2024 Last Call Awards

Hello, this is Brian K. Vaughan, writer of Why the Last Man, Ex Machina, Paper Girls, Saga, and a bunch of other crap. And you are listening to the best podcast in the universe, the Oblivion Bar podcast. Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host Chris Hacker and Aaron Knowles. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 179 of the Oblivion Bar podcast.

I'm your albino, python wearing co-host Chris Hacker and joining me is the only man who can slap Chris Rock live on television while also openly loving the movie Red One and getting away with it. My co-host and BFF Aaron Knowles. Chris, I'm gonna let you finish, but Alien versus Avengers was the best damn thing to happen in 2024. That's right. Welcome back everybody. my wife's name out your damn mouth. My wife's name out your damn mouth. Welcome back to the Blamey bar, everybody.

Final episode of the year, Aaron, the last episode of twenty twenty four. Got a round of applause. I've I've got no snare. Did you your teacher make you do that? Well, everyone, we're doing an actual round of applause. Yeah. Welcome, everybody, to our twenty twenty four last call awards, which we have done now for I think this is our fifth year. And doing the last call awards, it is. Episode 23, 67, 104, 142 and now 179. There you go. Yeah, I love doing this episode of the year.

And because it's a way for us to reflect on our year. And we sort of spoke on it a little bit last week during episode 178, our Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review, where we sort of talked about we did a little fart sniffing for a bit, talked about 2024 and what we accomplished and. So the things that we enjoyed about the year and all those things, and we don't need to rehash that. Go back and listen to that episode if you want to hear that.

But I think the last call awards is truly like the best opportunity for us to celebrate the things we loved, shit on the things we didn't love one last time and all the things. kind of I kind of hate it. I love it, but I hate it. love it as we kind of talked about before we started, we hit the record button. The last call awards is a great way for me to realize how shitty my brain is and all the things that you still need to watch all the things I still need to watch.

So I can't remember that I did watch and everything that I am just I'm so far behind on. But Aaron, what are you doing in step? What are you doing instead of watching flow or anora? I'm either working or I did write a book this year. Well, that does take time, you know. So I did that. Yeah. And that comes out one January, by the way. Shameless plug. Shameless plug. No, I'm kidding. Go ahead.

The floor is yours, No, no, no, no, no, no. I don't want to take away from this, but it is called the algorithm at the end. We'll talk about the. OK, we'll talk about the end anyways. But regardless, yeah, I just I because, you know, I got brain problems. I got a bad brain. I got two traumatic brain injuries and I just can't. I got what is called. I got CRS. I can't remember shit. I want to put that on a t-shirt for you, Aaron, and put it in the merch store. I got brain problems.

I got brain problems. Okay. And it's just a picture of my head with like a bandage on it. Well, Aaron, I want you to tell everyone who also has brain problems how they can support the Oblivion Bar podcast. God, I don't remember. No. If you want to support the Oblivion Bar podcast, you guys got to consider checking out the Patreon for your support over the Patreon. You gain access to just a ton of freebies. bonus episodes each week called The Grid.

A behind the scenes look at how we prepare each episode with our episode transcripts, like we're looking at right now. It's also, you get Patreon polls, you get a bunch of other freebies, newsletters, so much free stuff. We like to send comics, stickers, all this stuff, t-shirts to our patrons. Nicknacks. Nicknacks. Give it a dog a bone. You also just give it a shot with a seven day free trial over at patreon.com forward slash oblivion bar pod link is in our show notes as well.

Awesome. Well, Aaron, without further ado, let's get into our last call awards. It's time for our 2024 last call awards. This should go without saying, but these nominations are completely objective and based on our own stupid opinions. Just think of these awards as more of an endorsement to check out the entries rather than a definitive list of quote unquote best and quote unquote worst.

But also Aaron, all awards are made up and objective and judging art goes against the fundamental core of creativity. So Let's just have fun with it. You know, and like I said, also episode 23, 67, 104 and 142 are our previous last call award episodes. If you want a quick reference to those also little notch, little notch here. Little, little bit. We love a bit.

Each of us has one a limit break, which basically means that when one of us wants to solely decide on the winner of an award, they can use their limit break. to go pick the winner themselves. Why didn't we put bit of the year in this in this award ceremony? Everybody's not it's not here. We should have we should have created that award. We will. This is a note for next year. Love a good bit. That's right. We do. And we only have 12 awards here.

We've we've like sort of definitively picked out what which awards that we really love from previous years, what we want to bring back for this year. And Aaron, I'm to pass it off to you. Do you want to present our very first award? that's sweet of you.

Yes. So our first award of the year, the set up sequel of the year, best post credit scene and the nominations are Deadpool and Wolverine, a tribute to Fox's X-Men franchise as the credits role set to Good Riddance by Green Day and a post credit scene. Deadpool exposes footage of Chris Evans, Johnny Storm saying the words that led to his murder by Cassandra Nova, Sonic the Hedgehog three and mid credit scene. Sonic is confronted by an army of robotic versions of his self.

but is saved by the arrival of a pink hedgehog in a post-credit scene also. Shadow, who survived the explosion, claims his limiter rings. Transformers 1, Megatron has rechristened the Highgarden as the Decepticons who seek to take control of Cybertron. Venom, the last dance. In a mid-credit scene, Null exclaims that the universe is no longer safe from him. In a post-credit scene, a bartender escapes Area 51 in a panic while a cockroach appears to be fused with the Venom symbiote.

And the winner is... BULLET WOLVERINE! If the last thing I do in this God forsaken cum gutter existence is like that fuck box on fire, I still won't die. Holy shit, girl. You crazy. That's right. Wait, I won't be happy until I've urinated on her freshly barbecued corpse and husk fuck the charred remains while gargling juggernauts juggernauts. Wow. And you can quote me. mean, come on. That has to be it. Right. I love it. I'll be honest with everybody here that's listening.

