The Smark Avengers - Vol 3, Ep 45: The Smark Avengers (Minus One) Talk About New Years Resolutions I Guess

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

Happy 2025, True Believers! It's a new year with new possibilities and new opportunities. Jon is unfortunately occupied today so the task falls on the remaining two Smark Avengers to discuss the things they hope to see in the world of comics for 2025. Join Corey and Dylan as they discuss their favorite topics ranging from X-Men, Grant Morrison, and 90's comics while going over their predictions and hopes for the new year!

Most people are like, aw, what? This guy? Five, four, three, two, one. Happy New Year, Dylan. Oh, shit, is it the new year already? Yeah, it's January 3rd. Oh, my God, I've been asleep for three days. Fuck, dude.

What happened? We're a little late slash early, not to break the immersion. What happened? Oh, my God. Have robots taken over the city? You know, but there's been like weird drone sightings over in New Jersey and New York lately? Uh-huh. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's these like drone sightings at night in New Jersey and New York. Apparently, like, some people are saying they're like huge and massive in the United States government has no fucking idea what they are. Yes, they do. Apparently they've been hovering around one of Trump's golf courses there. I don't know, man. We got a guy who, we got a guy who assassinated a CEO of a health insurance company. Yes. The CEO of Enron just got hit in the face of the fucking pie today.

That's not as good as getting shot. No, I'm just saying, like, I, for one, am welcoming the class war. When you said today, you were incorrect because you meant to say a few weeks ago, because it's not the 3rd of January. Yes. You've been asleep for a long time as well. We both just woken up. I'm like Rip Van Winkle. I had a dream.

I was bowling with some giants. And then I woke up with a massive beard and having slept for 50 years. Yes. I mean, we've both been very sleepy recently. So please don't. If we say stuff that might not chronologically make any sense, just please blame that on the sleep. Yeah, blame that on our Rip Van Winkle disease we got going on.

It's a great disease, man. I wouldn't want anybody to get any kind of disease, but if you have to get one, this one's a pretty good one to get. This is the one to get. This is the one. Get there. We get the sleepy disease, you know. Otherwise, no one is being strung out in heroin.

Right? Just doing some. just doing some black tar heroin doing some real fucking bad stuff man yeah that's how you killed Wolverine is that oh yeah drugs why how do they really kill them

I think you guys you guys said drugs was not a good way to kill Wolverine I'm just more fascinated by because like they explain in the comics that like he he drinks and smokes for the taste because his body's repairing itself the entire time but I just like the idea

yeah my favorite parts in the Morrison run was, there's a bit where Cyclops and Wolverine are at a bar drinking. Yeah. Cyclops is going like toe to toe to over Wolverine. And I'm like, dude, he's Wolverine.

Like he, I think he says in the comic, he's like, do you know, Mulverade. Like, I don't get alcohol poisoning. Yeah. That's why I drink, you know. Yeah, that's why I drink in excess. I used to get a really, I obviously understand why you can't put like

cigarettes and stuff in. in comics because you can't glorify that. Yeah. The reason Wolverine smoked cigars is because it doesn't affect him at all. Well, Gambe used to smoke cigarettes all the time. I was like, you know, I get the point. I get why they did it because I remember being like, man, he's cool as hell. He was cool as hell.

You want to be cool? Smoke cigarettes, kids. Spoke cigarettes like Gambit. Listen, I know this isn't cool to say. It's actually the truth. If you smoke cigarettes, people are going to think you're cool. I know it sucks. Cigarettes make you cool.

It's not, I don't agree with it. I don't think it's a good idea. So in the pantheon of tobacco consumption or nicotine consumption, is vaping as cool as smoking cigarettes or no? To me, I think vaping is really stupid. Really? Yeah. I don't want you people who vape. Right, but they're all idiots.

No offense. Some of these people listen to the podcast, so sorry, guys. Guys, listen, I'm sorry you had to hear that, but be more like Wolverine and smoke a cigar. You know what I mean? Yeah, man. Because the thing about, obviously, they're all bad for you, right? Yeah. But if you break it down, you know what's in a cigarette.

It's like nicotine and tar, right? Those are the things in cigarettes. What's in a vape? Just fucking weird-ass chemicals you've never heard of. I'm like, is that better? Well, so I live in Ohio, so it's fine. I'm like, is it? Yeah.

So I live in Ohio now, and we have legalized marijuana for recreational use. And I live across the street. I live across the street from a dispensary. So I'm pretty well stocked at the moment. Right. Now, that shit, work away. That's great. It's good for you.

Makes you feel good. Yeah. No problems, right? But like, what's in a vape? I don't fucking know. nobody knows the whole point of a vaip was to get you to stop smoking and if you've taken up a vap as opposed to smoking

you're not doing it right you know what I mean well everybody so this was the this was the stop smoking portion of the smart Avengers welcome the Smart Avengers by the way my name's Corey and this is Dylan John is not with us today John had to go visit his children

in the insane asylum this week he had him locked away They're totally healthy and fine, by the way. He just can't be bothered raising. No, they get locked away a long time ago, and John goes to see them every so often. And they only have, like, busy than ours, like, every so often, you know, because.

Yeah, they, like, they put him in a room with a bucket of fishheads. Yeah, it's an insane asylum. So, like, you can't just, like, it's not like every week or whatever. It's, like, certain days, whenever they're calm. Visit, that's the time. So you get a phone call. Like, today's a day. Come see them.

They're not moving around not much. So I was like, all right, I'm going to go see them. You know. So. But you're John impersonation. We'll attack this out. Who am I? I'm the kids.

I'll be the, I'll be the worker at the insane asylum. Okay. Are you, are you funny me? Yeah, yeah. Well,

no, I'm going to be, I'm going to be the worker in a insane asylum. You're going to be John. I'm, so I'm turning up. Yeah. I'm going to this.

No, no, I'm calling you to let you know that you can visit your children. Okay. All right. Go ahead. You got to you, you got to do your John voice.

