The Ringer-Verse - ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ + the State of Marvel Animation | Mint Edition

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

Jomi and Steve are back and swinging with their thoughts on the premiere of ‘Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ on Disney+. Along the way, they discuss Hudson Thames’s comment about “wokeness,” the show’s theme music, and much more! Hosts: Jomi Adeniran and Steve Ahlman Producer: Jonathan Kermah Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Bill Simmons. I am thrilled to announce our newest YouTube channel. It's called Ringer Movies. If you're a fan of our movie coverage here at The Ringer, then you're in luck because every episode of The Rwatchables and The Big Picture, now on YouTube. Like Bill said, Ringer movies will feature full episodes of my show, The Big Picture, the Rewatchables, as well as special live episodes, deep dives into movie history, and a bunch of other fun stuff featuring other movie-loving Ringer personalities.

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Welcome to Mint Edition. I'm Steve Allman. I'm Jimmy Dinner on. And this is the once-in-a-while podcast about the latest fandom. You just can't live with Out. Today, we're taking a swing through a blocky, occasionally pixelated New York. But it's colorful, you know. It looks pretty.

Good weather. and we're talking about my friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, the premiere of the animated... It's your favorite. Is it you own it? I don't really own much. My friendly neighborhood Spider-Man?

Is my favorite Neighborhood of Spider-Man? I mean, from the neighborhood that he might claim, possibly. Or is it your, as in the... You know what I'm saying? The Royal Wee. Yes. Yeah.

That's very sure. We'll get into that another contentious grammar. Before programming reminders, coming up on the first. First of all, dialing back the clock, Midnight Boys. We put up a poll voting for who gets custody of Batman.

Turns out we have a hung jury. It's tight. It's close. From what I'm seeing, 50-50. Yeah, man. People gotta watch the video. Here's what it is, right? Because y'all are just saying like, oh, who do I want? Reeves, obviously, he already made a movie. Watch the video on YouTube.

Go to YouTube.com, backslash, ring of verse. Watch the midnight court, and then make your decision. If you just vote with non-vives, like obviously you already have a preference. If you watch a video and then see who made the correct arguments, I feel like it's going to be, it's going to go another way. I might go a different way.

But since you mentioned it, Jomey, where can people follow along if they want to vote for the next poll that comes out from us? They can follow us on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, and on TikTok. You can't vote on TikTok, but still follow us there. all at Ring ofverse. Make sure you tap in so you don't miss out on any fun stuff that we're doing all over the Ring ofverse feed. Join us all on those cursed social media platforms, all of which we were happy to contribute to.

Every single one of them. Yes. Every single one of them are cursed. Yes. Oh, man. You see Zuck lately? He's running around like Malibu's most wanted. That's not the guy I'm trying to put on my feet right now.

It's really like I need. I was never a fan, but you watch, I don't know if you watch a social. network recently. Hey man, Eisenberg's got to come back for the sequel. You know, it's crazy too, like, because even in that, Zuck sucks so much and even that portrayal of Zuck is light years better than the Zuck we have. Oh my God. So complex. It's, well, not even complex. It's been like, man, this guy sucks in the movie. Well, it's really true because I'm like, okay, well, Jesse Eisenberg, you really can't actually chameleon into a person like that because you seem like a, you know, a rather decent and upstanding person.

It's like, man, that guy sucks the movie. It can't be that bad in real life. It's like, oh, no. Oh, no, it's worse. It's much, much worse. Much worse. Well, but coming to you guys next week, along with the fall of fact-checking,

more Midnight Boys. We're going to be doing one of your favorite black recasts now with Marvel's Infinity War. Any hot-button actors that we want to tap early? I can't wait to see how we do, War Machine and Black Panther. Now, do we just want to go the inverse? We're like, okay, those are the white ones?

I don't know. We're going to have to find out. It's going to be fun. Does Josh Brolin stay? No, no, no, no, no. We got to flip everybody. Does Thanos look like Josh Brolin? You got to flip everybody.

But it's voiced by... No, no, no. Don't you spoil in the sauce. Don't let them know how the sausage gets made, brother? We'll look like Mr. Bean and will be voiced by Coleman Domingo. It's going to be something, man. Don't worry about it. All right.

And we're going to be taking a look back at Falcon Moon of Winter Soldier in preparation for Captain America Brave New World. And along with more House of R and Button Mash coming to you next week. Button Mash is going to be talking about the 20th anniversary of the Sims. Fun. Did you play The Sims? No. No. Ever?

No. What were your computer games as a kid? My computer games as a kid was backyard soccer. Yeah. Where in the world? We're in the USA. We're in time. Was Carmen San Diego?

Wait, so that was the point and click when we had to answer trivia questions. Yes. Yes. Yes. That was my jam. That was my jam. And then I think by the last, oh, everybody played this one, the Microsoft pinball. Oh, yeah.

Oh, of course. That was built in. Yeah, come on. One of the best pack-in games ever. You already know. But today, on today's show, we're going to be talking about the state of Marvel animation for TV and a dive into the premiere of your friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man.

So, spoilers for, let's just call it all Spider-Man content and MCU in general. Every single Spider-Man thing that's ever come out. The movies, the TV shows, the comics, anything that has ever been said about Spider-Man ever in the

history of Spider-Man lore, in the history of time, space, from now to the future, will be spoiled. Great. All right. Let's get in there. Okay, your friendly neighborhood, Spider-Man, premiered this week on Disney Plus. This past Wednesday,

dropped a two-episode premiere. This is a soft origin story about Peter Parker, becoming your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and getting his way through high school and social awkwardness. And for most accounts, it seems to have been a fun time. Any caveats or initial reactions from you, Jomey,

before we get into what this show might really be like for us. So initially, and I've talked about this on multiple podcasts, I was not impressed by the look. And I was like, nah, it's not really, it feels like this is 2005, you know, look at the cool graphics and like nothing's moving. It's like eight pixels, whichever it may be. I will say, the show looks better than I thought it would. It does, because no, no, no. You have to understand, brother. I thought we were talking like PS1 visuals.

