The X-Men TAS Podcast: Daredevil Season 2 + Listener Questions!

The X-Men TAS Podcast returns to answer all your questions and dive deep into Daredevil: Born Again Season 2! Join us as we discuss...

• All the anime we currently love!
• Was the 90s all that cracked it up to be??
• X-Men 97 and the future of X-Men movies in the MCU!
• Being blown away by Daredevil but rewriting Kingpin's ending to align more with what we love from Spider-Man TAS!

The X-Men TAS Podcast just opened a SECRET reddit group, join by clicking here! We are also on Twitch sometimes… click here to go to our page and follow and subscribe so you can join in on all the mysterious fun to be had! Also, make sure to subscribe to our podcast via Buzzsprout or iTunes and tell all your friends about it! Follow Willie Simpson on Bluesky and please join our Facebook Group! Last but not least, if you want to support the show, you can Buy Us a Coffee as well!  

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Welcome to the X-Men Task Podcast. My name is Sonia Rappaport.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

And my name is Willie Simpson.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

And today, Willie, we have no particular episode of any kind of animated series to cover. We finished a lot of different series. Go back in our archives if you don't know us yet.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Nine, almost nine years worth of podcasting.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

In the books. Today we're here just for a catch-up. It's May. We haven't released an episode in a month after doing so once a week for, as you said, nine years. So we're we're chilling out. We're taking it easy. We watched some stuff. We're gonna talk about that. You asked some people to send in questions and comments on where? Reddit? Facebook?

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

On Facebook. And people did that, so thank you. We'll read some out and uh answer to the best of our ability. Um Should we kick things off with Daredevil?

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Um, let's hold Daredevil. Let's go through the stuff we've watched first.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

And then uh let's do the listener questions and then we'll do Daredevil at the end. Okay. Uh, because we're going to spoil the entirety of season two of Daredevil Born Again. So I figure let's give if people haven't watched it all yet and they want to catch up, uh, they can get the sort of the first half of the show out of the way and then save the rest for later. Okay. How's that sound? Great. Uh just a reminder, check our show notes for the plugs. We appreciate everyone who does all that, links to our social media and whatnot. Um, stuff we've been watching. Uh the last time we recorded, did we talk about the vision of Escaflone?

SPEAKER_01 1:38

I don't remember. I don't think so. We've been watching it for a month, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

It's another it's a classic 90s anime. Uh that's a limited series. It's it's very digestible, only 26 episodes. We haven't finished it yet. But it is a spectacularly wonderful kind of anime about a young girl who gets swept away to a like a magical moon that basically, without really spoiling too much, it's like Atlantis from Earth got teleported to a moon or something, and she's there now.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Yeah, there's some logistics I don't fully understand.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Right.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

But it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Well, I mean, is the show just fine or is it really good?

SPEAKER_01 2:17

No, no, the show is very good. I'm willing to suspend disbelief when it comes to the logistical pieces that I don't understand. It's possible they explained it and I just like didn't really follow. But whatever. There's some magical elements in there.

SPEAKER_00 2:31

Um the animation is beautiful, the story is a beautiful story. Some love triangles going on. Uh I don't know. Time, time, travel, hijinks. It's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Very good show. Recommended by a coworker friend of mine, so I appreciate her for that. Uh let's just let's knock out all the animes we've been consuming. Two more, really. Mao, which is the latest Rumiko Takahashi anime from she was a creator of Inuasha and uh Ranma One Half, more most famously. So Mao is her latest thing and it's now in anime form, her latest manga anyway. Uh it is uh streaming on Disney Plus slash Hulu, who's where we're seeing it. It is a beautiful show, I would say. It is very similar to Inuasha.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

It is. If you liked Inuyasha, you'll probably like this. If you didn't, you may not. Yeah. It's also got like a time travel component, but to a different era of Japanese history.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Right. Um like it's about Japanese demons and monsters and magic a little bit, and a girl from the modern day who gets sucked into the past. It's very close to Inuasha in many ways, actually. But it is uh like very stylishly well made.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

It's a little more gory, I would say. Yeah. Maybe I'm not remembering all the details of Inyasha correctly, but um a little more gory and creepy.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Yeah, the monsters are pretty scary. But it's very good. Yeah, beautifully animated, beautiful colors and everything.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

And it's being released weekly, so it we're like watching it in Saturdays. Like I I don't know if it's real time exactly, because I don't know when it came out.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

I don't know either. But it it's our Saturday morning show we've been enjoying. A new episode comes out every Saturday. So Mao, M Ao. Uh, not the Chinese leader, but the Japanese mystic from the 1920s uh era of Japan. Fictional. Uh uh another anime that was recommended to us by a friend, uh Keep Your Hands Off Izuken, I think that's how it's pronounced. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

I don't know either.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

It's a class it came out in 2020. It's again only 12 episodes, I think, and that's it. One and done. It's about three girls who meet at middle school and they're obsessed with anime and they want to make their own anime. And we're only a few episodes into the show. Uh, again, like beautifully animated. Reminds, I think it might be the same production studio as Dan to Dan.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

I'm not sure in that, but we talked about some elements of it are really similar. The show is so creative, like the way the animation is done, but also just like the ideas that the characters have in it. It's extremely creative. Like I don't know, I haven't seen anything like it before. Maybe it's a genre thing that like exists out there, I'm not sure, but um, I'm really enjoying it. It's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

An anime about making an anime, uh, pretty meta, yeah, but like wonderfully imaginative and again beautiful music and acting and animation. Uh the world of anime has no limits, we have discovered. Um, all right, let's move on to the juicier, more Marvel superhero related stuff that's going on. Supergirl's coming out soon. Are we going to the theaters to see it?

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Probably.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Okay, alright. If you want to go, Hulk go. I wasn't like dying to see it. Um, which is a shame for me because I actually really like the character of Supergirl in general. Like I'm not surprised. I'm just surprised I'm not more hyped to like want to go see it.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Uh that's coming this summer. Uh the Odyssey, the Chris Nolan Odyssey movie is coming. They have like a new trailer. I don't think you saw the new trailer.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Maybe not. I saw an old trailer.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Right. The new trailer featured the Cyclops. Yeah. Spoilers for the Odyssey. 4,000 years old. I don't know. Um I I you know, it'll probably be good be good, but I let's be real about Chris Nolan. He is a I wouldn't say he's hit or miss, but there's movies that I want to revisit of his more than others, let's just say.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Uh like Tenet, for instance, is one that it's just like not interested in.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

He just strikes such a serious tone all the time and has like too much for it is.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Yeah. I mean, it just depends on the movie, and like some of his movies are absolute bangers, as we all know. Like Interstellar to me is his favorite non-Batman one.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Yes, to me too.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

I feel like that's a divisive one because a lot of people think Interstellar is stupid.

unknown 6:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

I don't. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

I like it too. Um I always see it as a companion piece to The Martian, I guess, mainly because of Matt Damon. Uh it's like a more interesting version of The Martian in many ways, at least the like the last third of the movie.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

I love The Martian.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

You know, I we probably talked about it, but like The Martian to me is a wonderfully entertaining movie that I I just hate that all the drama is sucked out of every scene because it's like he's got a horrible problem and it's literally solved within like 30 to 45 seconds of, you know. Uh-huh. He's like, I'm gonna starve to death. No wait, I could grow food. Oh, my base is destroyed. Oh wait, no problem. I'm like I fixed it and I'm gonna be able to make it all. I don't know. I I'm oversimplifying it, but I never felt nervous in that movie for him.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

That never bothered me about it. Yeah, I think it's also like it's written by a guy who like knows the science, you know what I mean? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Was he the guy that did that new movie?