I've been currently searching for that monologue that Chris Evans has at the end of Deadpool Wolverine. But It is pretty hilarious because I don't know about you, Aaron, but while watching dead, we'll Wolverine. I sort of believed Johnny Storm that he didn't say all that and that was just fucking with him and Cassandra Nova and everybody there at the absolutely Scott Lang head. But it is hilarious to see him actually pull it off and in a Boston accent. Yeah, absolutely.

That was the funniest thing was because I was like, what? And then at the end, like because I was hoping I was hoping my heart of hearts is hoping that he actually said this. and that they would show it. And when they gave it to me again, this entire movie was fan service and the Deadpool and the post credit scene was ever it's honestly like cherry on top of the whipped cream on top of the apple pie that was perfectly warmed. That was not fucked.

Well, well, speaking of fan service as well, Sonic the Hedgehog three, I maybe some folks might have thought that we would pick that one. Let's fucking go. But go back and listen to our review of last week. Aaron and I, although I would imagine if we were hardcore Sonic fans, we would have loved those two credit post credit scenes, but we don't and we're not. If we both still owned a Sega Dreamcast, we would be like, say bonkers over that thing.

Aaron, what are your thoughts on the Transformers one post credit scene? You're obviously a big Transformers fan. Was that something that you were expecting to see? You know, of course, Megatron becoming Megatron, essentially. I think that we both kind of agree on the fact that the Transformers one was not. Not in the same vein, but kind of felt very parallel to the same way that, not Disney, I was gonna say Nintendo did the Super Mario Brothers movie. It was very safe.

was very like, again, like it followed some rails very easily. Yeah. And a small sandbox to plan. Exactly. So I don't really see that as something that was like surprising. wasn't like, it's just same thing with Sonic. The post credit scene was something that you just, it's like, yeah, no shit, you know? Right. Yeah. And then, course, been in The Last Dance, a pretty terrible movie overall, but people were excited about Noel and how they introduced Noel did essentially nothing with him.

But I guess there's a chance there's been rumors that Sony Pictures will eventually use Noel at some point when they inevitably reboot this Sony, the SSU Aaron, as we call it, formerly known as the Spider-Man Sony universe. We call it the shitty Spider-Man universe. And honestly, it's because they didn't even give any kind of credit to the guys who wrote and created Noel. So Yeah. So fuck Sony. Shout out to Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman. Yeah. So let's get our next category here.

We have movie trailer of the year. The nominees are Alien Romulus, Deadpool and Wolverine, F1, Long Legs, Sinners and Superman. And the winner is for movie trailer of the year. F1. No, it's Superman. They gave me the wrong card. I'm sorry. Sorry. Wrong card. Wrong card. is the loser card. It everybody again, just like the last category. Maybe it's reason to be bias, Aaron. We did just get this trailer last week. Yeah. Where's crypto at? It's an incredible trailer like James Gunn.

Home. Peter Safran. They know what they're doing with this universe. I can already tell you from this trailer. Very excited. We get looks at Justice League International. We get a look again at crypto. the new Superman, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, Jimmy Olsen, everybody. Like we get a look at everybody and it all looks great. Yeah, Guy Gardner. Have you seen, I don't know if you remember when in Adam's family, two family values, when Uncle Fester gets the wig. Yeah. Did you see that meme?

No. So we took Uncle Fester with the wig on and put the the Green Lantern logo and a ring on him. And they were like, Guy Gardner looks great. Oh, gosh. Yeah. Guy Gardner is an easy punching bag because he is a tool. But yeah. And I assume we're going to see that in Superman. Aaron, I think when we talked about our most anticipated films of twenty twenty five, we mentioned Superman and I had said that it was my favorite. I'm not my favorite. It is my most anticipated film of that year.

Next year. Where is Superman at now that we've seen the trailer? Has it climbed your list at all in terms of your most anticipated for next year? absolutely. mean, it's again, still approaching this one. OK, so when we first were talking about it, we were both kind of skeptical. We're always skeptical. But we approach with cop cautious optimism or optimistic caution. You're right. You want to say however you want to say it. You know, potato potato.

But I think honestly that this trailer is once again showing like, you know, guns fucking just. dedication to this to this medium and really anybody that had any doubts that this is going to be better than any other installment of a Superman in the Superman lore slash franchise. I think a lot of people's worries were laid to rest just simply by seeing this trailer. I think it's it looks fantastic.

Simply seeing crypto super run like super run to Superman like is like just That's that's detail and the fact that it's going to be awesome, like the little it's the little things. You know what mean? Yeah, absolutely. And I think the folks aren't excited by it and aren't as jazzed about it as we are.

I don't know if it's confirmation that it's better, but it's definitely confirmation that is different and anything, at least from my perspective, that's different from what we have previously with Superman. I'm on board for, you know, even if it's not wholeheartedly better. I like obviously, Aaron, we talked about it last episode during our sort of trailer review of that Superman trailer. I prefer my Superman to be sort of hopeful and optimistic and sort of larger than life.

Silver age Superman hope justice in the American way like, yeah, true. Just guys in red underwear. Yeah. Strong blues, strong red, strong yellows. I all of it. So if you're not reaching when it comes to superhero moves, especially with someone as iconic as Superman, what are you even doing? Like if you're playing it safe, like that's just silly. Yeah. Agreed.

All right. Let's get into our next category. Alright, next category is television series of the year. The nominees are Baby Reindeer, English Teacher, The Penguin, Shogun, The Franchise, X-Men 97. And the winner is... X-Men 97. All right, everybody, little peek behind the curtain here. and I had a pretty, I wouldn't say intense, but sort of just a more challenged conversation about this category and what we should pick because we were between two.

