The Weekly Planet - 2 Best & Worst Comic To TV Adaptations - Plus Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Discussion

Episode Date: October 8, 2013

Mr Sunday and Mason explore the best and the worst Comic Book to TV adaptations including Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D, The Walking Dead, Smallville, Arrow, Birds Of Prey plus some terrible ideas that never made it to air. Yet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Theme song. And they say that a hero can save us. I'm not going to stand here to wait. I'll hold on to the wings of an eagle. Watch as they all fly away. And they'll watch it. Sorry. It was good.

It was teamwork. Do you think that's a better theme song than last week's theme song? I think they're both the best theme songs. Do you think people will be impressed or annoyed? Annoyed. Cool. Welcome, everybody. Over the show.

Hello. Welcome to episode two of Comic Book Movie, the official... What are we called? The Weekly Planet, the official podcast of ComicBookMovie.com. Leave it in. Yeah. Who cares? So basically, thank you for coming back.

We really appreciate that. There were some noise issues with the last one, so if you sat through that and listened and responded, we really appreciate it. Don't we, Mason? No, we do. We love it. It's great. I love listeners.

My name's Mr. Sunday, junior editor at ComicBookMovie.com, and joining me this week is my co-host and friend, Nicholas Mason. Hello Nick. Welcome. Hi James. Hi friends. Hello the internet. It's good to be back. Okay, so basically this week we thought with the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. making its debut, we thought

maybe we could talk about comic book movie sorry, not comic book movie adaptations, comic book TV show adaptations and the benefits of that, say, as opposed to doing it through a movie or a different medium like radio? Oh, absolutely, yeah. Cool. Bring back the radio play. Never bring back the radio play.

You know, they do those in England. We should do a radio play. No. We probably shouldn't. No, that's a terrible idea. Doctor Who is big. They still do that. Do they get Matt Smith?

They get Paul McGann. The 90s movie Doctor Who. Yeah, the 90s movie Doctor Who. Wow. That's, he's got, you know, the fandom, they demand it. Is it set in that era of Doctor Who? You mean all time and space? Yes, it is.

Yeah. That was a dumb question. That was a really dumb question. Yeah. You fell right into that trap. I did. That. That was a dumb question. That was a really dumb question. Yeah. You fell right into that track. I did. That time track. God damn it.

Okay, so I thought maybe we could start off with talking about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and what we think of that show as of so far. Highly anticipated. Were you looking forward to it? Yes. Because I love Clark Gregg. Greg Clark. Yeah, Greg Clark.

Greg Clark. No research. Which one is it? It's Greg Clark. It's Clark Gregg. It definitely is. But three Gs. Not all together, though. What? It doesn't matter Greg Clark. Yeah. No research. Which one is it? It's Greg Clark. It's Clark Green. It definitely is. Three Gs. Not all together, though.

What? Doesn't matter. Okay. Yeah. So, yeah. So, you're obviously looking forward to it. I was looking forward to it. I was a bit underwhelmed by some of the promo stuff.

That being said, I thought it was a pretty good debut. Yes, I did. It's the Bring the Team Together episode. Sure. So, I don't know. I'm always a little underwhelmed by the team. Whenever you see a team show and they bring them together, they can't bust out all their quirks at once.

Do you think they should bring them together or just be like, this is the team, let's just start like this? Do you think it would have been better to do it like that? I think bringing the team together is a cliche, but you're going to... Although the team was pretty much all together with the addition, you know, they just have to add. That's true. New guy.

New guy. Sassy girl? Oh, sassy girl and new guy. Oh, they added two. You're right. You got me. So they added new guy who, he doesn't work well in the team. Just quietly, just quickly.

Do you know anybody other than Phil Coulson? Do you know anybody else's name yet? Ming-Na Wen. That's her name. Voice of Milan. Oh, you mean in the show? Yeah, yeah? In the character? No, I don't know. Have they yet to grow on us and we love them like family?

I think so, yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah, look. John Chisel is the main guy's name. He's very chiseled. He's so chiseled. Yeah, good on him. But all in all, it's kind of good how it ties in. Do you think they laid it a bit thick on mentioning things in the Avengers and Iron Man and all that kind of stuff?

Or do you think they would have that right kind of balance? No, I think the balance was right. I think any less, and I think you'd wonder what world they were playing in. There are a lot of generic superhero universes out there, and I think they needed little clips of the Avengers. They needed the... So you mentioned, oh, the craziest thing, what used to be a Mad Men and Iron Suit.

Like, they had to throw those little kind of clips in. That was a line, right? That was definitely a line, sure. Yeah. No, I think the balance was about right they had to you know the Extreme Soldier

serum was a nice touch yeah what did you think of that did you think that was a good addition well it is I saw people on go and go oh Extremis again oh come on get over it

or whatever well I guess if Iron Man isn't around he's not well he's around he just leaves the room in every scene that's unfortunate wow he's missing out on a not. Well, he's around. He just leaves the room in every scene. That's unfortunate.

Wow, he's missing out on a lot. He sure is. He's busy. I think, you know, one person with that power where there are no Iron Man or no Thor around,

he's going to be trouble. So I think... Do you think he'll be a recurring character, though? Well, he is one of Joss Whedon's... Best friends? Yeah, one of his best friends.

Well, he was in Angel. Okay. See, I never saw Angel. Did you watch Angel? Yes. How do you think it stacks up against Angel? Every one of our listeners. Every one of our listeners.

Buffy, Angel, maybe Dollhouse. Castle. Firefly. Castle, definitely Castle. The one, Bones? That guy's in Bones, isn't he? No. He is the guy from Angel.

Oh, he is. No, you're right. Okay, yeah. Okay. They went on police procedurals. That's weird. I've never seen that show. Any of those shows? No. He is the guy from Age of Ultron. Oh, he is. No, you're right. Okay, yeah. Okay. They went on police procedurals. That's weird. I've never seen that show. Any of those shows?

No. I've seen Castle. Yeah. It's okay, I think. There's a comic book based on it. Do you know that? Ooh. Yeah.

Should we get it? No. Should we read it to the listeners and explain the panels? We definitely should do that. No, I'm against movie adaptations. I'm against racism. Yeah.

Sorry. Sorry. Wow. Continue. You've made me look quite the fool with my being against

certain comic books. Oh dear. Yeah. Where were we? What do you think of it comparatively to his other series? So say,

let's go back to Buffy. Did you enjoy Buffy? Very much so. Yeah. Buffy was Buffy was going through Buffy was Buffy was going through Buffy and her team

were going through high school as I was going through high school oh okay cool same year so I always imagined myself

as part of the Scooby gang is that what they called them in the show yeah they were see that's another point is that why she's

in the Scooby Doo movie yeah maybe yeah that's a good point that's a great point Buffy and Angel and Firefly and I didn't say Dollhouse, but... I think I saw the first two.

Right. Well, they... Joss Whedon, in his writing, has always been quite genre savvy. Yeah. So the teens who fight monsters and solve mysteries... Super teens. Yeah, will call themselves the Scoobyoby gang because they know what kind of they know what genre

they're in so it's not like in The Walking Dead where they're like we're going to stop these walking flesh eating something

whatever they are whatever they are I've never seen this before in any kind of recorded media it's short of the only really super popular

zombie movie where they say zombie World War Z do they? very briefly yeah are they like in World War Z I like World War Z you like World War Z? Very briefly, yeah. Ah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are they like, in World War Z,

which I like World War Z, you like World War Z? Yes. That was cool. But better than it should have been, that's for sure. But it, do they know that,

you know what, doesn't matter. I'm just going to take that bit out. They'll take the whole thing out. But yeah, no, they're very genre savvy and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

sort of continues that theme where, you know, Coulson will jump out of the shadows and it'll be a dramatic moment and then he'll undercut it by saying, hey, there was a bulb out. I enjoyed that.

Yeah, exactly. Spoiler alert, anybody, possibly for the future. There was a bulb out, guys. Spoiler alert. Do you think he's an LMD? A life model decoy? Oh, okay. That's a popular theory.

Yes. Okay. I would be very disappointed if he is yep now you know why

would that be though well because I I'd be disappointed because it's not him okay like it's but aren't they exact

duplicates so isn't it essentially him well physically they are but you know even if his mind has been copied in the actual the actual Coulson is dead.

I mean, he's a fictional guy. Oh, is he? Yeah. But if that's the case, then he's dead. Or if he's a clone, again, original Coulson dead. So I would be disappointed in those two. Maybe that's kind of a red herring, where he won't. Because Joss Whedon

seems like he's smart enough where he wouldn't put that clue in and then it would just lead directly to that him being an LMD. I'm okay with clone body

and his old brain put in. I'm okay with LMD with his brain put in. I'm okay with him turning out to be the Vision in the future.