Roblox love stuff. I thought it was going to be garbage. Sure. Okay. And it's not. I would say, I would even go to say it's passable. Yeah. No, yeah.

No, there are certain spots that I think it doesn't look great. Mm-hmm. And I think it mainly has to do with the more emotion that the show demands. Like, there's a lot of big, they try to do a lot of big fight scenes. There are a lot of, you know, dynamic movements that Spider-Man has and a lot of, like, crazy animations that they try to pull off with the web shooters and all that stuff. There's a lot of things that I think

work with this artistic style, but I think the actual thing that I might have a problem with as far as the show's looks are a bit of a stylistic choice because this obviously wants to invoke a comic book aesthetic. You can see like panels like slicing the frame when two

characters are talking. It's very colorful, very poppy. You see lots of things jump out of the screen at you. A lot of the characters designs are very evocative of the early Jack Kirby illustrations that would come with like original runs of Spider-Man in the 60s. But this also takes place

seemingly in modern day. Kids have cell phones. There's live streaming. You know, Aunt May looks a lot like Marisita May. I don't sound like a problem to me. It's not. But you know, it's not real. Slight problem there. Don't you hate it when Marisita-Tomey's not real?

I hate it when Marisitomei's not real. God. I hate it. I wish Italians were real. I wish Mr. Tomey was real. You can't have everything. I know. I know. We're scrounging in 25.

I just, I think the biggest thing that I've taken away from this in the negative, and then it will go to the positive, because there are good things to talk about here. It just feels a bit stylistically opposed to itself, where seeing Spider-Man, like, live-stream catching criminals, and then Dr. Strange coming out of a portal and he looks like Charles Bronson from the 70s

and everybody is kind of looking like there in the 60s but there's like these modern kids with blue hair and they're driving modern looking cars and things like it's kind of just clashes with itself. Am I making sense here? No, but you're also interesting that you mentioned blue hair. You and the Spider-Man on the same wave, bro. You think it's annoying and woke.

I actually don't. That's what you say. I actually don't think that. The blue hair was the problem. That's your boy. I'm not trying to call out blue-haired liberals on any platform. You just did. No.

You just did. That's your man. I'm just saying if it's more, if it was. Stand up for your man. Stand up for your man. Because it makes, no, because it genuinely made me think that like upon first glance, it was like, oh, this is kind of like a Fantastic Four thing where they're taking like an alternate spin on the 1960s.

The 60s. Jim Crow, interesting. Well, we're going to talk about this when Fantastic Four comes out. Interesting. No, I'm just saying. 60s were positive for who? You and your boy, kind of. Restor Reed Richards, for who?

You and your boy, kind of, you know what I'm saying? Signed a little life. Why, you keep saying my boy? Who's my boy? Your boy, what's his name? Hudson Thames or whatever, his name might be, bro. We won't know it by the end of next week. No, but that's your boy.

You know what I'm saying? He came out. It's like, the show's not annoying and woke. It's like, brother, why did you answer that question like that? Why would you say things like that? Why would you say that? It's tough, too, because there was some highball on the show. I wonder if media training comes out of those actors' pockets sometimes.

People think we're joking about the unwokening, right? It's over. We lost, man. We lost. Now people can go and just be like, yeah, you know, ah, this thing. Are there women in there? It's woke. Oh, my God.

D.E.I. All that nonsense. But, no, I mean, I don't really see where that's at. I think, I mean, I think the dichotomy is very interesting. You know, it has the look of a old, old school comic book panel and whatnot. but it has the feel of 2020, and I think that's fine. Yeah.

I don't see an issue. On paper, and like, again, and still images, this, like, it still looks fantastic. And occasionally it does really look good. I just think, I just feel like the motion of it all sometimes doesn't click.

But I think that's just like, that's probably like the problem in the like the animation. And ultimately, like, I'm fine with that. Because I think the story here is a pretty interesting one. I like the idea of, Peter, while still having a very

soft origin of like, okay, instead of like, bitten by radioactive spider, it's another interdimensional spider. Hold on, hold on. Hold on. I got it. I do, I want to be very clear. I am enjoying this show way more than I thought I would initially. And I can't wait to, you know,

for next week to see the next three episodes. Like, I'm, I think I'm hooked. I think I'm going to finish this two to end. I'm having a good time so far. Coming in with the pre-murtered Uncle Ben, like just inexcusable. Okay, so this is, and I think this is where we're getting into, like, the actual Disney's MCU of it all, where we actually might need to really address Uncle Bad at this point.

So in the MCU, I get it because we've seen that before, right? Like, in Toby and in Andrews, Spider-Man, or Ben Parker gets killed. Like, we get it, right? Right. When he comes to Civil War, we're. We know what happens. You know what I mean? Like, we understand.

So we don't need to see that again how many years later. I feel like it'd be one thing. If he was already dead, he was already Spider-Man. Right. Then I'd be like, okay, cool. I know what happened. For Uncle Ben to be dead and then you get the spotter powers, it's kind of like, where's the great power, great responsibility?

And it's the main, it's the core of his character that he gets the powers. he doesn't save Uncle Ben and then he's like, oh, actually, what I need to do now is be there for everybody like I wasn't there for my uncle. It's like the thing that makes literally...