And I was, again, speaking on the whole limit break of it all, still curious if Aaron's gonna use his or not on this category, but we were indifferent between two, two series that we both loved. Because again, we reviewed both these series on the show. Again, go back and listen to that Penguin review and then listen to our review of X97 with Bodder. from the short box he came over and helped us review the series in two parts. We talked about it for over two hours. So I love the Penguin.

I love X-Men 97. I think I actually loved all of these series to a certain degree, but X-Men 97 was in my opinion, just the most ideal. Limit break! Damn it. All right, everybody, there's Aaron's limit break. So I'm assuming you're going to take it to the streets of Gotham then, Aaron? Yes. Damn it. OK. In this form, I am choosing the Penguin. show love of what he meant. Can you imagine to be remembered like that? Vic, I'm trying to take over the city, You know what family is? It's weakness.

Go to sleep. As he chokes me out. he chokes Gambit out. Go to sleep Chris. Shut up. All right. Well, I was sitting there bragging about X-Men 97, which again, I think we both loved. I think you may have given it a 4.5. I gave X-Men 97 only my second five star rating in the show's history beside Top Gun Maverick. Tell the people why you decided to do your limit break here for the Penguin. Okay, I really, I did, absolutely really enjoyed X-Men 97. We've talked about this ad nauseam.

We even had a great discussion with Bodder. there's so many amazing things about this show coming out of just decades of mothballs, you know? And bringing back the nostalgia. But honestly, X-Men 97 was really good, but to me, it was kind of forget...

Forgettable like you watched it and you were done with you were like like I watched it No, it's kind of like I like like I'm not gonna really see any more of this because you know And there's also a lot of drama that went into it like behind the scenes I'm not saying none of that happened with the penguin But to me it's like I'm still thinking about the penguin sure like I'm still like I'm so blown away by Colin Farrell I'm still blown away

by everybody in that show and it's like I just want more and like if whether they just bring, you The Penguin back as a supporting actor in another spinoff kind of like what we talked about in that episode. All I want, I just, I just want more. I want more. I'm okay with what we go. I'm like, I really enjoyed X-Men 97, but I don't need more. I need more of the Penguin.

And we talked about during our review that the Penguin, what it did so well is it proved that you can make prestige television with superhero characters, right? Without the superhero there, without Batman, without Pattinson there. Which is incredible. mean, the series is very, very good. And then to sort of speak on some of the other ones here, Baby Reindeer, of course, surprise hit of the year for Netflix. You have the English teacher over on FX, which I really loved.

Aaron, think you really liked it as well. Yeah, I enjoyed that one's funny. Shogun, which swept the awards this year. I think it was the Golden Globes absolutely killed over there. And I need to watch them that because I have not watched any of that. I think you would love it. And then the franchise, which I've been screaming from the mountaintops for people to watch the show over on HBO. So incredible.

Again, speaking on like the prestige formatting of a superhero show, the franchise is essentially just a satire on what it's like to be on the set of a superhero movie. And it's about the crew that makes these, these shows and these movies. So it's, it's a lot of inside baseball. If you sort of know the inner workings of like what's happening behind the scenes at Marvel studios and Warner brothers and DC studios and all those things, you will get a kick out of that show. But I agree with you.

I mean, I love, I would, it would, if it was up to me, I would give X-Men 97 here, but Aaron uses limit break. and he chose the penguin, which I'm happy with. I'm not, I'm definitely not opposed to it. So let's get into our next award here.

We have the whip smack surprise hit of the year. This is our surprisingly good movie and or series and the nominees are alien Romulus, baby reindeer, the first Omen, The franchise kingdom of the planet of the apes and nobody wants this. And the winner is for whips smack surprise hit of the year kingdom of the planet of the apes. This is an interesting pick, Aaron, because you have yet to see Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

And to speak on, again, our discussion behind the scenes, we're going to talk about it here. But Aaron and I always decide before the recording which nominee we want to give the award to. I'll be honest with everybody. I'm extremely passionate about wanting to give the Wipsmack surprise of the year to, you know, essentially the reboot slash sequel slash reimagining. Reimagining. Yeah. Kingdom of the Planet of Apes. It's incredible.

West Ball. Absolutely knocked it out of the park with this brand new interpretation of what I'm hoping is a new franchise of Planet of the Apes films and I'm sure your your passion for these new films is I think I showed you like I started buying the new ones. Mm-hmm. because I do plan on watching them once I get them all together. You're talking about the Matt Reeves versions of the plan.

Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Because like you just like again, I only really watched the James Franco one and that was pretty good. It just didn't really Grab my interest as much. It's the worst one, but it's I mean, it's still fine. You know, yeah. Yeah. Well, you're fine is like everybody else is like shit. You say fine like it's a good thing. No, no, no. I think it's a fine one. Like it was a genuinely like a fine. Everybody can hear it. Everybody can hear it. That's fine.

It's not good, but it's it's a fun. It's a nice start. I'll say that. But the next two are making any of this better. The next the next two are masterpieces.

And I'm telling you, those I mean, Matt Reeves, obviously now the director of Batman and sort of that part of the DC universe absolutely murdered those those two films and I think that what Kingdom of the Plenty Apes did so well was again speaking on like putting to bed the restlessness or the worries of new fans, know, of existing fans of the previous interpretation of those films. Kingdom of Plenty Apes, you hit the ground running.

Like they did some masterful state-of-the-art motion capture and actually I don't know if you saw this Aaron on Disney Plus, you can actually watch Kingdom of the Plenty Apes currently. But with the the actors like the actual actors with the all like the dots on their face and the really yeah the appendages and all the things like without without the green screen and all that and it's really cool. That's interesting.

It's funny though because like the discussion leading up to who like to what which film won this or which I guess title won this because Alien Romulus we had a good discussion about that. Alien Romulus was great but it wasn't the surprise hit like it was surprisingly And this is something that Chris and I talked about, but a little bit before the show was why Kingdom of the Planet Apes would win.

