The Smark Avengers - Vol 4, Ep 1: The Smark Avengers Look Back At the Last Year

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

It's an all-new volume and an all-new number 1 for the Smark Avengers. It's been over 52 weeks and 52 episodes of the Smark Avengers since Vol 3 started one year ago and the Smark Avengers are looking back at one year of episodes. Join Corey, Dylan, and Jon as they take a walk down memory lane!

We live in a weird time. I remember I watched a movie that was like one of those exploiting. I think it was a biker exploitation film. And Colonel Sanders had a cameo in it. And it was like a commercial for Kentucky Fried Chicken where like the main characters were like at a KFC. And he was like, ah, yes, this is my, you know, secret recipe chicken. It's delicious, isn't it? And they're like, yeah, it's really nice.

And it was like, I remember seeing the explanation is that the colonel really like, like to drive in movies and like used it as an opportunity. opportunity to go, hey, you know what's great at drive-in movies? A bucket of chicken. Not wrong. That's not wrong, you know. Everybody, welcome to Smart Avengers. My name is Corey and with me, Dylan and John. You always catch me by surprise.

It's the one you think is going to be the intro. Colonel Sanders. Yeah, we were talking about Colonel Sanders and Grindhouse films. Yeah. So, um, guys, this is episode. one of volume four. Oh, yeah. So we have done 52 episodes up to this point.

That is a year of making content. We have not missed a single week. We won an Emmy. Yeah, we won an Emmy. Michael P.S. Hayes made fun of us for it. Fucking Bad Street, USA. Have you seen the way that my dresses? Like, come on, no.

If I was like a more competent editor and really put the time and effort in, I'd put in a snippet of the best. Bad Street USA music video, like right here. Probably just the scene of like fucking Buddy Rogers and Terry Gordy running out of a house. I don't know why that would be the scene. I like how you're not going to put Michael Hayes in the clip. I actually what I should do is I should cut here and put that uncomfortable photo of Michael Hayes like posing with his pants on done. Like with a Confederate flag behind him.

uncomfortable anyway anyway so yeah so in the grand tradition of comic books what better time to relaunch with a new number one however the trick is

this is not a new creative team but still just the three of us and we are probably going to be for now and we will likely just be doing the same stuff we've always been doing So I thought would be really fun to do kind of a retrospective of the last year, in a little bit before that for the Smart Avengers,

just because we do have a bit of a lengthy history. So this is our fourth volume. Volume one never made air. It was more of an idea. Yeah. It's more of an idea. On the Patreon? Okay.

to pay for it. That's when we're just going to go back and like pretend these are old episodes. It's 2005. Yeah, you're like, wow, I can't believe that we're here in 2021. I sure hope Obama gets elected. Yeah, he seemed

like a nice gentleman. Yeah. Anyway, so that was volume one. Volume two was in 23. And it was only about eight, nine episodes long. And what happened was at the time I was recording on an old laptop that was not really great. And some of the episodes that we had recorded, the audio quality was really,

really bad. And we lost two episodes and it was incredibly frustrating. So we just kind of called it on volume two after about nine episodes. Volume three is what we just wrapped up. So volume three is a full year. We started at the first week of March of 2024. This is going to come out in the last week of February, first week of March. And so like I said, I thought it'd be kind of fun just kind of go through and look at those older episodes and kind of, you know, any memories to come up about it, things you thought we could have done better with that particular topic and, you know, kind of work our way up to the present moment. Does that sound good?

Yes. Okay. So these are all stored on the Smart Avengers YouTube channel. And I'm going to go back to our content. And we're going to, we'll start a little bit with volume two. So the first episode of the Smart Avengers ever made it to YouTube was published on January 15th, 2023. So about two years ago, a little over two years ago. And it was our Smart Avengers talk about Beast, where we started our breakdown of the original X-Men characters. This episode kind of was fun for me because it was the episode where we got that amazing clip

Dylan finding out the weird coyote face beast. People still will, people who know me and have watched that episode do really like to quote you with the whole like, oh, I don't like it. So like, yeah, you do have like a bit of a catchphrase now, Dylan. I don't expect that one to be the catchphrase. Yeah, yeah. There have been so many others. So yeah, that was our very first episode that we made it on to YouTube with.

any thoughts on talking about beast because it was really funny we kind of revisited the topic a couple of times because of changes they made to beast's character at the time beast was still kind of evil and by evil i mean like kind of committing uh political assassinations using wolverine as an unwilling uh participant i like how that's kind of evil in your eyes like yeah i mean i guess suppose if you think about it that's war crimes yeah I can't make war crimes anymore man you know that somebody calling you kind of evil ridiculous snowflakes I know you guys need to get some backbone what do you know all that I don't get stopped no I go ahead I was gonna say it's all that DEI that'll fix it yeah that'll get rid of those words yeah get rid of those words yeah get rid of that and then the world will be a happier place so long as you're a straight white male

you'll be grand you know three of us were golden and that's the thing man that was like a that's a demographic that just didn't have enough representation it really needed more you know people to get behind the cause for the street white man that's we really need yeah so yeah so yeah thoughts about, well, we'll go ahead. Episode two was the first time we really broke down a major event. That was the Smart Avengers Talk ultimatum, where we broke down the ultimatum event that effectively killed the ultimate universe that was established in the 2000s. And more importantly, we broke down all 27-ish on-paneled deaths and the humorous manners

in which some of these beloved characters were needlessly murdered off. needlessly. I think it had to happen. Did it? Yes. Yes. I mean, I still think like they had a good thing going with the Ultimate Universe, but it just got, yeah, it went off the rails a little bit towards the end there.