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Project Hail Mary.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Right, yeah, that we haven't seen. Yeah, people say it's good. I I rejected it. I I said no. I don't know why, you know why I said no? Because I actually um months before it came out, or even if there was a trailer, my friend said, like, oh, they're making a movie of this, and I looked up the book, and I just read the spoilers of the book, and that that was a mistake, probably. Like, but that was in my mind. I was like, I'm not interested in this kind of storytelling. But that doesn't mean that the movie's not great or the story's not actually good. I just also like I think it's just one of those things where I was like, uh, I I kind of roomed it for myself in a weird way.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Yeah. I think it's also a nearly three-hour movie, which you always reject seeing in the theaters. Those are true. I'm gonna watch it.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Um again, uh let's get into some more juicy X-Men Marvel related stuff, some Superman stuff. A lot of it's sort of laid out by our the the questions and comments people made in our Facebook group, which is very exciting. Thanks for all the participation, everyone. Yeah, I dropped it on short notice on there. We got some good stuff to talk about. Uh, one that wasn't directly related to that, but we me and Ben like posted at the same time. My adventures with Superman is coming back.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Oh, that's exciting. I like that.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

They they took a two-year break. I thought it was canceled for sure. Like because James Gunn at one point said, like, we're going to make sure all the animated series and like everything is interconnected. There's going to be one continuity going forward. And the Superman show came out before that, and it's like a different Superman than the one we had now of in movies. So it's like, oh, they got rid of it. But I guess not, or they had a season that they just contractually had to make and this is the end. I have no idea. But uh that show is excellent. I looking back, I enjoy that cartoon more than the latest James Gunn movie, personally.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Yes. Does that mean that it's not all gonna be interconnected now? Did they realize that's a mistake?

SPEAKER_00 9:25

I don't know. Maybe they could they could always just say, I mean, first of all, none of it makes sense because they literally still have the Matt Reeves Kristen Matt Pat the Pattinson Batman.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Yeah, none of it makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Who's not part of James Gunn. Right. So the argument's always gonna be there's a multiverse of characters. Alright. So I guess that's the case of that. But I will look forward to that show. Uh X-Men 97 coming out sometime in like mid-June. Um, that'll be fun. Season two.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

It will be fun.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Yeah. Uh they've they've been pretty under wraps about what's going on. They released a few some promotional art and posters, which some of our uh followers asked about. So let's get right into it, Sonia. Lucas had three comments or questions. I'm gonna go right down in the orders. These were received. So Lucas is first. His first comment was, Do either of you guys collect any action figures? Anything you're looking forward to?

SPEAKER_01 10:17

I do not collect action figures.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

Um I've talked about this on the podcast. I went through a phase at one point where I realized all my X-Men toys I had as a kid were just available for purchase on Amazon for like$10 to$15 a pop in the original packaging, which blew my mind, and I like spent uh what I like, I don't know. I bought like Rogue, Iceman, Gambit, uh Wolf Professor X, Storm. I got like all the ones I lost from when I was a kid, and um and then they also had the DC superheroes line too, like recreates, they didn't have like the original ones, those are actually collectible. And I bought other like those as well, like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, um, Aquaman. And all of a sudden I had a bunch of action figures sitting in my house and our house, and uh they were on display, and for one thing, our cat kept knocking them over. I also like you know, I don't know if you're supposed to k take him out of the original packaging. I did, and I threw out all the packaging, which I don't know how I feel about that. So, but uh, you know, the point like I just realized like I I I scratched the nostalgia itch, and that was about it, and then the toys ended up in my drawer, and that's where they live to this day. Maybe they animate themselves at night when we're asleep and you know interact with our cat or something. But outside of that, uh you know, I don't really I know tons of people love those statues and everything. Those like enormous like Marvel and DC statues and other sort of pop culture things. Yeah. Um I like them too. And and there's also they make modern action figures as well, really cool ones these days, too. Like if you were a kid and you're into that, like I can imagine it like blowing your mind. Um although it's tough to say with kids these days because like video games are so prevalent. Yeah, I don't know how much other stuff that like do action figures grab kids? But either way, like I can see people who are into action figures being blown away. I think Lucas is. Um but I I I talked about this on a semi-recent podcast where I said, to me, I like all that stuff. The scratches itched when I just see someone display them on YouTube, essentially. I see them like articulate them, set them up, I see what they look like, and it's like great, like you have them. I don't have to get them now, and I see what they look like. Because when you're a kid, when we were growing up, like there's that didn't exist, so you had to like literally get them from the store to have them to be satisfied. And now it's like you could just see someone have them and play around with them themselves. And for me, I realize that's enough. So that's the answer to that question. Um next question from Lucas. With the promo art, do you think that they're going to branch out spin-off shows with X Force, X Factor, etc.? So uh they posted on our someone posted on our Facebook group there's like a bunch of promo art for X-Men 97 season two, and they do include images of like X Factor and X-Force, I believe. I don't look at them too closely. Um, they also show the X-Men in different costumes, like which is something they start to do at the end of X-Men 97 season one, if you remember, Sonia. Like they they put them in like retro outfits or cooler different outfits. That was pretty awesome of them to do that. Uh I d you know, do I think they're gonna do a spin-off of cartoons of X-Factor and X-Force? I would say no.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

No, I don't think so. I think it's fan service. I think it's like 100%. Here's a little cameo or like right, or an episode where you see X-Factor.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

It'll be just like in the spirit of the original series where there's an X-Factor episode. So they'll maybe might do an X-Force episode. Would it be cool if there's like a whole branching universe of X-Men-related cartoons? Yes. I would enjoy them. We would cover them, I would imagine. Uh I'm more interested at this point. Like, I I've we've said it a million times. Like, they do Daredevil, they do uh Ms. Marvel, whatever, like these live action MCU shows. I want the X-Men, the mid X-Men shows, X-Caliber, X-Force, X-Factor, Alpha Flight as live action shows. Like, just give me a whole universe of that. I don't care how I mean I would care if the quality was bad, but I can imagine I imagine if the quality's mid, that'd be enough for me. Like that literally wouldn't take much. It's like the sweetest plum of all of that like live action IP you could do in TV form, and it just hasn't existed. You know, the best you get is like WB. They did the Flash, Green Arrow, and then they eventually even did like Supergirl and Superman. But like, you know, that to me as an X-Men fan, primarily that is like not the same. Like, I wish I had the CW verse, but for the X-Men world, that would be my fantasy. Um, as for as far as as far as cartoon goes, I have no idea what their plans are with like what they consider marketable or like worth investing in. Uh next last question from Lucas. Do you think without Bo, I think he's referring to Bo DeMeo, the bre the breakneck speed of the show in season one will be significantly slowed down, or do you think they'll stick with that recipe?