It's because Alien Robulus, as great as it was, it was not like a standout winner as far as surprise hit. Like it was great, which is a surprise, but not a, not great in this category. definitely has some like glaring issues as well in terms of like callbacks and silly references and all that. It was fan service. It was a great fan service. great fan service, great update, great installment. just again, yeah, Chris is right. Couple of glaring things.

One thing that I wanted to kind of point out as an honorable mention for me is nobody wants this, which is television show, Netflix series, excuse me. And it's this unexpected, it's show about an unexpected relationship between this. Kristen Bell, is the co-host, kind of like a podcast, like Chris and I, but she is a co-host with, I think her sister, and it's a sex podcast. So it's very sex positive. It's about the relationships.

And then she meets this rabbi who's kind of a little bit rogue, but not. And it's so refreshingly funny because he's going through a breakup, he's going through a really harsh breakup. And then you got all the friends and family involved. And I don't know. It's such a heartfelt dip into the relationship of not just these two, but how the family is involved around them. That's enough gushing about that. But I just, wanted to make that an honorable mention.

Well, I'll continue to gush about the franchise again, as I said previously, just an incredible show. I really hope that this gets a second season. I'm actually not a hundred percent if they are getting a second season quite yet, but I cannot yell loud enough from the mountaintops that this show is incredible. And then I mentioned also, and that same goes for the baby reindeer.

I think it's getting a second season because it was hugely popular over on Netflix, but also the first Omen, which Aaron, I again, I've been telling you for a while. Favorite horror film of the year. Surprise. Like when I think of the whips smack surprise hit of the year, not as good as Kingdom of the Plenty Apes, but it's too good. Like it has no right being this good for being a prequel of a film that came out from the 70s and It's like got no budget and no noticeable like stars in it.

It's really good everybody. If you have not seen the first Omen, check it out. It's very, very good.

Let's get into our next segment here. Comic book writer of the year. Jeff Johns, the blizzard Geiger, hide street, junkyard, Joe, red coat, rook, Exodus, essentially most of the ghost machine universe. Kelly Thompson, absolute Wonder Woman, birds of prey, the black cloak, the coal, the power puff girls, Scarlet, James Tinian, the fourth.

Blue Book 1947 The City Beneath Her Feet The Deviant House of Slaughter The Nice House by the Sea The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos Something is Killing the Children Spectrograph Universal Monsters Dracula World Tree Wind The Power of the Blood Jonathan Hickman Aliens vs Avengers Doom One Shot Ultimate Spider-Man Wolverine Revenge Mark Waid Absolute Power Batman Superman World's Finest Batman and Robin Year One Justice League

Unlimited Tom King Archie The Decision Animal Pound Black Canary Best of the Best Brave and the Bold The Winning Card Helen of Windhorn, Jenny Sparks, the Penguin and Wonder Woman. And the winner is Kelly Thompson. Yeah, shout out to Kelly Thompson. What a year for Kelly Thompson this year in twenty twenty four. And this was another hard one for us to decide. I honestly think that every single one of these writers could have very easily won this for very different reasons.

mean, again, we talked about it. If you couldn't tell from Aaron's long winded. list of books that this person wrote. James Tynan the fourth. What a year. And also our twenty twenty three last call award winner for best writer voter bias. The aside Aaron and I decided we're like we gave it to James in twenty twenty three. And yes, equally incredible year for James and his work.

But man, Kelly Thompson, what a year she's had with, again, absolute Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey, The Black Cloak, The Cole, Powerpuff Girls. And Scarlett over in the GI Joe inner junk universe, like incredible. Yeah. Kelly Thompson again, for me, absolute Wonder Woman is giant sword, Aaron, giant sword, flaming Pegasus, flaming dead Pegasus. Woman from hell. Like it's powerful. Like the app, the I don't know.

Like I've said this multiple times and I've been gushing about Kelly Thompson's writing of Wonder Woman, how accessible she is to a whole new like just audience for Wonder Woman. know, Wonder Woman's been written a very distinct way for a long time. And even in the movies is portrayed a specific way, very Godlike and very strong, very, very Justice League, but it's not in this portrayal has she. And I've just never seen it a portrayal so accessible by just any fan. So I'm really enjoying it.

Well, speaking of Wonder Woman and the common portrayal and sort of changing up the flow a little bit. The person that we were like very, very close second behind Kelly and her work, good friend of the show, Tom King. Currently the second most appeared guest on the show right behind Christian Ward. But Tom King, course, writing Wonder Woman over with Daniel Sam Peer, the mainline Wonder Woman, which is fantastic, Aaron.

If you have not given it a chance yet, it basically just says, what's great about Wonder Woman? And what Tom and Daniel say is she's badass and she's good. She's badass and she's good. that's what she is in that run. You know Archie the decision bringing he's talked about multiple times throughout the years. I'm a big fan of Tom and his work. He's talked about how Archie is one of those properties that he's wanted to write for quite a while. Animal Pound over at Boom Studios incredible.

Black Canary brand new series where she's sort of like a what if Rocky and Black Canary just it's awesome. It's very good. Yeah. Brave and the Bold the winning card. Our favorite. Was it our favorite single issue of the year last year? I want to say it was either it was at least in the running for sure. Helen of Winhorn with Bilkis Evilly, which spoilers we're talking about Bilkis here in a moment. What an incredible book over there at Dark Horse.

And then you've really loved Jenny Sparks as well. Jenny Sparks is one of one of those books that's taken my attention by storm because I've never heard of the character. And as again, as a newer reader, I got to bring this up at least one time every episode as the newer reader of the show. There have been few books that I have gone to the shop. hoping to see on the shelf and knowing that I'm gonna buy and Jenny Sparks is one of them. And it's the same with Helen of Windhorn.

Like Tom King is just phenomenal. But I wanna, I gotta jump over to Jonathan Hickman with Aliens versus Avengers.