Well, I mean, they're trying again with it now. You know, I've not read anything from the Ultimate stuff. I know that in the Ultimate Marvel stuff right now, Wolverine is like Winter Soldier So he is like this This kill agent And I know that Ultimate X-Men Is set in feudal Japan

With schoolgirl characters So it's a little weirder Yeah Ultimate X-Men is a little weirder What's weird about that? I mean it's just not What you would expect You gotta open your eyes more Corey Don't you mean?

coincidentally one of the characters is Cyclops I think she's one-eyed still shoots the laser beam out yeah well I thought I was sure we'll be talking about that at some point we'll do we'll revisit ultimatum number two when it happens again yeah yeah I thought it was pretty ambitious of them to kill all the characters and then completely just destroy this comic for good and then like 15 years later ago yeah we'll just bring it back how hard could it be I'm like everybody's dead well it wasn't even that they killed all these characters and then they tried to keep it going for a little bit longer so there was like a period of ultimate comics where half of like all of these iconic characters were just gone yeah eaten by the blob

eaten by the blob drowned in the ultimatum wave we never found out what happened to toad he was eaten by the blob oh okay just swallowed a frog legs yeah you go a delicacy episode three of volume two was the Spark Avengers picked their favorite weird characters in which we got to discuss such iconic characters as Armless Tiger Man Ruby Thursday the animal vegetable mineral man I believe we talked about hell cow as well I think so stone boy who the lesion character who could just turn his by into stone

but once he did he couldn't move arm fall off boy who could remove his arms so we had fun with that one this this is great because you're going to remind me what stuff I've forgotten about our fall off boy that's so yeah that great sound effect of plorp when he pulls his arm up that's the noise that arms make when they come off yeah we all know this uh episode four volume two was like the Smart Avengers talk about Angel, which we continue our deep dive into the X-Men

by talking about how Warren Worthington, the third, has basically two storylines. One, I'm going to start a team and be the person who funds the operations of the team because I'm a billionaire, and two, I'm going to turn into Archangel and be a murderer. And that was kind of it for those two pieces of storyline. Yeah. I mean, we got a lot of material.

We got a whole podcast out of boring ass angel somehow. It's kind of impressive We went for 53 minutes and 16 seconds Not even a full hour It's not a full hour It was tough Yeah Mind you

Beast went 57 minutes and 27 seconds Yeah Well we had to cut out a load of stuff Yeah a little bit Be crying Yeah From laughter Wow

From the fucking picture Episode 5 from volume 2 was the Smart Avengers talk about Batman actors, where we talked every actor at that point who has played Batman, starting from the 1930s black and white adventure serials up into Robert Pattinson and Ben Affleck. That's a Donnie Dyer one? No, no, no, that was later.

This one, we were just talking about the actors who played Batman. We didn't really talk about the process of making the movies or anything like that. Because we talked about how the actor who played Batman in the 40s and the actor who played Superman in the 40s had worked together as well on a PSA on venereal disease. I forgot that one. So, episode six, Smart Avengers talk B, C, and D-List villains, where we talked about our favorite dumb villains. Very famously, this is where we first found out about Dylan's love of Hydro Man. Yeah. He's a great character.

Episode 7 was our very first murder episode as the Smart Avengers kill Aquaman. The murder episode. Very famous because where you guys found out about Aquaman's magic water hand for that he had a period of time. Yep. And the birth of hitting Aquaman with a car. Or John seducing Lex Luthor, a powerful white man so that he, could use his resources to commit murder. It's a foolproof plan right there.

He's a seductive man. That's why he won't show his face on camera because we would just be smitten instantly. We wouldn't be able to do a show. We'd just be like, oh, my goodness. Put your shirt back on, you know. Episode 8, the Smart Avengers watch Japanese Spider-Man, where we watched episodes one and two of Japanese Spider-Man. Um,

originally that was going to be more of a, uh, a long-running process, but then people started to report episodes Japanese Spider-Man on YouTube and they were getting pulled. Not because it was, though. It wasn't because it wasn't because our podcast got so successful

that it drove loads of people to go watch Japanese Spider-Man. And then YouTube were like, what the hell? What's going on here? So many people watch Japanese Spider-Man. No. Maybe it was, I don't know. This one was very famous because we got to talk about how when they made the,

there was the little monster man that they made out of clay. And also how Peter Parker didn't exist. But Spider-Man was a guy who raced car motorbikes and drove a car. And yeah. The bad guy looked a bit like a rip-off Doctor Doom as well, didn't he? Yeah, because they were also Nazis. They were the, the, uh, or the the Iron Cross Army. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. So, uh, second time Nazis came up. So that was really, that was the end of volume, volume two. Uh, we had recorded an episode that we're going to basically do again after this. Uh, and then there was an episode where we had our first draft of, we had to build our own X-Men characters, but I don't think we did it in a draft format. I think we just did X-Men characters. Like, we, yeah.

Yeah. We didn't draft that we just came up with like our, like, I think it characters. Yeah. Something like that, yeah. Because then like Storm was on all of them. Yes, I think that was the case. Because I think what had happened is our, the audio footage that I got from Skype was so fucking garbage that that was kind of the end of the second volume of Smart Avengers.

That's a shame because I really like that episode. I thought that was really good. Well, we're going to be able to recreate it. and now that we're doing our auctions, because now we get to put them on a wheel and make it really chaotic. Yeah. Chaos wheel. Chaos wheel.

So any thoughts on those first eight episodes of Smart Avengers that, you know, we didn't touch on any memories unlocked? Because I can give you some stats on those two, because I think they're interesting, of course. Stats, like a million viewers? Yeah, how many people, like, what was the most viewed? Oh.

The least viewed? Yeah. Interesting. They all had zero views. No, they didn't have zero views. I will tell you, the least viewed episode was a tie between us watching Japanese Spider-Man and us talking about Angel. I was going to guess Angel as well. Yeah, nobody really likes Angel.

Yeah, that seems like a same bad. The most viewed episodes were the very, with the first two, us talking about. about Beast and talking about ultimatum it's not a good sign that the viewership fell off almost immediately no it didn't fall off it just it just cratered a little bit talking about angel yeah actually no i'm wrong i apologize the the most the least viewed one oddly enough was us talking about aqua man i feel like that should have been more right maybe people just didn't care about aquaman that much people need to know how to kill them yeah they should go back and listen to that episode i think

should you should go back and listen to it i mean the second jason moa aquaman film certainly did the trick that killed him that's what we should have done yeah make us make a second movie remove amber heard make a film about it that'll kill and stone dead you know the first movie was did pretty well if memory serves is nobody really wanted to see a second one wow he had a talking he wasn't talking he had a psychic octopus on that one that sounds good yeah yeah what's wrong on bluray for about the last i want to say 12 months and i've still not watched it well you got all this stuff to watch yeah this is true mm-hmm that cast is unreal though if you really think about it that cast had Nicole kidman

willem defoe jason ummaa patrick wilson yeah yeah he just gave a shit about that Because again, it's a second Aquaman movie. I feel like I feel like they got lucky with the first one. And it was all banking on people liking Jason at Moa. I guarantee it. Well, he did a lot of happy lifting. Certainly did. All right.