Okay. Okay. Ring, ring, ring, ring. Hello? Hello, sir. This is Frederick from the Shady Sign Mental Institution. All right, mate? Yes, we just wanted to call and let you know if you wanted to see sweet little Sarah and Tiny Tommy that they're pretty well behaved today. They've consumed all of their fish heads, and they've stopped rolling around on the floor. so much.

Oh, that sounds great. I'm going to go right now. And see. We're getting me car. Does John have a car? Does John drive? I don't know. See, he's a man of history.

He's going to visit his kids. Maybe he takes the train. Does the train go that way? So you guys have like a railway system. We don't do that so much here. Well, we, I, um, do what's funny is that both the United

Kingdom and the United States, both to be well known for their train systems. And not to more anymore. In Ireland, it's really bad. It used to be great. You used to be able to go across like the whole country by the train. Now you can't really. You can only go down like the East Coast by train and that's about it, which is not good. Fortunately, I live close to the East Coast, so I'm grand.

I don't know what it's like in the, in mainland. mainland UK, it's probably not great. John would be able to tell you. I don't know if they do a train to the mental institution. I'm not sure. Yeah, there's a stop right outside of it. I've never been. Yeah, it happens when people escape.

That's why it becomes such a problem because they can just have the train. They just get on the train. One of them drives the train and you're like, this is, we should not have allowed this. This is a bad idea. They somehow end up in Azerbaijan. Yeah, I'm like, how do you get the train all the way here? I'm like, well, the channel tunnel. I'm like, all right, fair enough.

The tunnel. Yeah, makes sense. We built a tunnel over to France. Why wouldn't you take it to France and then to the rest of Europe? You know what I mean? You got us there. Oops, that was our fault. You know, that's what Brexit was all the boy, trying to get rid of that.

That's really. Trying to keep people from taking the train to Azerbaijan. Yeah, it's a long way, man. It's a lot of diesel and that's bad for the environment. Well, as you could probably guess, today is kind of a special episode in the sense that it is one of our talk about whatever slash New Year's prediction episodes. I think today's going to be a very special episode. We're off to a grand start.

I hope John was able to say hello to his kids for us. I do too. I really hope that sweet little Sarah and Tiny Tommy are doing well. I haven't seen them in so long, man. I hear they've grown. Well, I would assume so. Thank you. So a couple episodes ago, we did our best deaths episode.

And we talked about, or John, was it John or you who talked about Craven's last hunt? I think John did that. I think was John. Because I knew he was going to talk about that. I knew he was. Yeah. John had some pretty classic choices there because he also did Scourge's last stand. Did he?

Yeah, he did. I don't remember. that's okay I've been drunk for the last three months so don't worry about it I know that's understandable is it

so speaking of Craven the Hunter though the Craven the Hunter movie is finally out it is another in the Sony Spiderverse but not Spider Man movies and we

it comes out on December 13th so it came out a couple of weeks ago we've already seen it yep that Aaron Taylor Johnson looked great For the benefit of this show We're gonna pretend we haven't seen that

Yeah Yeah We don't want to break immersion So anyway I was looking at the Rotten Tomatoes It is sitting at 15% Which is at the same rating That Morbius was at

Good percentage 15% yeah 15 out of 100 Listen man I like my films the way I like my beer 15% So it's at 15% Which is still better than Madam Webb Which I think finished at 11% Overall

We have to do a show where we watch Madam Webb Oh yeah We did a show where I have to watch Morbius We're going to do a show where I have to watch Monterwebeth I mean I think all of us were supposed to watch Morbius But I absolutely didn't

You didn't do it because you're a coward I am a coward Well no I just just like Jared Leno to such an extreme degree I hate Jared Leno I really do. I think he's such a bad actor. I don't know why he's still an actor. I don't understand it.

I think he's a creep. But the brief was to watch Morbius. I watched Morbius. If I had to take that bullet, the least I could have imagined from you, a fellow podcast attendee, you could also take that bullet because we all had to watch that show.

And you didn't. And I felt, honestly, a little bit betrayed by my good friend Corey, who's never let me dine at all, except for all those times you did let me dine. And this time, you let me die because you didn't watch Morvious

whenever I had to go through it. I thought part of the fun was, if I have to go through this pain, you would go through this pain, but share it. You know what I mean? Like a husband whose wife is going through pregnancy. He's like,

I also feel that pain. Punch me in the uterus or wherever I think the uterus is, you know? That happens, right? I think that's what happens. Yeah? I've never been pregnant or been around a pregnant person,

but I assume this is what happens. One would think. Yeah, one would think, and I'm one, I think. So if I had to watch Morbius, like you could have taken that bullet too. I think it was rude. If we're all on the same show, we should all be taking bullets for each other.

It's just all bullets, a lot of guns. You know what I'm talking about. A lot of bullets going on. Yeah, who's shooting the guns? Is it gun gunnys? Morbius is shooting the gun. And he's a terrible shot. He uses his teeth, unless it's the animated series,

and he uses his weird little suck for hands. He uses his hands in the animated series. Well, and they play in the plasma. He sucks to plasma to people. Yeah, but it's totally not blood. No, plasma is different from blood, as we know, because we're both biology majors. So today's episode is a little bit of talk about whatever you want.

We wanted to bring up just Craven the Hunter because we briefly talked about Madam Webb when it came out and how we were like, this doesn't look like it's going to be any good, and it wasn't. And Craven the Hunter didn't look like it was going to be any good, and it wasn't. We don't know if it was or not. Well, I'm just saying if the rotten tomato percentage is at the same level of Morbius, I do not have high hopes. Well, that's the thing. Like I said, I said this to you off Mike a moment ago, but I'm like, you have to take that stuff in a pinch of salt because a lot of people who vote for this stuff are voting in a very biased manner. I don't think everybody that watched Craven the Hunter or Madam Webb is going online and going to IMDB or rotten tomatoes or whatever and give them to a negative rating.