Synthozoic of the Vision. Wouldn't that be a weird it would be such a weird twist the Vision's kind of serious and stoic and Coulson's not really like that is he? no hidden programming

I don't know anyway there were some mock-ups released a while back on the internet of Clark Greger's Vision yeah great Clark

I'm sorry keep me speaking yeah I I think again I think Whedon is savvy enough that he

he knows Whedon knows the rule which is no one ever really dies in comics that's true everybody appears to die but they never actually die yep

bringing someone physically back from the dead is a no go for the most part. Yeah, fair point. So, he's not going to be dead, but I think perhaps... There'll be some kind of twist where he's not.

Somebody had to go on a... They haven't built the Marvel Universe sort of underworld yet, so nobody can go down to hell no and retrieve it do you think they're going to get to that because they've introduced a little bit of magic with Thor

but even then they're like it's also science so do you think they're going to go full magic well they're going to because they're going to do what's his name

Doctor Strange and they can't be like that's science it's just flat out magic yeah exactly where were we yeah okay I think as far as

the show goes it seems like a pretty strong start. I don't think I enjoyed it as much as the Firefly pilot. And I never really saw Buffy, so I think it's one of those things that's of the time, isn't it? So if I went back and watched it, it would be kind of... Do you think I would not enjoy it? It is a little bit.

It's quite 90s. If you go back and watch an individual episode, it's a little bit. Yeah. A little bit 90s. A little bit. It's quite 90s. If you go back and watch an individual episode, it's a little bit. Yeah. A little bit 90s. A little bit. I'm doing a really 90s gesture. You can't see it.

It's just a finger. It's just a finger. No, it's not. It's so 90s. Yeah, I really enjoyed it as a pilot. Like her? I'm on board for that. That's the classic 1960s S.H.I.E.L.D.

sort of wacky gadget. Like Nick Fury back in the day and Nick Fury Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. There was a lot of ray guns and teleportation devices and quick-removing disguising masks. And yeah, the flying car with the rotating wheels is kind of...

It's a callback to that. Yeah, it is. That was pretty cool. So I think, yeah, good start. 22 episodes. That's going to be on a while. I thought maybe when

they do the mid-season break in the American summer. Sorry, American summer. American winter. It'll be our summer. Because it's different here, isn't it, the weather? It sure is.

So, yeah, maybe we'll do like a mid-season kind of wrap-up where we'll do a show and we'll talk about how we think that's been going. We'll see if the lead guy becomes a character and not just a guy who doesn't work well in teams,

but he's being put in a team. Ah, do you think he will? I think he'll learn to get along with other members of the team. What a journey that will be. Oh, it'll be such a good journey. Cool. Okay, well, look, I thought maybe we could also talk about other successful, recent comic

book TV adaptations. Three big ones I've got down here. Birds of Prey. I'm kidding. It was awful. But I... Mutant X. Also awful.

Is that... That's a Marvel-owned thing, though, isn't it? Yeah, it is. I suspect... That it's terrible? Yeah, no, I don't... I know that. I've seen it.

That's not suspicious okay Birds of Prey and Mutant X hate watches for me I'm sure I watch most of the episodes and I hate it

every single second I think so all of Birds of Prey there wasn't that many episodes was she Catwoman's daughter as well Batman and Catwoman's daughter I can't remember

she had vague powers didn't she they all had very vague powers we'll get to that Alfred was in it do we have to get to it no we don't. No.

Well, in Birds of Prey one of the characters was, I guess, Black Canary's daughter and she had very vaguely defined mental powers. So, whatever... Not mental problems.

No, she had... Well, you know. But, whatever. It was one of those scenarios where she was sort of the... She was the... When the writers

painted themselves into a corner, she would suddenly develop a new power. Like, if she was sort of the... When the writers painted themselves into a corner, she would suddenly develop a new power. Like, if she was trapped in some sort of cell and the key was just over there, all of a sudden she had telekinesis. That's very convenient. It's incredibly convenient.

That actually, I think, spun out of, and I'm going to talk about this later, I'm going to do a Bruce Wayne or Batman-esque TV series. Which they didn't end up doing because they rebooted Batman when Batman Begins. So I think they just went, well, we've got to do a Bruce Wayne or Batman-esque TV series. Which they didn't end up doing because they rebooted Batman for Batman Begins. So I think they just went, well, we've got to do something. Let's just make the worst show ever. Yeah, exactly.

We have some of the licenses. We can't say Batman in the same sentence, but, you know. But Mutant X, I feel, and this is probably on the internet somewhere, I feel it's one of the cases where, much like Sony has to keep making Spider-Man movies in order to retain the license, Marvel had to keep a hold of the trademark mutants in TV

series, so they just made a show called Mutants. And that blocks, well, could block anybody from using that. I guess so, yeah. How is mutant trademarks, though? Did Marvel invent that? That's not a term Marvel invented. No, it's not. Temptation has been a thing obviously.

But how would they, it's like saying we own the word bread. Like it's kind of, well not the same as that but you know what I mean. Disney might own the word bread.

They have a lot of money. So, watch out for X-Bread. But yeah, I thought, sorry, getting back to the three most popular.

Walking Dead, you see much of that? Half the first episode. Half the first episode. See, I would say for Walking Dead you see much of that half the first episode half the first episode see I would say for Walking Dead I'm a big fan of the comics I've read

I'm probably a few wishes behind but I'm mostly up to that actually I'm probably like 10 or 15 behind but I think I'm such an expert on comics

you're the worst you're one of the worst comic fans and worst people but continue oh Jesus okay so The Walking Dead I thought it started really well first two episodes are great You're one of the worst comic fans at worst, people. But continue. Oh, Jesus. Okay, so The Walking Dead, I thought it started really well. First two episodes are great.

The rest of first season, not so great. Season two, most of it set on a farm. Define not so great. It's not so great as in it kind of sets up this amazing premise, and then it just kind of goes round in circles. And, you know what, it's been like three years or maybe two years since I've seen it and I just remember

being very underwhelmed with the direction they went with it the characters being nonsensical and that steps up more in season two because it's

essentially the whole it's the first season six episodes season two is longer I can't remember but that's all set on a farm and it's

literally people on a farm for X's literally people on a farm for X amount of time and I stopped watching it because I'm like this is a very it just dips in no

the boredom level on that show and I know there's a lot of people out here who love that show but that season is just it's a tough watch hence why I stopped watching it

knew that they were going to do The Prison in season 3 came back then season 3 big improvement. Rubbish finale. Interesting. Yeah. Has it diverged from the comics a lot?

In a big way. Character deaths. Yeah. Even certain characters in it that don't appear in the comics or when they pop up. But it's basically, it pretty much follows the basic story arc. The first big thing where they go to, you know, they go to the farm and then they end up going to the prison and then spoiler alert if you haven't read the comics,

they leave the prison when the governor attacks. I don't know if you're familiar with that. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Governor Schwarzenegger, yeah. Scary. He is. He's a terrifying human being. What was I going to say? When the governor attacks, the governor is then killed and then they move on to a different place. But the governor attacks, the governor's then killed,

and then they move on to a different place. Interesting. But it seems like because the prison, I think, is the most exciting part of the comic, or one of the strongest aspects of the comic, the governor is also probably one of the best villains, if not the best villain, so instead of killing the governor, they kind of do this weird cop-out, and then he'll be back in the next season. And they stay at the prison.

Which I guess is fine, but it built to this big finale that then didn't pay off in any way. Speaking of, Smallville. Okay. Are you familiar with the finale of Smallville? Yes. Where they barely show him in the suit and cape and whatever. And a lot of people were really annoyed by that.

I didn't watch Smallville all the way through. I stopped because... And I know people will probably hate me for this, Smallville's not very good. There are elements that are really good. I know there are specific seasons, specific episodes that are good. But as in general, it's a really long, drawn out teen saga where he doesn't get the way that he develops his powers and he doesn't use things and he kind of finding out who he is. And every other superhero in that world comes in and is like, I'm already Aquaman, look at me go.

And Clark's like, oh, I don't know, what should I do? You know, that's what annoyed me about that show. Good Lex Luthor, though. Very good, yes. Yeah, I don't know. I watched the first season of that fairly religiously. And then when it became clear it was... Not going anywhere. Not going, but it was very Monster of the Week. Yeah,, fairly religiously. And then when it became clear it was... Not going anywhere.

Not going, but it was very Monster of the Week. Yeah, it was, yeah. It was Monster of the Week, and in contrast to a genre-savvy show like Buffy or what Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to be, they never figured out the pattern. No. Like, it was always like,

oh, this person's been killed as if by a pack of wolves. Maybe it's that kid, the weird kid who has all the wolves and carries that green thing around his neck and maybe he's suddenly gained the ability to turn into a wolf. Because remember last week? With the bug man? With the bug man, because it was a bug man and he had the power of bugs because of the green rock. Maybe that's happened again. But usually it didn't turn out to be.