SPEAKER_01 15:09

If they're smart, they'll stick with the recipe, I think. Uh like the question is without him, do they have someone who's gonna be like the driving force to do that? Are they aware of like that being the magic of it?

SPEAKER_00 15:23

I mean, it's gonna be the it's gonna be the prevailing theme that we're gonna talk about with season two of like how does this compare now that Bo Domeo's gone? Because that dude, despite his, you know, whatever he was accused of, his weird internet behavior, he made a good show. He had one skill, which was reviving the X-Men animated series in the greatest way humanly possible. And the fact that he like had to fall in his sword almost immediately as the show was being released, is just another like weird thing in my mind of like the conspiracy theory of everything that's good about X-Men working against X-Men. You know, you can go back to Brian Singer, you can go back to just like everything like connected with X-Men is cursed in many ways, in my opinion, which is nuts because it's like still among like the most popular worldwide franchises there could be. And there's just like always something wrong with it. So, you know, we'll find out like what the tone is if they could, you know, if the other writers are just as talented as Bodomeo, if they st they like veer into like lamer shit versus like he was like into cool shit. Um we'll find out. Alright, next question. I'm gonna skip a question because we're saving to the end. Um Mike asks, would you ever consider a watch-along of your favorite X-Men Tass episodes? Well, we'll consider it. I guess the four- I mean, you know, we do have a Twitch channel that I never use. Uh I was wondering if I was gonna revive that Twitch channel for when the Wolverine video game finally comes out at some point this year. I don't know. Like, is it coming out in like fall or winter? I have no idea. But it's coming out, like it's made, the trailer's out, it's it's happening. I was like, oh, I'll play Wolverine on the Twitch channel, that would be fun. But then again, I don't know how much fun people would have people watching me play it if they want to play it on their own. But we could use the Twitch channel to watch an X-Men episode or two. Um, I don't know if like you immediately get copyright stricken for doing that. That's something that someone could tell me if we're even allowed to do that. I feel like I mean we could look it up. Right. But with a Twitch channel as small as ours would be, presumably, if we were just like said, hey, tonight only we're watching like a couple of episodes of X-Men uh come and watch us on Twitch and we'll do a live commentary or something, uh would I don't think they would ban us because we'd have like 10 to 20 viewers tops, I could I'd imagine. And it would be it wouldn't be for that long. I have no idea. Uh but we could that's something we could consider. That'd be fun.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Consider it considered.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

I mean, I when we here's some inside info. When we first our pilot episode of X-Men Task Podcast, the first thing we attempted to do was a live commentary for the first episode of X-Men, and it was so bad, it made no sense. We were like sitting there with the mics on, watching the episode and just talking as it was playing. And the idea was like you'd sync it up to the episode, but it was it was totally unless we're stupid, and so you need the visual component if you're gonna do that, in my opinion. It's just not fun otherwise. But I'm also like not gonna like make YouTube videos where uh we're watching the show and then I like edit it in a way where it doesn't get copyright right stricken to where it's like you have to like every eight seconds you show a clip and you show us reacting to it. That's not something I have the time or energy to invest in.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Yeah, that's a lot of work.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Yeah, but I have seen a lot of people do that though, for the entire series, and you know, sometimes that's kind of entertaining to see. But um, I don't know. This is just something to think about. Maybe we'll do a special Twitch gathering one day. Um, Tom asks, uh, the great Tom, one of our oldest pals, is it nostalgia or were the 1990s the last great era of pop culture? This is a broad question. Uh a very interesting. It's interesting you mentioned that we me and you are re-watching Daria again for like the fourth time. A great, another one of the many endless great animated shows from the 90s, of which we had we're spoiled in the 90s with animated series.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

We've talked about it, we've talked about Daria on here before, but this rewatch for some reason made me like particularly sad that I didn't have this show as a teenager because I didn't have cable TV growing up. And it speaks so much to my teenage experience of universal, and that's why it was popular.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

But you know, I watched Daria and I'm like, what character mine Daria and Daria for sure. And I really I'm Daria. I'm also Daria. I grew up, I was Daria. And uh, I mean, you know, obviously, like I was a boy, so I I probably would have been more spastic than Daria. Daria was way cooler than I was, but just the whole mindset she had of just feeling alienated and uh just seeing the world as this like unserious place filled with like overly enthusiastic weirdos who were like living in a who were in a movie and you were just stuck in this like uh warped world. Um, I just relate to Daria. And and if you have never seen Daria, it is 100% worth watching. It is a stone-cold classic, especially if you're our age. Like Daria is literally in the continuity of the show, she's literally my age, born in 1984.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

So I think it's relatable to anyone who's a teenager or older than a teenager, honestly. It's probably that universal. But anyway, that's not the question I know. No. The question is is pop culture still thriving? I want to say yes, because you always think that the moment you live in has shitty culture, but then in retrospect, you look back on it and you're like, oh yeah. There were like those couple things that were pretty cool. Um and I have a feeling that that is still happening now. Um, cartoons, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Pop culture is his question. But culture in general, I like what you say that like the time you live in, it always seems like it sucks. Here's the truth about the 90s, it sucked. Like uh it is not, and none of these decades that are considered great were great. And I'm talking from an American perspective. I can't speak for other cultures.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

What decades were cons like the 60s were considered great?

SPEAKER_00 21:11

In so I mean like I I valorized the 60s, I didn't live in the 60s, but like to me, the 60s was like I wish I was alive then.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

But it was the Beatles.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

But not just the Beatles, like the whole thing, music, culture, fashion, uh just authenticity, whatever it is. Like, but the truth is the 60s sucked too. Like there were just obviously like civil rights issues, and uh you know, they had the same issues with poverty and like uh fucking Vietnam, like wars and corrupt politicians. It's all the same shit. Like and the experience you had, like I there's this whole genre of YouTube video I've noticed that gets fed to me in the algorithm where they show like uh home recorded videos of high school kids in the nineties, our era. And they're just like cut together little clips of kids wandering the halls in high schools in the nineties, like being funny in front of the camera, dancing, like laughing. Having a good time and all the comments that are people saying is like the 90s were this great era, like kids say will never know. Look how happy everyone was, look how like present everyone was, look how like you know, uh uncring. Like to a certain extent, I see what they're saying, but the reality is like having lived through the 90s in high school, and I didn't have like a terrible high school experience, though, even though I said I was like Daria, I had a lot of friends, I you know, I had a good family life, whatever. The point is like I still felt shitty about like the world and my place in it, and and going through high school was miserable and just the the grind and monodity, and culture felt like it was shitty in the 90s too. I felt so alienated and disconnected from the like the current culture that existed that people probably love to this day.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

That's true. However, we recently found this YouTube channel called Okay. Was it The Countdown or something? Right, yeah, yeah. It's like a Dutch TV show filmed in Amsterdam with like contemporary band performances from the 80s and 90s. But mainly the between the 90 ones. Yeah. The 90s ones a lot.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

And like It's like Dutch MTV.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