I think a certain amount of people are definitely doing that. and they may be doing that whether or not they've actually seen the film. So I don't want to just take those blanket numbers at face value because I think that's a little bit deceptive. That's all I'm going to say about that. Okay. I think honestly, we have to see the film ourselves to understand how bad it is. It might not be that bad. It might just be people saying it's bad.

You know what I mean? Well, yeah. So if we could move away from Craven the Hunter, because, yeah. I have no interest in discussing it any further. But we can't because we haven't seen it. That's true. I saw something like saying that they wanted Craven to be the villain in one of the upcoming Spider-Man movies, but they couldn't because Sony had already committed to making a Craven the last Hunter movie.

Okay. That's wild to me. Would you be interesting? I call him Craven. the last hunter because of Craven the last hunt, I just realized. There's many more hunters. It does not end with Craven. Would you be interested in seeing Craven as a Spider-Man villain? No, probably not.

Yeah. I feel like the movies they've made, they've already used the main Spider-Man villains. I can't imagine, like, well, Hobgoblin. They haven't used Hyderman? Or Hobgoblin. Or Hobgoblin. I don't know if you're being dismissive about the hobgoblin, but we've talked about this before on the show.

No, no, I just know how intensely you and John feel about the hobgoblin. I'm very big fans of the hobgoblin. And I think a story can be told there for sure because there is already a goblin presence in the Spider-Man universe. You can do a hobgoblin story. Is that your New Year's resolution that you hope to see a hop-goblin announcement, whether it be a standalone movie or a villain in an MCU movie? I don't know because here's the thing.

Obviously, if you've been listening to show for the last 720 episodes that we've done approximately throughout the last 24 years, I am a big carnage fan. I'm a very big carnage fan. This has been well documented. This is on the wiki. We go to the Smart Avengers Wikipedia. page. It's like 80% talking about how much I love coronation.

Crisps. And crisps. Oh, fuck, I love crisps, dude. Love your crisp, man. Dude, if you've, if you ever come over here, I'm going to show you so many crisps, it's going to blow your fucking mind.

You'd be like, oh, dude. Well, if I end up in jungle, well, I told you about jungle gyms in Cincinnati that has like a whole, like, UK food section. When I go there next time,

I'm just going to call you and be like, all right, this is what I'm looking at. Have you been there? Yeah, I've been there twice now. No, I've only been there once. Have you seen like they're, do they have Tato?

Probably. I mean, they quite literally, it's a massive, it's a massive store and like, it's all international food. Here's the thing. Tato is a very Irish thing. Norfolk Sireth doesn't matter.

Tato Crisps are Ireland thing. I don't think they cross over to the UK. So I don't even know if John gets Tato Crisps. Tato Crisp will change your life They're the best They're so good I feel sorry for all the other nations That don't have Tato Crisps

You know what you mean They're the best Yeah So if you go there And you see like Tato Crisps Get them Yeah I mean I told you I'm just gonna call you

When I'm there in the UK section What do I need to get Dylan Tato Crisp Eat done Problem solved I remember I was there I think when I was there No, I've been there twice

Because the first time I was there I remember talking to Steve And being like, hey, what should I get? And he was just like saying Iron Brute Don't get, no, but I tell you what, Iron Brew is nice. It's not the Be All in And Alda although Yeah

I do like Iron Brewery. It is a good, it's a good, it's a good drink But like it's not like that It's not going to change your life too much You know? Fair enough. Anyway, my point was obviously I like carnage

but I love carnage so much that I didn't see the venom film with carnage in it because I like carnage too much do you know what I was just convinced that they wouldn't do a very good job with it and the trailers I've seen

were just not convincing at all and I like Woody Haraldon I would not ever have picked Woody Aralton to be Carnage because he's not that kind of guy. Well, we told the story, like one of our early episodes about how Woody Harrelson's father was a contract killer.

Right. I mean, who's better to play a killer than Woody Harrelson? Well, have you seen that film? There will be carnage. No, probably not. Right. Bingo. So if he's the perfect guy for the role, why are none of us interested in watching that film?

Didn't John watch it, though? Of course, John watches. John watches like a fucking a billion films a year. Yeah, that's a stupid question Because John will watch anything I've learned Of course John watched it John's already watched Craven the Hunter Yeah, he's already seen it

Insane Asylum to talk to us about it He went to, yeah, he went to the movie premiere, he went to the red carpet, and he just showed the security guards his letterbox, and they were like, oh, of course this way, sir. Come on in, sir, you're clearly qualified. He was wearing his Sunday best. and his

Dr. Doe mask I thought he said Dr. Doolittle mask for a second No, that's... He's been riding a snail like Dr. Doolittle? That's very different mask. Wait, the Eddie Murphy won? Because that's...

He should not have been worn that mask. That was inappropriate as hell, man. Yeah, John's a controversial figure. The controversial. I think it's fair to say that out of the three of us, John is definitely the most controversial one. Yeah, he's constantly going. He's constantly going blue.

Pushing the envelope all the time. And I get it, man. Two of his kids are like incarcerated for being criminally and seeing. I understand, you know, he's got the issues. But, you know, it's a bit much sometimes, isn't it? That's true. He's just a bit much. He's just slowed on.

Take it easy, John. Take a couple of deep breaths. Yeah, just do a little bit of heroin, like slow down, you know what you mean? So, anyway. So, Dylan, do you have any other, like, things that, like, comic book related you'd like to see in the year 2025? I would love to see the Beast get a really good redemption arc. Do you think, but so you're not, you don't think that right now, the whole, like, Like, it's beast, but like a clone version of beast from like the 1980s.

Well, the problem is the original beast is dead. Yeah. And so this new clone beast is just like, I'm beast, but I only have these memories. Goodbye. Does that seem satisfactory to you? No, not really. I mean, I kind of hope they do the same thing for Colossus, although I don't necessarily believe Colossus has anything to be like apologetic for.