So the last episode of our show posted it was March 5th, 2023. Because I found when I went back to start uploading for Volume 3, the Aquaman episodes and the Japanese Fireman episodes hadn't been loaded. So they were on there. They just hadn't been posted yet. So I posted both of them about a week before we started putting the show up again. So March 5th, 20203 was the last, like proper volume 2 episode. Volume 3 launched on March 1st, 2024.

So like I said, it's been a year. And we started off pretty hot and heavy with Smart Avengers talk about Marvel films. So that's where we were discussing whether or not the MCU could ever return back to the heights that they were pre-Infinity War. Because we were talking about how those films kind of dropped off after they did the big endgame storyline. I think we've been proven now that time is going on that absolutely yes, they can. Back to the heavy heights they used to hit with Iron Man. It's strength to strength right now. Couldn't be better.

I mean, John, we'll ask John about Captain America later, I'm sure, but the review that I saw was Captain America, Brave New World, Neither Brave nor a New World. But it is Captain America. It is Captain. Well, some people want to debate you on that one, too, because not a lot of people are excited about that. Volume 2, Volume 3, Episode 2, the Smart Avengers talk about Spider-Man spinoffs, where we first discussed. these Sony films. Oh, yeah. Uh-huh.

We did do that. Yeah, we did. And then once again, proven to be correct about how great they were, Craven the Hunter, Madam Webb, all Morbius, Venom.

Massive hits. Was that the one, did we, was that the one we watched Morbius? No. That's the one were you guys. Yeah. No, no, no, no.

You both watched Morbius and talked about it because you got mad to me because I didn't. yes because the gimmick was we all said John had seen it and I was like well we should all see it because it's a bad film and you were like yeah no worries and then the week after the fuck I did you said you were going to do it and then and then on the you're like I'm not actually going to watch Morbius I'm like so I had to watch Morbius nobody held a gun to your head there but that you know of that you know of I don't know

what I do in my day to day life sometimes that's just what happens people like to mug me you know Um, so we, uh, we watched, well, two or three of us watch more. You should watch it. It's really good, actually. I think you'd like it. Two or three of us watch how many people are on the show, Dylan? Huh? She said two or three of us watched it. I said two out of three. I said two of three of three of us. I went four. Yeah. Well, is there a fourth person on the show that I don't know of. Yes. But I can't tell you who it is. You think you think John's in this always by himself? That's true. person in there. You don't know. You don't know?

Volume 3, episode 3, The Smart Avengers talk about the Robbins, which is really funny because this one came up during our trivia game. We were talking about which Robin became Nightwing. So that was March 15, 2024. Almost a year later, though, you at least

remembered three of the five Robbins. So not bad for someone who didn't know there were so many of them previously. I mean, that's a, how am I supposed to remember stuff that happened a year ago? I don't remember stuff that happened like a minute ago. I've already forgotten how we started the show.

Fair enough. Volume four, we return back to our X-Men deep dive is the Smart Adventure to talk about Ice Man. That coincidentally was a longer episode than the Angel episode, but we had even less to say about it because most of our comments were like how boring we found Ice Man to be and how we didn't really have a storyline aside from just being around all the time.

Yeah. Because, yeah, we talked to, we did all of those, like, how he was constantly featured on lists of, like, best X-Men, most important X-Men, X-Men, who should be in the MCU. And I'm like, really? This guy? This is who we're fighting for? Like, most powerful X-Men as well. Yeah, he's like in a mega-level X-Men or something. Mm-hmm.

Volume. Oh, yeah, go ahead. Well, just because you can manipulate ice. Water. Yeah. He can make himself super big and put his consciousness into other parts of him. Of course you can. That's a real thing.

Yeah, why not? Yeah, he's the most powerful person in the world. He's more powerful than the Flash. More power. Well, it's coincidentally enough. Volume 3, episode 5, the Smart Avengers killed a Flash. An episode that broke us all because we'd been recording for about 45 minutes, and I realized we had not gotten through all of the powers of the second of four flashes.

Yeah. It went on for a long. It went on for a while. Kind of disgusted that one. So those are the first five episodes of volume three. Any thoughts on memories about that? Things do you want to think about or? I mean, I don't want to think about the Flash episode ever again.

It's a rough one. It's a rough one. Yeah, we were ready to talk about the Flash for a long time. And I think we suggested to kill him as well. Oh, Corey was like, nope, can't do that. Can't do it because his powers just you broken. I do remember, like, sitting there for a long time just thinking, like, we're still talking about his powers. Like, I remember.

And they were getting, they were getting weirder and weirder because it was like, oh, he can vibrate his brain and remember things that he was forced to forget. What? What does that even mean? Because I remember that one in particular broken, you're like, you mean memory? Yeah. Wow. The freest vibrate your brain, though. Yeah.

What? What do we do with our lives? You know? I feel like that's what happened. We got this kind of like existential. Like this is what we do. You know? You know?

This is our life. I have to listen to somebody talk to me about a man that goes fast. But he doesn't just go. He can access to speed force and he can travel. I'm like, what is this? Well, you know. So, so quick, some quick stats on that one. Of those five episodes, the most viewed episode was us talking about the Sony Spider-Man films.

Well, Spider-Man's a big draw. Well, and it was kind of in vogue at the time because at that point, Madam Webb was just about to come out. Yeah, I don't think we'd seen it. No, nobody had seen it at that point when we got released. Nobody had seen it now. Have you seen it now? Our least viewed episode was a tie between talking about Iceman, which again goes back to that hole he's boring. Yeah.

And also, sadly, us killing the Flash. People don't like to hear us talk about murdering people. People didn't want to sit through 45 minutes of, and then he can also do this, you know. Listen, that's not my fault. I'm not, that's what I mean. Somebody at DC needs to apologize. formally for what we had to sit through with the flash. This is not appropriate.