No. No, it didn't. It was always that. But they never figured it out. No. And apparently, you know, the succeeding seasons broke from that formula. Yeah.

But still. And then Lex Luthor left. Uh-huh. Lana Lang left, which I don't think people really cared about. Also, they spent so much of that, like you know, like Clark and Lana. Will they get together?

What's going to happen? Anybody who knows anything about Superman knows that that, like Clark and Lana. Will they get together? What's going to happen? Anybody who knows anything about Superman knows that that's not going to happen. Not in the long term, anyway. So why spend so much time on developing something that, A, is boring, B, we know where it's got to go? You might say that about Shakespeare, James. I do say that about Shakespeare. Wow.

Wow. about Shakespeare, James. I do say that about Shakespeare. Wow. Although, Smallville, and I did go back, I dipped back in briefly in later seasons, the Clark Kent-Lois Lane proposal

is probably the best version of that you will see. Oh, really? What's that? I don't know what that is. Can you do it? Not do it. Can you act it out for me?

I'm on one day right now. No, just watch it. It's on YouTube. Just check it out. It's quite moving. Does he get home and he throws a ring at her and he's just like, let's do this, baby it out it's quite moving does he get home and he throws a ring at her and he's just like

let's do this baby yeah exactly yeah he just bit a coal and he crushes it into a dime and he flicks it

through her head it's disturbing that is the best proposal I've ever heard but yeah obviously it has its place and it's continuing in the comics

because I know that the next season of Smallville is in comic form and it continues continuing in the comics because I know that the next season of Smallville is in comic form. And it continues the adventures of Clark Kent as Superman. Never read it. Not gonna read it. Read it?

I'm not gonna read it. You've never been on Reddit. No. Also, does he have the underpants or not the underpants? That's a really good question. I think he does because my understanding is in the last episode where he puts on the suit and you sort of see him in it. It's the Superman Returns-esque suit. Oh, I see, right. So it's got that kind of emblem and whatnot.

And I know Batman's in it. Oh, he's not? No, he is. In the comic? Yes! Oh, I thought you meant the show. Well, that makes sense. I know they didn't want to put Batman in, I think.

I think they might have even had the rights to Bruce Wayne, though I might be wrong, and they didn't end up using him because he's... There was a character early on in the series, and I think his name was Adam Knight, which is clearly code for Batman. It is. And he was this kind of crime-solving,

kind of teen guy who was good at karate. And everybody sort of assumed he was going to be Bruce Wayne travelling the country in search of skills. Oh, he's a different name. Yeah, but then it turned out he was just a guy who was good at karate. So, it's pretty great. That's still pretty impressive. It is, isn't it?

Yeah, I'm rubbish at karate. I would say my karate skills are limited at best. Wow. Yeah. But, yeah, I've got another one on here. No underpants. Wait. So, we're just looking. He's got underpants there, I've got another one on here. No underpants. Wait. So we're just looking.

He's got underpants there. I can see. No one on the right. I think we should make a rule in this show where during the show we don't look up anything. We just take an educated guess. Yeah, okay, good. And then let people fire aggressive responses at us. That sounds fantastic.

All right. Yep. And also no underpants talk. No underpants. That's probably the best. So this is it forever. Okay, good. Okay, also No Underpants talk. No Underpants. So this is it forever. Okay, good. Okay, great.

Arrow. Speaking of No Underpants. Yes. Have you seen much of Arrow? Not a single second of it. Do you have any desire to see Arrow? It seems a bit. Here's my problem with a lot of WBCW programming.

There's too many good ones. Hard to choose. Exactly. I've only got 24 hours in a day and some of that I need to sleep. So I just put the headphones in and I turn the brightness all the way down and I just listen. Cool.

But the problem I have with those shows is I find every actor on board a little bit generic. It's always the standard CW actor where I feel you could line up the guy that played Aquaman in Smallville. Aquaman? With an O?

Yeah, Aquaman with an O. God. And you could line up the guy, the main guy, Oliver Queen and Arrow. Yeah. And, you know... Any generic... Any of the generic... Squint your blonde guy.

Yeah, exactly. And I would never be able to tell them apart. All right, we'll set that up. Please, blind test. I'll do it. Whatever, man. Look, would never be able to tell them apart. All right, we'll set that up. Please, blind test. I'll do it. Whatever, man. Look, I think it's actually an okay show. I would say it's...

I don't know if I enjoy it more than the other two, but I think they've got some element of the character right. It's essentially what it really boils down to. It's kind of Batman-esque Christopher Nolan, dark, gritty, sort of 90210, sort of that kind of mix together. And it sort of works. They kind of resolve things in a little way. I think the main generic square-jawed blonde gentleman, I think that's his name, I think he's pretty good,

especially in the combat, and it's quite good what they do with him. It's kind of that Arkham City kind of fighting style, it looks like, that kind of ripped from. Now he's a man who habitually fires really sharp arrows at people. And into.

Is there any blood? I don't think there's a lot of blood but people, he kills a few people. Okay, that's alright. So it's not like shoots with an arrow

and then he's like oh, it's a trick arrow. Yeah, I was going to say actually about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. combat, quite good. Yeah, it was that thing where at the start where the guy beats up that guy in the apartment or whatever. Or those guys in the apartment.

And then I liked the bit when they talk to him over the radio and they're like, heads up, there's people coming. And he's like, in the middle of a fight. That was quite funny. So Arrow. Arrow, yeah, look, I think I'll watch season two. I think if you don't want to watch it, I don't think you're missing anything. But I'm still not sure whether they would even work that into the DC movies.

I don't think they will. I think they want to keep that separate. But I think if you did put him in, there would be a way to make it work. I know they're putting The Flash in season two of Arrow as well. And not like a guy who's... Super fast, but he never says the word Flash. Yeah, but literally The Flash. And they make sort of a bleak reference.

Like, that guy left in a flash, didn't he? No. Yeah, so I think it's literally in a flash. Which one? I think it's Barry Allen. I might be wrong. Let's not look it up.

Let's never look it up. Why would we? Could be. I'm going to say it's Wally West. Doesn't matter. No, that's pretty good. It's also often

a really old assortment of guest characters in these kind of shows. Like Smallville had Martian Manhunter and it had Black Canary. Oh, Martian Manhunter. Yeah. Well, it had John Jones. I don't think they ever said Martian Manhunter.

Okay. But, yeah, so Black Canary and... And Hawkman. And Stargirl, I think. Stargirl. Stargirl. Yeah. Well, I guess you're limited by who you can pull from or who they'll let you pull from.

I guess there's probably like a bucket at DC Editorial and it's just whatever we're not using and you draw from the bucket. Is that the same bucket they spit into? It is, yeah. Yeah, the character spittoon. It really is. And I think this is an upcoming season

and Deathstroke the Terminator is going to be? Yeah, well, Deathstroke's been in season one. Have they said his name? Is he Slade Wilson? He's Slade Wilson. I can't remember whether they've actually said Deathstroke, but he's got the full costume. Is he missing an eye?

Yeah, he's missing an eye. Hello. Yeah, I can't remember how that happens. Is he superpowered or is he just a regular guy? He looks like a regular guy, yeah. Okay, all right. But I don't know. They haven't really touched on superpowers yet.

The first thing will be, I would say the first look at that will be The Flash. I'm guessing I can't read the future. You can a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't want to... No, don't brag. Save it for later episodes.

It's a bit embarrassing. It is, isn't it? But look, again, I wouldn't say I love any of those shows. A lot of them, most of them I can take or leave. Even though I've watched all of Arrow, I've watched most of Walking Dead. I didn't watch a love any of those shows. A lot of them, most of them, I can take or leave. Even though I've watched all of Arrow, I've watched most of Walking Dead. I didn't watch a lot of Smallville. But if they cancelled them, I would sleep very well at night.

Not like, thank God they cancelled them, but I don't care. But do you think, though, there is something to be said for making comic book adaptations into TV shows? Would you prefer to see more of that? Less? The same amount? 20%? 80%? 33%? 42%?

None of it. One of those options. I like stuff on the television. It's good. It's interesting. It is, yeah. I want to see more. I think this method

of big budget movies and then a smaller budget kind of spin-off. That's what they're doing to Dark Tower when they ever get that off the ground, even though they're placing a book. So forget I said that. We're not talking about books here.

Let's talk about books. There's too many words. I'm sick of books. Are you good? Yeah. Good. Good for nerds also. They are for nerds, that's right.

Cut that, books. I don't know. I mean, the the advantages and again I think I've touched on this earlier is that it gives you a chance to more fully realise

storylines that perhaps you wouldn't see like that's true we're never gonna again every fourth Spider-Man movie

is gonna be an origin movie I can't wait and every every Batman every fourth Batman every fourth Superman is gonna be an origin again and again and again we wait. And every Batman, every fourth Batman, every fourth Superman is going to be an origin again and again and again.