What's Colossus? He hit this thing with like his brother, right? Yeah, yeah. So what happened was there was a mutant who had the ability to basically alter reality by writing. So his brother, Mikhail had captured this man and was basically telling him like, you're going to take control of my brother. And he's going to be our spy in Crocoa. So like, because he's Colossus and people know to trust him, he got put on the quiet council. and basically he was a spy and an informant for his brother. And when it got revealed, like, it was like a big to-do. And it was like, I mean, that's not his fault.

I mean, literally, he had no control over the situation. But people are like, oh, you know, like there needs to be, Colossus has to redeem himself in some manner. And it's like, why? He didn't do shit. Like, he had like a girlfriend that he ended up killing because his brother had him kill his girlfriend. You know? He kills his own girlfriend? Yeah.

There was just some... She was like... I don't think she was a named character for the most part. She kind of existed to be Colossus' girlfriend and to show, like, the depths to which his brother had control over him, had him break her neck and then bury her body. Mm-hmm. Because what they're really teasing is they keep teasing the...

Colossus had a relationship with Domino in an X-Force book a couple of years ago. So they kind of keep going back. to like teasing Colossus and Domino as a couple. Colossus and Domino? Yeah, yeah. I don't know if I like that. It was sort of like he needed her to kind of like get him out of his shell, so to speak. Wasn't he already out of his shell?

Well, I mean, so what had happened? So this happened as part of the Phoenix Force Five story where he was one of the people who got possessed by the Phoenix. and as a result, he couldn't control his power anymore. So he was constantly in a state of flux shifting in and out of steel. And because he was wanted as a war criminal for being one of the Phoenix Force 5, he ended up joining Cable and his team of X-Force, which I think was Dr. Nemesis, forge, Cable, Domino, and Colossus. There might have been another character, I can't remember, though.

Okay. It wasn't a bad, it wasn't a bad series. I remember enjoying it. Seems a bit weird. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, your hopes is for a redemption storyline for Beast. Well, I mean, I just plucked out of thin air, really, you know? Yeah.

Well, I know that right now he's a prominent part of the X-Men book that Stegman's on. That's the Cyclopsled book. And he's kind of a prominent character in that. Because, like, they had like a, they had a nice little scene where they were talking. talking about how he's having to reteach himself how to use things because technology has advanced since his memory was implanted. 1984. Yeah.

So he's having to learn how to use smartphones and shit. I guess, man. Like, I'm sure there's good stuff to tell in that story, but I just, you know, I just wish they hadn't done B's so bad. Yeah,

I feel you. I feel it's just not cool. You know, but like there's a bunch of stuff, man. I haven't really thought about it too much. I probably should have because I knew this podcast is going to happen. But I wish that Spider-Man would be good again. Not a fan of what they're doing with Spider-Man?

I haven't been interested in Spider-Man for a long time. You're not feeling the Mary Jane and Paul stuff? No, I don't like any of that. I don't like the Ben Roddy stuff. I don't like the Green Goblin stuff. I don't like any of this. This isn't... Nobody likes the fall storyline.

None of this is like good Spider-Man stuff. You know what you mean? It's just not fun. I don't like it. Just like tell a good Spider-Man story. Why is this so hard? Marvel, please, reach out to me or I'll reach out to you. They just send me your email.

I'll write you a great Spider-Man story because I'm fucking great. You've heard our stories. You've heard our pitches. You've heard how we can kill people. We're really good at this. We know comics. I can write like an incredible

Spider-Man story that will make people so interested and so like, wow, look at this. Wow, Spider-Man is cool again.

Instead of all this fucking dick in the wrong that they're doing, I don't know, man, it's just, it's just, it's,

Spider-Man and the X-Men have always been like my two favorites and there's been a long time when I've been reading Spider-Man, and I'm like, why is this my favorite?

Do you know what I mean? Like, And it's so funny because they came in with the clone saga where everybody said this sucked. I'm like, well, write something better than this. A lot of the stuff that's come out after the clone saga has not been as fun or interesting. You know? And what's up for that? One of the things I don't like it with Spider-Man is when it gets too grand.

They lose a lot of the focus of Spider-Man. It gets too otherworlding. or too, like, grandiose. And I'm like, well, we're just, you're talking about Spider-Man here. He's a low-level guy. Yeah. You know, let's keep it grinding.

Let's keep it fun. He doesn't have to fight space aliens or people from another dimension. See, that's a thing for me. It bothers me sometimes, like, you know, Batman's a member of the Justice League right now. Actually, they're doing with DC is like everyone's a member of the Justice League. So they're doing like the... Are we a member of the Justice League?

Good to be. I don't want to... It's too much responsibility. possibility. I don't want to do that. We could do on satellite duty, you know, and just go up and watch much monitors. Seems like a lot of effort. I don't want to have to commit myself. I mean, it's in a space station.

I don't want to go to space. Why don't you want to go to space? Why the fuck would I go to space? I'll lose an inch of my height. And I can't lose any more height, Corey. So you would go from six out of seven appleside to six applesae? I would lose an apple at least.

If we would turn apples. Is that like going up and going down? Am I going to lose two apples? I don't know. No, I don't know. I don't know. I don't want to do it. But yeah, to kind of go back, it is weird, like,

whenever, like, Batman is, like, doing these interstellar threats, but then it's, like, having issues, like, solving a murder in Gotham and Detective Comics. I think that, too.

Like, I always wonder why they do these big, grandiose things with Batman to show that he's, like, a big player. But then, like, all of his stuff in Gotham is just, like, street thugs and stuff.

I'm like, well, shouldn't he just be that guy? That's what Batman is. It's like when you see Spider-Man on the Avengers, I get it, but you're like, why? Yeah, yeah. He doesn't need to do this. It's nice to say, oh, Spider-Man's on the Avengers,

like, as a bit in the story. But, like, as a character, Spider-Man does his job fucking exceptionally well. See me a Daredevil. Daredevil doesn't need to be part of the Avengers. Well, he's never really, but he's never part of the event. Because he doesn't have to be.