It was like banger after banger. The 90s were not like a cultural void uh in the way that I thought they were at the time that I was living in the city.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Okay, so here's the truth. The truth is it's the concept. This is just me being a you know, just the being a following the trends of what like people, other people have said. It's the concept of insidification. That's what it truly has happened. That there's a watering down, there's an inshidification of all products, things, and culture as time has like gone on, uh, and the world has gotten way more like hyper capitalist and way more uh you know, I don't know, like the money is like the bottom line for everything. Like for here's something that's true about the 90s, like there was the idea of like selling out is bad. Your favorite artist would be embarrassed to have been like doing a commercial of certain like a certain type of commercial. Right. They would do them in Japan, maybe, or in other foreign c markets where you'd never see it. Right. But there's this idea of like I'm an artist, I'm not going to like sell out my like my acting visage or my music or something for the sake of some product. And that was very strong in the cultural zeitgeist. That does not exist anymore.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

People are like happy to sell out, it's glamorized, it's people are saying, oh congratulated if you have like your name or face on a label of some product or something.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

Get your bag as a fan. I mean, I think that is all shitty, just the level of which people are like thrilled to like somehow strike it rich, just like hawking products or apps now, you know, like whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

I mean, I don't know if I even agree with you on that. Because I think like being an artist is really difficult. Yes. And making money as an artist is like insanely difficult. And it always has been. Kind of wrong to shame artists for like making money in one of the only ways that's available.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

I guess it's just it's the it's a it's a shame from the standpoint of like they didn't used to have to do that. If they were successful. And if they did attempt to do that, people would say you're being greedy or you're being like shallow. You have enough money as it is. Why are you selling uh Pepsi or something?

SPEAKER_01 25:10

Aaron Powell Yeah, but now it's like all the rights with uh recording labels and stuff like that are also totally different. So it's not necessarily true that just because you have a hit song or a hit album or something that's you're gonna make a lot of money.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Yeah, but again, but it's bad. It's a bad situation because it's like the amount of capitalism being the bottom line is bad. Right. Like the artists the amount of money artists can like with uh can extract just from being artists is like basically nothing. So the fact that they have to do all this stuff and it's just it's just a sad state of affairs.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

So Okay, all that said, I still think that there are like creative people making good things right now, and we might not be aware of all of them, but I think it's gonna be another one of those things in 20 years when we look at it.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

Yeah, it'll rose-colored colored glasses kind of we'll be like, oh yeah, remember that uh Engine de Poitrine or whatever the case. I mean, there is a cynical aspect to it too where corporations are aware of this, like take Disney, for example. Uh I read some article talking about how they don't necessarily need some new movie to be a hit commercially for it to be a big success for them. One example was um uh Star Wars, the newer Star Wars that a lot of people aren't in love with. They say it's because they've seen the cycle of people loving the prequels now, where they just the the kids that grew up that loved the prequels, they nostalgically look back at them and they can't see the flaws like older generations like us see. And that and so people who shit on the current Star Wars movies, they're adults doing that. They can't uh when kids grow up that saw Ray and uh unironically enjoyed the movie when they're eight, when they're 18 and 22, they're gonna be start feeling nostalgic for these things, and then there's a whole new market for Disney to exploit nostalgically, you know. And that's part of their formula, so that even if something is not an apparent immediate hit, they know that there's like this back-end second life for these things that just naturally arises because uh of like people who have like a sort of unadulterated, kind of unironic memory of them. And uh it's intra it's to me that's intra fascinating for them to like invest in that and track in that and and like you know measure success.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

Just the fact that they have that long a vision is kind of insane, but I guess that makes sense for a company like that.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Yeah, yeah. Like it's not it, I I'm sure they're they're not happy if it does like Fantastic Four is a good example where it didn't make as much money as they would have hoped, but they they're not gonna kill the new Fantastic Four because it underperformed. They know that like despite a lot of people saying meh to it, that they probably meet a lot of fans that will be stoked either for a next one or be nostalgic for it in 10-15 years' time. It's just the way it is. Um, so let's go back to the original question. Is it nostalgia or were the 1990s the last great error for pop culture? I mean, it's it's just like how much do you want to believe that phones have ruined our brains? Phones and digital media have like ruined movies and music videos and uh going to concerts and you know, like TV specials, like c like even more cable TV now. I mean, cable TV's actually gone away, or streaming, I guess, is like ruined monoculture TV. So if you believe that like the digit digitization of culture through our phones uh is like a clear line, then yes, the 90s to me might be like the last great time where it was like we there's like this gr broader monoculture that was less uh in shittified, you know, to use that term again. So I agree.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Okay. I'm gonna disagree. I don't think a monoculture is necessary to have a good culture. Yeah. I think you know, there's like the other side of it where like you don't have to just go along with like the one shitty movie that's playing on one of your five channels at home. You can branch out and find something that actually speaks to you, and there's gonna be other people that it speaks to also most likely.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

Yeah, I see both sides of it. Like, I mean, there has been a greater democratization of artistry, even though artists aren't getting paid. You can express yourself, you can make a movie, put it on YouTube, you can make an album like I have, put it on the internet. And it's just I mean, you're not gonna get any traction of it, but you could just do that, and that that never existed in the 90s. You would need a contract of some kind, usually. All right.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

Um anyone else wants to weigh in, let us know.

SPEAKER_00 29:46

Right. Uh Brian, uh the great Brian asks, what would your ideal team roster for be for the future seasons of X-197? And actually, with the new season two promo art showing other teams like X Factor and X Force, do you have any preferenced rosters for those teams as well? Would your ideal roster for the upcoming MCU movies, X-Men MCU movies, post-Tooms Day Secret Wars, be the same as your X197 roster or different? So I mean, essentially Brian's asking like what would our ideal cartoon X-Men roster be, and what would our like ideal movie X-Men roster be?

SPEAKER_01 30:25

Mm-hmm. I do think they would be different because I think you can get away with a lot of things in animation that you can't get away with in live action.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

Agree.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

I think like morph would be a terrible idea in live action, most likely.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

Why? Well, they had Mystique.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

I mean, uh the whole thing to me is like you need a whole it's for to do the X-Men properly, uh, you can't just be movies. It needs to be TV shows.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Like you could have the movies, but you need the X-Men like uh school show, you need X Cal Xcaliber, X-Force, whatever. I mean, you need them all. And you need them like building feeding into the movies. Like, and I know Disney has failed at this. They've attempted to do that when they launched Disney Plus. They wanted everyone to watch the TV shows and then go watch the movies that from the TV shows. They uh oh, that's another movie coming out. Uh the Mandalorian Grogu movies coming out.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

I don't really want to see that. Um, anyway. So I think with X-Men though, because there's so many characters, like you want to service all these characters.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

But also it's a show that's like built as a team show. It's like it's not the sort of thing where it's supposed to be just one story happens. It like the whole point is that it's a soap opera and there's tons of stories with like little side quests and love triangles and like all kinds of other interesting things going on.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

Right. And you want and again, you want you can't like service all that juicy stuff in just the movies. Right. And you know, the nature of a movie is you know, like you're just not gonna make everyone happy a lot of time. That's why I do think with X-Men, I would like them to try to revive the experiment of like have some of the shit on TV and then lead it feed it into the movies. Um, speaking of the movies though, more details have emerged. I don't know how serious they are. Uh I heard the Midnight Boys podcast talk about them as well today, actually. Uh, but here are some of the things that people believe are true about the upcoming MCU X-Men movie. The original five X-Men will be the main team. So Cyclops, Gene Grey, Beast, uh, Angel, and Iceman. And then there's going to be three additional members on top of that.