We deserve compensation. All right. So volume three, episode six, the Smart Avengers talk about whatever they want. Really early in the run before we had to go to that depth, huh? Episode six, the Smart Avengers, brought out of ideas. That one gave us the storyline. I think that might have been the birth of baby juggernaut.

We were also talking about armless tiger man's career of going to the convention circuits, a la Virgil and like solving a mystery. Episode seven, the Smart Avengers pick their sinister six. That one was famous for the Upsol Goblins team for me. and then you guys educated me that there was actually a gray goblin which I had no idea about yes I am fortunately gray goblin might be coming up again in the future I think yes and you guys were also uh I think this is the first time I really saw your love for the hobgoblin because when I picked hobgoblin for my team you asked me which one and I just picked the

first one that I thought and you're like oh you pick the you pick the worst one Volume 3, episode 8. Smart Avengers talk about overrated characters. I think we kind of talked about our disdain of the Punisher and Wolverine and Venom. In particular, that's who's on the thumbnail. Yeah, but it's got to be some of those guys. Volume 3, episode 9, the Smart Avengers go to WrestleMania, where Dylan, you told us all about your trip to WrestleMania for nice one and two.

Yeah. It was really good. And volume three episode 10, The Spark of Avengers talk about X-Men films where we did all of the X-Men films from the 2000s up until the present day. And I think that's what I

learned that there was like one of those movies that I forgot existed. Especially the later ones. What one did you forget existed? I think it might have been I got the the dark Phoenix storyline mixed up with the Apocalypse storyline because it felt like they should have been the same movie for me for some reason

oh interesting the only way to defeat apocalypse is phoenix that's i guess that's how it made sense in my mind it does make sense so um any thoughts you have on those movies before i tell you what are most and least viewed were uh no fair enough i think um because you're looking at the stats so you're also looking at the thumbnails The one we talk about overrated characters. I think I drew you as Venom. Yes. And there's, I don't know if it's before this or after this,

but there's another thumbnail where we talk about Venom. And I just took the exact same picture. Yeah. I just thought you on you one. I just think the same picture. I wanted to see if anybody would notice. And I don't know. I noticed.

I didn't call you out on it, but I noticed. like they're already really lazy thumbnails and I thought how about can I can't even see I really I really love the thumbnails it's like one of my favorite things about them is just like they just stand out to me some of them are really good so

john do you have any thoughts where I jump into what do you think we're the most viewed and least viewed of these five I would like to think Sinister 6th episode was the most viewed we'd like to think that yeah yeah

it probably wasn't I think I'm really sorry about this but I think probably your WrestleMania review was like the least listened or viewed I mean that makes sense

because it's a comics channel exactly kind of out of character for us for one app but we're smart it's also almost a two hour long episode too. Oh, geez. I mean, it lasts in the days.

I don't know what you want me to do. Yeah. Yeah, that and the X-Men films were two hours long. Yeah. I will, so here's the thing. The least viewed was us picking the Sinister Six. Oh, nailed it. Yeah, that was the least, that was the least viewed. People did not want us to

want us to talk about the Sinister Six. Well, people can go fuck themselves. The most viewed. The most viewed was our first ever talk about whatever we want. I guess people just really like just rambling. Well, we're pretty good at that. We are. We're rambling, man. Some of us are better than others.

Volume 3, episode 11, the Smart Avengers, talk about Ben Riley, where we did a deep dive on the Clone War, or the Clothes saga. Okay. That one I really like the thumbnail for. Volume 3, episode 12 is us

doing a watch-along with the Generation X made for TV movie. I remember that one. Volume 3, episode 13. The Smart Avengers talk about whatever they want again. What's the thumbnail for that? You're a hand puppet. Oh, yeah, because that was why I was really drunk, wasn't it?

Yes. That doesn't narrow it down, to be fair. I mean really drunk. Episode 3 or episode 14, the SparkVeyer just talked about Cyclops, where we got back into our X-Men breakdown. And then episode- I like the thumbnail-

that one too. I thought that was really good. We were getting incinerated by the optic blasts. Yeah, but I'm like a little baby. Like, it's like a potato with eyes. And volume three episode 15, the Smart Avengers talk about updates to characters that didn't stick part one. So that was our first two-parter. I think maybe our only two-parter so far too. Yeah. Do we do another one where there was two parts? I don't think so. So any thoughts on those five? Most watch and least watch. what do you think? Ben Riley, pretty high up there. Yeah.

I'd say, even though he's not on the thumbnail. It's a jackal. That's what I think my favorite part of the thumbnail. We talk about Ben Riley, but he's not on the thumbnail at all. Least, I don't know, maybe like the part one. One. So, John, do you want to make a guess? I'll just, I'll go with Dylan's guesses.

Okay. So, our least watch was us watching Generation X. Oh, that's crime. That's going to be kind of a running theme for the watchalongs, I think. Yeah. Well,

because it's just us reacting to something that you can't see unless you're syncing the video, the audio up to the video as well. Right. That's the thing about the watchalongs. Like, they're a great idea. I think they're fun,

but it requires the listener to do, like, additional work. Extra step. Yeah. don't think people are into that. You know? It's a shame, because that was a really good episode. Yeah.

All those characters are so unlikable. Such a weird fucking film. The most watch was talking about Ben Riley. There you go. People love him. They should bring him back. Yes, they should. Wait, you know what?

Well, there he did. Casim. He's around. Maybe they shouldn't bring him back after all. All right, episode 16, The Spark Avengers, is talk about updates to characters that didn't stick part two. That one gave us the amazing thumbnail of a giant sperm cell that looks like the green goblin. That was because you said I couldn't do it.

I'm like, I believe I can't. Episode 17, we talked about the most 90s characters, which was our first appearance of the Sugar Man. Oh, that late? That early, yeah. Episode 17. Wow. 18. We watched some more Japanese Spider-Man and the X-Men pilot Pride of the X-Men. Oh, yeah.

Episode 19, our first minus one, where it's the Smart Avengers, the Spark Avengers minus one talk about Hydroman, I guess. That was being you. Yep, that was me and you. My favorite detail of the thumbnail was the Thomas the Tank Engine Beach towel. And then episode 20, the Smart Avengers talk about the 90s back. Batman films where we talked about the four Batman films that came out in the 90s and that's the Danny Dyer episode where the thumbnail is Danny Dyer's head on Robin's body. So any thoughts on those before we talk about our, you know, what was most of you and least viewed?