Aliens versus Avengers is probably one of the coolest crossovers and the most bold crossovers that I've seen in a long time because not only is it... bringing the Aliens franchise into the Avengers franchise, but it's bringing just the whaling, you Tony, the entire like Ridley Scott universe into the Avengers universe, but also like in a futuristic way to where you have like old man cap, you have old man Bruce Banner, you know, they're, they're making decisions where they have to like sacrifice

other Avengers for the good of humanity. And it's just the, this approach is unlike anything I have ever. ever seen in comics. I only wish that everything Aliens or Avengers was done as well. Yeah. Talk about a book that should not be this good. Right. Exactly. Thank you. Thank you. You have no right being this good. You have. OK. I don't know much about. OK. So I think it's Miles. I think the character is Miles and he's got I think that like the anti-venom suit on.

But he tries the anti-venom suit. The facehugger tries to attach itself to the anti-venom suit and instead like eats the facehugger. And now the anti-venom suit has like a instead of the spider symbol. Yeah. It's the facehugger that wraps around. And it's so fucking cool, man. I just love hearing Aaron try to describe comics. That's my favorite. That's my favorite segment here. It's like Aaron describing comic stories and Aaron hate recapping movies he hates. Yeah, Jonathan Hickman.

What a year, I mean, and again, we talked about a little bit before. It's definitely quality over quantity. know, Alien, Alien versus Avengers Doom, which is one of my favorites, you know, single issues of the year. Ultimate Spider-Man, of course, and then Wolverine Revenge with Greg Capullo. Just an incredible 2024 for Jonathan Hickman.

And I think we need to give a very big shout out also to both Mark Wade and what he's doing with the Batman character over at DC, but also Jeff Johns, who is writing. every almost every single title at Ghost Machine. Not only is he like the figurehead behind the company, but he's also writing 95 % of the titles there. And it's all good. Yeah, it's very, very good. Junkard Joe is Geiger is is amazing. Junkard Joe is I'd say I caught me off guard.

Redcoat. I thought I was going to fucking hate it, but I love it. Rook Exodus is just cool. Like there's so much going on with Jeff Johns. It's it's phenomenal.

All right, let's get into our animated film of the year. The nominees are Flow Inside Out 2 Look Back, Lord of the Rings, The War of the Roha, Roha Rem. I hope I'm saying that right. Transformers 1 and The Wild Robot. And the winner is for animated film of the year, Look Back. I much fun It I I was It was even Shino-chan...

Thank you Here is a movie Aaron that I Have been thinking about since the moment it ended look back everybody if you have not seen this film and I want to say that it's on Amazon currently is based off a manga of the same name and it is incredible it's basically about these two young girls who want to create manga separately and they have this sort of school newspaper and You sort of submit your work to the newspaper and then they post your strips

And our main character, who I want to say is Ayumi, she is sort of like Miss Popular. Everybody loves her. She draws manga, but truthfully, it's not that great in the beginning. Like she just, she's sort of the best among no one else that's doing it. And then there's this other character named Kiyomoto, I want to say is her name. She is homeschooled, goes to the school technically, but also submits her work and is incredible. Like a prodigy, like insanely good.

And this pushes Yumi to like really, really try hard and they eventually a friendship blossoms because they're both admirable about each other's work and the story takes off from there. It will destroy you everybody. I will not spoil any part of this any more of the story. Like if you have not seen look back, put it on your watch list and move it to the very top. It will blow you away. I don't think people understand. I think I don't I think anybody.

that's like, I don't watch cartoons, like, like anime is just cartoons. Like, I think anybody that says that has never watched like Japanese animation film or like a Ghibli film, because a lot of these movies are so well done. Like, just like you said, they will destroy you emotionally because they're so touching. Like they'll get into your brain and your heart because they're just like beautifully drawn and you're thinking like, this is cute or this is art.

but then they'll tug one heart string, somebody will die, get hurt or brokenhearted. And it's just like, holy hell, like that's impactful. Like for a cartoon, like people don't think that, you know, it's like people that don't get emotionally attached to like the MCU characters, you know? Yeah. Don't hate us cause we love Captain America. How dare you? Exactly. Exactly. I still cry at the beginning of end game, you know, when you see Captain America and he's like all sad and depressed. Oh, yeah.

You know, I was just telling Olivia the day about how I cry every time in Infinity War when you first see the Guardians of the Galaxy to Rupert Bandman, because I love those characters. You know, you just go to love them. And, know, to continue on with the animated films, I will say I want to be truthful with the listeners to everybody. I have not seen flow. I don't think either one of us have actually seen flow yet, but it is destroying like in the the review category.

People are loving this movie inside out to made a billion dollars. So must be included. Doesn't mean it's good. I haven't seen it yet, but it made a billion dollars, so it must be included. Lord of the Rings, Aaron and I have both famously sort of been against Lord of the Rings, but this is another one that people are really, really loving. I just don't like the animation of it. No, like the style, that style. I'm not a big fan of that one.

Hmm. I think it looks okay, but I guess I could see what you're saying for sure. The Transformers one, we reviewed it here on the show. Aaron and I, think have both been pretty vocal about how much we had a good time with it. It's not incredible. Like it's not.

I don't know if I ever really even considered it for this particular award, but it definitely deserves mentioning because talk about a film that we expected to be pretty bad when we saw that first trailer and we started seeing who was involved like Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson and Brian Tyree Henry were like, what's going on here? Why is this a thing? But watching it, you're like, wow, this is incredibly well made. And I think they have something here.

Like I could see them continuing this universe and it being really, really good. And then speaking of really, really good, I think honestly for me, Aaron, a very, very close second, if not like one B to the award winner for best animated film of the year. It's got to be Wild Robot. Just absolutely beautiful film talking about, again, a movie that will just kiss your brain and shit in your heart. It will destroy you if you have not seen the Wild Robot and read the book.