SPEAKER_02 32:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:30

So, um, and Wolverine will not be one of the three additional members.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Uh it'll feature a younger cast that grows over time. It'll be a coming of age story, which to me, I think presumes like teen romance stuff, teen interpersonal drama stuff. You know, John Hughesy kind of plot lines, perhaps. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

Maybe.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

Uh lineup won't be as big as the one in X-Men 97, it says specifically.

SPEAKER_02 33:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

So that was just some random tweet I f I mean I heard again, I heard the the Midnight Boys talk about uh this as well. Um that they're they wanna, you know, they want to set this they want lower stakes to start the X-Men universe when they get to it.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Yeah, that's smart.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

Yeah, I mean it's like, you know, they they've certainly done a lot of X-Men movies in general that weren't Disney, but like they touched on a lot of big themes, be it like hatred, racism, homophobia, like all these allegories and analogies to like they they've done in a sense they've done that. So it's like taking a fresh approach to start to me makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

Yeah, I mean also because like at this point their original cast is like aged out of doing like this type of action movie anymore. So yeah, it makes sense to start fresh with actors that are young enough that they could keep them, keep the same cast around for several movies and then just grow from there.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

X-Men series.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

They mixed and matched for wherever their purposes were in those movies.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

Like Jubilee is is like kind of the obvious choice. Right. You know, or like whatever in the cartoons anyway.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

But also like in the movies like Havoc was older than Scott, and like you said, Rogue was young, like a teenager. Yeah, I mean, like so I to me it's not so much like what my favorite roster is, it's what I hope that they do, which based on these rumors, it seems like they are, it's like I want them to stick to the comic storyline, not necessarily the specific story beats, but just the general like bones of like those were the five original X-Men. Right. They were young.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Kitty Pride could be like the coming of age story.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

Right, she comes along later or something. You know, just do it in the order of which the stories happened so that it all makes sense. Uh, and then you could alter it from there. Right. But like keep like the logic of that. I think X-Men fans agreed that they just enjoy the logic of the way that the entire meta the entire super story unfolded, you know. Starts with Cyclops and Gene Grey and whatever, and then it Wolverine comes eventually, it's Storm. Yeah, and then you have all the various the 80s mutants and the 90s mutants, you know, like in it just makes sense that way. Yeah, like just follow that like general pathline, and I think people will be happy. And that that's kind of what I'm look I had been looking forward to forever, frankly, even these X-Men things. Yeah. All right. Yeah, I didn't like the Fox movies just doing whatever the fuck they wanted, you know, that was annoying. Um Ian asks. Uh Mount Rushmore of X-Montess episodes. Any thoughts on season two promo costumes? Everyone's interested in the season two costume. Uh I think it's cool to see different eras represented, but I hope they go back to their Jim Lee 90s look looks again. Um I mean, I kind of feel like if they're I mean, just from the promo art, the costumes, they're doing like new cost the costumes from the 90s are like different Age of Apocalypse, maybe costumes. I don't know. I didn't look at it again. I didn't look I've been trying not to look at it too closely because I don't want to be too spoiled.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:08

But uh, you know, it's like they're just they're not sticking with the costumes from the original cartoon. You know, they're just they're they're pulling more from the comics.

SPEAKER_01 36:18

I feel like they l they're talking to the fan, like to the X-Men fans, you know what I mean? Right. So I feel like they're trying to like pay homage or something to like all the different eras because they're fans of all the different eras. I don't think they're beholden to the original, to I mean to the that one set of costumes.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Agree, yeah, you're right. They're trying to they're pushing it more than the original show, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

I don't mind.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Uh Mount Rushmore, X-Men Tass episodes. I haven't thought about it. I'll just have to just go off the top of my head.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Um Ryan in Japan.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

You like that one?

SPEAKER_01 36:54

I like that one.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Okay. Um Yeah, just name them as you think. I gotta try to see.

SPEAKER_01 37:01

Um the one uh with Gambit and uh Callisto.

SPEAKER_00 37:07

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

Town in the Bayou.

SPEAKER_00 37:09

Right, that's a great one. Yeah, yeah. Is it Callisto? Is it Callisto? No, it's it's a different name. Uh Belladonna.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

Right. And the uh and the the the spirit monster, I forget her name. It's not the Oracle. Uh I forget what it's called. It's driving me crazy right now because I could hear it being a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

I don't know like the names of the episodes on the top of my head. I'm not looking at a list or anything. Right. Remember when that crazy thing happened? Um what else?

SPEAKER_00 37:36

Okay, let me think of some. Um one that comes to mind to me that I always enjoy is the Storm and Rogue in Africa episode against the Shadow King.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:43

I really like that episode.

SPEAKER_01 37:45

Um that's the introduction of the Shadow King.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:48

Is it the last time we see him too?

SPEAKER_00 37:51

Probably.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

Yeah, I think that's He just seemed like such a weird character. I remember thinking about it. He's a great character.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

Yeah, I really like that one. Um I feel like there's like oh, the season finale of season one where they fight the Sentinels and blow up Master Mold. I cannot be destroyed. You must be destroyed. You represent everything evil about mankind. Professor X nukes him. Uh Magneto save me. Where is he? I'm right here. You're all fools, heroic fools. The first arrow is the brave arrow is the first to die. I can almost quote most of the famous lines for that episode. What is that object? It appears to be the ace of spades. Uh, that is like an incredible highlight episode. Um, Slave Island is like for me probably my favorite X-Men episode ever. Where Jubilee and Gambit and Storm are kidnapped in Genosha.

SPEAKER_02 38:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

And they escape and they meet Cable. Uh, everything about that episode is incredibly satisfying in 22 minutes. Uh, I love every second of it. Um, that's like a high point for me in season one. Um not the Savage Land. I do like a lot of the Savage Land Amphibion. Yeah. My mutates. I mean, there's so many episodes the more you think. I mean, I like the Colossus episodes, I like the Nightcrawler episode, I like the X Factor episode. The Iceman X Factor episode is huge for me. Uh I mean, I like, you know, like there's no particular episode I like from it, but I just like the apocalypse uh time traveling episodes.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

Oh yeah, his weird like pyramid ship and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

Uh yeah. Um oh that's a good one too, where like Beast falls in love with his ship and cries. The AI dies. I mean, the X-Men anime series had the best side character voice acting ever, The Sentinels for Stars. And the the voice actor on Beast on that ship that Beast falls. I was also in love with the ship's voice too. When Beast is like crying when the ship is sacrificing itself to save the X-Men. That's amazing. Uh several Archangel episodes. The Mirror Island episode is incredible where they fight Apocalypse. Uh oh, you know what's another great one? Um the Magneto Introduction episodes, like episodes three and four or whatever, where Professor X fights him in the blowing up the chemical factory, and Ro gets Cyclopsis powers. I mean, there's just like so many great moments. Uh oh man, I haven't I really have not thought about the X-Mentas in a long time. It's just it's funny how they spackle your brain when they the memories pop in there, though.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

They keep coming back.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

Well, the Star Jammers I love.

