradox of like them going into the future but like you were my mom and dad all alone yeah that's what like I'm like there's comicational lord so I was just like

I don't actually maybe in the second season that's what the story will get or this was just like a closed loop of being like oh actually all along cable had his parents what I think it's interesting because you look at the board When Forge is trying to find people and everybody's like missing, presumed dead, missing

presumed dead. Look closely, Scarlet Witch is on there, but it says off world. So, I mean, maybe that's just like an excuse for why she didn't show up. But like, I mean, she's around somewhere. She's just not on this planet. She could come through, start messing stuff up. She's probably on Adelaan with Quicksilver with the inhuman. I'm tripping.

Nate Gray is actually the biological son of Scott and Jean, right? Yes. We're talking about X-Man. X-Man. Yeah, Nate Gray. But he's an alternate universe version of Cable from the age of apocalypse. But his mom is not Madeline Pryor.

His mom is Gene Gray. Fact-checked that, Joe, but I think we're correct. And he's raised by slim and red. Brad's been, it's hazy. It's been a long time, guys, I apologize to the audience right here. Maybe I should have read up with some of these things. You might be right.

Because, I mean, technically, X-Man and Cable are the same person, but not really. But not really. One is from the age of apocalypse timeline, as I remember it. And then, I thought that maybe they were going an X-Man route there because Slim and Red were Scott and Gene who raised X-Man or part of the rearing. Because I always thought that their consciousness went back in time and they inhabited the bodies of these two like parental figures. And they just never revealed to, it was either Cable or Nathan.

than that they were Cyclops and Gene. Right. Basically, yeah. So I'm getting a whole bunch of things. There's going to be X-Men fans that are yelling at us. It's been so fucking long and it's such a complicated thing.

There's a lot going on right now. There is a lot. Are you guys reading the Wikipedia for Nathan Somerton? It's long. Well, first of all, oh, so it looks like he wasn't like born.

He was Mr. Sinister, one of the elite horsemen of the Highland Apocalypse. Artificially created Nate and named him Nathaniel Gray from Jim Guterre from Siketriot from Cyclopson and Phoenix. So it's, so to your point, Van,

he's not Cable because Cable is Madeline Pryor's kid. Biological kid. Biological kid. Got to go back to Kerm here. He is just an amalgamation of Scott and Gene. I'm sorry, guys. We're calling him again. Don't call Kerm again, bro.

Call him again, bro. Double dip on. Hello? Kerm. What's up? Did you see who they introduced at the end of the, the, uh, the,

the, the, the, the, the, the series when it was it was Nathan and they were with Mother of Scottie and stuff. Did you see that? As in the scene where Scott and Gene were in the future? Yeah, yeah. Is that kid possibly

X-Man? I think so. I think that's what they're hinting at what's called cable from a different universe that doesn't have the techno organic virus that is all powerful. I think that's what they were supposed to be at. That and then obviously

Scottie's supposed to be, I'm assuming that's Rachel Summers, right? Yes, that's Rachel Mother's Connie. Yeah. Yeah. What else you need? All right. You're a little freaky, little freaky motherfucker, biker. Um, uh,

look, all right, that's enough. My predictions, age of apocalypse coming up. Let's see how well they do it. It's very difficult. Very difficult to do. It's very involved. Very complicated. Very complicated.

I would be on onslaught watch as well, guys. I'm sorry. It might be. Yeah. I would be on. I will not see me then. These two storylines go they go together.

Onslaught and the age of apocalypse. So I would be, I would be. What if they make onslaught cool? That's what I'm saying. They did not make Bashan. Oh, Bastian was great. Come on.

Bastian was good. They made Bastian cool? There's a chance that they can make Conpelling as a villain at minimum. All right. You know, there's a lot of game life. We don't know. You know what I'm saying?

It could be cool. Y'all got this. I'm just being honest with you guys, okay? Because, you know, Nate Gray's very involved in the onslaught story. You're probably going to get onslaught. Onslaught's probably coming. Now, I'll be honest with you guys. The onslaught saga was not my favorite part.

No, hey, listen, imagine if they made that good, though. If they made it good, it would be cool. But that was not my favorite X-Men saga to read. It wasn't. It was very, very honest. Goof mode shit. Like, Ferro Wolverine was just fucking terrible. And it wasn't great.

It lasted a little too long. They didn't really get it, get it going for me. I never enjoyed reading the onslaught books when I was reading them. It was kind of almost like my last hurrah with the X-Men, to be honest with you. That's the shit that got you off the X-Men? Well, also, I was like, it's just life start to pop in and starting to get ready. He had to see the clips. college had to see the clips college like applications and all that stuff i got into trying to be someone

in the world and then i didn't come back to the comics until like i was almost leaving college but so but it wasn't my favorite era of it so if they were able to make that awesome that would say a lot about the show and i think that the show is kind of setting that up both the age of apocalypse onslaught date gray i think all of that stuff will happen i really do i really i really fucking do you mother fuckers okay now look we got to go but before we leave and go to the midnight meter, I want to drop the gauntlet. All right. Do I need to play a thing?