You kind of actually do need to say with Great PowerFung's great responsibility. Think about it. Across the Spider-Verse, they're going through the web of Destiny, whatever it might be, and they're like, yeah, we all lose our uncle. That's kind of what makes us us.

And we should have used our powers to help them, but we didn't. And that's what makes Spider-Peeples Spider people. This one is just kind of like, ah, Uncle Ben, God, God, it's tough. Ah, thanks, man. You're really hanging out for me. Appreciate you, man. You know, I don't know. Maybe they'll show us later. Maybe, you know, I'm getting to ahead of it. But if you're going to do Spider-Man, I need to see Uncle Ben get the blicky, man. You got to get God. I'm sorry. But this is the opposite

from when we saw Tom Holland's Spider-Man. Like, to be fair, like, we were like, oh, wow, we're so glad that we don't need to go through all of that. Because we know, right? It'd be, again, it'd be one thing of the show was like, he had his powers already, and Uncle Ben died, and he was being Spider-Man, just like it was in Tom Holland version. The show, like, tells us,

sorry about Uncle Ben, and then he gets bit by the spider. It's not the same. Uncle Ben has already pre-murdered. He's in the ground. He is bones with waves. Pre-murdered. At this point.

Like, it's a cooking show. Basically, right? Hey, here you go. Here's your Spider-Man show. Guess what? This is only a half hour show, so we have a dead Uncle Ben already in the other. Uncle Ben's already dead.

Don't even worry about it. Frankly, he has done to do anything. You need have to mention him outside of the whole thing because he has nothing to do with Peter and his Spider-Powder Powers. If you're going to do Spider-Man, you have to at least at the minimum give us the reason why he's doing this. And I feel like we'll get there.

And I think that the treasure of what a show like this could be is probably a Peter that, discovers that on his own and maybe he doesn't need that external push or maybe gets that from a different source? I don't know, man. He's missing class. He's doing like, he's doing typical Peter Parker things without the stuff that makes him Spider-Man,

if that makes sense, right? The reason why he always, he feels like he always needs, like, always needs to go save somebody. At every point, he's sacrificing his life as Peter Parker for his life as Spider-Man is because, man, I didn't save Uncle Ben that one time. That person, they need me.

Like Uncle Ben needed me. They don't have that in this show. It doesn't exist. So I'm kind of like, he's not going to the function, but he's got to save people from the fire. And I'm like, brother, man, like, you haven't earned this, essentially, you know? And so, while, again, I am enjoying the show. When they look at me in the face, I'm like, guess what, guys?

Uncle Ben shot in the face. Guess what? Peter? Pete even had no powers yet, right? We don't need Uncle Ben, get rid of him. I'm kind of like, I feel like you need that. Yeah. You need that.

Let's get to a potential father figure that Pete might have. And one Norman Osborne. Look, Peter. It's actually, Peter. Peter. I got. I'm tripped down Peter. I'm tripped out, Peter. You see his wins, Speedy?

You see me, man? All right. If we see Norman, Norman. I was born in a du rag, bro. Great a show of all time. It's the goat. So elephant in the room. Norman looking a little different.

See? Or that's your man. What do you mean by that? That's your boy. That's the same Norman to me. He's got ways. I know. Same Norman to me.

To me. The comments, I ain't never in. Boy, he trippy, bro. That boy, he got that. I know he'd be like one. He'd be counting his hair strokes every morning, bro. You know what I'm saying? All eight degrees.

reads, you know, on all eight angles, you know what I mean? He got that thing on him. Bro, I'm sure when he, when he go into the office, they're like, hey, we got to, I know you, you know, I'm not as well, we got to take you through, you know, the metal detector. You take that brush out. Sure. Now I mean, he's got that right in his pocket, you feel me? Do you think the cap stays on until the Zoom meeting comes up?

Oh, absolutely. Okay. Until the moment until it's necessary. A moment, brother, as soon as he leave the office, the do rag is on. Right. And it's tight. It's tight. You feel me?

He's got an extra line, like, right up here because it's just right up on. Shout out of Coleman, Domingo, man. Two-time Oscar. Really cool. Two-time Oscar and how many. What are you doing here? Yeah, man, why not? You know what I'm saying?

Sound like a check to me. But, I mean, we only see him twice, right? In the end of the first episode in the beginning or the end of the second episode. Yeah. And I mean, I'm interested to see where it goes because obviously, you know, we're not idiots. You know the Green Goblin. Here's my first initial gripe. And our introduction of that is

a shot for shot remake of our Civil War Tony Stark introduction from Civil War meeting Peter Parker. Hey, hey show, don't piss me off. You're a hater. No, no, no. This is where I'm actually thinking that the MCU might have a problem with not being able

to reference itself all the time. First of all, episode episode one opens with Queens. I understand. It's life for life from Super 4. I understand. And that's why I'm like, do we really have to not be,

do we have to be this cute all the time? So you have to remember that the show originally was supposed to be an origin story for Tom Holland, Spider-Man. So I imagine that they had that stuff in the can and we're like, well, actually, it's not going to be that. But it's cool to reuse, you know what I'm saying?

Recycle some of that stuff. And so remember, even in one of the episodes, they have like kind of an animated shot for shot recreation of him catching the car right that Tony shows him in some of war there's a lot of there's a lot of that stuff in there I thought it was just I thought it was a neat reference

literally like to the tee of you know he sees the fancy car parked out front he's got the DVD player outside and he's just like hey what's like me it was a crazy car outside literally left hand free by all

Jay is playing just invoked when we first saw Peter in the MCU, but instead of Tony Stark sitting on the couch, it's Norman Osborne. Yeah, but it's... I thought that was interesting. But it feels like a one foot in, one foot out type of comparison, knowing that this actually isn't the origin for Tom Holland Spider-Man

and that this is something new, but also, hey, we are here to, like, show you this visual reference of a thing that clearly is known and beloved because you think that you can't remember. Like, I don't want to seem like I'm hating it too much, It was an annoyance to me. It's a reference. It's a reference.