A Stein and the Sugarman took that long to get into this show now that he's he's a staple. It's a it's a gap too between episode 17 and episode like 50 when he showed up again. we went we had most a year between appearances by the sugar man but he turned up in a big way oh boy and i like what a what a way to to make a comeback you know what you mean oh there was involved people will never forget that no uh goodness so the least viewed episodes it was a tie uh part two of the updates that didn't stick. And also, people didn't want to listen to us to talk about Hyderman, Dylan.

Well, that's bullshit. Second of all, do you think the the Goblins Sparum, like, scared people away? Maybe. The most watch, oddly enough, us watching Japanese Spider-Man and Pride of the X-Men.

It's hard to know what people want. It really is. It's impossible to cater our content to people when they don't even know what they want. Do you want Japanese Spider-Man or not? Well, what's happening here? You know?

All right. Episode 21, Smart Avengers talk about the death of Superman, where we went through that, that big event. Episode 22, where the Smart Avengers watched some more cartoons where Dylan and I made the mistake of watching the 90s Swamp Man, Swap Thing cartoon. My God. Swamp Thing, Wildcats, and Phantom 2025 or whatever it was called. Yeah.

that fucking that thumbnail is a fucking nightmare the weed killer that scary ass bug thing that I put a lot of effort into I wanted people to know just how horrific that fucking thing was

let's see episode 23 the SparkVinders talk about Deadpool and Wolverine and Dr. Doom that one was like it was not in the rotation but the announcement of Robert Downey Jr coming back to be Dr. Doom and Deadpool

and Wolverine coming out. We wanted to kind of like see if we could get momentum. And, uh, for once. Be relevant. Yeah. Didn't work. So we insert.

That was a frenzied one of recording it and then editing it and getting it up within like two days. Yeah. Uh, episode 24, Smart Avengers minus one talks about Corey. Because Dylan surprised me with that topic with questions about stuff. The thumbnail is me as the bat monster from Swamp thing with you dressed as

Princess Jasmine writing my back. Yes, because we talked about you being in a carpet. I don't remember how that came up, but we talked about me riding like a magic carpet. And I thought, well, that's got to be the thumbnail. That's obvious. In episode 25, our very first auction, where we auction off the X-Men with the old format where we did not have a wheel and I knew the order. And you guys were not terribly thrilled that I knew the order of stuff.

It's like cheating, really. I knew what to save my money for. So any thoughts on any of those episodes? They were good. That's it. There you go. Most the least viewed was us watching those 90s cartoons, Dylan. Again, we went through all out for nothing.

We watched Swamp Thing for Nothing. And I think to no surprise, the talking about Deadpool and Wolverine and Dr. Doom was the most viewed of those. five. It would actually work. Hot down. It did. Yeah. We should try again. Yeah. What film should we talk about now? Like Captain America? All right. Episode 26, Smart Avengers

minus one. Talk about whatever. Is this what I wasn't there for? You are not here for this one. So the thumbnail is John sitting at a dinner table and I'm getting something out of an oven. Because I had to, I had to, because I

wasn't there for, I had to guess what I thought the episode was a bite. I'm like, it's probably about John demanding dinner from Corey, because that's the way it would be. Yeah, right. You know, he's very impatient. We're all very subservant to John. I don't remember what. I think it's like you're

getting a kick or something out of the oven. I don't remember. I do that a lot. I draw people with kicks a lot. I think that comes up again later. Episode 27, the SparkVenger just talk about Gene Gray, where we wrap up the iconic original 5X-Men.

So 28, where we talk about the DC versus Marvel event, where you guys were making your voices heard on who you thought between certain characters who should have won and then who actually won. Because that was the controversy where

they, like, Batman simultaneously won and lost. Yeah. Like, Captain America was drowning and Batman saved him, but that also meant the Batman lost somehow well he's a big loser yeah the thumbnail for that one is uh i believe namor getting crushed by a whale because that's how aquaman beat namor uh number 29 smart adventurers talk about good and bad casting in comic book films where we you know talked about roles

that we thought were really well done and roles not so much and then i was wrong there was a second two-parter episode 30 smart avengers talk about nightfall part one where we talked about the batman getting his back broken and asriel replacing him yes any thoughts on those uh we talked about magnino a lot and not we do one i think we do well we had two different actors to talk about yeah i'm so that's understandable but um you're talking about danny devedo as his penguin oh me he's incredible yeah yeah he loves him Talking about Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. She was blue.

Yep, she was blue. She was certainly there. So our least viewed, oddly enough, these numbers are very, very close. So it really, honestly, it's kind of a tie. So I'll just tell you the two that did better because the other three got the same amount of viewers. So us talking about Gene Gray and our first X-Men auction were our two. best viewed of those five. Hmm. Okay.

Episode 31 was the second part of us talking about nightfall. Mm-hmm. So 32 was our deep dive into the hobgoblin. We had to do it at some point. Oh, yeah. You all knew we had to talk with the hobgoblin. Episode 33 was us talking about spooky characters. That was like, was it Halloween?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. We had a whole month dedicated to Halloween, so I was part of it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we did. Because we all love Halloween equally. All three of us love Halloween. So, episode 34, I don't know how we came to this conclusion, but episode 34 is talking about supernatural characters. So one week we talked about spooky characters and the next week we'd be talking about supernatural characters.

I don't know what we decided the difference was. I don't remember. A lot of this is like me just trying to remember what the show. show was about and then whatever I write on the thumbnail you you make as a title I make the title yeah so a lot of it's just whatever I can remember and let's be honest it's not a lot so it's just if I remember one or two things I'm like that's probably what this show is you know so there's probably a distinction in the two episodes the episode itself but we just don't know go back and listen to him it's it's entirely possible that it's not about that at all and that's just what I thought it was a bite

ever a dime You know In episode 35 was our second auction And it was our spooky auction Yes Ooh We love a spooky auction

Yeah So of those The most viewed Was the second part of nightfall Which coincidentally enough Had more viewers Than the first part of nightfall Strange

Very weird Yeah And then the least viewed Were our Uh unfortunately it was a three-way tie between the supernatural characters, the spooky characters, and the hobgoblin.