Play a thing. All right, I'll see what, I'll try this. Yeah, I like that. The gauntlet. If you don't like X-Men 90s, I'm not sure how much you like the X-Men. As Van slowly turns his chair to face towards Charles. I don't see how you could love the X-Men. comics and reading the X-Men and loving the X-Men and not like X-Men

97. That is the Gondland. Yeah, I don't want, I don't know what you want me to do with that shit. Fuck the industry, fuck their mamas, fuck everybody who like this shit. I don't know what I'm the cool. You know what I'm the only one. If we're being real, I'm the only one that says 10 toes. Like, motherfuckers.

It's like, everybody likes this. Everybody likes this. So you think we're all lying? It's not that I think you're lying. Y, Charles, you ready to drink the Kool-Aid? And I'm like, nah, bro. I'm fine. I'm solidified.

I know my X-Men credentials. The Gondland. The Gondland was thrown, and I looked at that shit. It would be like, hey, it's whatever. Who's picking that up? I'll be real. I'm the only one. Here's the thing.

If I know anything about X-Men fans, I was made, I was forged. when like you would be like X-Men fans would be like they'd be like bro you like that new ultimate X-Men shit that's whack that's not my shit and I still walked into those comic stores like dog it don't matter yeah but in a world where Kerm exists you can't really stand on that like that here's a thing

you all two of y'all shouldn't even bring up Kerm's name the way he don't even a focus name don't even that motherfucker's said y'all to Kankoon so I don't even want to hear it anyway You say what he's

Voldanourke on 3 Jomey Why? Jomey Why? Jomey Why? Jomey?

Why we can't even get to Just laugh Jomey It's really not funny. That was the comment That was the comment. Jomey I'm sorry.

Joel introduced to midnight meter. Can I tell you something? Can I tell you something? Just real quick. Real quick. Just real quick, I gotta say this.

It is like a pleasure and a joy to be around Jomey because Jomey is the most joyous, funny, like, but when Jomey is, but for that same reason, when Jomey is mad.

You almost kind of want to poke Jomey a little bit more. because it doesn't happen that much. Like, when Jomey's mad, his whole demeter changes, and you get like a, you get like a multiversal version of Jomey. Like if Jomey had got down with the Carson Bloods or something, you get like a different Jomey. Oh, nah. I feel it.

That is true. Jomey has a great, so this is funny. It's just funny. Okay, this is funny. All right, midnight meter, Chuck, let's go. All right, it's time for the midnight meter. Our not confusing rankings. system of movies and TV.

One to ten, one being the worst, 10 being the best, but we reserve 11 and 12. For the true game changers, we'll start with the Mint Boy, Steve. X-Men 97. 11. It's 11 for me. I think if I want to,

and I think that this is the absolute right path for not only Marvel animation, not for Marvel television, but like the MCU in general, this is the type of like, this is the way that these properties should carry themselves in a long swath of stuff.

I think this is really, really good. I think I need a little bit more time to know whether or not this will change the game or not, but it's an 11 for me. Yeah, you're smoking correct. This is a 12th. This is what it means, right?

Don't tell me I'm smoking back when we have yet to get to trust. Well, we'll get there, brother. This is a 12. like when we talk about at least like, you know, we talk about seasons. We really

moving the goal post for a 12th. Not moving the goal post. No, no. Tell me what part of game, I think. The what Vann has said about game changing. Game changing means a lot. It means financial impact.

It means cultural. Okay. Let's go, Matt. Let's go. Let's go. It means popularity. It means popularity. So they got backs office.

They got box office mojo for television shows. Look, I think. This is not even the most popular show on Disney Plus. I think, and I'm sure I'm going to be people right in time. When we think about the X-Men in the MCU, people are going to point back to this show and go, like, this is the show that showed everybody. Like, oh, we can, like, we can do this, right?

Like, in five, seven years, whenever the X-Men come to movie, back to movies, we're going to look at this show and be like, yeah, this is what it, this is what it was. This show meant something. This show sparked something. So I'm going to get 12. I think this show, I mean, honestly, right now it means something. But I think even going forward in the future, at least this first season, we're going to go like, wow. So it's 12.

I'm going to concur with Jomi. That's fine. I'm not arguing. I just, I need to hear the impact. Because Jomey, that was beautifully said, but you're talking, you forecasting. When it's a 12, we ain't talking about the forecast. We're talking about the present. Okay.

So let me tell you, I was thinking about this. as I watched the show. Because to be clear, John Wick to y'all was not a 12 or game changer. Okay, so this is what I'll do. The first John Witt? Yes.

So this is what I'll do. I was thinking about this. Once again, I can admit when I'm wrong. I'd rather like it. Certain things I'm not wrong about. Like whether or not the most popular show,

the most financially... What? New this is coming. Survival show and the history of a network will be left to be eliminated. All right. Wait, did we give Shogun a 12? Yeah, 12s across the board except me.

I gave it 11. Yeah, because you are who you are. Yes. And so I'll kill me when I'm wrong. So I was wrong about John Wick. And let me tell you why. Oh, this is a big moment. Yeah, let me tell you why I was wrong about John Wick.