I understand, but again, it's, I'm throwing it on the pile of the millions of things that the MCU just can't seem to get over of the fact that when it was better than when it is now. I mean, it's fine, man. You're not referencing Captain Marvel. You're not referencing Shang-chi. You're not referencing any of the things that came from phase bore. I never seen, it came from Civil War. I never seen Spider-Man and Shang-Chi interact, so I don't know why I would do that.

And wouldn't you love to? You know what I mean? Also, just not think about this. We haven't seen Shok Chy in 100 years. Yeah. Where's that guy? We haven't seen it. You know what?

Here's what we got before seeing Shanchi twice. GTA 6 and that statue that's in the middle of the ocean from the turtles. No post credit scenes. It's tough, man. Yeah. It's tough. You hate to see it. But no, man.

No, you're doing too much, my man. It was cool, bro. like he saves Harry beginning of episode one and then like Norman show up it's cool yeah man I think and I'll say something positive

because again I do like the show I do enjoy it I love that PD is just being a kid at school for the most part that's the kind of stuff I loved I talked about this before but the reason why it's spectacular Spider-Man

of all the adaptations at least that's come out in this century is really good to me is because Peter was like going through it you know what I mean with in regards to his schooling the internship with Kirk Connors and then like

with the myriad of women that were throwing themselves at his feet Liz Allen, Gwen Stacy Oh yeah Mary Jane you know I mean I mean these first two episodes he's trying to pull up on his old babysitter you know I mean

Wild listen he is shooter Look again I need my Peter to be a shooter. Okay, what's this? Hmm. I want to navigate this. Okay, no, no, no, go for it, man. I want to navigate this. Walking because your boy just said, was talking crazy. Did you get, did you get into, like,

did you know, did you personally know at school your own personal babysitter? No. Okay. No, I had a big sister. I didn't, I had no need for a Okay. I don't need for a baby. So it's a moot point there. Yeah. Like, I would, when I was young, because I was the oldest, like, my babysitter was like in high school when I was like, eight, nine. Like that's, but like, no way is she like only three years older than me.

At that point, I'm just staying home by myself. Well, because remember, it was, it was, they were just being like, listen, uh, data, like, he's 11 and a half. She's 14, but it's really just like, you want to be safe, you know what I was, it was funny when that she's like, did they pay her? It's like, okay, yeah, they did pay her. Yeah, brother. You're, you, yeah, come on, man. Let's, let's lock it. But no, I thought that was cute.

That was cute, you know. Shout out Nico, right? If y'all were locked in, because, see, y'all don't want to be locked in. Runaways. Yeah? No? Just me? Yeah, just you.

You know, come on, man. You're fine. You're hating, man. You're fine. This episode is brought to you by Spectrum Business. Fast, reliable Internet means everything for your business. And even this podcast, that's why I trust Spectrum Business. It keep companies of all sizes connected with Internet.

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This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L. Every year after, The Love Hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Low burns. Second chances.

Chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Hey, let's review the opening theme song for the show. World's Tiny's violin. That line didn't do it for you. That didn't cook? So here's the thing, right? Sample's crazy.

Sample is hard. Not really? No, I'm kind of sick of the Spider-Man Sample. No, no, no, no. It was cool. Like, when I first heard, I'm like, sure. I'm like, okay. I see the vision. And then you

How many bars in? Was it the world's ball's violin line? That would, no, no, that was when that broke me. Yeah, sure, sure. Because it kind of, it starts off, okay, the sample. All the lyrics, this is a kid show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. World's tiny violin.

All right, man. Skip. See, and here's the thing, I was, Skip intro. That's the thing, I didn't get that button the first time, and I was like, all right, I'm like, oh, right, I'm like, oh, boy. It's not, it's not where you want to be.

But they're doing that cool thing where they have like the upper those upper panels of like the Marvel logo that used to come in the old 60s cartoons with like a bunch of different Spider-Man costumes which was really great

I think the storyboarding and all of this vision that they're trying to push forward on a budget that they clearly don't have. I respect. I truly do. I think the show shows promise and if anything it's just a fun time that we get to have adventure

with Pete again and see what Norman Osborne's up to and see what trouble Harry's getting into. Is Harry going to be a dickhead in this? Gotta be. I mean, maybe. Because here's the thing. Even the perceived dickhead to Pete is just a stand-up guy.

Oh, Lonnie Lincoln, shout on Lonnie, man. Lottie Lincoln, solid dude. He deserves speaking Spider-Man. It's going to go bad for him. Yeah, no, no. I fear he's going to get packed the hell up. It's, ah, I mean, do you know, I mean, you know who, I mean, you know who, I mean, you know who Lani,

is in the comics. Vaguely. I'm just going to say that things might not go well for him because most people in Peter Parker's life don't get exactly the long straw. That's true. I mean, yeah, no, he is somebody that because when they, first of all,

and this is how I know that little, we got to stop bringing him up. That's why I know he wouldn't pay no attention. Because when he comes to the, when it goes from Peter's point of view to Lonnie's point of view. Oh, yeah. And I got that boy going through Gotha City.

Right. I was like, what? Tough. No, it's, no, it's crazy. It's, you hear like the glass break and then kids just giggling and running across the street. You know what the fuck? Where are you living? I've only been to New York once, Tom.