If you haven't read the book, the book is good. There's actually there's also a sequel to the Wild Robot. So I highly recommend again, this is one of those times where There's a great film out there with a great book behind it and a pretty good sequel book, which means there's probably going to be a sequel movie. So get ahead of the power curve people. Tell your friends like, don't know what's going to happen. You know, that's right.

All right. Let's get into our next category here, OK, the next category of award is the Tony Stark Memorial Superhero film of the year. I love you. Three thousand. I love you. Three thousand. Moment of silence with. dramatic music in the background. Anyways, our nominations are Deadpool and Wolverine, Joker Foley Adieu, the Craven, the Hunter, Madame Web. We lose. We all lost. all lost. Venom, the Last Dance and Watchmen Chapter one. And the winner is. Deadpool and Wolverine.

Or he's not... ...you're part of that spree. You are done. You want to die. Wow. Shocker. Shit. We don't even need to talk about any of these. This is when Chris uses his limit break and makes Joker folio do or Madame Webb, the official winner. No, actually, watch in Chapter one. Seriously? No, definitely not. OK. No, I hate everybody. When I tell you I don't say this often because art is hard. I get it. A lot of hard a lot of hardworking people made these movies. I hate.

with a capital H every single one of these movies outside of Deadpool Wolverine. No, that's a lie. Craving the Hunter. don't hate. I think it's fine. Really close to being bad, but it's just OK. We again, we reviewed it two weeks ago. Everybody go check it out. It's better than we expected because we expected pretty bad. But Deadpool Wolverine, we should talk about the winner here is really good because we didn't we didn't cover here on the show.

And we were currently on a break when that movie came out. We were actually we were at San Diego Comic Con when it came out, truthfully. But it was. the only MCU film this year and it was great. And if nothing else, speaking of sort of calming the worries of nerds across the world, Deadpool Wolverine hopefully is sort of the riding of the ship there over in MCU land. Yes. Yeah. It was this, this movie start to finish is one of my favorite superhero films of all time.

Start, start to finish because of The whoo, I'm about to make a name for myself. I'll be all you are going from this one. Who is your dialect coach? Who is your Channy Tatum? Fucking Wesley Snipes like everybody. This was so good. Like not everybody, everybody, but it was so good. And I don't know. Like I just there's not too much more that you can say about the fact that, you know, there are very few movies that can do this much fan service while being this amazing and also this shocking.

You know, and this just surprisingly like loving like it's this it is a offensive, loving film. It's lovingly offensive. It's offensively loving. It's it's. That's describe Aaron to people before they meet him. Like he's lovingly offensive. That's I'm going to use that. I'm to put that on my. I'm going to carve that into a piece of wood now. Yes. Yeah. Like Aaron said, from Nsync to Madonna, this movie is just wall to wall heart. and gut busting fun.

And that sounds sort of like an AI created description for this film. But it really is. I mean, it's incredible. It's hard to believe now because we're we're sort of we have short memories, you know, us nerds. But when they announced this movie, we're like, come on, really another one. You huge Jack Man is going to come back and play Wolverine again after the end of Logan. And what does Deadpool do in the opening scene? He desecrates Logan's body. Yeah, and we all loved it. We all loved it.

And we all stand up and clap. Everybody was like, please don't ruin Logan. Please don't ruin Logan. Nothing short like the only thing the only other thing he could have done is had sex with the dead body. Yeah, like that's the only. can't put a past on either. Yeah, that's the only thing that could have made this like cross the line. Everything else is phenomenal. Yeah, so much fun. Again, I just, so excited that Ryan Reynolds and Deadpool are in this universe again. Could not be happier.

Love that. I know we didn't give it the award or no, we did give it the award. was gonna say Deadpool Wolverine that in credit scene, not just the Chris Evans, Johnny Storm in credit scene, but also the green day sort of recap of the Fox universe. Not only just X-Men, but Fantastic Four and Blade and everything else. Weirdly like, why am I getting touchy during this recap of these movies that were Honestly, not very good.

Like most of these movies are pretty bad, but we have a weird affection for him because for a long time, Aaron, that's all we had. That's all we had. Yeah. And we had to be happy with it. We'll take what we can get. Now it's like, please stop giving us what we don't want.

All right. Let's get into our next category here, which is our funny book of the year. This is our favorite comic of twenty twenty four and the nominees are absolute Wonder Woman. DC Comics, Alien vs Avengers, Marvel Comics. Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees, IDW Publishing. We have The Doom One-Shot for Marvel Comics. I Heart Skull Crusher, Boon Studios. And we have Godzilla's Monster Peace Theater, IDW Publishing.

And the winner is for Funny Book of the Year, Alien vs Avengers, Marvel Comics. And Aaron, I'm going to use my limit break here. no. So again, peek behind the curtain. We got together and we talked about this and I gave Aaron this and I purposely I didn't like give it to you so that I could just take it from you. I honestly did. No, I swear you lose. know, I honestly I really, really like Alien versus Avengers and I was totally fine giving it to Jonathan Hickman and Nassad Rebic.

Because it's incredible. Like you said, this book has no right being as good as it is. But I want to be honest with you, Aaron. I got to give it to Doom one shot over at Marvel. want to keep it. We're going to keep it the the the house of mouse, the the house of ideas over at Marvel. But that Doom one shot by Sanford Green and Jonathan Hickman still winning the award. But, you know, him and Sanford Green. What a one shot. You know, I'm showing my bias here a little bit.

I am known as sort of the resident Doom fanatic here on the show. Different doom. Yeah. Well, you love. Yeah. You love doom guy. I love Victor Von Doom. We have we have different areas of doom expertise. Yes. Right. We all our bases. But this doom one shot is incredible. I love it. Again, to sort of speak out what you were saying earlier about what was it? Wanting more was it? the penguin. You're talking about the penguin. I just wanted more of this.