Changing the game doesn't, it's about financial impact. but John Wick was a game changer because it changed the action movie so it's like and you can argue that Taken came a little bit before it and the equalizer was like around the same time but

John Wick, lone guy fucking people up for whatever reason. The action movie became smaller and more intimate. Remember, the solo action star in the 80s and the 90s kind of disappeared in the 2000s a little bit

except for maybe the born identity which was kind of the same thing. It was about big, huge, big explosions, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, like that. And throughout the 2010s, it was the expendables, fast and furious. We have to get a bunch of action stars together. It's no longer just one guy, really. But John Wick birthed that this guy with this muted type of thing and also like a lower budget going out and doing that thing.

That came from really even Chaddenham that would produce a lot of these movies. Mr. Nobody. All of that stuff. All of that stuff. Monkey Man. John Wick is the movie where we're just like, that's not John. That would be a bloom print. Yeah.

It became a genre. John Wick changed like, and maybe people don't like this as much, but John Wick changed like firearms companies. Like John Wick would check press his sidearm. And now everybody wants to check press their sidearm. If you don't know what that is, that's moving your slide back a little bit to actually look inside the chamber. of your firearm to tell if there's around in there.

So now people get a sidearm. It's like, I can't check press it. And people are like, you only want to do that because John We did it in the movies. I'm just serious. It was like it was so dumb, but yeah. It was a game changer in a lot of respects. It just was a small film that didn't make a shit ton of money.

Still with over like $100 million, I'm pretty sure. Small film, I was looking at game changer from being too narrow. I can think of all types of movies that were smaller films that were game changers, or that weren't huge box office movies that were game changers that ushered in new types of filmmaking and stuff like that.

I was wrong about John Wheat, so I'll say that right now. I think that this will be a game changer. I think that it is a game changer. I think it's a game changer in animated storytelling in terms of, like what I talked about earlier, how it takes some of the traditional

animated storytelling that we see and did a little bit more with it. I think it's a game changer in one thing in particular. which is faithfulness to source material. We've always, look, Charles and I have a fundamental difference of opinion on this. I think his opinion is incredibly valid in terms of he wants to see the source material not be that faithful to. I'm not going to speak for him, but he wants to see it elevated and transformed and evolved in a way.

And that makes a lot of sense. And a lot of the best movies do do that. He is right about that, right? but I think at the time that we're in now I think the faithfulness to the source material when I say that I'm talking more about the ethos of the source material not necessarily this happens on this page

so this has to happen this happens or this has to happen this happens how does it feel? Does this feel like the X-Men? And one thing that the MCU was good at doing was making stuff that was Civil War but it didn't quite have to be the exact Civil War. It didn't have to be the same thing, the superhero registration act and all of that stuff like that.

I think we're going to get to a point with the X-Men, particularly with them coming into it, where this has to feel like the X-Men in a way that other X-Men properties probably have it. It has to feel it. We have to feel everything that's going on. And not just on the top level, but throughout,

the property. So for me, that is going to be a new way of looking at doing it. I think it's a different way of doing it. I think they did it in a way that was so authentic. I haven't seen a lot of other properties do it. And so for that reason, I'm saying it has changed the game for me. I think more properties will follow it. I think it's going to be a blueprint for how the live action X-Men are going. So I'm giving it a 12. I love that. That's amazing. That was so well said.

Yeah. It's great. What you got? Yeah, this is sex. What? I don't. I don't. Where do they even begin?

You don't. You don't. You don't. You don't. You got to give it. His timing was nasty on that. It's great. His time it was nasty.

Family matters. Meet the Graham. His time. His time it was. You got to give it to him. His time it was nasty. Yeah, it was great. That's funny.

Jeremy, why are you so perturbed? What's going on? The six is crazy. Okay, let's talk about the six. Charles, give it up. We all don't talk about it. It may not meet the rankings. Talk about the six.

No, because at this point, it's just, what more is there to be said? I'm standing on it. I want to kind of give, if I'm just being real, like, I would have thought it was going to be a seven at least. No, because originally, originally it was going to be a seven,

but that's like my industry score. I just had to go with me. my heart and be like, Charles, did you enjoy this on a week-to-week basis? No, Charles was the animation up to just a watchable quality for you? We can week-in, week out, no. Aesthetically, did you like the show? No. Writing-wise, did you like the show? No. So it's just like, it was just a compounding... So then what makes it a six and not a zero? I mean, then we have to fundamentally get into how I score most of the things that have been coming out of these studios. Man, what did you like? About what? About the show, enough to make it a six and not a zero.

Because it's got to be something that's marginally like redemptive about it. It's very, very, very difficult to make anything. It's very difficult for creators to come in and make something with the X-Men that the majority of the X-Men loving population will like, let alone enjoy. Sure. And especially when it's one of the first things that's coming out of an embattled MCU and all that. So like just being a creative myself, I was just like, Hey, shit is hard to make, and you guys made something that a lot of people liked, even if I didn't.

So the six is kind of like, hey, you know, it was watchable. And, you know, most stuff that's coming out of this out is just not watchable. You're the skit bailess of X-Men 97. Like, LeBron could have the greatest season while time you're like, yeah. And this is what? And like, we're going to circle back on this. This is what I don't like. Like, y'all ask me what, like, how do you feel, Charles?