You know what I mean? And even then, like, you know, it was cool. And then you come inside. It's like, hey, mom, hey, dad. How's it going? I don't know what neighborhood he was out. It was acting like he was out there in the slums. It was crazy.

I was like, yo, chill up my boy. I know you want to show off that, you know, he live in a tough neighborhood. He's got the leatherman jacket on. Yeah, it's not all. It's not a lot of good at home, you know what I mean? Like, oh, I can fix the carburetor. We might save some money. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand.

Like, you're acting like you're not in the purge outside. Yeah, I get it. But you ain't got to act like it's freaking, like you've sought off part of the island and sent them off. Like, it's lawless out there, bro. Like, all right. Let's calm down. Jesus. What do you think about the characters that came into the Oscorp lab?

Oh. Citizens of Wakanda. Yeah, right? I mean, I heard her talking. I was like, yeah, that's not like, that's not Wakanda to me. They had Almadaeus Cho. Mm-hmm. If y'all know.

You know. You know. And then a random person who I can't remember right now. Right. But, I mean, and this is part of like the charm of the show is, like, how awkward Peter is. They got that scene where they're all watching the fire. on TV and he's like, I love fire.

Idiot. Why would you say that? Why would you say that? Why would you say that? And then comes back, he's like, I gotta go. Peter Parker, deuces. They're looking at him crazy. And I'm like, that's kind of funny. No, there's a little bit of, you know, charm to Peter, you know? Like, he's not getting shoved in the lockers

and getting his head dunked into toilets and stuff, but he's still kind of a loser. Yeah. And so, like, watching him navigate that world is, is, fun and interesting. I think so far, the show's in a good job of showing how he can be the goofball, the silly person that we all know and love, quite frankly, but also being somebody that is heartfelt and has that emotional core to him. I think that's ultimately the thing that the show needs to get right. And it seems like it's going to be doing a pretty good job of it. Like, I'm by no

means. I'm very, very glad that this was as enjoyable as it was, because when we've first laid our eyes on it, we're like, absolutely not. Yeah, no shout out. It's like, brother, this is not, this is not for me. This is not for the people. But yeah, I think it's, I think it's coming together. I can't wait to see how, you know, his relationship with Nico goes on. I wonder if, like, Nico gets her powers, you know?

I don't know, but I like to see that. The interesting, a lot of things are on the board here for things to happen around Peter. And I don't know what the exact. reason is for like making that character Nico if you're not going to give them their powers right because you could have used... And that's my fear really because they have a lot of things that they're just like circling the wagons on in these first two episodes granted it's just the first two episodes but like

you kind of want to deliver on some of those things if you just put them in there. We know that Charlie Cox is coming back as Daredevil. Correct. Right and there's there's probably going to be the kingpin and a whole bunch of characters that we've know in the MCU coming back and so yeah you wouldn't you could have just cast that could have been

Betty Brandt you know what I mean that could have been Liz Allen it could have been any anybody you know of of Peter's love interest but to put Nico in there or maybe you know what maybe I'm not woke as things I want to be oh maybe they are just friends you know what I'm saying maybe it's just home me hey

you feel me that's cool that's cool you know I'm saying man and women can be friends okay it's 2025 wow Wow, really progressive coming out. It's not really progressive. That's not really a bold stance. That's not a bold stance. I think everybody should have that stance.

Uh-huh. You know what I'm saying? Not everything. What else do you want to claim here in 2025? 2025. I want to claim blessings. I want to claim. Turning Ls into lessons.

You know what I mean? Nah, but yeah, I just think it's, you cast a runaway. I hope that we see her get her powers or they fight crime together or something or some sort. Yeah, but this seems like a show chalk full of. characters that you can throw in and out, you know, again, Stephen Strange shows up for like one scene and give Peter's powers and that's it, you know? You can have that going in and out of the show. But to make Nico a main character, I feel like they did that for a reason. So I'm interested to see how that goes, whether it's romantically or she's just getting her powers and we'll see what it looks like. But I would like to see it. I'm glad to stick with it. And I'm very excited to see what might happen. Maybe we get. another Dr. Strange cameo where he looks really goofy. He doesn't look goofy. You hate him,

that's the old school, man. I know, I like it. I kind of don't like it, though, because you hate it. But it's just like, have a hard time breaking the shields of the sarafim. This sticks it right there. But I thought it was cool. Howby's like, yo, cast that guy and he caught that guy. Then he was like, oh, make sure everybody else is

cool. I don't understand what that spider means. It's not a radio after spider. also where did it come from it came from the symbiote yeah but you know what I'm saying

but it had to have been like hanging on a ceiling coming down into the I don't know I don't know who knows I mean that they have to tie that back here picking some real nits here but yeah I mean they gotta tie that again

because you know the the story because we know the story of Peter Paupeer Parker got the spider of course it's a tale is old as time right they go on a failed trip he you know finds his way into a radio actor's battle lab. He gets bit.

Oh yeah. And then he starts shooting webs on his butt. No. But, man, that'd be great. That would be disgusting. If he was shooting webs from his butt...

But guess what? Bold artistic choice. If he was shooting webs from his butt, I'm team JJ Jameson, bro. He's a menace. Lock me, yeah, brother.

That's a real menace. Get that guy off the streets, man. Get that guy off the streets. Uh, no. But there's, if you're going to change it up,

there has to be a reason why he changed it up. Sure. You can't just change it up for Vy, or we kind of felt like this. Again, in the first Spiterverse movie, he gets bit by the Spiter in the Little Tunnel, and we find out, and the Spiter, like, cracks, find out Spiders not meant for him.