And I don't expect Sanford Green to knock it out of the park every time like you did with this one one shot. But Reading this doom versus Galactus, like, come on, this is incredible. And I'm not, I'll tell everyone, I'll be honest with you. I'm not a huge fan of Galactus sort of being the punching bag of the Marvel universe.

Currently all the writers, they just want to like put when they want to show off how cool a hero is, they put them up against Galactus and go, damn, if they can take out Galactus, if Thor can kill Galactus, then he must be like really powerful. And it really like doles the intense moment. When Galactus shows up on Earth, the rare times that he does, I kind of hate that sort of sort of a MacGuffin in comics currently.

But if there's one character that I think can go toe to toe with Galactus in a very, very specific moment in history at the very end of the universe, I don't put it past Doom, you know? Well, I mean, and he has before, like he's been in the past. I mean, we talk about was it? Damn it. I'm sorry. The battle planet was it called Battle World? Yeah. Secret Wars. Yeah, like speaking of John the Hickman.

Just flew to fucking Galactus like pay attention to me bitch like Like this is a guy like it's his life fucking goal to piss off something That's much more powerful just so he can beat the shit out of him. Like he's like he's almost like the Goku of Marvel Yeah, you know, honestly Victor Von Doom if I was if I can slightly challenge you Aaron is more of like the Vegeta.

soon as I said Goku I was like probably Vegeta because he's yeah, you know, he's an egotistical jerk that yeah thinks that he is should be in power and like things that he's the strongest. honestly, the relationship between Goku and Vegeta, we don't need to go down this rabbit hole, but the relationship between Goku and Vegeta is very similar to Reed and Victor. Whereas one thinks they deserve power and the other works to get the power. And it's their family that separates them.

It's Vegeta's lack of having a family or wanting a family is what continues to make him sort of be vengeful and sort of has that hatred built inside of him. Whereas Goku has like embraced Earth and like created family and loves Krillin and all these people around him. His love is what puts him above everybody. Very Kal-El versus Zod. Sure. The story type is older than time. Right. Like it's the love around us that makes us great.

But yeah, this this winner here of the Doom one shot, again, Sanford Green drew the shit out of this book. Like he absolutely killed this book. And I know it says and Jonathan Hickman, I think he helped. But if I were if I were a betting man, I don't have any insight on this, but if I were a betting man, I would say that this is mostly from the brain of Sanford green. So we should give him like his flowers in this moment for absolutely destroying this.

And it killed not only on a commercial level, but also from readers as well. we also just give a huge shout out to Patrick Horvath who wrote and illustrated beneath the trees where nobody sees that nobody saw coming. This was a book that very close. Like when I knew I was going to give my I was going to use my my limit break here. And it was really close between beneath the trees. Because again, I go with you. Patrick Horvath, good friend of the show. We talked to him.

I think it was right after issue one came out. What a guy. Just absolutely love. And you know, not only an incredible creator, but just a really cool guy as well. Yeah. Really fun, fun conversation that I got to have with him. But yeah, like honestly. Richard scary meets Dexter universe. Yeah, man. Like nobody saw this this cute little scary time fucking murder, you know, murder bear come out of nowhere. And it's just like, I don't know.

Like it's it's one of those books that it will it will just stick with you. Like you just you can't help but love the story. Yeah. Talk about a book that you can just give someone right off the shelf. You give them that trade and you go. Hey, or hey, gal, this is what makes comics great. This is why comics are so great. It's so amazing to be able to kind of link up like nostalgia with just. Murder. Childhood, and murder. Those two chestnuts. Those two. Yes.

OK, shall we get to the next category, Chris? Yes, please. All right. So the next category of award is comic book artist of the year, and the nominees are. Bilkis Eveli, Evan Cagle, Daniel Sampere, Junie Ba, Nick Dragada, Zoe Thurigood. And the winner is... Kevin Cagle with Don Runner and New Gods. Yes. What a pick. What a year too for Evan Cagle. A good friend of the show. He was on here with Rom V this year. What a year with with all of these artists. But yeah, definitely.

Evan, you know, honestly, if Evan had just done Don Runner, he would have a case for this award still. Yeah, exactly. Just Don Runner by itself is a tome of how you draw interior pages for a comic book. Everybody, if you have not read Don Runner, by Rom V and Evan Cagle from over there at Dark Horse. What a book, but also, and it's only been one issue that's come out so far, but New Gods, same creative team, Rom V, Evan Cagle, it's equally as good.

Evan Cagle is just, has sort of kind of out of nowhere just become one of the best artists in comics in the last like two years. I don't know where he came from, but I'm so happy he's here. And to speak on what you were saying there. Maybe a close second, Aaron, you can correct me if I'm wrong here when we were talking about this. Bilkis Evilly with Helen of Windhorn. One book this year with Tom King. But again, with how incredible Helen of Windhorn.

Obviously they did Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow back in I think 2022 as well. But Helen of Windhorn just picks up where Supergirl sort of left off in terms of quality. Equally as good. If you love Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow, Helen of Windhorn over at Dark Horse. Just incredible. I think people, if they don't understand why Evan deserves this this award. That's because they again, they haven't read Don Runner.

And even if you were to go to the the comic shop today and look at even the covers of New Gods. And Detective Comics. Again, I'm here, you know, there's some great stories, but I am am an art comic reader because the ones that catch my eye and this one like Evans work Don Runner. I would say just like Don Runners, like Pacific Rim, Neon Genesis, Evangelion. There's a, I forgot the show was called like Mecha, Mecha you or something, Mecha Cadets, Mecha Cadets. I think that's what it was.

Like this one has such a cool, Don Runners is such a cool concept that again, shocked me with A, the complexity, the art itself is what will, at the end of the day will welcome you and keep you there. We should also say this like publicly. We don't, have not given absolute Batman hardly any flowers because of absolute Wonder Woman, which I would say that we both maybe like more. And, but that's not any damnation to absolute Batman or even absolute Superman.

think absolute Batman is a very close second for me. And then absolute Superman is maybe a distant third, but like not in a bad way. think it's still a fun read. I feel like we said that in the beginning, like none of these, fact that some win does not mean that any of them lose. Right.