SPEAKER_01 40:35

Oh, the Star Jammers, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

The whole Phoenix saga is great. I like the the first Phoenix saga more than the Dark Phoenix, although it's not bad. But I felt like they always rushed the Dark Phoenix saga compared to the Green Phoenix introduction. I thought they they nailed the Green Phoenix, but the Dark Phoenix was a little um like I thought they just rushed it a little bit, but that's okay. It was still good. Um, yeah, so I mean nothing sticks out from season five so much. Wolverine meets Captain America in the World War II, that's kind of cool, but it animated terribly.

SPEAKER_02 41:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

Anyway, yeah, so there's more than amount Russian more's worth of episodes. Uh we've exceeded our four. Right. Yeah. You guys let us know. And then Adam, uh one of our OG fans, he doesn't ask he doesn't ask a question. He just makes fun of me. He says, No questions. Uh I just wanted to apologize for Bo Bichette on the Mets. So uh Sonya, I well, Adam's a Toronto Blue Jays fan, and Bo Bichette was a Toronto Blue Jays star that the Mets signed for$42 million this year. And uh if you follow baseball on any level, the Mets have just got off to a historically terrible start where they're among the worst teams in baseball. And poor Bo Bichette is there, like trying his best, but he stinks.

SPEAKER_01 41:46

Yeah, I'm not really following, but uh I hear the game commentary in the background.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

As I'm sit crying watching it.

SPEAKER_01 41:54

And Bo Bachette is just I think of Bo Ba Fett every time.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

That's funny. Now I'm gonna think of Bo Ba Fett every time. Sorry. Maybe the Mets can turn around, probably not, they bury themselves. Oh well, it's it's super depressing to think about. Um, okay. Daredevil, oh, Ben. Ben had the final question. He wants to know our thoughts on Daredevil season two.

SPEAKER_02 42:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 42:12

So Daredevil season two of Born Again, it finished this week. We watched every episode, and let's get our overall thought. What do you think of season two of Born Again Sonya?

SPEAKER_01 42:24

Uh, it was good. There definitely are some details from season one that I kind of forgot about that probably would have I think season one was bad in comparison.

SPEAKER_00 42:32

Season two was great.

SPEAKER_01 42:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:34

It would have helped me if I had remembered some of those details more probably.

SPEAKER_00 42:37

I mean, well, remember there's like that bank episode where the bank's being robbed and Ms. Marvel's dad works at the bank.

SPEAKER_01 42:42

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 42:43

Like and the Irish gangsters are robbing. Like that was to be an example of a bad episode. And they had like a bunch of those stupid. I think the White Tiger was like a big storyline in season one.

SPEAKER_01 42:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 42:53

Uh you know, uh, what else happened? Like Kingpin becomes mayor at the end.

SPEAKER_01 42:58

What's the name of that serial killer?

SPEAKER_00 43:00

Muse.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

Muse, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:02

Oh, was that in season one too? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:04

I think so.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

Season one was not great. Um it also had like the weird thing where they were trying they didn't decide what the continuity was, if they were sticking with all the events of the Netflix show, or if they're saying it's like an adjacent parallel universe. And then I feel like season two just says no, fuck it. It this is the Netflix show.

SPEAKER_01 43:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:22

We're not actually obsfugating this anymore.

SPEAKER_01 43:25

They had to because they wanted to fold in Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. Right.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

And some other characters too that come back.

SPEAKER_01 43:31

They couldn't just do that without like just saying, like, alright, fuck it, it's all one thing, you know.

SPEAKER_00 43:37

So I think I I had no interest in seeing Daredevil Born Again season two, because the I thought the first season was quite unmemorable and stupid. Uh this season was great.

SPEAKER_01 43:48

And I was I don't think there really were duds in the episode. I guess we'll go through the episodes a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 43:53

Um we'll go through one by one generally.

SPEAKER_01 43:57

I was like happy to watch it every week, actually, even though it's Kind of stressful at times, but that's just because like the drama was ramped up because it was well made.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

Yeah, it was just it was a little scary. Uh the to me, the the elements I didn't like seeing, but not because they were bad, just because they were upsetting was the uh psychologist who becomes evil.

SPEAKER_01 44:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:14

The muse lady, Heather.

SPEAKER_01 44:15

Heather.

SPEAKER_00 44:16

Every time you saw her, it was like very upsetting.

SPEAKER_01 44:18

Yeah. Dr. Glenn has like a tragic story arc here.

SPEAKER_00 44:23

And um Vincent Genofrios Kingpin is incredible. Always. And he really they really made him scarier and more interesting this season. Uh he was too goofy. When they were transitioning him, like he appears in Echo or Hawkeye, like that's where he shows up in the MCU first, and it was bad. He's like wearing like a Hawaiian outfit, he gets shot in the face and survives, and then gets a fake eye, and then that fake eye goes away. Like everything about it was dumb. Uh but like they just make him the Kingpin at a certain point here. And that was the problem with the original Netflix show that we talked about endlessly with Daredevil, like they arrested Kingpin and exposed him too early. He should always be in the shadows, he should not be exposed. So it never makes sense that like how's he gonna be the mayor?

SPEAKER_01 45:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

Uh but uh Vincent D'Nafrio, great though. Uh Charlie Clock Charlie Cox is underrated as perhaps one of the best Marvel actors in the history of Marvel live action stuff, I think.

SPEAKER_01 45:20

Wow, wow, wow.

SPEAKER_00 45:21

Like to me, he's as good as Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man. Uh-huh. I think he's better than Christopher and Chris Evans as Captain America. That might be a hot take. Uh he's better than the Thor guy. He's better than Mark Ruffalo as Hulk. Like, I just find him like interesting and so in that role, unbelievable. And he's funny. He has like funny moments. He could do serious. I do think at times he's a little corny, uh, especially in the season finale of this season when he finally confronts the kingpin for the last time and he wants to redeem him somehow. And he's like crying as he's holding the kingpin's face. And I'm like, come on, I feel like that's the writing though.

SPEAKER_01 45:57

That's not his fault.

SPEAKER_00 45:58

No, yeah, it's not his fault. Right, exactly. But uh Charlie Cox is uh awesome in this part. Um and uh what's her name? Deborah Ann Wool. Is she Karen? Yeah, she's really good.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

Um and uh I mean she's her character's a little corny too, but again, it's like the writing and like the circumstances they're in. It's not the actor's fault. There's just like a lot of one thing is there are like a lot of scenes where they're in some like hideout, and it's unclear like what she is doing.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

Right. She's just like a freelance, like mercenary, like vigilante slash underground reporter slash.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

But she doesn't have any freedom fighters. She doesn't have like a news outlet that she seems to be working with. Like what does she do all day? How does she get money?

SPEAKER_00 46:48

Like Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:50

She used to have a job, but now she I guess doesn't.

SPEAKER_00 46:53

She's just a weird mercenary.