It's meant for... You're a mistake. You're a mistake, exactly. It's meant for the other Mons Morales. It's not him, right? And if we're going to change up the origin like that, I would love to see a reason why that was, and not just because we want to get Dr. Strains in there

blowing up midtown high. It's fun, though. Using the time stone? Or the I have Agamato? I mean, it had to be the timestone, right? Because it was green. Yeah. You know, interesting that they haven't,

Thanos didn't snap y'all away right there. That's good. Again, if I got to see Thanos one more time, what does Thanos look like in this dimension? I don't want to know. Oh, I do not want to know. No, man to say. That's the last thing I want to see, brother.

Nah. Probably just looks like a 1960s football player. Nah, I don't want to be there. I don't want to be there. All right. Well, another place that I want to be, a bit of an armchair CEO exercise or at least some analysis

or tea leaf reading into what's coming up for Marvel animation on the television front. And, you know, this is a harbinger of better things to come? I don't know. Steve, tell the people what's coming up on the Marvel.

So we've got Eyes of Wakanda, Marvel Zombies. We just finished the final season of What If? Oh, no. All right. Don't be too sad. I'm devastated. You can tell him my voice.

I'm just, I'm super hurt. What did you feel about Captain Carter being the linchpin of the entire what-if verse? So, you could have pleaded the fifth there. I would have let you. Here's the thing, man. We talk about industry plants.

Kevin Carter's not an industry plan. Brother man, nah, they was wild. Nah, you got to know one to hold them. You got to know when to hold them. You got to know when to walk away. You got to know when to run. I don't think we need to walk away from Captain Parker. Maybe just like, you know, let us miss her.

Here's the thing, right. Most boring episode of the first season, obviously. You want to talk about, like, going word from word, like MCU? That was the first episode of what if, right? Cool. All right, we move past that. Right. It's great.

Oh, we're bringing her again? Ah. Nah. Ah. Oh, we're basing the whole thing around her. Ah. Here's what it is, if I'm being completely serious. It's like when you choose the wrong guy to build your franchise around, you know what I mean?

It's like when you have, it's like if you, imagine if you had Russ, KD, and Hardin at the same time. Right. And you choose Russ. You know what I mean? It's like, ah, not somebody, not a terrible. Would you have chosen Russ at any point? No shot. KD was obviously the man over there.

I mean, let's not get too deep into the B ball talk right now. Right, right, right. But it was really like a $5 million difference, right? The only thing was, OKC, they didn't want to play the luxury tax, right, for Hardin. So they shipped them off to Houston. And oh, you'll never, he became an all-star, an MVP candidate, brandy, one of the best guys in the league. Oh, yeah. But that just kind of happens.

And you got to make a choice, right? Well, I guess in that specific scenario, they didn't have to make a specific choice. But I'm just saying, if all the characters, you could have, like, Like centered what if around. Captain Carter, yeah, probably not the one he would have done a one.

We're talking about season three in general. I think it's a little bit overhated, honestly. I thought it was like, I thought it was fine. Right.

Yeah, it's just at that point when you, when you're not as creative as you thought you were and you have to now, what, put down like eight new episodes.

I thought some of them were fine. Some of them were like funny but unsirited. Like the Birdie episode. Yeah. It's just like, all right,

like this is funny, but like, there's way more stuff we could have been doing here, you know. Yeah, and then the watcher and kept, you know, kept the car to despair and watchers like, oh, no, my home girl. I'm like, yeah, bro. There were like, again, you talk about infinite possibilities. There are infinite characters you could have chosen.

We really got to get you doing the Midnight Manifest more often. No. Nah. Nah. You know what? I think we do the Midnight Manifest more so to make sure that Charles watched the thing. That's why we do it. But no, here's the thing.

I think with friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and then the things that seem to be coming out for the 2025 slate, of the things that I'm most excited for is Eyes of Wakanda, because of the still images that we've gotten in publications, and of the very small snippet that we got at a screening event for X-Men 97 back in the day,

that was incredibly exciting to see. That had some real, like, I wouldn't say like arcane levels of, like, art direction or, you know, money on screen, but it definitely has a distinct vision that looks like it's something that's a lot more elevated than the things that we've been getting before. And I'm curious as to whether or not we can actually like maybe look to pivot more towards things like that and maybe have it offset the fact that we're kind of like bleeding money

in the MCU TV space with, you know, the agathos of the world, with the you know, Wonder Man's, we've got a bunch of other things that are coming down the pipeline that don't necessarily feel essential. We have Daredevil, and that's obviously going to be a fan favorite. But I would really personally like to see a lot more of funds diverted to animation because of the fact that we have so many good possibilities here. Like, we have Marvel Zombies that I'm actually quite excited for, too. What do you think, Jomey? I would enjoy to see more of this stuff.

We talk about it for the DC Universe. a lot, but part of the thing that makes these worlds so fun and so interesting is that you can access them at any point, right? You can turn on TV and see these characters, whether it's, you know, Teen Titans or Young Justice, and then go to the movies and see Batman. You know what I mean? Like, just having that plethora of options to enjoy these things outside of comics, you know, was really the fun. And it's been a minute for Marvel. Some would say, like, I mean, I remember Avengers Earth's Mighty's Heroes

No, that was gas Way back when Bro, oh, whoa I wasn't outside By the man Being inside watching the movie Disney Plus right now There's two seasons

Lock yourself in Okay Now Avengers Assemble That's a little That's not where it is That's not where it is All right You know what I mean

Like ah But they used to They used to have The stuff more regularly So the fact that we're We're getting all the way back in To this stuff You know

I'm never gonna complain about honestly. But yeah, you always want to see more resources diverted to this stuff because it's fun. I love talking about it. I love watching it. I do think eyes of Wakanda, you know, could be something interesting, could be something. I don't want to say special because we're only seeing like, you know, again, barely any snippets. And that was what?