Because y'all can't do the thing where you're like, yo, Charles, Charles, you're being too harsh. And then I, like, I'm just like, all right, I won't be too harsh. And then I, like, give my honest opinion. And you're like, hey, dog, he skipped bailist. He's this. I'm just like, y'all niggas assed and I told you. No, and I'm not mad about the fact that you scored her to six.

I actually am not. I'm not mad that you scored it to six. It's insane he scored at a six. It's fundamentally insane he scored. I don't agree. Because here's the thing. Because why, but why? I'm not saying you can't have your opinion, but like, again.

It didn't. Because here's the thing we have to get. We have to get past this as a crew and as the men. night boys. If something does not move me emotionally, I feel hollow after watching something, it's okay for me to be like, yo, it's

fine, y'all loved it. I'm happy for y'all. It just didn't move me. That's okay. All I would ever want is for Charles to articulate why he doesn't like something or why you do. And that's all. And I told you, this shit just don't move me in my soul. My X-Men soul, it just

is just like, I walked into the X-Men church. I saw what they was preaching and I walked back out. It wasn't, it's not my faith right now. And it's okay. It's okay. I'll find my way back, y'all. Look, so. He's off to home goods. I am, bro. Like, I'm going to go to home. Dog, I got a mirror

on the way. I got some lamps on the way. I'm ready. I don't know, man. So, look, this is why I'll say. Obviously, there's going to be a gigantic backlash to the six. But things have a matter. Who cares? Well, no, no, no. I don't give a fuck about the backlash.

I mean, Jomey, you're seeing. perturbed particularly, but I want to give Jomi... I don't... If I speak, I'll be in big trouble. I don't want to be big trouble. So I will speak. If everything I watched had to move my soul, what the fuck am I doing being alive at this point? I'm dead fucking ass. Be fucking for real. And you want to know what? You want to know what, Joe Me? I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. Sometimes I just watched it.

And I'm like, it's cool. I think, and I thought about this. I was thinking about this this weekend too because like about like just how like I operate in my life right I think when I see some cool shit sometimes I just want to see cool shit right sometimes I break the rules in my life just to do cool shit like man you know what man that shit's just cool man might as well do it might as well make it happen you know what I'm saying like I don't live my life on some deep man she got it's got to move you something man if I don't feel it in my chest so I'm like shit man, fuck it. You know, we ball.

You know what I'm saying? In this show, regardless of how deep and how, like, emotional, if you don't resonate with that, that's fine. But to say, like, just, I mean, just on a blanket level, man, that shit don't move you in my soul, man. I'm not really fucking with it. Nigger, what? You can't, you fundamentally, like, I don't understand how you, like,

wake up every morning, brush your teeth. If this shit don't move you, my nigger, stay at home. You want to know what? Fuck it. fuck Jomey. Like let me just like let me like let me get this because here's the thing. Naga, I hit my joint and I'll be watching trash. And guess what? It don't take brilliant shit to move my soul. Muffaloca, I cry at the Fast and Furious movies all the goddamn time. You know what I'm saying? I watch Netflix shit that I'm just like, this shit was terrible.

Yeah. But right now it put a smile on my face. It got me through the day. Let me do what I need to do. I watch people like, oh, you're you watch it. It's all. I'm like. The amount of shitty anime I watch would make, y'all would be like, dog, and y'all on the MCU shitty, I'm like, it's both shitty. But sometimes I'm like, if I have my little dumpster of trash and this trash moves my soul, I could be like, I could do both. I'm like, critically, you could be like, what's this show that you love Charles? And I'm like, oh, it's a six. But you're like, but you said you enjoyed it.

I'm like, yes, I enjoyed it as like, as Van said, like a hamburger. I'm telling y'all, this didn't move my soul either as a work of art or as entertainment. that's fine. Nerds need to get to this point where my enjoyment of some shit, or like me not enjoying it, does not change or take away of your enjoyment. When I say like, yo, I'm so happy everybody loves this show. That is me fundamentally being like, I'm so happy that you guys got what you wanted. If you're asking me personally, like, after every episode or after the season of television, Charles, like, how did you feel? And I'm like, well, I felt nothing. That takes nothing. Like, it's just like, I'm just telling you about how I woke up today after watching this shit.

I was just like, bro, if I didn't have to podcast about this, not only would I have not made it to the series finale, I literally would never have thought about this again. What, like, what's the issue with that? All right, the old man's going to intervene real quick. And this is what I'm going to say. Okay, cool. So this is what I would say.

I'm going to look at this both ways. By the way, just for the audience, we talked about X-Men 97. We're not talking about the different feelings about how we scored X-Men 97. So I'm looking at this both ways. Okay, this is the deal. So if I'm taking Charles' side on this, If something doesn't move, it doesn't move for whatever reason.

I'll be honest with you guys about times that, a time that I was less true of myself than I should have been. I went to Spider-Man No Way Home, and when I got out of the movie, I was like, I didn't really, for whatever reason it didn't do it for me. I had a lot of fun, but I was grabbing at the movie. And look, we all get swept up in stuff. all right

I got swept up in I wanted to light the flash right you did yeah you did you in the entire town you really wanted to like the flash

and just to let everybody know I don't know nobody on the flash the people that were telling me that stuff at WB were definitely gaslighting so just finally

just to let you guys know I didn't know nobody who made the flash and nobody was on the flash. I wanted to like it. The Christopher Reeve thing is a deep childhood trauma. And so it's the whole not, right? So I wanted to, I've definitely reached out for movies before.