SPEAKER_01 46:54

I don't love like the romantic relationship between her and Daredevil. Yeah, it's a little bit like ring true to me.

SPEAKER_00 47:01

It's a little like overstretched over the Netflix years and into now, and it's kind of like you wonder like what is their deal? Like, I forget what happened between them and the original scene.

SPEAKER_01 47:10

That's what I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:11

Uh oh, uh Bullseye. Bullseye is an amazing incredible villain, and they're smart, smart not to kill him.

SPEAKER_01 47:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:20

He fucking rocked. Matthew Lilliard is a CIA creepy CIA agent, was fun. Um I like the guy who played the Swordsman. He was hilarious. I thought he was like the stupidest character they introduced prior. I forget where he was. He was introduced to Ms. Marvel, I think. I don't know. But he was really him like kicking ass with Daredevil was insanely satisfying.

SPEAKER_02 47:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

Oh um, Michael Gandalfini is a major character in the show. Uh-huh. The son of James. Uh I don't know. I'm mixed on his performance. I can't tell if it was good or terrible.

SPEAKER_01 47:55

Really?

SPEAKER_00 47:56

Yeah, what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 47:56

I think he it was good for the part, I thought.

SPEAKER_00 48:00

Like I just didn't like he was in like the friend zone the entire season. Not saying I I just wish there was a you wish there was more of like a romantic connection actually with him and the It just didn't seem believable to me that like he's risking his whole life for this woman who is not even his girlfriend. I found that very I don't know. Maybe that is realistic. I have no idea, but it it was just it seemed struck me as pathetic.

SPEAKER_01 48:22

They're both like leading each other on, they're both kind of using each other like it was a more complicated relationship than that. And in the end, like he got what he deserved, even though he was like young and naive and maybe didn't deserve it, but you know what I mean? Right. He played with fire and got burned, is sort of the thing.

SPEAKER_00 48:38

Yeah, yeah. Um, and then uh what's her name? Kristen Ritter comes back as Jessica Jones. And um and also Luke Cage, I forget the actor's name who plays Luke Cage. He comes back too in the last episode. And I forget that they even got married. Is that something just something from the comics, or did that happen in the Netflix show too?

SPEAKER_01 48:58

I don't remember anymore. Yeah for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 49:00

Yeah. Um but they have a kid together. Uh satisfying to see them.

SPEAKER_01 49:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:05

Um, fun. Uh I mean, are they gonna do more with them? I don't know. They sort of hinted they are.

SPEAKER_01 49:10

That'd be fun.

SPEAKER_00 49:10

Yeah, I don't know. Um I'll say this before we go through the episodes. Oh, we don't even have to go through the episodes. We just keep talking about the show generally. Okay. Uh the biggest dumb question I had, and this is something a I'll say a dumb this is a dumb fam critique, but I am a dumb fan.

SPEAKER_02 49:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 49:30

And I I just couldn't help but think about it. Because this is Marvel has primed their audience to think this way. Uh be it from reading comic books or just the movies and content they presented. The number one question I had in every episode is where the fuck is Spider-Man?

SPEAKER_01 49:46

That's true. If you see the kingpin, you think about Spider-Man.

SPEAKER_00 49:50

You think about Spider-Man. I mean, it's not just because it's the Kingpin, it's New York City. It's a show about like the Kingpin is waging a war on masked vigilantes. And more than Daredevil, Spider-Man is the number one menacing masked vigilante in New York City in the Marvel universe. We know he is active right now at, you know, uh as a poor kid in this continuity, because like everyone has forgotten he's Peter Parker. Right. And that's like kind of where you want him. And you're watching episode after episode where the stakes get higher and higher, where like the literal city of New York is like held hostage by a psychotic, mass-murdering uh lunatic known as the Kingpin, who we all know who he is, and you're just wondering where the fuck is Spider-Man?

SPEAKER_01 50:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:34

Um and then by honestly by the end, I was asking, where are the X-Men? Like, because I the X-Men could have intervened as well in many of these situations.

SPEAKER_01 50:42

Yes, I'm sure this was national news. Right.

SPEAKER_00 50:45

Well, they're you know, they're in Westchester, yeah. Um, I mean, those are again, though we know why they're not in the show, why Spider-Man or the X-Men especially are not in the show. I mean, the fact that they couldn't even make one reference to Spider-Man, though. I mean, you know that like it's in some ways the Spider-Man movie that's coming out this year has to address what's happened in Daredevil. Otherwise, it makes no sense. Kingpin was the mayor of New York City. Spider-Man needs to have has to have a sentence about that at the very least. Because Punisher's in the Spider-Man movie as well.

SPEAKER_01 51:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

And he's in the Daredevil show. Uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 51:19

It's just like it should all be connected.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

And they should put Carl Charlie Cox in the Spider-Man movies. Like he's too good.

SPEAKER_01 51:26

Yeah, he's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 51:26

And Spider-Man and Daredevil are a great team together. And they should put Vincent D'Anafrio as Kingpin in the Spider-Man movie. He should be the villain of Spider-Man 4.

SPEAKER_01 51:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:37

If I was doing it, I would have had it lead up to that. Okay, another big criticism I have, this is less stupid, because they're not gonna put Spider-Man, who's a Sony character, they're not in Tom Holland's big sorry, they're not gonna put him in a Daredevil.

SPEAKER_01 51:47

Also, I mean the show's called Daredevil.

SPEAKER_00 51:49

Right. So I know it's just not gonna happen for a million reasons. We know. But at the same time, I was thinking like Spider-Man could web up these like uh King Ping goons in two seconds. Daredevil's having trouble like taking them out a lot of time, you know. These people are menacing poor, innocent New Yorkers, uh, like their ice agents. Spider-Man could have easily have like wrapped up this whole operation of King Pins like nothing. He's uh okay, moving on. Um, at the end of the series, major spoilers, Kingpin is given a plea deal to be denaturalized as an American citizen and like live on a beach somewhere and uh like face no consequences other than that, other than living in exile. I had a big problem with that. That's not the way I would have ended the storyline for me.

SPEAKER_01 52:34

Also not realistic to be, but go on.

SPEAKER_00 52:37

Right. The if you have to exile him from America, I could see that, but then I need a scene not showing him staring at the ocean like contemplating his existence and his loneliness. I need to see him go into his like beach mansion, go into an underground lair, sit in a high-tech computer chair, and like look at a 3D image of the globe with all his crime content. I need him to see become the kingpin again and like a high-tech version of the kingpin, one that we saw in the Spider-Man Anime series that Spider-Man would have to fuck with. You know what I mean? Where now he's building fucking robots and plotting his revenge immediately.

SPEAKER_01 53:11

Right.

SPEAKER_00 53:11

Maybe they have that planned in some respect, but like that's how you would end. That would be a satisfying end for the Kingpin. He goes back to being the ultimate ultra crime boss.

SPEAKER_01 53:21

He hires Mr. Smythe or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 53:24

Right. Yes. That Wesley got, oh not Wesley, what's the whatever the guy that gets shot in the stomach?