2023. Yeah. Right? It's been a hot minute. Zombies, it's a little different because I like the zombie episode. Mm-hmm. in What If? I thought of season two

that was probably one of the better episodes but it is still got the what if look on it This is my counterpoint counterpoint actual continuing story

throughout a season of television that I actually am down for Yes If it's not some sort of like episodic weird story of the week in what if land but instead

let's tell a Marvel Zombies story for a season of television Dog. I'm up for that. The series features an ensemble cast, including Aquafina. Let's go. David Harbor. Simul Lou, yeah, he's back, baby.

Christ alive, we just wondered where the hell. Elizabeth Olson, Randall Park, Florence Pew, Haley Steinfeld, Dominic Thorne, and Imon Valani. Yeah, man, look at A. We're here. Quick sidebar. Do you think if they... if Shang-chi took the Iron Fist place in Marvel Rivals, do you think that we'd be more or less excited to get more properties from him? Not only would we be less excited, people would...

Would actively choose to cancel Shang-Chi, too. Brother man, dude, they would have never made another show of the Shang-Chi movie. Because the way people be talking about Iron Fist and Marvel Rivals, bro, I'm one of... When you get... I'm a head... When you get beat down by the most brain-dead character. Dog.

Bro, I was watching this TikTok that was explaining, like, his move set, whatever. And I just saw him, like, go up a building. Fly through the sky. How can he fly? Why is he flying? Why is he flying? Rocket can't fly.

He's punching Thor in the air. Like, what do we do? He beat up a storm and Iron Man. I'm like, what? Huh? What do you call? Adam Warlock can't fly, but Iron Fist can fly? What happened to the game?

It's that Willem Defoe Revenant thing where he's just looking up and he's like, eh. I don't understand. I'm like, yo, get his, you ain't got to just, all you got to do is plus right trigger as, as you, you close to anybody. Any DPS is over. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. You're dead. Brother man, iron fist, they talk about Scarlet Witch being easy to play, you know, Moon night means, you know, you all, y'all know where I'm at, easy to play. All right, you're thin ice, buddy.

Fin ice. I infist, I'm saying, Moon Knight is simple. Like, it's not, all you got to do is aim at the unc. But nobody's, nobody's brain dead enough for Iron Fist. Iron Fist, brother, you could put that in the hands of a Tiro baby. They'll get three kills, I promise you. Yeah. I promise you.

It's nasty. So I, and another great thing for Marvel to capitalize on is the hate that Marvel rivals is spune up. It's the hottest game going right now. Everybody's playing it. And if some, and if, listen, here's the thing. If Oscar Isaac has it said, the moon haunts you. Yo, come on. Gasoline.

Gasoline. We need somebody. We need to cast Luna Snow in Canon. That would be great. And so somebody can somebody. So she's like ice skating. Ice skating. And somebody can be like.

I'm ready to put on a show. To know that people could demand a cloak and dagger show now? Well, all right. Let's slow down. Too much different. Calamatee. Bro. We had a cloak and dagger show.

Nobody watched it. It did get a couple. It got like, what, three? seasons or something like that? It did? Two seasons. Two seasons. Yeah, yeah, two seasons. All right, well. They were there, okay, they were on the third season of the runaways. They was... Correct. They were. Yeah, y'all wasn't locked in, man.

Shout out Aubrey Joseph and Olivia Holt. You know what I mean? Tough times. I know we're deep in a rival stock. We'll get back tomorrow of animation a second. But can't believe that people are like, man, are cloak and dagger brother and sister? Yeah. Man. See, media

literacy's in the dirt right now, bro. They spend the whole game like, man, I can't live without you. Open up the schools. Man, if something that happened to you, I would literally die. Like, man, these, wow, these siblings are great. I'm sure, like, they were watching Searcy and an old boy. Right. And Game of Thrones are like, man, look at these, look at these siblings.

They're so great. It's awesome. Mm-hmm. Meanwhile, Sue Stormstock is going through the roof right now. Is it? Yeah. We were locked in? Yeah.

Oh. And y'all y'all are horny That's what it is I mean It's the internet man What are you gonna do Couldn't even deny it

What are you gonna do? I'm not even seeing Again we'll get back To get back to it Last thing Right I'm not even seeing Sue Stone

That's why I'm like huh All I see is Mr. Fantastic Get in big And then it's It's the It's the Travis Scott song And he's putting up the The Ford

Putting up his set Don't upset. That's funny. Back to Marvel animation. Yes. So if we were to get, oh, man, listen. Like, honestly, right for the picking for, like, the 2026 slate. But, again, I feel like this is more so the soft resetting of the correction of the house that is the MCU.

I think friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, we could, like, again, too close to call at the moment. But, like, we're in the positive. Yeah, we're definitely in the positive. I mean, the show's coming back for two more seasons. For sure. Yeah, it's renewed for season two and three. Crazy that they're greenlighting this before they greenlight any other live action show off-rip. I mean, that's fine.

But that's Disney's milieu anyway. Well, I also, I would like for them to get ahead of this stuff because what I don't want is an invisible situation. When a season come out. Yeah, correct. That'll be 800 years before the second part of the second season. That'll great. I got you guys enjoyed season one. Guess what?

You won't get season two until 2975. Yes. Right? So I'm glad that they're already. they've already seen enough promise from the show. And then obviously the elephant in the room is X-Men 97, season two. I mean, they're working on that right now. And they are, and that's coming out quite soon.