I've definitely reached out for content before. I definitely have done that, right? I think that some of us have done that. Like, I, Nick, Jay's Z used to drop. Blueprint 3 came out. Blueprint 3 came out. I'm like, y'all, it's not that good. It's got a couple of good songs on it.

It's got some work on it, but I don't know what you. No, this is hove. It's a hove. It's a hoax. You understand because you're from New York. I'm like, I'm just telling you that it's not, it's,

it's, it's cool. Nah, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is,

this is, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, feel something, you don't feel something. That's the thing.

Um, so you can't, if Charles isn't feeling something or any of us isn't feeling something, uh, we've all been weird about different things.

It, it is what it is. On the Jomi side of things, it's like this. It's like, there is an investigation sometimes. about why it is that you feel something, right? And as this content, as we do this content,

as we talk about this content, normally, normally with this type of content, the barrier to entry, for people that don't consider themselves to be critics like you do, the barrier of entry is lower. So it's lower, right? A Star Wars property doesn't have to be as good.

Give me an example of something that we really liked that was highbrow lately, something that we saw that was really fucking. Anadavim of a fall. Yeah, yeah, sure. Like, an anime of a fall, whatever you want to say, right? Whatever it is.

American fiction, shout out to my nigga. Like, American fiction, whatever it is, right? A Star Wars property just doesn't have to be that good for me to get into it because of my connection to the genre, of my affinity for the genre. There's a lower bar to entry. When we're talking about nerd culture, and loving this stuff. That's essentially what we're talking about.

We're talking about not whether or not we love it, but whether or not we want to. Like we're talking about if we want to love it. Because like that want, that desire to love that thing, to be a part of that thing, to like let that thing expire you or let it rest on you or let it sit on your heart. That's what brings you back to this.

And I say this all the time. y'all think I'm bullshitting, but I said this on the big picture. But for me, that's deep-seated and long-suffering. When you had to, you know this, when you had to get up and catch a ride to the comic store. Me and Sean went back and forth, and this was like, we went back and forth. We didn't go back and forth, but we were telling our different experiences about being in the bookstore and reading in Star Wars Encyclopedia. Like one time I got kicked out of the bookstore because the people in the bookstore was like,

this is not a library. You can't just sit here and read the shit. Oh, I remember these days. Yeah, like, this is not, like, I couldn't afford the Star Wars. Sean was talking about it, too. The Big Picture episode with Apes was a lot of fun. Really, really good. So you guys go check it out.

But Sean was talking about the fact that he would sit in there, now they didn't kick this thing out, but like, Sean was talking about the fact that he was sitting there and read the psychopendias. And I was like, yeah, I'll do the same thing. I would read through the whole Star Wars encyclopedia. And the people would come to me in there would be like, hey, this is a library. It's like you can't just read the books

and they put them back. You gotta buy that. This is a bookstore, right? You got to buy it. But I would go in there over and over and over again like by hook or by crook with my baseball uniform, with grass things on it, with the whole nine,

because I just need it more. And a lot of times when the criticism comes, it feels like we're separated from that. It feels like what we really want, there's an inclusion in feeling that feeling around. this stuff. There's like, we feel like a pack, right? We had to like, we had to talk about Star Wars. We had to talk about the comics. We had to build our own lore before they were giving us the lore. And part of our disappointment even about the stuff when it's not good is we feel like

the bean counters aren't taking that seriously enough. I remember being in TMZ, I'm not going to make this into the Gaysburg Address. I remember being at TMZ and Infinity War. dropped and they're asking me to talk about Affinity War and the TMZ office is they want to make jokes for TV and they're saying hey nerd nerd nerd nerd and I'm looking at them and all the shit that they

would say that's what pissed me off and I'll tell you why I pissed me off because I'm looking at them and I'm saying no I'm not the nerd anymore I'm not the outlier anymore I'm not the weird one anymore you guys are this shit made a billion and a half

dollars so So yeah, so this shit made a billion and a half dollars. So you took your kids to see what I've been on forever. You took your kids to do all of this stuff. The fact that I am into this and have been into this for years and the fact that this was my outlet and this was my escape from growing up in a fucked up place with everybody on fucking drugs and all of that shit, the fact that this was my outlet,

I've been vindicated, you know, I've got to take that from me. And you're just not. You're not going to take that from me. I'm not going to feel like the weird one anymore. When everybody else does Captain America, when everybody else loves Iron Man, when everybody loves the X-Man, when everybody loves all of this stuff,

I wasn't wrong. And at the basis of the nerd culture, fandom theme, is a sense of community, is a sense of shared values and a shared love for something. And even though I sit next to somebody who I know is a part of that community, I think some of the criticism or some of what people are asking

would be whether or not you are a part of that community. And I say that with love and respect for you. I hope you know that. Oh, no, no, no. I think it's an interesting question. I think that I fundamentally approach it differently.

Because I think I think the community has the basis of it is rotten to the core and what I mean by that is like, my experience was very similar to you, but my experience was also different. When I was going to the Combook store,

and I was young enough where my mom had to take me in. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't realize it at the point, I was like, oh, this is a black woman taking me into a spot where there's just a bunch of stinky white dudes looking down on her black songs. It was just like, that makes sense.