SPEAKER_01 53:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:29

His like his killer dude, he should have been Smythe. He should have been a scientist, not a bodyguard. Yeah. Um, the fact that King, yeah, the fact that Kingpin has no like high science fiction like gadgetry or related like aspect to him, like being like the billionaire tech guru, like that was a mistake to me.

SPEAKER_01 53:47

That's true. I didn't really think about that, but that's true.

SPEAKER_00 53:50

Yeah, that's a big part of his character.

SPEAKER_01 53:51

Yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_00 53:53

And also the fact that like he just tried to assassinate the governor, and then like in his final acts, he's like literally murdering like dozens of people with his bare hands. Uh like the they still give him a plea deal to go unpunished is insane to me. Yeah, like that scene was I I know they're trying not to put him in prison again, prison again, because that's like a dead end that they fucked up with the original Daredevil show, but that scene was interesting because He should have gone away in his fucking helicopter and then escaped. Like, that's to me how it should have ended. Not that he takes a plea deal. Right. That he escapes in a high-tech helicopter and retreats to some like underground layer where he's the crime boss.

SPEAKER_01 54:28

Right. The scene where they're going back and forth between him like just killing people with one punch, like the Daredevil supporters that have the masks on, and then they cut over to the other hallway where Daredevil and Jessica Jones are like also killing the the guards, the like ice agents, essentially, what they're called in their in the show.

SPEAKER_00 54:48

ETV or something.

SPEAKER_01 54:50

It's like you're supposed to have like a clear moral divide between like oh Kingpin is wrong because those are civilians.

SPEAKER_00 54:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:57

But Daredevil and Jessica Jones are fine because those are like militarized forces. Right. But those are essentially like militarized civilians, a lot of them. I had kind of what that scene was.

SPEAKER_00 55:08

Most of them are evil. I understand the line they're trying to draw, but like No, they're evil because they established that all he c all the people he called for that are like the uh problem people, the NYPD.

SPEAKER_01 55:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:19

That were suspended or were kicked off the force. Like they're they're criminals.

SPEAKER_01 55:24

It's just like shitty because at the end, it's like they almost kill Kingpin and Daredevil's the one that saves him. They're like, he's like, no, no, no, you can't kill him. But like you just killed like dozens of guys.

SPEAKER_00 55:34

Well, he daredevil doesn't kill. Maybe Jessica Jones killed some people. I don't know. Well, Bullseye, who was working with them, like threw a knife in some guy's head. So he was killing people for sure. Exactly. Punisher, who's worked with Daredevil in season one, killed people. Uh I think he was in the beginning part of this show, too. I forget. He escapes from prison. That was satisfying. Uh, you know, uh first of all, you can't kill Kingpin, that's a mistake. You can't kill the villains.

SPEAKER_01 55:58

No, you can't. You can't. But like there were other ways to get him out of that that didn't have to involve like Matt Murdoch saving him, you know?

SPEAKER_00 56:04

Yeah. I I again I think it would have just been so much more slicker if he just he escaped on his own accord in some way that was unexpected. Uh they it all goes back to the mistakes the original Netflix show made with like the in season one where they felt the need for Daredevil to expose and arrest Kingpin as Wilson Fisk. It just that was like such a failure of script writing. Like the Kingpin should never be exposed and he should always get away. And no one should know that Wilson Fisk, the philanthropist, is the same guy as the Kingpin, unless if it's at the tail end of like four epic Spider-Man movies, right, you know, where like he brings them down for good.

SPEAKER_01 56:46

Right.

SPEAKER_00 56:46

And you're retiring Vincent D'Anafrio as the actor playing the character. Like then you could uh expose him.

SPEAKER_01 56:52

Right. But also now, like the city knows that Daredevil is Matt Murdoch.

SPEAKER_00 56:56

Yeah, oh yeah, that was a big reveal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:58

So I don't know. They're doing a season three. Yeah, they are.

SPEAKER_00 57:01

It's in it might have actually finished it might have already been filmed.

SPEAKER_01 57:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 57:06

Um I'm looking forward to season three now. It's crazy. Yeah. It should be good. I know we nitpicked a lot, but I just hope Charlie Cox shows up in Spider-Man 4. I mean, he showed up in the last Spider-Man. That's something to remember. Uh they should do a Spider-Man. Daredevil. I Marvel is underrating Charlie Cox if they feel like he can't co-carry a movie with Tom Holland. I think that's a mistake. I think they absolutely can. Uh and they they gotta get Charlie Cox in the MCU, in my opinion. I don't know why they think he's just like a lesser TV character. He's not. He's great. Like and Daredevil is a great Marvel character that everyone loves, in my opinion, anyway. So, and this season was very satisfying. It was violent, it was scary, it was relevant, you know. All the stupid analogies between like Kingpin and Trump and ICE and his task force and just like seeing, you know, something you thought could never happen come true. I mean, it's all just very like touched on a lot of nerves in an interesting way. That like it was pretty ballsy of Marvel to like go there in a lot of places. Um and you know, it was satisfying, you know, and it was nostalgic too because I do like all these actors that have been playing these parts for a long time, almost 10 years, whatever it's been.

SPEAKER_01 58:12

What did you think of them uh killing off Vanessa?

SPEAKER_00 58:15

Fine. Yeah, that's a bold choice.

SPEAKER_01 58:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:18

You know, she's a minor character. I mean, you know, Kingpin's wife, like it's not you don't have to keep her alive, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 58:25

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_00 58:26

You could bump her off. He could get a new love interest that he gets obsessed with. Um The Midnight Boys had a funny comment, not to uh just copy them, but they said that the island Kingpin was sent to is Epstein's Island.

SPEAKER_01 58:40

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 58:41

That was funny. Uh a billionaire who never faces punishment, exiled to a tropical island.

SPEAKER_01 58:46

Um I was thinking of that Superman episode.

SPEAKER_00 58:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:49

It's like now Superman has to bring Kingpin peanut butter while he lays it on the beach.

SPEAKER_00 58:54

Oh, a volcana. Volcana. Yeah. Right. He decides not to take her to jail, he just puts her on a tropical beach and brings her peanut butter sandwiches. Yeah, right. Yeah, Daredevil, he has to fly in Kingpin's food every week. Um excellent show. Excellent show. It's good uh, you know, like worth watching if you tapped out after the last season of Daredevil, I think, for sure. Um if you listened this long and didn't mind being spoiled. Um, well, I mean, Sonya, that's all we have for now. Uh it's fun to say hello to everyone again. Thank ever thank you to everyone for all their questions.

SPEAKER_01 59:30

Um if you're still with us.

SPEAKER_00 59:33

We will return for X-Men 97 season two. We have not yet decided if we're doing it contemporaneously uh with the show's release or if we're gonna wait for the whole season to come out and then cover them one by one. You know, get some time. We haven't decided. Um we shall see. But you know what we're gonna need, we're definitely gonna need help from our listeners to join us in those episodes. So clear your calendars a little bit because we don't know when. We don't right, we have to figure out the details. But if you're interested in coming on the show, um reach out to us, we'll reach out to you as well. And uh we're gonna need your help with X-Men 97 season two, and that's that's always the fun way to do it anyway. Especially on the X-Men task podcast. Sonia, any final words before we go for who knows how long again? See you later.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:23

Good night.