We're never going to get to the, you know, we're never going to get into any of those deep story cuts. Like, say, Batman 10 years down the line or whatever. I think that's what

the new Batman's going to be. Forget I said anything there. But there's a lot of, like, if you remember the animated X-Men cartoon. Yeah, great show. That every conceivable X-Men storyline,

they managed to squeeze in there because they had the time. They did, yeah. That was a really well-made show. Well, for the time, right? I guess so. There was that and the Batman one, I'd say probably the stand-up ones from the 90s. But we're not here to talk about cartoons,

because they're for nerds. Oh, no. But I love... Oh. But yeah, really good point. You're right, you can do an entire

story arc as opposed to you get an Iron Man film one year, you wait two or three years you get another Iron Man film because you can

kind of do a lot with it because it's week to week. But the problem is obviously for a lot of it budget. How do you make...

That's why Smallville looks like shit. No, that's fine. But how do you make a big budget thing that looks not terrible? Full-blown superhero epic. Walking Dead's a bit different. Obviously, there's a lot that goes into that. A lot of CGI, a lot of puppetry, a lot of animatronics, a lot of makeup. Puppetry.

They've got puppets, I'm sure. Okay. I'm not looking it up. No, why would you? But I feel despite the fact that animation is for nerds, as we've just established, the budget effectively is unlimited. That's very true. Because you can draw one man or

10,000 and it's essentially the same price. Yeah, you're right. So, I don't know. Well, DC, I think, are well ahead as well in the animated movie departments. The ones I've seen, well, not all of them, a lot of them. And then most of them are pretty good. Marvel ones, not so much. I mean, I know there was that anime Wolverine where he's all reedy and skinny and he's in Japan. And from what I've seen of it, not good in any way.

Right, good. But tell me I'm wrong. You're wrong. I'm not going to watch it or look up any details, but you are wrong. Yeah. Look, I'd like to see more of it, but yeah, I think the budget thing limits a lot what you can do well. Yeah.

Which is why you do Arrow, because Arrow's just a guy. And I find costume especially is a... I mean, when you think of the Man of Steel costume or even the... I think of it all the time. I know you do. Or even the Superman Returns costume. There's so much tiny little detail. It's kind of like this very fine sort of tessellated material.

And then you look at Dean Cain. Yeah, exactly. Which is very spandexy really low neck on that one have you noticed the necklines

of like his nipples wow well that was you know the 90s isn't that now isn't that how

cool people wear their t-shirts yeah scoop neck he was ahead of his time he was Kryptonian fashion was way ahead

of its time and now he's dead he's not there to us yeah he is dead yeah yeah no but a lot of a lot of It was way ahead of its time. And now he's dead. He's not dead. To us. Yeah, he is dead, yeah. Yeah, no, but a lot of sort of CW kind of costuming does look kind of metallic-y, spandex kind of stripper clothes,

to be honest. I think the Arrow costume's quite good, though it's got just basically a leather outfit and a leather hood. But sometimes in the show, he paints like a green strip across his eyes and he has a voice changing thing

which I know you would love because you love the Batman voice I don't it's the worst voice it's embarrassing for everyone it's quite

I think they did that as a response to we can't make him talk in a dumb voice right so that's how they did it so you know there's elements of that show

which work yeah that's isn't life it. So there's elements of that show which work. Yeah, that's... Isn't life interesting? It is, isn't it? Yeah, just the way it ebbs and flows. Yeah, look, I think maybe we'll probably see more of what's happening with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., though, where you've got your movies and you've got those tied throughout.

But my problem, or my potential problem with something like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Z, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Z? With a Z? Yeah, they've all got shields. Okay. Didn't you say at the end of the first episode they crack open the box and they all get a

shield? I think I closed my eyes at that point. Oh, right. Well then, yeah. Because I didn't want to know what was in the box. Yeah, they all got Captain America shields. It was great. But with their faces on them.

That's nice, isn't it? Yeah, it's so good. Welcome to the team kind of thing. Welcome to the club, yeah, exactly. Great. That's really cool. But I think the movies, the Marvel movies's going to hit all the major points, all the big things going to happen,

and then the S.H.I.E.L.D. team is going to be dealing with the little stuff that maybe we don't so much care about. The mop-up, which I know that's what it is. Are you familiar with damage control? I'm familiar with the term. Right, well, in the 80s, 90s, it's still around. Actually, I know this, so I keep going. They still make occasional appearances. They are sort of a company.

They're a construction company and their job is to rebuild New York. Are they? Is it DC? Their job is to rebuild New York every time all the superheroes and villains destroy it. I would like to see them make an appearance anywhere. Is it just like surly construction workers? Pretty much. Oh, oh, bloody hell.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. This bloody whatever. Iron Man. More like Iron Jerk. Exactly. That's my New York accent. That's great. You've offended everyone we had left.

It's great. No, it was a very funny series. Cool. Well, maybe they'll work that into this. I hope so. They won't, but I'd like to see them do that. Yeah.

But I think maybe that's a way to go. I mean, maybe DC will... There's a few upcoming shows, actually, that have just recently been

announced. I think we talked about this briefly last week. Commissioner Gordon TV series. Uh-huh, sure. Prequel.

Uh-huh. I'm not sure if it would tie into the movies. I would say it probably wouldn't, or would kind of loosely tie in the way that it would kind of loosely tie in

the way that Smallville kind of loosely tied in the Superman Returns, very loosely sure yeah, what do you think of that? I... do you think it takes all the least interesting, not the least interesting, because he's a great character but do you think it takes all the kind of

I don't know, the element of like wackiness out of Batman? Well, there's not going to be any costume villains because in this sort of universe, I mean, it's not been explicitly said, but I think in this universe, all the costume crazies have come out of the woodwork because of Batman. Because Batman's put on a costume, they're like, well, now it's my time to shine also. And hence why they all fuck off when he retires yeah exactly

yeah I don't know I mean Gotham Central was a series about the people the cops of Gotham oh the comic yeah Gotham was not

really in it no so much but it was interesting but again there were some costume villains to spice it up

and make it different from a police procedural I don't know how that's said at the same time, though, isn't it? Yes, it is. That's what's said at the break. Yeah, yeah. So I...

Look, I'm cautiously optimistic about that. When you say it's been announced, is it just a concept? No, I think they're moving forward with it. And it's weird because they announced it, I think, the same day, if not very close to when Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. came out. So everyone's talking about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Then they're like, guess what? Everyone's favourite cop. Imagine when he.E.L.D. came out. So everyone's talking about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and they're like, guess what? Everyone's favourite cop. Imagine when he's 22 at college.

That sounds very panicked counter-programming. That seems to be DC's kind of approach. Well, we've got... Do you like the newsroom? Well, Perry White in secondary school. Junior editor of the paper. Junior editor of the paper. Junior editor of the paper, yeah, it's great. He's going to solve mysteries, I think.

Played by Lawrence Fishburne still. Oh, definitely. As a high school kid. Yes, absolutely. So, yeah, I feel... I'm not sure that... What's going to distinguish it from a regular police procedural? That's a very good question.

I don't think anything. So you think if they took out the word Gotham, took out Commissioner Gordon, then it could just be any gritty cop show? It could be literally anything. Unless they... I don't know, unless... they add, like...

maybe colourful mob bosses or something? Like they add black marks? Like Dick Tracy. Like a Dick Tracy. Like a flat top, or a prune face, or, um... mumbles. 88 keys. I could go on.

I won't. Why do you know so many Dick Tracy villains? I don't know. Yeah. Warren Beatty was pissed that they didn't make a sequel to that, because they promised him a sequel. And then a few years ago, he took a legal action. But then everybody said, shut up, Warren Beatty. Come on, Warren Beatty.

You're not famous anymore. It's been several decades. Yeah. It's probably a reason they didn't make a sequel to that. Al Pacino doesn't want to do it again. He's in that, isn't he? Yeah. Come on, Warren Beatty. You're not famous anymore. It's been several decades. Yeah. It's probably a reason they didn't make the sequel to that. Al Pacino doesn't want to do it again. He's in that, isn't he? Yeah.

The first Dick Tracy. Yep. I haven't seen that in so long. He's Big Boss. Big Brom. Yes. Good. I haven't seen that movie

in maybe 15 years, so I couldn't tell you anything about that. You should tell people and stuff, anyone. Okay. Basically, it starts... No.

Yeah, so... Constantine also just announced Constantine TV series, which throws out... We were talking about Constantine last week, the movie, and I said, or we were saying how the movie as in general is not that bad, considering everything that it changes about the law. But Constantine TV series, do you think that would be good? How are they going to make it different from Supernatural? They're going to make it exactly the same. They've come out and said that. Same characters, same names, same actors.