What? People like an auction. People don't like the hobgoblin? What the fuck? I don't know, but they like in auctions. They got more, the auction got more viewers. This will not. I thought for sure you're going to say the three worst ones were like all of the

spooky Halloween ones. Because it's like, we dedicated the whole month to Halloween and people are like, we don't want it. We don't want it. So we have episode 36 Smart Avengers Minutes 1 talk about whatever again. This is another one without Dylan, and our thumbnail is me and John parachuting.

Yes, skydiving. Episode 37 is us doing a fun quiz. Oh, it was a lot of fun, wasn't it? Episode 38, we watch more cartoons. The Battle Toads? Yeah, that's the Battletoads episode. Yeah. episode 39 as far as adventures minus one this is one where you and john talk about the 90s spider-man cartoon

yes that was a good one and uh episode 40 we talk about the worst deaths in comics okay yes so i feel like something got another i think something i talked about in that episode might be coming up in a future episode well i will tell you the thumbnail for that one is uh M.J. Watson died from Jizz. I think that's what that thumbnail says. I forgot it with that one. Talk about semen an awful lot.

You know how we always like kind of joking to say we're not an X-Men podcast? Yeah, we should probably say we're not a Jiz podcast. You are 100% of Seaman podcast. All right. So you guys want to know with the, the, this is such a weird one. I want to know why and how this happened. but the least watched episode was the two of you talking about 90s Spider-Man cartoon.

That's bullshit. Yeah, that's the... Absolutely bullshit. The least one. That's crazy. And this episode is the most watch episode on the entire channel. It's got to be the J-Z one. No.

It's us watching Bell Toots. What? It's by far the most watched one. It's us watching Bacheloats. It's us watching Battle Toads and that Iron Man cartoon. And then there was something else because I just remember like, wow, all of these are diabolical. Like, this is just bad.

We've not had another let's watch since then. And that was in November. What are the numbers in that one then? So case in point, we average around 10ish views in some of these episodes, 43. Holy shit. Yeah. I don't know.

what happened. But that video got viewed 43 times. Poor, those poor 43 people. Probably the 43 people who made

that Battletoads cartoon. That Battle Toads I remember I had seen that before and I'm like, you guys have to see it because it's, it's tremendously awful.

Like, it's really bad. You were, we were all there, Dylan. You were dumb. Yeah. But like, I don't remember what the third one was. Was it toxic conventions?

Yes, it was. Toxic Crusaders. Yeah, we did Battletoads, Toxic Crusaders, and we ended on Iron Man because we thought it would be the Iron Man theme that John really liked, but it was not. No, that's true. What a let time. Yep, yep. The whole episode was let out. No, it was great.

Talking about Battletoads. You weren't drunk. You disappeared during the third, like, during the Iron Man cartoon, Dylan, you were just gone. That's why. John talking. That's why I couldn't remember the third one because I guess I blacked out. Yeah. He blacked out, but you came right back for the end of the show.

Good. Was that the one where I like ended the show an hour after we ended it? Yes. Yeah. Where we were like, we were just kind of winding down and just talking about general stuff. You're like, well, it's been a great episode. I'm like, Dylan read the show a while ago, bud. Yeah.

We're not recording. All right. episode 41 we talk about the best comic book deaths episode 42 we kill wolverine episode 43 we have our spider-man villain auction classic episode 44 we do our review of claws oh yeah in episode 45 we do uh it's the beginning of johnless january where we talk about our new year's resolutions in comics yeah so uh we What do you think was the most viewed and least viewed? I'm going to say the spidey villain auction was the most viewed. You would think so.

You would think so. You would hope so. Least viewed, I don't know. Maybe New Year's resolutions. Yeah, I think the least viewed one was the one without John and it, because people are like, we're not watching the show if John's done on it. So the least viewed was our clause review. no one really wanted to talk about clause

bullshit messing out our most viewed from that was the spider villain auction okay fair and then right behind it though was our new year's resolution yeah well

people I don't even remember any of the stuff we said and that all right episode 46 smart Avengers minus one continuation of Johnless January by talking about X-Men pet peeves

yeah Uh, episode 47, Smart Avengers minus two, where I talk about non-superhero comics. It's tough to the show by yourself. Yep. Our shortest episode by far. Yeah. Episode 48. Yep.

Episode 48, the Smart Avengers, uh, minus one where we talk about potential villains getting their own solo series, which was the return of Sugar Man. That was the infamous episode where the, the thumbnail had to be censored. Yep, I'm censored thumbnail. Too hot for TV. It's too hot for anybody.

Episode 49. Nobody should see it. Yep. Episode 49, the Smart Conventures talk about Magneto, where we extend our X-Men deep dive to start including Magneto and then in future we'll do Xavier and some of the other mutants that came about as a result. Yeah, we love talking about Magneto.

And I'll go ahead and hit 51 and 50-51, 50 is pitching our own Spider-Man villain films, and 51 is our auction of the Justice League. At this time, 52 has not aired yet. So we're not going to tell you what it is. Yep. It's a secret. Well, no, at this point, if you're watching this,

you already know what it is because it came before this episode. Yes, but it's still a secret. Okay. So what do you think was the most viewed and least viewed of those? I bet we'd like it if the most viewed was Magneto. Yeah. We would love that. But you've already let us stand with the Hobgoblin thing.

You know, so. I will tell you, our viewership did go up during the month of January, and that's unfortunately going to have to mean I'm going to get the Instagram back up and running again because I think that had a lot to do with it. I think so you were doing up a lot of, like, proactive stuff in Instagram and, and Blue Sky just does not have that reach. Well, not yet. Give it time.

Once it's owned by, like, we're not getting rid of it. Once it gets taken over by, like, a really horrible billionaire. Human being. That has ruined the planet. Then people are going to flock to that website. Yeah. So, least viewed and most viewed from that period of time,

least viewed is us pitching our Spider-Man villain films. I suppose I can understand why. We are actively saying, hey, these are not going to have any recognizable characters in it. Hydro Man. Sugar Man made an appearance in that. Yeah. Well, I keep it. Now he's the mask of the show.