He's daredevil. Everybody knows what he does. Beets up fucking criminals. That's what he does. You don't have to get complicated with it. I feel like that should happen with Wolverine. Wolverine was just an Axeman. And then he was like fucking everywhere.

And it got really complicated. And then you're like, well, what's going on here? They're kind of doing that right now with Storm or Storm is a member of the Avengers. But they also have the foresight to go that she's not on any of the X-Men teams. Also, I think they've made her and Wolverine a pair again. Oh, I don't know why I like that. Yeah, they pair them up quite frequently.

Don't like it. Why? Why? I don't know. I mean, well, Gail Simone has kind of been like, kind of doing a lot of, like, flirty kind of stuff with basically Wolverine and everyone. Yeah, well, that's Gail Simone, that was them. Yeah, absolutely. If you've ever read Secret Six, you would know that. That was basically just six characters and a constant orgy.

Everybody's fucking everybody in a Gil-Simon book. Let's go for it. Yeah, birds of prey, you know. Dude, it's what happens, man. It's a risk you're going to take. If you're going to Gil-Simone book, you're going to get ticked at some point. Write that one down. That's a shirt right there. Yeah, but send that to Gil-Simon.

we'll send her Gail we'll send you a free shirt she's gonna fucking love it if I know her at all she probably would actually I don't think dude I think she'd be like well you guys are massagenetic assholes I'm like oh well

and then cease and desist and we have to take her name off the shirt we didn't put her name on the shirt I thought we were putting her name on the shirt I thought that was just that quote I did well i mean i thought the shirt said if you're in a gale simone book you're going to get dicked but that's true though well that's what i'm saying but i think she might have a problem with us

putting her name on a shirt right but we can't just take her name off it because then it wouldn't make any sense so we would just have to take off the whole shirt it would we would just say in a blank book you're going to get dicked and that doesn't make any sense it doesn't make any sense it doesn't make anything feel it in yourself what you could just fill it in yourself like whatever book you want to put Grant Morris book, he could be a dick? Well, I mean, if you read his, if you read Grant's Green Lantern run, that was one of the things. Grant was like going like, Grant, like, Hal Jordan should be pansexual, right?

And D.C. was like, what? And he's like, Grant was like, yeah, I mean, you know, Hal Jordan's in space around aliens all the time. Who's to say that the aliens prescribed to our binary gender, you know, roles? So technically, if Hal Jordan's fucking aliens, howl Jordan would be pansexual. sexual, right? And DC was not happy with that. Right, but I would say, if you look at the history, Grapp Morrison explaining his ideas to every major comic company, they will say,

we don't like these ideas. You know what I mean? But you sell a lot of books, so by all means. Yes, he did, but at the same time, they could still be like, I don't want you dick and everybody, you know. that is Gil Timoan knows what I'm talking about can't dick everybody no

that one in the shirt too can't tick everybody can't take everybody so yeah you could certainly try so I guess that's going to be my resolution is that Grant gets another DC or Marvel book

who would you like to see Grant Morrison actually like running so we've seen him do X-Men and we've talked about the X-Men run extensively. And I would love to do a deep dive on that because that's one of my favorite comic runs of all time. I read that like every year. You know, I was wondering if we should get more

into doing like not necessarily reviews, but like retrospects on stuff. We've kind of done it before like we did death of Superman and nightfall and stuff but maybe something a little more interactive. I don't know. I would love to just talk with that grandma or some because I fucking love it. So another New Year's resolution, I would like to see, I'd like to see D.C. do some more with their 90s characters than they have been, like Kyle Rainer and Tim Drake and Connor Kent

and stuff, because I feel like that is that wave of like 90s nostalgia going on. Who is Connor Kent? Connor Kent. Connor is a clone. We talked about him in the Death Superman episode. He's the Superboy, the clone of. of Superman that's like 16 years old

Oh dude I was reading a thing about Somebody today Do you ever see like on YouTube They do reels and like shorts and stuff Yeah And they did a short about a character Oh what was his name

He was like Buried underneath the jail for like A hundred years or whatever And then Superman broke him out And then Oh yeah yeah yeah Yeah the chained, I think, or unchained, something like that.

Like, Samuel. It was in the most recent Superman run. Is it really recent? Okay, cool. Yeah, very recent. The way they were talking about it, but they said that, that, what happened was Lex Luther in his prime or whatever had given this guy, like, telepathic telekinesis powers. Yeah.

They were, like, way too intense. So they locked him up in prison. And then it turned out that the powers they gave him, they ended up getting it. given like a limited version of that to that Superman, Superboy, right? Yeah. Yep. But that's how I know that guy. Because I'm like, I just learned about that fucking thing today on the third of January.

Yeah. So, yeah, no, that that was part of that. So that whole run is like Lex Luthor's in jail. And while he's in jail, he's like trying to help Superman like run Metropolis. Like he's like, we need to team up. And like Superman's like not necessarily trusting Lex. But like they rename Lex Corps super core and like so he like suddenly he's like the CEO of this company full of like scientists. But yeah, the unchained guy, he was one of these like ghosts of Lex Luthor's past coming back to haunt him.

So like that was like the recurring theme is all these people that Lex had wronged. And that's why he was sucking up to Superman because he knew this was coming. He's like, there's a Lex Luthor revenge squad on the way, and I need to have Superman stand in the way for me to protect me. But yeah, yeah, Connor. Connor has tactile telekinesis, and that's how he, like, use super strength and stuff because he was basically just making it look like he had Superman's powers.

And then eventually, because Jeff Johns is a fucking weirdo, just decided that he just gained Kryptonian powers anyway. Yeah, so like... Superboy. Yeah. Well, and then then he revealed that he was not only a clone of Superman, he was a clone of Superman and Lex Luthor, so he has two dads. Aw, how modern.

Yeah, right. A modern family, one would say. Ah, that's so cute. Oh, Superman. Imagine of Superman and Lex Luthor with your father. And you were growing up in that house, and they're always, like, pick on each other, you know what you mean? And you're like, I just want to play baseball. But you have to play baseball with Lex Luthor.

because whenever you play baseball with Superman, he throws the ball too fast and you can't catch it. No. You know? So they actually, there was a Superboy run that was all about Connor trying to, like basically trying to prove to himself that Lex Luther could be a good person. And I remember like his sister has like some sort of disease that rendered her catatonic.