Wow, interesting. No, I don't know. Well, it's very, very early days. I'm on board with any kind of paranormal show, but again, I don't know. I think they would have to introduce some sort of DC elements. Okay, yeah.

Like Etrigan, the demon, any kind of... You know, it'd need a decent supporting cast that we recognise. Again, otherwise it's just... Like the Justice League Dark, maybe, if you remember those. Yes, perhaps. Yeah. You know there was a Swamp Thing TV show in, like, the 80s? I think I've seen the VHS cover, sure.

Is it... Oh, I was going to say, is it good? Is the cover of that VHS good? Yeah, it's so good. It looks very accurate. Very accurate. I'd like to know what that's like. I bet it's the worst. Yeah, I can going to say, is the cover of that VHS good? Yeah, it's so good. It's very accurate. Very accurate. I'd like to know what that's like. I bet it's the worst. Yeah, I can imagine. But look, I don't know if it's an excellent idea.

I think he's a good character, but Gilmero del Toro wanted to do a Dark Justice League movie. He's been talking about that for a while. Things seemed like it was moving ahead, and now that they're making this, I'm not sure how that affects that. It seems to me unclear at this point, are DC going to tie their TV shows in,

or are they going to do it separate? It's a separate thing. Well, they've never really, aside from that, this very vague Superman Returns Smallville thing you've mentioned. Which may just be in my head. Yeah, and I think Superman Returns has been swept under the rug. Not in our hearts, though. No, definitely not. I've, I don't

feel any connection between any DC movies. Marvel, I think, there's that shared universe, but again, if they're going to reboot Batman again, and put him in the Man of Steel universe, then it's a new universe again. I don't feel they're going to put him in a new universe.

Yeah, because they don't seem to make any kind of effort in that regard. So yeah, do you think there's so far what have been your favourite comic book based TV shows?

I know you loved Human Target which I've never seen. I loved season one of Human Target. Yeah. There were two seasons. Season one is

I think very good. Yeah. Season two, awful. Even better. No, it's awful. But it's the same cast and everything right it follows on

doesn't it are they connected no there's what I find interesting is I think the first one was quite gritty and

quite dark and he had a lot of the main character had a lot of and again it is quite it is actually quite different

from the comic book series because he doesn't change his appearance no the original human target. Because he doesn't change his appearance. No, the original Human Target was a guy who would change his appearance. He was a bodyguard who would take on the appearance of... Henry Human Target. Yeah, Henry Human Target, exactly. He would take on the appearance of the person he was protecting and become them.

Like The Saint. Yeah. The movie The Saint with Val Kilmer. Don't remember it. Sorry. Until the bad guy struck and then he would die but I guess

in a in a TV situation it would become increasingly unrealistic as how is he going to dress

as a woman is he going to dress as a does he do that in the comic no I don't think he does that's disappointing

yeah so he only protects men I guess so sexist of the same height and build yeah but it was

it was good and it was gritty it had Jackie O'Haley as one of his he's great he's great at everything and the the combat was really good

yeah and so on and so forth but second season I think didn't they retool it or something the whole thing was retooled what

he got the characters got backed by like a an uptight billionaire or something like that. What was interesting is all their financial woes were gone. So that takes the element of are we going to be here next week?

A lot of the hand-to-hand combat got a lot worse. They started CGI-ing all the muzzle flashes on the guns. That never looks good. There's a billion YouTube videos that have. See, that never looks good. It looks terrible. There's a billion YouTube videos that have that, and none of them look good. How expensive could blanks possibly be?

And what the... I think the production team knew because the millionaire's name is Poochie. Like from The Simpsons. Like from The Simpsons. And they totally Poochied the show up, and they added a character named Poochie, and I think... For those unfamiliar, Itchy and Scratchy Show, is that... Yeah, they added an additional character named Poochie. A radical 90s character named Poochie and I think... For those unfamiliar, Itchy and Scratchy Show, is that...

Yeah, they added an additional character named Poochie. A radical 90s dog called Poochie. Yeah, that ruined it. Well, I bet that's not a mistake. No, that's deliberate surely. There you go. I don't think I actually have a favourite comic book TV show. Again, I watch a lot of them, but I wouldn't, like I said...

Your heart's full of hate. So much hate. So much. I think I could die at any minute oh boy yeah I thought maybe also

I could run you through some or is there anything else you want to say about comic book movies before we move on to something else nah speaking of comic book TV just

that's it just shut up change the subject idiot what's wrong with you there's I don't want to run this show. You run this show. I'm running.

I'm trying. Okay, good. I'm trying my best. I'm not good at this, all right? My first day. Second day. You've never used a computer before. I've never seen a computer.

That's swell. Yeah, there's been a ton of proposed comic book TV shows over the years. I'm sure you're familiar with a bunch of them. I thought maybe we'd run through a few. I've picked out some in particular. The 1970s Spider-Man TV show thing. No, I'm talking about shows that never got off the ground. Oh, I'm ready then.

And that one somehow got off the ground. It really did, yeah. Jeez. You've seen a bit of that show, right? Yes, I loved it as a kid. Really? Yeah. You've seen a bit of that show, right?

Yes, I loved it as a kid Really? Yeah It was one where there were these college students They were building an atomic bomb for some vague reason That I can't really remember For fun? Yeah, probably for fun Just thrills, you know, just for kicks

Just as a goof Let me guess what happens Yep Spider-Man comes in in his plane Takes it out over the ocean Yeah, exactly, he does do that, yeah Great In his spider-plane In he does do that, yeah. Great.

In his spider plane. In his spider plane, yeah. That's probably my favourite Spider-Man vehicle. Oh, so good, yeah. You know what annoys me

about when you see like, I don't know why this annoys me, because who knows. Is this an action figure thing? Yeah, it's an action figure thing, yeah, where it's like,

look at Spider-Man with his spider car. He does have a spider car. Does he? He did have a spider car. Well then I'm an idiot. Well that was, no that was quite,

it was a storyline I think from the 70s where he got sponsored by some company and they did have a spider car. Well, then I'm an idiot. Well, that was quite... It was a storyline, I think, from the 70s where he got sponsored by some company and they gave him a spider car, but it was terrible. I'm going to say something. Yes. Everything from the 70s is the worst. Wow.

Everything. What about disco dancing as a thing, as a concept? It's good, isn't it? Well... But no, I think you're right. They're always giving... I saw The Flash on a motorcycle and all that. He would need a motorcycle, though, when he gets tired. Oh's good, isn't it? Well... But no, I think you're right. They're always giving... I saw the Flash on a motorcycle and all that.

He would need a motorcycle, though, when he gets tired. Oh, yeah, good point. Because have you seen how fast he runs? Oh, he runs really fast. He could probably do with a motorcycle. I'm fine with that. Yeah, okay, good.

When it's like Superman will have like a weapon, like a gun or something. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. When he can fly faster than a bullet, do you need to fire a bullet? No. Hmm.

Do you watch Heroes? I try not to. I watched the first season. Didn't mind it. Started the second. Nonsense. Doesn't that show just go... It disintegrates very rapidly, yeah. And again, in terms of character death, there is a...

Second season there was a... At the end of the first season, one of the characters who can draw visions of the future sees a character die, and it's the character who's got horn-rimmed glasses. He's the father of the cheerleader. He's my favourite man in the world. Absolutely. Why wouldn't he be?

I imagine you were scared about this vision. Potentially. One of the plot arcs of this second season was how's he going to get out of this? This is the blood thing. He doesn't. He gets shot in And yeah, and he doesn't. He gets shot in the head and he dies,

definitively dies and then he's injected with the blood of his daughter who's not his actual daughter but she's his adopted daughter and he comes back to life. Thank God. From the gunshot wound

to the brain. And then it's never mentioned again. Like it's very... That's like the mad... Like you can solve anything in that show now.

Yeah. Introduce something where why is there any threat It changed the whole universe. They could have just carried it's very... That's like the mad... Like, you can solve anything in that show now. Yeah, that... You introduce something where... Why is there any threat It changed the whole universe. They could have just carried like backpacks full of her blood because she's an endlessly

renewable resource. Yeah. But it was never... Like, it was... At one point... And not bad to look at either of them, right? My goodness.

Yeah, and at one point Zachary Quinto's character Sila... Yeah, Spock. Mr. Spock, thank you. At one point, Zachary Quinto's character, Scylla, yeah, Spock, Mr. Spock, thank you. At one point, I think he even uses the line, give me the heal-anything blood. Like, that's an actual line in the...

So when... It just made... Like, you can't introduce that kind of thing, but at the same time, once you do, it's changed the whole world. It does, yeah. They didn't think that through at all. They really didn't.