You ever been to a Yu-I-O tournament, man? Yeah. They was just like, even my mom would be like, she was not, she was not, she was not, it was funky in there. And it was just like, I even at that point, I was just like, oh, she loves their black son so much. She's kind of like weathering all the stairs and everything just because she's like,

oh, they love the X-Men. This is what this is what they want to do on their Saturday. And I think I always had this realization that when shit flipped to your point, where it's like nerds are no longer the outliers of society, they're the main point. I think that's how you get shit like PizzaGate. That's how you get shit like video game shit. We don't need to get into it. But like pizza gate was the Hillary Clinton.

You're thinking of Gamergate. Oh, Gamergate. Oh, Nick. I was about the same. I'm about the same. I'm about to say, we didn't do that, nigga. Gamer gate, sorry. There's been, to be fair, there's been so many gates.

It's hard to. There's a lot of gates. What I will say, not to be long-winded about it, is that I think that something flipped, and it's just been rotten to me for a while, that because nerds felt so much like they were pushed to the margins, now we've gotten to this point. now we've gotten to this point where it's just like any single time a black actor, actress is starting this. I got to hear about, well, that's not true to the source material.

Or it's like if I have a difference of opinion, and like, well, this isn't the type of X-Men story. I like, well, it's like, well, you're not a real nerd. You're not part of the community. And I'm just like, isn't the whole point of this? Even the X-Men, what we're talking about, of tolerance, of, oh, if you believe something different, it doesn't matter because we're all part of a similar tribe.

y'all like this shit. And I do find it funny that X-Men, especially, I think the hard thing podcasting about it is I'm like, wait, so this is a TV show about tolerance. This is a TV show about trying to accept people who think differently from you, but a motherfucker who does not like the show. And it's just like, hey, it's cool that you guys like it. This is just, as an X-Men fan, I don't like it. It's all sudden, you're well, are you a part of the tribe?

Are you really an X-Men fan? Are you really a part of this? And I was like, that's kind of the grand irony of all this. Let me ask you a question. There's one question. And by the way, I'm going to tell you guys something right now. Everyone listen to my voice. The Midnight Boys is not a dictatorship, but I'm going to say something right now,

and this is going to be true. Okay. We are never talking about this again. Okay? So everybody that's as, what just happened on the podcast was very organic. It was very organic. We're going to leave it in for you guys and negotiate it for yourselves. But I'm telling you right now, we're not.

never talking about this again. This part of it, never. Nothing would make me happy. Nothing would make me happy. Never talking about it again. Everybody is who they are. We have four distinct characters on the show. That's what makes the show work.

We're never doing this again. But I knew that the midnight meter would spark this type of deal, which is why I did the gauntlet thing. Let's talk about what you guys. Now, I'll ask you this. One question that I think is a fair question to you. Do you enjoy pissing the people's Cheerios?

Do you enjoy it? Just not from your brother. At all. Not at all. You don't enjoy when everybody else is up on something, being a little down on it. You don't enjoy being a contrarian. You don't enjoy that. It's just how you feel.

I'm going to be so honest. Sometimes I do get offended when people are like, you're just being a contrarian. I'm just like, no, I just don't like it. Like I literally, I'd never even like, I come in here and you're just like, what's your opinion? And sometimes I'm like, man, I'm about to lie. And then when I lie on the podcast, people are like, try. Charles was lying. He's not himself.

And I was just like, I'm not going to cheat the audience. I'd rather than be pissed off at me than me just be like faking here. So I never even, like you guys actually think that I come in here. Like he's about to, he gets a rise out of pissing people off. I'm like, motherfucker, this is about to ruin my fucking week. Sometimes it does seem like on Twitter you go, shit. I'm about to come in and hate on some shit. It seems like you're, it seems like a part of your character at some point that I think people.

Whoa, whoa. Twitter. Twitter ain't real life. None of this is real. None of this is real. Like, half the time I'm on Twitter and I'm just like, bruh, it is about to be so funny.

Yeah, I get it. I did it. I did the same thing. Van? I did the same thing. Because sometimes I be looking at Van and I'm like, Van, van's on one and he's just like, dog, I'm about to piss people.

Yeah. Yeah, I get it. I get it. Yeah. So, Midnight boys, we good? We're great. All right. Join me and Chuck?

Nah, Joe. Because here the thing. I knew, I knew shit turned when I saw. When I said, I said Kerm, said yaw to cancun. I saw, I saw Joe be like, I hate this. Like, I saw his face

just like, br- all of that stays in. No, that's it. That's it. But all of that stays in. But we're, we're great, we're great. What the fuck was that? There's a light-skinned dab up.

There's a light-skinned dab up. So the midnight meter is 12 116 Play the music Alright, all right, all right, all right, 12, 11. Oh my God. Oh my God.

Do the fucking news. It was Agatha all along. We got Agatha coming out this fall and it's now called Agatha all along as opposed to the Darko Diaries All the other five names That that show was

The Lion's supposed to be named House of Harkin and whatever House of Harkin Yeah, I watched that Yeah Hors of Harkin, no it was Harsal House of Harkoff No, but

There was nine different names for the show And now they've settled on Agatha all along And they Part of the promo was that they showed every other name that it was called as if it was part of their grand plan.