Well, not quite soon, but still. Knowing that that's ultimately, you know, the pie in the sky, we want every animated show to be like that. Yeah. But we can't because those things take time. Those things take a lot of cooks and creative minds in the kitchen. Yeah. I think that we could find a happy middle ground here.

And I think that that's kind of slightly being neglected a little bit. I'm very excited to see what Marvel Zombies can bring. I'm excited to see what this current show can bring. But I think that not losing the sight on the ball for all of these all-encompassing MCU live action shows that cost insane amounts of money that seem to want to, you know, push things more towards the films anyway. I understand that it's a big equity ad for Disney Plus in general. and that's the things that bring in subscribers or might not, given the ratings, but I think that the idea can still stand

that we can have new and exciting and good quality animated shows that bring in eyes while also being a good entry level to what the MCU is now, which is just kind of being like, all right, we got to lead up to Doomsday, got to lead up to Secret Wars,

got to lead up to... These shows don't do that, though. I know, they don't, and I like that. That's the feature, not the bug. Yeah, you don't need to. the shows to, to, like, add to the canon as much, you know, they can live kind of on their own little corner and we can come in and out and have our fun. I don't think that's why I'm glad that the show was friendly neighbored Spider-Man

was not just like an origin story for Tom Holland Spider-Man. You know, you can tell your own story and kind of build that world out without the constraints of, oh, well, he has to go to Germany in this bar and he has to do this and that and which and whatever, you can just kind of make it up, not like as you go, but you can kind of like and make a story. Yeah, you could fit into a lot more different spaces in those stories.

Exactly. So I'm, I'm cool with it. I wish they were making more stuff, but, you know, I know what the game is right now. You know, like I'm looking at the old Marvel animation studio and we had like Wolverine and the X-Men,

Iron Man, Armid Adventures. Oh, I mean, you're talking about. Classics. You know what I mean? These are all coming out like kind of around the same time whereas, like, they're kind of doing like, one at a time, you know what I'm saying? Which is fine, but, you know, I wish, you know, I'm greedy.

I want more, one at all, you know? And so, yeah, this is, it's going to be a fun time of Marvel animation. I think so far is so good. Again, like you said, X-Men 97 is the crown jewel. But so far, you know, friendly neighbor of Spider-Man, it's been cool. I don't know if you watched IAM Group. That was, that was cute. It was cute, you know.

What if? had moments. That's all I'll say about that. Few and far between, but yes. I don't want to say, and not even few far between. It's just like, yeah, again, we, people have been saying this.

So I watched, I watched it. I didn't have, um, Disney Plus Nigeria. Fun fact, no Disney Plus. Okay. In, in the Lagos. So I had to come back. What was, okay, so this is a perfect thing

to end the show on. What is your Disney Plus equivalent in Nigeria? It was Netflix and it was Young Justice. That's all I did. Oh, okay. So I did that. Ran through three seasons in two weeks. I mean, like, what is Netflix's footprint in Nigeria?

Do you have any, like, Nigerian exclusive programming? Definitely. Does it do they play to that market? No, I mean, it was, I mean, because you know how it goes. There are so many rights stuff in America with, like, you know, Paramount and Universal, like, all this stuff. There was a lot more movies on the Netflix over there. So, like, my brother was watching, like, Spider-Man and all that stuff. Oh, okay.

Like, just like stuff like, oh, this is, oh, shit, we don't have this. Again, Young Justice is something that's on max, right? But it was there on the Netflix. I was like, might as well. I mean, but I always slept two hours a night. Not because I was watching Young Justice, but because the bed was made of rocks. And I couldn't sleep. I was thinking more of just like, what is the, like, Nigerian Rebel Ridge that Netflix might have made for the Nigerian market?

I couldn't tell you. I was watching Young Justice. I was watching, I couldn't tell you. But no, man. Like, I've set this on myriad of pods. I love this animated stuff. I really, really, really, really relish being able to jump into a world and see stuff that we haven't seen before, whether it be characters interacting or just, you know, high level of visuals. And so I want friendly neighborhood Spider-Naboard Spider-Man at work again.

only two episodes, but I think I have, it's the look that worried me. I think I'm past that and he's got to tell a good story now. You know, I think two episodes so far so good, we've got to see where it lands. But for a start, for a start, there are some things that, yeah, kind of like, all right, man, let's be for real. But I'm willing to see where it goes because Spider-Man's one of the most complex and fun characters in comic books canon. And so you want to see that character live up to this full potential show. I'm excited. And I can't wait to see where the next eight episodes go.

One of the future of this character leads us. Couldn't agree more. That's going to do it for us. Nice little short one. Enjoy your weekends, folks. Yeah, it's not another four-hour recording. Hey, we're not doing that. No, we're taking it easy.

All right. We had a great, actually, we had a terrible January. I was put through the meat grinder. I don't know about you guys. I mean, it could have been worse. Let's not think about that. How about that? That's what you've got to be like, hey, yeah, you know.

Let's not entertain those thoughts. Yeah, right. But we appreciate you guys so much. We are produced by the great Jonathan Kerber with additional production by Arjuna Ramgo Pal. Take a look at what's happening on the Ringervverse feed next week. We got more Midnight Boys for you. Recasting Infinity War. We are talking about Falcon Moon's Soldier, revisiting that.

more oh you seem stressed for a second sorry more house of R more button mash more great things coming to you and maybe a couple of surprises in the month of February who's to say Jomey

got any parting words for us thank you mint edition folks shout out all the junior minutes out there we love you we can't wait to see you next time gotta give a shout out to our intrepid producer Mr. Mann the number one guy the ex-man himself

Norman Kremsborn and we will see you guys next time Code of Vibe Baby let me take it for a ride You guys that was... Willow Smith hitting... Bro, dude

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