That was a pain in the corner. Well, like they say in the comics, nobody ever dies except Bucky and Stan Lee. Not Stan Lee. No. What's that rule? You told me that rule. The rule is, well, it used to be that no one ever really dies in comics except Bucky. Who's back.

Who's back. Jason Todd, who's back. And Uncle Ben. Who's not back. I think he came back briefly in some sort of alternate timeline. Oh, cool. But then they killed him again. Spider-Man killed him again.

Just on principle. Because that's everything that he is. Yeah, exactly. He can't have him running around. Yeah. Nonsense. Sorry, Uncle. Yeah, so there was this show.

I wasn't familiar with this. Two people on Twitter were telling me about it. A junior jammer on this. What? That's the guy they told me. Oh, right. On Twitter. And the guy, Brian, Six Wheel Don.

Don. Don. Great blokes. Anyway, they were telling me about this show called The Graysons. Based on the life of Dick Grayson before his parents were killed. What do you think? When did this come out? Well, it didn't come out.

Oh, it's hypothetical. It's hypothetical. But basically, so, I think the idea was, he's in a circus still. Uh-huh. Are they going to solve circus-based crimes? Yeah, circus-based crimes. With acrobatics. Yeah.

This is Jim Carter, the TV series. Do you remember Jim Carter? What was Jim Carter? It was a guy and he fought people with acrobatics. Oh, that's good. Good on him. With karate skills and... Wait.

Gymnastic skills and karate kills, I think was the tagline. It was going to be 22 episodes of that. And they made 400 because it was so good? Yeah. Oh, good. Wow, when did that come out? 80s. The movie.

I missed it. Yeah, you missed it. You missed out on something special. So do you want me to read you the synopsis? No, I do. It'll be great. I'll put you forward to it. Yeah, you missed it. You missed out on something special. So do you want me to read you the synopsis? No, I do. It'll be great. I'll take you forward to it. Dick Grayson, the idea was that he faces typical youth challenges.

Drugs. Yeah. Peer pressure. I thought like skateboarding competitions. Skateboarding competitions, yeah. So he faces typical youth challenges, romances, rivalries and family issues. Does any of that appeal to you? No.

Also, I don't think they'd be able to call him Robin, obviously. Right. Because he gets that name after Batman scoops him up when he's crying so much. But he'd be wearing a lot of green pants and red t-shirt. Well, that's the traditional outfit, though. Because he's in his flying Grayson's costume, the one that he kind of adapts into the Robin costume. In some incarnations. Sure.

So, obviously, they could never call him Robin.. So there's a whole lot of things there. It's like taking the least interesting part of his life and then focusing on it, which seems to be a big push in these TV shows based on massive superheroes. They just take the least interesting thing that they can afford to do and then make that. I just don't understand it. Well, it's cheap. Also, he wouldn't be called Dick Grayson. Guess what they'd call him.

Guess what his name is. Robin Grayson? No. DJ. Is J even his middle name? I don't know. I don't know. Let's look it up.

Let's not look it up after the show. We'll wait for comments. I've got another one. I'm going to give you the info on this, and then you tell me what it is. Okay. Okay? All right, I'm ready. I think you'll be able to get it pretty quickly.

Okay. It's about a teenager again. The supporting characters... I hate them. Continue. The supporting characters include a grandfather type, two-faced friends, one trustful cop, and an empire the hero would inherit. Who is it?

Who am I? Is it Batman? It's Batman. Okay, good. Young teenage Bruce Wayne. They should have called it Young Batman. Now, this is the reasoning behind this being a show. I thought this was going to be a twist.

I thought it was going to be like... No, that's it. Sorry, I didn't... I was surprised you didn't get it earlier. No. You were looking for the trick. Yeah, I was looking for a trick. Yeah, no, no tricks.

Oh, well. So according to the writer, the reason for the story, the way it is, everybody knows the origin of Batman. You know the origin of Batman, right? Yeah, he was like an alien. Comes from space. Comes from space, yeah. Gets the Ring of Power.

Yeah, gets the Ring of Power, yeah. Throws it into Mordor. Yeah, and then he's given big hawk wings. Yeah. And a mace. And then he kills Voldemort at the ring of power. Yeah, gets a ring of power, yeah. Throws it into Mordor. Yeah, and then he's given big hawk wings. Yeah. And a mace. And then he kills Voldemort at the end. Yeah. That's a good move.

So good, isn't it? But he's saying, though, that the origin of Batman, what happened before that, is never really covered properly. That's the story he wants to show. The training of Batman. Not even, because he's a teenager. So he's still in Gotham. And he's like, Alfred, you're not my real dad. So, teen problems?

Teen problems. Teen romances? Rivalries? Yes. Two-faced friends? Two-faced friends. Karate? Karate.

Skateboarding tricks? Razor scooter? Yeah. Race? Nerf guns? Yeah, Nerf guns, yeah. Yeah, good. Anything extreme from the 90s you can think of.

Though that wasn't from the 90s. This was, actually, funnily enough, this was the show that they developed before Smallville. And then they obviously didn't end up doing it, I think because they rebooted Batman. But they had a rough kind of cast outline. There was rumour that some people were going up for it. Sean Ashmore, you would know him as...

Iceman? Yep, Iceman. Or the other one. He's in Animal. No! Oh, there's twins! There's twins! Which one is it? Get your facts right. Don't, Animorphs. No. Oh, there's twins. There's twins. Which one is it?

Get your facts right. Don't. Don't bother. Why would you? He's Iceman or the other guy in that other thing that we saw. Yep. Now, I don't know who this guy is, but I know what he's from, but I don't know which one he is from that show.

Yep. David Krumholz. Oh, from Numbers. Yeah, from Numbers. And 10 Things I Hate About You. Which one's he in that? He's the Numbers guy. Oh, yeah, yeah, that guy.

Yeah, the guy that solves all the FBI's cases using numbers because they're fired to a depth to do anything. You know, they can't figure out anything. They can't interrogate a guy. They need numbers

to interrogate a guy. How did that show run for more than one episode? I don't know. And furthermore, how did that entire FBI team not get fired many, many years ago

because they can't figure out anything without maths? What a convenient system. Anyway, continue. Great show, though. Who's Krumholtz going to be? He's going to be Jim Gordon. So now that I know who he is, that doesn't line up. No. Maybe I got that wrong, but that's... Seems wrong. Yeah. This is a good one. Michael Rosenbaum. Yep. Lex Luthor. Uh-huh. Harvey Dent. Yeah, okay, I see that. I'll be cool with that. I won't. He be cool with that he's good I think he would have been

the two faced friends that I was referring to before do you think that could have been him yes okay what a twist

I know right now this was shelved yeah because I was rebooting it the pilot script is apparently online do you want to read it yeah kind of

okay we'll get it at some point I haven't read it I saw it there do you want to do a dramatic Yeah, kind of. Okay. We'll get it at some point. I haven't read it. I saw it there in a way. Do you want to do a dramatic reading of it? Do it. Oh, do I ever. Can I do my New York accent?

Yes. Forget about it! Nice, good. Get me some pizza, New York style! I don't want pizza, though. That's his other personality. It's Two-Face. So, yeah.

When they tried to get it off the ground again They failed So that's why they made Birds of Prey Our favourite show Brilliant, nice work DC Just take Just swigs of promise And just piss it all away

Why don't you DC Okay this one actually Was looking forward to And I think it's a shame that I never make it. I have no idea how they were going to pull it off.

Okay, I'm ready. But they were going to make an incredible Hulk just not so long ago. TV series. A reboot of the 80s one, obviously. And I think it might have

spun off from the movies. I think, actually, no, it might have been its own separate thing. Gilmero del Toro. I never know how to say his name. Is that how you say it? I say Guillermo.

What do I say? I don't know. I don't really listen when you're talking. Him, that was cancelled after the Avengers came out and everyone went,

oh, you can make something with the Hulk that's not just okay. Yeah. So they cancelled that. But they're going to use like animatronics

and a bit of CGI and a bit of this and a bit of that. I don't know how they would have pulled that off convincingly because he's a very tricky person. There would be a lot

of weird camera angles. Yeah. I don't think it would ever... Yeah. But I think that's... Of all the ones here, I think that one I would actually be interested in seeing. Yeah.

I think they would probably remake a lot of the old Bill Bixby episodes. Would they bring back Bill Bixby's corpse? Yeah. Because that's what he established last week. But as a supporting character. Okay. Like in the background, like a puppet?

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Cool. What a great show. So definitely. Yeah, cool. What a great show. So good. So yeah, I don't really have anything else to say about that,

but other than that, that would have been interesting. Well, reminds me of something, doesn't it? Yeah, I guess it does. There was also one, it was a pilot episode

for an Aquaman TV show. They actually filmed this one. Yeah. Haven't seen it, but the idea came after Arthur Curry, who I believe is Aquedman. Is that how you say it?