To piss you off, Steve. You didn't like this. I don't fucking understand what you're going to. I don't get it. I get Steve. I'm on Steve's side. This is annoying as hell. Okay. Because you're,

help me understand. Okay. I would like to think that this is a bit. If they think that this is a bit, that they change the whole thing five different times to have a little fun and make it seem like, oh, Agatha was like up to her witchy mischief. and like renaming the show and all the blah, blah, blah, blah, like,

a joke that is at the expense of the actual cultural penetration of what your show actually is. For us to know what the name of the thing is. And I don't feel like Marvel is at a point right now with its reputation where they can act cute like this. You niggas can't be playing. You can't afford to be acting cute right now. Don't play with me, nigga. I mean, but Steve, the one that, the one that, I do have to be real about is that

this is a show about Agatha, a character that no one has ever given a shit about? Besides the one moment in time, where she went viral from... Hey, Steve, nobody gives a fuck. And that's the thing, and that's fine. I'm sure the show

is going to be great, and I really want to like the show. Why would you be sure about that? Actually, I'm not, but I have every reason to believe that, like, I could enjoy the show. But Disney's playing in your face right now. They're playing in my face, and I don't appreciate it. I think that's fair. That is fair. Because like, if you changed it to Blade all along, Ironheart all along, like, what was your all along plan for all of these shows? I mean, my, my big fear is I'm like, with all the name changes, I'm like, either this was like market. Like, it's like the Drake shit where he's just like,

yeah, we planned to that shit. It was my plan on. I'm like, you plan, you fell for my little trap. I'm like, it was your year and a half plan to keep coming up with worst name. for a show that people seem to not fucking want to all. What do you mean seem? And only one day of reshoots and maybe trouble production. We don't know. It's called Agatha all along. That just really got to me.

That really got to me. I'm with Chuck. I think what happened was they didn't have a name and they were coming up with names. And then at the last point they're like, hey, guys, what if we just turn into a joke? Okay, so either either way, it's incompetent. I don't disagree. Because they either don't want to know the name of the show and they don't know what the hell's going on, or they actually, actually meant to do this.

And for however many months we have until this show comes out, whenever somebody gets the name wrong, it will be their fault. Here's the thing, I'm gonna be honest with y'all. I don't even know why we're even talking about this because I'm not talking about this show.

I'm not talking about it. Hey man, we might be... Come fall, you will. No, man. Because I'm, here's the thing. It's like, if y'all think that I'm pissing in the Cheerios, I'm tapping in another light-skinned brother at the ringer.

Anytime I don't want to watch this shit, y'all just call up Kai. and Kai can have my chair. That's hilarious. And Kai, he can just come in. That's hilarious. You know what? Guy,

Guy, first of all. We love you, Kai. That's my boy. I don't know. I'm just a son, Kyle being substitute Charles, that's funny as shit.

I literally will still be here at the recordings, but it's just Kyle. Charles just standing in the corner and be like, you better hate this. I don't know what we're going to do about Agatha, but if you want to opt out on the show, you can't.

You'll be here. Like, But if one day we popped up and Kai was in this bitch. It's going to be, you're going to search you for Kai and me for me for Kerm. That's what they go. So you have no interest. By the way, I don't know that I'm not interested in Agatha. I'm definitely not interested.

Stop the last. Steve. Stay stop the cap right now. What part of Agatha are you excited about? What part of Agatha are you excited about? Catherine Hahn, Catherine, Catherine. Because it was also in there. That's cool, too.

Oh. Oh. Yeah. Okay. That's one of my little things right there. All right. Okay. I mean, she's in her thing in White Lotus.

That's awesome. She did do her thing in White Lotus. Aubrey Plaza. I got like a, I got to go through like various lists of white girls at some point that I like. She's one of my little quirky little things. First of all, first of all, she's Latina. Is she? Yes, sir.

She has a Puerto Rican? Oh, so half Puerto Rican gets it done? That might explain. Is that? That explains a lot of Jomey's. taste. Wait for the hashtag. Oh, man. I like her. Emily the Criminal.

Yeah. Great little movie. Great movie. Oh, my God. Ingrid Goes West. Angry Goes West, really good movie. Oh, my gosh. Really funny. Yeah. Wait, top three quirky white girls.

Oh, easy. So, Zoe De Chanel. No. Why? What the fuck? That's such a... Okay, go ahead. Steve, are you the quirky white girls? Steve was like, it's a police?

He wants you to go deep a young man. Steve, you know what? I like this. We all saw a new girl. I never saw the show at all. We got deep benches over here, all right? I've never seen New Girl. Oh, you would love New Girl.

You would love. Well, let Van finish. Then I have a follow up for Steve. Zoe D. Cheneau. So what about the lady who plays Jennifer Jones? Jessica Jones? Jessica Jones? Chris and Ritter.

Chris Ritter. I don't know. Is she a quirky white girl? She's a quirky white girl. Yeah. She got more attitude. She's a sassieie. white girl. Could be sassy. Could be sassy.