And like Lex cured her. And Connor was like, oh, see, he's a good guy. and then Lex immediately put her back in that catatonic state with the line, you know, Lex give it, then he taketh away, basically just be an dick, just to show he could do it if he wanted to. Because he's God. Yeah.

So like, that was like a big thing in Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman was like Lex Luthor, coming to terms with the fact that he's always just been jealous of Superman. He wanted to be the world's savior, but Superman came around. and took that away from him. I have to read that. I really do. Like, I... I've heard it's super fucking good.

Oh, it is, yeah. Yeah. Obviously, I love Grant Morrison, but I haven't read, like, enough of his stuff. I need to read more. I've heard his Batman run is, like, really complicated.

Whereas his... I don't think it's complicated, but it's... I like it. There's a lot going on. Yeah, yeah. He, there's a lot of terror... He was on that Batman run for a good while.

Yes. So he had a lot of time to work on it. Whereas his Superman run is a bit more like, this is it. This is a Superman. So yeah, All-Star Superman was just that run. And then when the new 52 launched, they gave Grant action comics. And Grant decided to use that to tell the story of like Superman just starting out and being like really young and more about fighting like corruption and government issues. Yes.

So like I would want to read the I want to read the Superman run because I remember. remember him talking about it in the book. Yeah. And talking about how, like, people didn't understand his take on Superman. Because they're like, it's not whatever. And he's like, well, it's Superman. He's like a very innocent man. But also, like, this is comics.

Yeah. It's a comic, dude. You got to read it. You know, get guy wins. Bagger Loses. Like, we can be silly. We can be our language. Like, it's a comic.

Like, you're allowed to suspend your. your disbelief. When you read it, you have to understand that a lot of the parameters you think are real. They're not real in a comic. It's a comic.

I'm allowed to go outside the boundaries of shit, you know? And it's weird because I always felt like with a lot of grandmars and stuff, he went within the boundaries of whatever he had.

Like, again, if we go back to the X-Men run, I feel like he went within every boundary that he was given, like, but right to the edge of it. Yeah. Like, I don't think he did.

Everything he did in the X-Men run, like it pushed that boundary a lot, but he didn't do anything like revolutionary. He didn't change the game that much. He did stop that was very X-Men-like. Well, I mean, Rand did kill, you know, and that- was justified.

But it was totally justified. If you read that run, you can see why he thought Magneto deserved to die. I don't think that that's, within the parameters of the X-Man comics, don't you think that by that point Magneto had done enough terrible

shitty things to deserve to die? See, that's the problem. I know John really loves Magneto, but like Magneto is for all intends a purpose of terrorist. Yes, correct. Part of it is he uses that old like I was a Holocaust survivor, therefore

I know what's right kind of thing, which is like a real heel move, right? Yeah. It's him like intentionally trying to use other people's sympathy to boost his own cause. Exactly. He's such a heel and that's what Grant Morrison said. Like this guy's clearly a horrible person.

And then he says that but he's also hanging out with like fucking toad and stuff, you know? But then when you read Grant Morrison's run, Morrison starts like putting people into like concentration camps and stuff and you're like, well, okay, now this makes more sense. He's actually being the person he doesn't want to be, but he's doing it because this is his twisted justification

of morality. And you're like, well, maybe Magneto does deserve to die because he doesn't understand anything. You know, I really, that reminds me of the Avengers versus X-Men storyline from a few years ago.

In like Cyclops in Captain America having, like, having a very intense verbal sparring with Captain America being like, oh, the Phoenix is coming back. We're going to deal. with a cyclops is like, no, it's a mutant problem. California is like, oh, you know, it affects everybody.

You have to understand it. And Cyclops is like, yeah, no, that's, you've never helped us ever. Like, we don't care about you. You obviously don't care about us. You know, we'll hand our own shit like we have always done. Correct. Because it's like when you think about that, like, why haven't the Avengers been called in to deal with Magneto?

Probably because if Iron Man rolled into Magneto, he just get crushed. Right. exactly what's he going to do and like I feel like there have there definitely has been time to like obviously because Magneto was like a like a

like a world any kind of like threat there's been times when the Avengers definitely have been called in to fight against Magneto yeah but like realistically Gotham is presented as like one of the worst

cities in all of DC comics world but like if Superman like if Batman like if Batman wasn't such a dick and just let Superman in there, he fucking clean that place up in like a day and a half. Yes, correct. Because it's like, oh, two faces out again. No, he's not because I just got him.

I killed him. The Joker's poison. Nope. No, it's not because I got him. Have we talked about this? We're like if Batman just like kill the Joker, like that would save him so many lives. I feel like if we've not, it's definitely like a recurring topic of discussion amongst comic

good fans. I feel like that's the truth. Like, the fact that the badman just keeps like the bad man doesn't want to kill anybody but he will happily let a very clear mass murderer who has killed people that Batman is close to just keep getting out of prison well that's the kill people

yeah that's the big crux in the Jason Todd storyline was like when he came back as Red Hood was he was like listen you know I understand that you don't want to kill like penguin or two-face or whatever but why him? He killed me. You know, he took me away from you. Like, you didn't want revenge?

Like, what the fuck? It's like, like, Joker has been so cavalier with the fact that he will kill people just to get Batman to look at him. Well, and they've also acknowledged that Joker knows that he's Bruce Wayne and just doesn't care. Right. So, like, there's so many reasons why Batman should, like, just get rid of Joker forever. but he never does and you're like I understand

from a comic point of view why you don't obviously you have to like keep this very popular character alive but from a logistic point of view

I don't know why as Batman you would like because the other option is oh well just arrest Joker and he goes into prison

and then he gets out of prison and they kills loads of people and then I arrest him and put him in prison again it's a cycle it never ends you know it reminds me of it reminds me of like that actually just reminded me of like how many villains actually know that

Batman's Bruce Wayne and just don't care like I know Rasa Ghul does yeah I know that Joker does yeah I think at one point two face new well that's that's that's I mean which of his face is new uh the Harvey Dent side because I remember that was a thing was that the Harvey dead side was keeping it a secret from the two face side that's nice you were being funny and that's actual truth statement. Was I being funny? I don't know. It felt like you were being funny.