That is Aquedman. He makes an appearance on Smallville, which is strange because Smallville's in Kansas, which is like dead centre of the US, right? Right, sure, but they have water. Yeah, they have water. Yeah. But that ended up being the biggest episode of that season.

So they thought, let's make a Smallville, not Smallville, an Aquaman TV series. They scrapped the guy from Smallville. You're like, thanks for playing. Beat it, jerk. Yeah, yeah. You can't carry a series. And they got rid of him. And they got a different guy.

Now, the powers that he had in the show, do these fit with Aquaman? I'm going to ask you. Breathe underwater. Yep. That's a given. Swim as fast as a jet. Because he can out-swim Superman, can't he? I wouldn't think so.

Because apparently there's a scene in the pilot, which I haven't seen, where there's a jet flying overhead and he's swimming underneath and they're going the same speed until the water runs out. Right, exactly. And then he hits the shore and there's a thump. All right, I'll give him that. Right, exactly. And then he hits the shore. There's a thump. All right, I'll give him that. That's fine.

Yeah. He's got super strength, but only underwater. Now, my understanding of Aquaman is he's got super strength all the time. Yes. On some levels, anyway. He's got that cool suit. Well, cool. All the...

Any kind of underwater character. See, he's a B-lister. I really like Aquaman. A lot of people hate him. Have you read the New 52 Aquaman? No. Any of it? No. Pretty good.

Because he's a B-lister, these sort of powers are quite variable. Like Marvel's Sub-Mariner, he's superhumanly strong. Yeah. And when he gets wet, he gets even more superhumanly strong. Does he get taller? No, right? Same size. Yeah. And when he gets wet, he gets even more superhumanly strong. Does he get taller? No, right, same size.

Yeah. Like a fungus, he just expands. Like a sponge. Yeah, like a sponge. I guess that would, I mean,

that's fine. And also, when exposed to water on land, he gets super strength. So say, he can put his foot in a bucket of water, next time she'll go really hard.

That'd be great. Okay, I'm on board with that. So yeah, the show apparently isn't that bad. Well, the pilot that a that. So yeah, the show apparently isn't that bad. Well, the pilot that

a company merger went through, the show was axed, but apparently it was released on iTunes and people were okay with it, but again, we'll never see it.

James, let's buy it on iTunes. Wink. Let's buy it off iTunes. Let's legitimately download it like we do for everything.

Yes, correct. Never steal from the internet. Don't do that. Rude. Wonder Woman TV show. Recently. I've seen the pilot for that.

I haven't seen it. I've got here Famously Terrible. Is it Famously Terrible? It's not great. Interestingly, she's got three... That's what I've got here.

She's got three identities. Tell me about that. Okay, so, she's Wonder Woman, but she's also Diana Prince. Yep. Who's like the head of, I think it's Hippolyta Industries. A what?

Hippolyta Industries. Hip-hop industries. Yes. Like Jay-Z. Yeah, exactly. What is Hippolyta Industries? She's the head of Death Row Records. No, Hippolyta is her mother.

Oh, yeah, I know that. Come on. Everyone hates me now. Yeah, they do. Of course they do. If they didn't hate you before, I know that. God. So... Everyone hates me now. Yeah, of course they do. If they didn't hate you before, and they did. But, so she's the head of this company and she's sort of this shrewd, tough businesswoman. As she would be. But she's also

got a third identity where she's just like a girl living life in the big city and she's sitting on the couch eating fro-yo and her jimmy jams and she's got a cat maybe, I think. I don't know what that character's called. It's probably also Diana, but... Isn't she her own assistant in it?

I can't remember. Isn't, like, she's an assistant for that company? Yeah. I mean, this is just from what I've read. I don't know this. Yeah, potentially, sure. But... Did you think she was alright as Wonder Woman?

Adriana Plicky, I think her name is? She was in G.I. Joe Retaliation, which is probably the worst G.I. Joe Retaliation, which is probably the worst G.I. Joe film. Huh. Tough race, was it? Or not. I don't know. Who knows? I can't remember. I reviewed it but I don't remember anything about it. Yeah, look she was pretty good. She had

the look. Yeah, because a lot of people when she came out they were like, what do you mean she's wearing pants? She's too skinny. What a bitch. Yeah. For every comment. Yeah, yeah. Exactly, yeah. But I thought she was... Well, I think the lesson there is don't be a woman on the internet, because people will hate you for no reason. People will hate you for being not good looking enough, or too good looking, or any combination, or any point on that scale.

Do you think people, though, now have a lot of time for sexy nerd girls? Yes. But yeah, I think she looked alright. She looked wonderful. She looked the part. Yeah. The three identities was odd. Why three? I don't...

With Wonder Woman, forgive my ignorance on this. Yes. Does everybody know she's Wonder Woman? She's not... Because I think sometimes they do, is that right? Yeah, she's one of those characters who have been rebooted a lot of times. Yeah, so that's

a thing. How can you keep track of everything? New 52, I don't know. The last incarnation, I think she was

just Wonder Woman all the time. She just hung out on Amazon Island and just did Wonder Woman stuff. Doing push-ups.

She still needs some push-ups. There's so many. Great. Yeah. Was there a boyfriend in it? I can't remember

his name. Steve Trevor. Steve Trevor, yeah. Yeah. I bet there was some friction there. I'd say. They probably didn't get along. Like, I don't really remember, but I would say they probably didn't get along.

I think they're going to actually try to do it again. But also, there was just a rumor happening that Wonder Woman might make an appearance in Batman Superman. So, just before they're out to fight, apparently she's going to run in and go, Stop, guys! And then they won't fight. I baked some cookies guys. But that's safe though

because if they fought somebody would get hurt. That's a good point actually yeah. So they're going to reboot that apparently. While there's talk of rebooting it

who knows? Who knows anything? Not us. Not us. No exactly. Yeah it was fine. Liz Hurley was the villain. Yeah.

I don't okay with that. I think it might have been poison cosmetics though or something, so that's not... Like a Joker toxin? Or just like a flat-out poison where that's arsenic, you're dead. Also, where's the money in poison cosmetics?

Dunno. Could you sell it and people be like, this is poison, don't use it. I wouldn't use a poison cosmetic. Not again. Fool me once, Mason. A few others here that we can just talk about briefly. You're familiar with Lock and Key?

The comic? I've seen the cover. Yeah, I don't know much about it. I've heard good things. Yeah, apparently it's amazing. It's one of those ones I've been meaning to read. There was apparently a pilot was made of that, that't get picked up which apparently is okay. There was also

and I didn't know this one at all failed Black Widow slash Daredevil show from the 70s that never got off the ground. Interesting. Not really.

No. I think it was I read as well David Bowie's wife who I don't know what her name is was the one pushing for that because I think she owned

the rights at one point. Interesting. Interesting. Yeah. So there you go. There you go. There's also a failed Doctor Strange pilot. Really? Yeah.

What's that like? I haven't seen it, but we should watch it. We shouldn't. I bet it's available for purchase on iTunes. Let's purchase it on iTunes. You know what we should do because we're good guys? Give out our iTunes account. Everyone can download it for free.

On us. Oh, yeah. We are good guys, aren't we? But just download the one, guys. Don't download other stuff because come on. Watch it for free on us oh yeah we are good guys aren't we but just download the one guys don't download other stuff because come on watch it all together yeah yeah get in one big room

yeah and watch it all together yeah no I would I'm fascinated to see that yeah well obviously that never happened but there was also

a David Hasselhoff Nick Fury oh I remember that yeah exactly I've only seen clips of it not good have you seen it I think so way back in the day yeah you're not good you're right but he still comes out every now and then on Twitter Yeah, exactly. I've only seen clips of it. Not good. Have you seen it?

I think so, way back in the day. Yeah. You're not good, you're right. But he still comes out every now and then on Twitter, Hasselhoff, when he's not drunk and eating a burger off the floor. Sure. Insulting, like sassing the current Nick Fury. Samuel L. Jackson. Samuel L. Jackson.

Like, Stan Lee said I was better. You're a jerk. Like, he just constantly... And I don't know whether Samuel L. Jackson would even respond, because what does he care? Yeah, exactly. But let it go, man. I mean, come on. Nick Fury's not even white in the comics anymore.

No. Even the... Even the regular universe. Really? He's got an illegitimate son who's black, and now he's left. He's left S.H.I.E.L.D. Right. And his son is now a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

He's taken the name Nick Fury. So he's not the original one, though? No. Wow. I guess they're trying to get everything in line. It's like when Spider-Man came out and then they changed it to organic web suit shooters. Exactly, yeah.

And then they changed it back and then they probably changed it again and then changed it back and then they changed the suit and then they changed his origin but then they changed it back. Yeah. I find when a movie version of a character is successful

they will tweak the comic book version to make it... X-Men. X-Men, exactly, sure. But when the movie's not successful, they'll move it away. And I think... Green Lantern. Green Lantern, exactly. I haven't seen Steel yet, but...