Most viewed. Most viewed. The episode that's just me. Wow. Yeah, weirdly enough. Wait a minute. Guys, people who listen to the show, I am incredibly offended.

And a lot of the things I've heard today. You don't like Hobgoblin. You don't like Seaman, I suppose, because they don't seem to have done very well. You don't like me and John? starting to get little it's starting to get really targeted yeah personal

what do we like what do we have to do to win you over you know I will say I will say after that though was the Magneto episode and the X-Men pet peeves

they tied for second most viewed after that and then the solo books was after that Dylan with the the Sugarman Modoc love scene you would think that would

It was shot right up to the top. So I will tell you... I will tell you in the grand scheme of things, our most viewed episodes, period. Our most viewed episode is us in that Battletoad episode. I do not know what it was. It's the thumbnail. We look so handsome.

We're so beefy. That's like one of the few thumbnails where I actually, I'm a grown man. Maybe that's what people... I will say our views do tend to grow up. over time. So like a lot of the older episodes have more views and you can see there's just been kind of gradually more activity. So I think it's just we're gradually getting inserted into the algorithm of stuff. It's consistency. Like that's what YouTube likes. If we keep posting stuff a lot,

you can you can see unless you post Aml across the videos every day in which case they're not interested. All right. Yeah, but that is our that is sort of our dive on the volume 2 and volume 3 of Smart Avengers. You know, of course, Enoch said episode 52 is not out yet. It's a secret. We're not going to discuss it. Surely we aren't going to discuss who won. Nothing happened.

You just skip that one. Secret, yeah. The goal list of the Hobgoblin one again. So, yeah, now that you've heard all that, like, what was the most surprising thing that you heard from it? The Battle Toads is the most surprising thing. I am so confused about that. I don't know what it was.

I don't know if it's just people were like they were just searching Battle Todes and saw it. I don't know. I really don't know. Maybe we should just be a Battle Todes podcast. Yeah. Those iconic characters like Zits and rash and gonorrhea.

His name is Pimple. Please. The clap. No. You deliberately make it fun of the battle. You're going to scare off our viewers. viewers. You're making fun of the battle totes. That's right. To honor the battle toads. You'll be nice and battle toads. We'll never, we'll never make a living off of

this podcast if I piss off the Battletone fans. You could have to stop that after. We'll never make a living off this podcast. Yeah. And I guess that's a good way to just kind of put out that even though we are looking at our viewership and stuff, like this is really just for us and to have fun and just talk to each other about random stuff. Which is why we're not that annoyed that the Jizz episodes aren't doing super well.

Yeah, exactly. They're the funniest ones to make. We put a lot of effort into that jizz. Yeah. Exactly. John has eaten pineapple for months. Yeah. You don't have to eat it for months.

Just a couple of days. I mean. I mean, it's too late now. Yeah. We'll just keep eating pineapples. It's like the taste of pineapple. You know what I mean?

Well, is the pineapple he likes a taste of? Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. Right. Oh, God. All right. Is the thumbnail just going to be the three of? us eating pineapple?

Oh, no. Eating pineapple or eating something else? Volume four. You'll have to check out on a great note. All right. Well, so like you said, is there, it's just funny to me that I feel like the murder episodes are the ones that don't do as well, because I think that's just fun.

They're really fun to do. They're a lot of fun. The watchalongs I get, I really do. Aside from Battletodes, I totally understand why those are not. viewed as much. Yeah. But the kill ones, I really like doing them because you have to think a lot about how to, because they're supposed to be uncillable or

whatever. Like the Wolverine one, I was like, that's who was the one? Was it Wolverine where I was like these poor cement in his throat? Yes. Yeah. Well, that would kill him, wouldn't it? Like, that would do it. You know? The healing factor can't undo Wolverine. It can't undo cement. Can't see con. Yeah, it's just there. There it is. What are you going to do? you know. I like those ones, yeah.

I really like those ones. I'd like to do another one in the future. I think just that any sort of episode we do with interaction is probably the most fun to do. Like, whether it's the auction or coming to the conference, like we had to make our movie pitch and stuff. Like, that was just kind of fun to get involved in. Yeah. I like the ones where we do a deep dive on story,

but I also, like there's a part of me that worries about it. Because they're like, are we just, is it just like somebody reading too much? You know? Yeah. I mean, it is when it's about the flash. Yeah. Well, like, so I was thinking, like, when we were doing, like, the X-Men deep dives, and it's usually somebody, like, kind of just doing a run-through on it.

And I know that as, like, a participant in those conversations, it's sort of, like, where can I, like, jab in with something dumb to say? That's my job. Magneto gave us so many great options with getting turned into a fucking baby. Magneto, baby. And, like, his various love interests that he had, despite being a very old man. Like, wow. It's hope for all of us out there.

Magneto can still get, you know, you can still get laid after, you know, being around for the Holocaust. Well, it's part of it is it can attract the iron in people's blood so he can, like, physically attract people to him. Whatever you were going with that for a second. What do you want? I don't know. That's why I was wondering. You were waiting for like some kind of jazz punchline. I was waiting for something.

Sometimes it's just a wholesome show. Yeah, sometimes it's just sometimes Seaman is not involved. Which are the lowest rated episodes. Yeah. Speaking of Seaman, what do you think? Continue. Now that you can see all the thumbnails in front of me, Corey. Which one's your favorite?

Oh, my favorite thumbnail. I always really like the Cyclops one. I just like that kind of level of interaction. I love that one. I love the... It's not helpful when we're doing the retrospective, but I do love the talk about whatever's, and it's just like some random thing that's happening.

Those are always great, too. Yeah. Like, what did we even talk about here? Because when I saw the one of me and John skydiving, I was like, what were we talking about? And I was like, oh, that's what we were talking about? like the creature commandos and the Jason

Todd Dick Grayson movie they're making how it's getting involved puppets somehow yeah yeah it's Hardy Cameron's going to be in it yeah she's going to be there with the Mercedes Monet puppet yeah that's important it's crucial but she's over she's really over

so well I mean yeah I mean she was in that Star Wars show yes she was I think she was the mean Star Wars in it yeah she was the mean She was the Death Star. Yeah. But a hell of a role.