Hard to tell. Hard to tell. Am I ever being funny? I don't know. I remember there was like a low level thug that knew. Yeah. And like, because he thought he could like ransom it for money,

but all the villains were like, how fucking dare you, like say that you know that that's Batman? Yeah. I feel like that happened to Spider-Man though, too. At some point when somebody was like, I know it's Spider-Man because I saw him like changed out of his mouth. And people were like, why would I believe you?

Like, what the fuck? Why would it be this fucking Peter Parker kid? You kidding? There's no way we got beat up by Peter Parker. Look at this. He can't even pay his rent. Yeah, look at him. He's fucking simps over his own grandmother.

There's no way we got beat up with that guy. You know? There's no like, that was actually like a Dr. Octopus bit where Dr. Octopus like on masks. And he's like, Peter Parker, this is bullshit. This isn't him. It's just the spider man. You fucking kidding.

No, no, they did it in the cartoon. Because I remember they did that in the cartoon, where Peter was working with Dr. Octopus, and, like, he just didn't believe that was that, that he was actually Spider-Man. Well, there was a bit, I'm sure there was a bit in the comics where, like, Spider-Man had the flu. I was really sick.

And so, like, Dr. Octavis, like, beat the shit out of him and then, unmasked him. And then he was like, well, of course he would not fight the way he's supposed to fight because he's just some kid. This isn't the real Spider-Man. Yeah. The real Spider-Man would have, like, beat the shit out of me. But because I beat him up, it's just some kid.

And he didn't realize that, like, Spider-Man had, like, a ready-bought kiss with the flu or something, you know? Yeah. Yeah. It happens, you know. Maybe it did happen to the TV show as well. I don't remember. I remember.

I clearly remember it in the cartoon because I remember that, like, he and Octopus were wearing lab coats over their costumes. So he was like walking around with like his Spider-Man like gloves and his shoes on very plainly visible underneath this white lab coat. Well you gotta give off the image.

Yeah. You know, you gotta present yourself to the people. Yeah. I like that though. Yeah. I don't know. It was a pretty good episode if I remember. I was not part of the the Spider-Man animated series

conversation that you and John had. Now, the fun fact about it is, while I'm not a big Spider-Man fan, I did watch that cartoon all the time. Great show. Was. Great show. You know, I was talking to somebody recently about animated series that had fucking banger, like, entrance theme, like entrance. Yes. Entrance theme.

Opening songs. Yes. Spider-Man's a good one. Batman Beyond's fucking sick. Yes, that was good. I'd love to do, I'd love to do Rue watch a Batman Beyond. That would be all right man Yeah I'd be done for that

Such a good show Also there was like this series in the early 2000s called the Batman It had a really good intro as well And I found out later on in life that the edge from you two Is it okay I just thought that was weird Yeah Well they're weird guys man

You too absolutely They're weird kids Weird boys How do you how do you Are they well Are they beloved in in Ireland? No Are they the favorite sons?

No The lovable lads No No sir I think they've got to Hollywood for us You know what you mean I recently found out that the reason Bano wears those sunglasses

His eyes are fucked Well he's just a little bitch That's why Bono, if you're listening to this, I meant that. I'll fight you. Fuck you, Bono. I could beat Bono in a fight. So, you know what else we should do?

What? Wrap up the show. I think we should keep talking for like seven more hours. I'm sure we could, but, you know, let's try to keep it contained. Some of our episodes have been a little lengthy lately. Let's be honest here. We didn't do a great job, at least I didn't, by talking about, are proper

years. Yeah. So, honestly, the resolutions was going to be an episode for the three of us. John had to go and visit his kids.

Yeah, go visit his kids. Can that be the thumbnail? Is just John visiting his children in an insane asylum without any explanation? How am I supposed to draw two insane looking kids? I don't know. Just draw regular children.

All right. Fair enough. I just want to share the thumbnail with John without any explanation until the episode comes out. Yeah, but neither us are on it. Yeah, exactly. The only person in the thumbnail is someone that's not on the show. Exactly. Okay.

I can do that. No problem. But regardless, John, I hope your children learn how to not be criminally insane. I really do. But. Tweet Sarah and Tiny Toney. Tiny Tum. Tiny Tom, Tom, whatever his name is.

Tiny Tommy, two-tone. He's tiny, whatever his name is. He's pretty small. Small boy. He'll small. John, what's up with that? Why are you making small boys, you know? But.

So it's a brand new year for John. So John will be starting over on our next episode. We'll be hearing, like, that he's already watched like 15 and a half movies. Yes. Whenever we get to John's thing, he's going to say like all sorts of like new films he's watched. But before we get the job, Corey, what do you think, let's go over your proper, like, wishes for the new year. So start of a new year, 2025, like, let's start it up right.

What do you think is going to happen? What do you want to happen? Yes. There's not some comics, like you can just say whatever, like films or, or, or, like, life, whatever you want. I'm hoping that the James Gun D.C.U. gets off to a good start.

I've not really watching superhero movies for a while, but I will make an exception for Superman. I'm also really curious about creature commandos, and that's coming out first. But I love monsters, so, you know, what are you supposed to do about that? I am hoping that there are less

big crossover storylines. I've always hated crossover storylines or event comics because it disrupts the regular monthly books in such an ugly way. There's nothing like, oh, yeah, here's this complete run I have of, like, Batman, but two issues out of like 15, it's going to be telling like part of a completely different story that when it goes back to the regular story, they're not even going to address. It just feels like a waste.