We will! Yeah, I do remember the comic book version. It was tweaked to be less like Superman for a while. They got rid of the S. Shield and a lot of other little details.

And then Steel, the movie, came out and then S. Shield went right back on and they just moved it as far away from it. And they wrote

on his back, not Shaq. Yeah, exactly. Interesting. But yeah, there was also, this one is famously terrible. There's a Justice League of America pilot from 1997.

I'm so incredibly sure. Yeah. Never seen the whole thing. Here's the lineup. You ready? I'm ready. You're probably familiar with this. The Flash, sure.

Guy Gardner, Green Lantern. Yeah, okay. Ray Palmer. Yeah. Palmer. Palmer? Palmer. You've seen that word before.

What's wrong with you? Martian Manhunter, played famously by David Ogden Steers from MASH. From MASH, sure. And Ice and Fire? Yeah, they were Justice League Europe characters. I've never heard of them. And I know everything about them. Yeah, I know you do. Exactly. No, they were sort of a double act. Were they brother and sister or something? No, they're both women. Are they sister and sister? No.

Are they the band Sister to Sister? Is that a group? I can't remember. No, they were like two bestest buddies. Good. In Justice League Europe, which was kind of the... Justice League Europe and Justice League International were kind of the joke. Back in the day, the Justice League was a comedic series, mostly.

It is pretty funny. Hilarious gags. God, yeah. But back in the day, they were B-list back in the day, sure. But I imagine they were cheap to acquire the rights to, so there they are. Okay, well, there you go.

Also, Fire was green, so that's going to mess with Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter. That's way too much green on that team. And that would also mess with their, I don't know, what do you want to say? Karma? Yeah, sure. Whatever. Okay, so, critics said it had poor special effects, bad costumes, it deviated too much from the source material,

with one critic saying it was 80 minutes of his life that he'll never get back. I've said that about a lot of stuff though. In fairness. Yeah. Yeah.

But also they said David Ogden Steers which again, I like David Ogden Steers. I think he's great in MASH. Do you like MASH? I don't think anybody likes MASH anymore.

Not that MASH is of my time but I've seen a lot of it since. Not a fan are you? What do you love MASH so much? Do you want to do a MASH centric podcast? No. Are there any MASH is of my time, but I've seen a lot of it since. Not a fan, are you? What do you love MASH so much? Do you want to do a MASH-centric podcast? No! Are there any MASH comic spin-offs? Do you want to write one with me?

I guess so, yeah. Can you draw? Because I can't draw. Doesn't matter. Okay. Anyway, his weight was criticised. So can you imagine, right, he does a show, he knows it's terrible, he looks ridiculous, and then people go, your show sucks. And you're fat.

Exactly. And on a more personal level, you're a really fat guy. Great. Yeah, so... Because Martian Manhunter is kind of... He's shirtless, essentially, but with... Back in the day, especially, he had the bandolier, but he was shirtless, so... Yeah. I mean,

they could have fixed that with a better costume they could have but why would you mess with that from the pictures I've seen and any of the footage every costume in that is garbage

I think the Flash one is okay but if somebody gave it to me as a Halloween gift I would never wear it yeah you've done it I understand

I would never wear it I know we don't really do Halloween here do we no a little bit Americans little wacky traditions yeah We don't really do Halloween here, do we? No A little bit Americans Wacky traditions

Yeah, so I thought maybe We tried it at Halloween for free healthcare How do you like that, America? Oh, we should get super political, do you want to? Yeah, I think we definitely should Because I think we're aware of that kind of people We're informed We know a lot about everything

So why wouldn't we? I thought just to cap things off We're a bit that kind of people where we're informed. We know a lot about everything, so why wouldn't we? I thought, just to cap things off, we're a bit over an hour, so basically I thought, is there any comic books that you would like to see adapted into TV shows? I've got a couple. Okay. Starman. Have you said...

Have you filled out the Starman? I've filled out Starman. Although I feel that they would ruin it. But I think, I don't know. People before the Watchmen movie came out, a lot of people said, this should be a 12-part HBO miniseries or something like that. And they nutted it out and it was fine in the movies. But I think at this point HBO or Showtime

or Showcase or whatever they've done enough genre specific shows that I think people are on board with that sort of thing and they could

maybe take a crack at it I would say it if it's maturely written as the series was and they rebooted that in a big way

that really good version of Starman didn't they who did it I think you're thinking of something else yeah no it's

it's just just being the one oh edit that out 81 issues yeah edit that out okay cool alright well sure I'll definitely say that

I put down you know Robert Kirkman obviously wrote Walking Dead you introduced me to this comic Invincible oh

when you said you should read this or whatever and I went ah it's new superhero they're rarely any comic Invincible ooh I remember when you said you should read this and I went ah it's a new superhero they're rarely any good Invincible's amazing it is what an amazing comic

it lends itself to it I think it's got a long kind of sweeping saga good story arcs it's impossible you could never actually do it there's not the budget

there's so much going on there's so much out of space mayhem there's so much destruction aliens and blood yeah what I love about that comic is it's so bright and of space mayhem. There's so much destruction. Aliens and blood. What I love about that comic is it's so bright and colourful and comic book looking, but it's just really twisted and violent.

And the characters are really, the dialogue's really good. It's really well written. Everybody should read Invincible if you haven't already. But no, I don't think they can do it. Okay, you'd like to see it happen. I'd love to see it happen. You won't. No. But look, at the same time, I think we're getting towards think they can do it. Okay, you'd like to see it happen. I'd love to see it happen. You won't. No.

But look, at the same time, though, I think we're getting towards where we can do more things. You look at Game of Thrones, right? It's obviously limited by its budget, and you can see it in some of the things it does, like the dire wolves don't look great in certain parts, or whatever, whatever. For a TV CGI dragon, they're pretty good TV CGI dragons.

Yes, absolutely. Because you look back at sliders, or any CGI at any point from the 90s or even recently in TV shows most of it's very brief or very garbage or both.

And I think we can't I think we're getting towards more stuff being shown at home things like that. I think we might see maybe not Invincible but something like that

one day. Or not. So. Yeah. I got one more. Okay, go for it. If you can move it Rust by Royden Lept. No, but I'll look it up later. Yeah, yeah. So I think it lends itself so yeah I got one more okay go for it you can move with Rust

by Royden Lept no but I'll look it up later yeah yeah so it's I think it lends itself to being like a little mini series what's it about

it's about basically a guy on a farm his name's George Harrison like no that's not I made that up I can't remember his name but anyway

a boy with a rocket pad crash lands through his barn has this fight with this kind of old war kind of robot and it's just about the story unfolds on the farm

there's two volumes it's visually very interesting it's well written not a lot of dialogue but it's just I think because you could set it on a farm

got elements of CGI and special effects it would be possible to do it I think that one would actually be possible I'm on board cool

yeah alright so I think that's pretty much it is there anything else that you think could be adapted? Ah, no. I don't think there are any more comic book properties.

You know what? There's actually a comic called Chew. Oh, yeah. Which is about an investigator for the Fruit and Drug Administration who can determine...

He can see the story of a piece of food when he eats it. So he can eat a carrot and feel its whole journey from where it was grown. But he can also do that if he eats a portion of a person. Do they make him do that or does he choose to do it?

Well, you know. A little from column A, a little from column B when you think about it. That's gross. It's gross, but it's a great series. Yeah, I've heard that. I would say that. And that would kind of be in the...'s good fun. I would say that. Cool. Yeah, me too.

And that would kind of be in the, I feel people would have read it for that, that kind of pushing daisies, kind of. Yep. And there's a love interest and kind of,

you know, it's a little bit quirky, you know? A little bit crazy. Yeah. Definitely. Okay, well,

do you want to plug your Twitter handle? No. We have a Twitter now. We have a Twitter for the show. Oh, you've got a Twitter, sorry. So if you want to go to

at, what is it? Weekly, what do we call it? Start again. Good Lord. At Weekly Planet Pod. That's the one. We've got a Facebook page. I set up a Facebook page.

Oh, thank you. We've got a Twitter page. Come check us out. Oh, you can also, I've got Mr. Sunday Movies, my YouTube, not my YouTube, my Twitter. Send us long, rambly emails at weeklyplanetpod at gmail.com. Oh, yeah, and we'll read them out on this show. No. No, rambly emails at weeklyplanetpod at gmail.com. Oh, yeah. And we'll read them out on this show. No.

No, we won't. No. No. So, yeah. Thanks for listening, guys. We will see you next week. Thanks for listening, guys. Just remember, now that the world isn't ending, it's love that I'm sending to you.

It isn't the love of a hero and that's why I fear it won't do din din din din goodnight everybody