I don't know how she did it. Yeah. I mean, she disappeared into the part for sure. Incredible. She's battered this and we thought. Yeah, she is. All right. Well, do you guys have any other thoughts before we wrap this one up?

But it's good on us for going for a full year. Yes. Congratulations to all three of us. All four of us. Hey. Hey. I will say that I think that's been the kind of the enjoyable thing about this is like how consistent we've been with it. I mean, there's a period of time where we had like a month of episodes ahead of us.

And even now that because of like the holidays, we didn't get a chance to record as much. Even then, though, we still haven't missed any weeks. Yeah. So we've got to fall on straight. I like that we've got a bunch of different sort of gimmicks that we can keep going back to as well, like the auction or talking about the X-Men characters or, trying to kill a character. Yeah. Yeah.

Like, it feels good to have these things in the bank. But it's a different spin on things. Yeah. Well, yeah, and especially because, like, we are not a traditional comic book podcast and that we are not,

like, doing reviews of books all the time, you know, like we're not talking about current stuff that's happening in it. We're talking about sort of evergreen topics. So it makes, it makes getting, like,

episodes done ahead of time very easy to do. Yeah. Plus, like you said, yeah. Plus, you know, like you said,

like we have these games and stuff we can go back to whether it's the auctions or trivia or killing a character or a deep dive on the X-Men or you know if we could find something worth watching again we could always do another watch along even if they're not the most viewed episodes we do it's just fun to watch something make jokes about it yeah I've been wanting to do the Roger Corman Fantastic Four with you guys yeah especially now because Fantastic Four is in the news with the new trailer yeah And I love that movie as well. Really? Yeah. I saw it in the theater a couple years ago. I think it's the best big screen version of Dr. Doom. Well, the competition wasn't that hard. Now, was it.

So far. Yeah. He's going to come back. He'll be back. He will be back. Now, is he the villain? He's not the villain in the Fantastic Four movie. No.

I don't know. Well, I guess it's just Galactus who looks like is the only real villain and John Malkovich. He's always a villain. He is. Is he the moleman? They haven't actually announced who he is. Actually, now you mention it,

maybe he's Red Ghost. Yeah, yeah. I think that's probably the more likely option. That sounds like a joke thing to say because Red Ghost is a guy who can walk through walls and he has like monkeys and apes that are his henchmen, but I could see it. You can see Malcovich, like, just draw, like, cast-wise.

He looks like him. Yeah. He looks like the red ghost. That's fair enough. He doesn't have to be the monkeys, though. Well, all the monkeys aside for Mickey Dolans are dead, though. So you have to... Thank you, John.

Thank you for that. I enjoy a good pity chuckle from John every now and then. You can't see his face, but he's really just, like, looking totally disgusting of you. Probably. Shaking his head, like, what am I doing? Wasting my time on this. I could be talking about Magneto again. So, yeah, is Galactus, like, cast?

I'm sure they've not revealed who that is. No, no, they've revealed who it is. I think it's Ralph Innocon. Oh, interesting. who was in The Witch and just like a bunch of other movies you totally recognize him if you saw him

He's that that guy Yeah He's a big cloud Yep he's a giant cloud hurtling towards Earth Does that also mean there's a silver surfer Yes but instead of The traditional

Norrin Rad male silver surfer I think it's Whoever his girlfriend was in The Comics Okay The one who's like a fire lady? Because she was the other herald for Galactus. It was. Apparently it's Shala Bao.

Sure. Seanana. Yeah. The immortal emperance of Zendla and Lever of Naurin Rad. Oh, there you go. Yeah. All right. Well, I know.

we're going to this is kind of a behind the scenes thing we're going to be really recorded another episode after this do you want to save john's movie count for this or just make up a number yeah john make up a number that is not the actual number lower than the number that it currently is okay but higher than seven in that case uh i have watched a hundred and uh 30 movies so far this year there we go. So John, if people want to see what those 130 movies are and your reviews have said 130 movies, where can they find you? They can find me on Letterbox at Big John Bowsky, all one word.

And Dylan, sorry, dangerous Peter. What's going on in the world? What's going on in the world of Catholic Exploiting? Nothing. Leave me alone. Don't, don't come look at. Good for me. Just let me die in peace, please. I mean, I wouldn't want to go chasing after someone named Dangerous Peter. He's dangerous. He's very dangerous.

He's a loose cannon and he owns four guns. Oh, Jesus Christ. That's nothing in America. Tell me when you get eight. Well, we're not allowed eight because we have straight gun control laws over here. Not here. Right. That's the only amendment of the Constitution we ain't breaking these days. Well, think about that, man. I'm so dangerous. I don't even need a million guns. that just sounds like poor quality control

I think America needs to get better like what's the point of having 58 guns and you're not that dangerous man you know what you mean are you sure not that dangerous I'm saying I'm more dangerous than they are it's in my name it's right that's true dangerous Peter yeah all right shows up in the video but there's a little okay it will

if you're if you're listening to on Spotify you're not going to have any fucking clue we're talking about Go to YouTube. Go to YouTube. Check it on YouTube. And watch the Hot Bob on episode. These stats I gave you are not the Spotify numbers. These are just the numbers on YouTube.

Spotify don't show the numbers until you crack a thousand. Okay. So if you have four views, they won't show it. Well, no, but the RSS feed that we host our stuff on to show the numbers. Oh, is it four? No, it's a little more than four. Four and a half? All right.

I've got another show called Large Old Cup. It is a spoken word storytelling stream of consciousness podcast. It's usually about whatever is going on. I've gotten some really interesting and weird traction on that lately. So check that out. By the time you listen to this, we probably will have resurrected the Instagram account because that seems to help us get more views than Blue Sky,

that is for sure, sadly. So you can find us there at the Spark Avengers on Instagram. You can find us on Spark Avengers on Blue Sky. We're not going to Twitter, fuck that place. That's everything I got. You guys have anything else you want to contribute before we wrap it up? No, I don't think so. No.

Okay. Well, in that case, I hope you've enjoyed our brand new volume for episode one, all new creative team. It's not all new sighting characters. There's not going to be any. All new adventures. There might be a few. Goodbye. Bye.

Bye-bye. There it is. And strong.