And I am hoping that, so DC took a couple of chances. There's a new backgirl book with Cassandra Kane, who's my favorite backgirl. I hope that that continues and goes well. And I'm also hoping the two-face comic they put out is going to go well. I've not read the first issue yet, but just the fact that there is a two-face comic book is really interesting to me. Why is that interesting? Just because it's a villain you don't think that would get a title. I mean, there's been a penguin book recently.

There's a couple of Joker books that came out a couple years ago. And very famously in the 1970s and 80s, there's a Joker book. book. But yeah, just TwoFace is not a character that I would think would lead his own book. Why not? Yeah, why not? So they're giving it a shot. I hope it goes well. Me too. What about you? What are your hopes for 2025? I hope that Hydromand becomes like a mean villain in Spider-Man.

Maybe because I end up writing Spider-Man, Marvel, maybe talk to me about this. What's here? You know what you mean? Because I got some ideas, man. I got some real good ideas. But Marvel are willing to pay ball. They play ball, I mean, not willing to pay me money in order to provide them as scripts, which I think is just rude.

Yeah, I agree. Yeah, thank you. I'm glad you agree. Other than that, though, I would really hope. So I think we've kind of talked a lot about how I, Craven the Hunter is probably going to be the last Sony Yeah you

Who did they learn their lesson on this one? I mean that's three in a row that have been garbage. I feel like this one is the one we're like, well, all right, we're done. It's not going to work. We're done with... And Venom came out, so it's really four and a half, or four in a row.

Well, I haven't seen Venom, so I don't know if that was good or bad or not. But they feel like Craven the Hunter might be their last parade into that and they're probably going to forget about that whole franchise which is interesting in a way where you're like

well are you opening up the Spider-Man franchise to somebody else or are you just going to like sit on this and not let anybody else have it? I don't know what's going to happen there. I would hope that we could like they tried their best to try to make a Spider-Man

universe without Spider-Man which to me is bananas ambitious. Because you need Spider-Man to make A, Venom, and B, Craven the Hunter Yeah. Interesting characters. And I also see Madam Webb, interesting characters.

Without those people, without Spider-Man, you don't have a good story. You seem to forget that the whole crux of those villains or people, those characters being involved in the story is that they are involved with the Spider-Man story and not the other way around.

Right? Yeah. Spider-Man isn't getting evolve with a Craven the Hunter storyline. Craven the Hunter is getting involved with a Spider-Man storyline, etc., etc. Venom doesn't just turn up. The Benham turns up because he wants to beat up Spider-Man. That's the point

of venom. And so forth and so forth. So, you know, I would like to see a better treatment of a lot of those kind of Spider-Man villains in the future. And we might see that because obviously Sony or like

ringing their hands of the whole Spider-Man thing at the moment. I would love to see a better treatment of all that stuff. I don't know. Obviously, I would love to see Hobgob Goblin and Hyderman

in a better cinematic universe. I don't know. You know, I would echo one of the things you said in that I would love to see Grant Morrison come back to Marvel and do something

with them because we are both big grandmars of fans. I would love to see the Beast be represented properly. I would love to see Gambit be like a good player. I think that Gail Simone is running Gambit right now, right? Yeah, he's a member of the Uncanny X-Men. I haven't read too much of the Gail Simone stuff, but I am very familiar with Gail Simone.

And I have faith in her. I really do. I will tell you, she's done a really good job with Gambit so far. I'm glad, man. I think she's a great writer. I'm very happy by that. I would like to see some, like, really good.

I would love to see, like, Spider-Man do, like, I think I said this earlier, but I would love to see Spider-Man do like a real, like, just a Spider-Man storyline. We don't have to get too grandiose about it. We don't have to be like,

oh, this is like a crossover with whatever. Just do Spider-Man stuff, man. You know, I don't feel like a broken record here. but like people don't understand Spider-Man is just like a fucking street-level guy should be treated like a street-level guy. Yeah. You know

that's one of the things I love to buy like the onslaught tag up. If you read the whole saga, it's great because you get these big like the big stringers like going up against onslaught. But at the street level at the street level whenever like there's a lot of stuff going on and there's like sentinels everywhere and like people don't know

like this confusion. People don't know what's happening. He would say the day, it was Daredevil and it was Spider-Man. That's the important stuff. The day-to-day stuff, that's what Spider-Man's great at. And I'm like, we're getting too grandiose with it. I think we need to be a little bit more clued in who Spider-Man is and what he does, you know?

So those are the things I would love to see in comics. And maybe like a good carnage, like spin-off, but like not a shitty carnage. I don't want him to be the king of symbiates or whatever. shit. I just want him to be like a badass. You know what I mean? Just have him kill people. That's all I want to see. You know? Man, what if the car needs killed, like a load of CEOs?

You know what I mean? Like, he just killed loads of like fucking health insurance guys. You know what I mean? Yeah. Just, just to stir stuff up. And then he became really popular. But then he just killed other people too. And they're like, well, this is. Yeah. you went a bit too far and he's like well I'm carnage what do you expect and they're like yeah that's true we did put a fief in a murderer too much you know

wouldn't that be a great storyline it'd be interesting say the least fucking good it's topical yeah because this happened three weeks ago yep two weeks ago about a month ago at this point

probably a month ago probably a month ago yeah so so that's probably going to wrap us up for today. I want to be... Can I just say this real quick?

I'm really sorry to interrupt you. I'm very sorry to interrupt you. But I have one more thing I want to predict. Sure. I know John has to worry about his insane children in the insane asylum. And I know that you have your issues

and I have my issues. My prediction, my hope for 2025 is that the three of us have a good time. That we're we're happy. That's what I want, man. I don't want this to be sony, whatever, but I'm like, all I want

is for us three boys have a lovely 2025. I want us to be happy and content and live in our best lives. I feel you. Thank you. I feel the exact same way. So, again, have a happy 2025. We'll see you guys later. Bye-bye. Goodbye.

please pray for John he's not here his children that are definitely insane they're definitely all all of them are very insane