Have you seen, don't trust the BN 1, 2, 3? I've seen it. Great show. What about, okay, so well then you guys are, you guys are, so Brie Larson is no longer quirky because she went, she went mainstream. I see the vision, I see the vision, but she used to be So Kat Dennings is not on this list.

Fuck no. What? Cat Dennings is one of the top 10 most crazy Cat Denny's is, you ain't nothing quirky. Cat Denny's is a thing. Capital T. Kat Denny's is one of the most attractive motherfuckers

that has ever walked the face on the planet. Why are you standing on? No. Standing on business. She's quirky, though. Shout out Andrew WK. Shout out Andrew WK. All respect to relationships. Big respect to Kalika.

It's like, but, bro, like, I literally, so I was doing the panel. Be careful. Just listen. Very careful. I was doing a panel. for Wu-Tang the series

the legend continues what's the name of the fucking shit? The American saga. So I was doing the panel for that at the Paley Fest. I was moderating the panel

and Kat Dennings was on a show called Dollhouse or something like that. Yes. And so their panel was like right before our panel. So I get there and I'm backstage at the Paley Center

or whatever about to moderate the panel do the whole nine. And I didn't know she was going to be there and she walked and like the Kat Dennings wave of attractiveness fucking wheylaid me.

I was not a prepared for how attractive Cat Dennings was. Like not even on the ooh baby type of situation just like she walked and it was like oh shit. It was like the fallout from a nuclear bomb or something like that. Oh my gosh. That's a capital

T dang right there. There's no quirk about that. She might be playing quirky. She can't hide from me. All right. She can't that's crazy. Freaky as you can't say that aside, bro. Come on.

I got to think about this because the list, because if you're going to shout down Zoe Di Chanel, that's like Aubrey Plaza's in there, Zoe DiCinell's in there. If you're going to shout down Zoe D. Chanel, I got to go back to the drama. Apparently, the list is deep. Steve, what's your talk to you, man? I want Steve's quirky white girl list. What top three quirky black girls list? This is one of those tests where I can't say anything. This is where I'm not going to say anything. No. Because you were real sassy shooting down Zoe D. Chanel who is a quirky white girl top five.

He's got all time, all time. All time. So if you're so sassy, quirky black girls because we know you're the sactivist. All right, Iyo. Oh, yeah. Oh, good answer. That's the same answer. That's the same answer.

Good answer. Okay. Yeah, that's good. We deal with that. I find Lupita quirky. You're wrong. All right, man. That's a disrespect.

That's one of our finest. She's on the cover of fucking vogue. What is what you're doing? I guess IOS too. I was too. But because of the quirk. Kens and Day of Beyond. Nah.

Nah. Maybe at one point. You know who could have been on? Van from Atlanta? She passed quirky. She passed quirky. She passed quirky now. She passed quirky.

She don't shower. We have to do. I heard about that. The podcast is over. We've given you guys way too much podcast. All right. It's done. That's it.

There's no more. Forever. Tomorrow, House of All, we'll give you their look Season 2 of the House of the Dragon, along with a look back in year at the five-year anniversary of the Game of Thrones finale. Also on Friday, the House of R dives into the X-Men season finale. Do not forget, tickets are available now for the first ever ringer residency at the L.Rae

Theater, including the Ringerverse. Tickets are still on sale. Go to the ringer.com slash events for full details. Credits. Produce received the architect, Allman. Jomi, the explainer, Diggeron on social media. Hashtag Jome and Dagger. Jome and Dad?

That's you. That's a good one. Gentlemen Dagger. That's a good one. Additional production from Arjuna, Ramgapal. Charles, take us out. Cat Dennings is a thing. Never fall for quirky white.

This is May 97. It's a motherfucker fucking six. I hear a really big butt coming. Yeah, you can't hear them because sometimes when they walk, they clap. But you can hear them coming. Jesus Christ, man. You can. Y'all ain't from the South.

So look, real quick. Because we don't hear booties clapping when we're walking. Sundress season, you can hear them. I'm just saying. Tell the story, please. Whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no. Are you like, are you literally, as you're walking tuned into your- I can hear, you got some mean telling me you've never been around somebody thick enough

to where they're walking in a sundress. I'm not commenting on this. Yeah. I've seen a lot of fat-ass. and a lot of sunglasses. I've never been locked in enough to be like, damn, the rhythm of them booty cheeks is crazy. Steve, have you ever?

I'm abstaining from comment. Steve, Steve, just, just be real, Steve. Be real, Steve. Have you ever heard it clapping when somebody's walking before? Under advice of legal counsel, I'm reframing from. No, don't, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,

Steve, fuck off. Answer the question, yes or no. You know advice from legal counsel. He knows he has. He knows he has. What's Jomey? He knows he has. He knows he has. He knows he has. Look.

I'm saying that I don't want to get off like on a tangent on that. I mean, we are so far. I'll take y'all back to Hot Water Cornbread and just make it happen. Wait, did you see the clip of them like playing? I did. Yeah. They've been asking for us to come back, by the way.

Really? Wait, really? I'd love to come back. I bet you would. Jeez, man. Steve. Steve. You know what? Steve.

Y'all have to see Steve at how I'm going on board, man. Man, Steve be on this hole. Steve be doing this thing.