Again, this is just based on like who for all intents and purposes, we think is the front runner or who you and I agree on because in the beginning, most of it we don't even agree on, but we love all of these for just completely different reasons. Like, mean, Absolute Batman, everybody knows how fucking cool Absolute Batman is. You give him a We're not telling you that you don't know. We're not telling anything you don't know.

We cannot come in here and be like, Absolute Batman has won every single war. He's got a like, just... giant dump truck for a Batmobile like that. That's like a like he's got the axe on his chest. Yeah, like he's got knives and ears for crying out loud. Like the guy's fucking awesome. Like there's so we can't say anything bad about any of these things. We're just like talking about specifically who kind of stands out with what's what's looking very special to us.

So people should not be upset at all by the fact that we didn't give absolute Batman or anybody cares what we think. But Absolute Superman, right? Like, so absolute Superman's good, but absolute Superman's not not really like standing out too much, you know? Yeah, and I need to give a quick specific shout out to Daniel Sampere, who is just sort of single handedly along with Dan Mora creating the New House style. No big deal. Like just kind of creating the best looking comics in comics.

So I'm going to ask, what do you mean by the New House style? So like when Marvel and DC. have a big book like a Batman or a Spider-Man, a lot of times they hire what they think most readers will like attach to and what they'll like. Think of like Jim Lee as a good example of like, is, sort of like what is the modern house style? A lot of black lines, sort of body autonomy is very similar to like normal human physique, or at least like the peak of human physique.

Like they just, draw A quickly, but also B, Sort of semi realistically and also like similar to Jim Lee again, like that's sort of the way I think of house style. Can I ask, would you think like Dan Mora? That's what I said. Yeah. Dan Mora and Daniel Sampear are the two. think those are, it's like Daniel Sampear, Dan Mora over at DC. Those are those two. And then over at Marvel, it's Marco Checchetto who has done like Daredevil and he's doing Ultimate Spider-Man with Jonathan Hickman as well.

So those are like, in my opinion, those are the three leading voices in terms of house style at the two. The two, the big two essentially. Okay. I'm, learning something because this is something that I wasn't, I, I'm, I'm new at that, but yeah, that definitely makes sense. Especially I just looked up Chichetos are like absolutely.

Yeah. Okay. And then speaking of the complete opposite of house style, you have Junie Ba who did boy wonder and also the Kickstarter, the fables of Earcling Wood, which I backed and I'm so excited to eventually get if you, Aaron, if you have not read the boy wonder over it, he wrote and drew it over at DC. Incredible. It's just a really fun story about Damien Wayne and sort of his relationship with all of the Robins. And it's really sweet.

And you sort of get a very interesting look of Damien Wayne and sort of why he is the way he is, which is sort of a dickhead, but also for good reason. I so here's the thing. I'll tell you, like I find Junie Boz are very interesting, like not it's it's not my favorite. Yeah. It reminds me, I don't know if this makes any sense at all. It kind of reminds me a little bit of Mike McNola a little bit. Okay. Yeah. Like kind of Mike McNola mixed with a little bit of like new style of Frank Miller.

Okay. Gotcha. So, I mean, it's not bad. It's just not kind of like, I'll check it out though. I've heard great things, especially from you, especially during this episode and by quite a few people previously that the boy wonder is really cool and really like a good read. So I'll definitely have to check that out. Also monkey meat. by Joni Bha is I think that's actually what got me into his work and he's incredible.

So, and then as the self-proclaimed biggest Zoe Thurgood fan in the world, I couldn't not put her on this list. She did hack and slash back to school. Life is strange. Forgive me not. Just an incredible artist, both as a writer and like an illustrator. And another incredible year, it bums me out that she has not got an Eisner yet, but they just keep nominating her every year and not giving it to her. We did the same thing this year, unfortunately.

Like we nominated her, but Evan Kegel, I think is just kind of far and away the best of the bunch. And that's no shame to any of these guys. think they're all sort of leading in some way or another, but yeah, Evan Kegel killed it. If there's one person that we did not add to this list, which people really should be surprised about, it's Hayden Sherman. sure. Absolute Batman. sorry. Absolute Wonder Woman fame.

Yes. That's the only reason I want people to like understand we can't nominate and we can't give out an award to like every single person that we love. There's lot of people we miss. Yeah, exactly. So just like I want people to understand, especially with how much we've talked about how much we love the new Absolute Wonder Woman, especially myself on this show and people be like, well, why didn't you nominate Hayden Sherman?

Yeah, I mean, Tyler Crook is another example of a creator I would have wanted to include. know, Christian Ward, good friend of the show, like Patrick Reynolds. Like there's so many creators out there that I wish we could include here, but You know, again, there's only so many spaces and we got to we got to make decisions. yeah, Aaron, let's again, let's talk about our O.B.P.

episode of the year. Yes. All right. So for our oblivion bar episode of the year, we have our interview with Tom King from back in March, episode one forty eight. We have our battle royale number five from back in March as well. Episode one fifty. Our interview with Scott Snyder that was back in May episode one fifty four. We brought the pink ranger onto the show. Amy Jo Johnson joined us live from CTE two back in May as well.

Episode one 55 everybody you knew this one was going to be on the list. Our interview with Brian cave on back in July episode one 65 and finally back in November we had our 2024 comic creators fancy draft with butter from the short box and Greg from the first issue club episode one 74. And our winner is for our oblivion bar episode of the year. Aaron, is our interview with Brian K. Vaughn. Of course. it all the same. it is truly a collaborative venture is one of the most fulfilling.

And I know I don't I'm not telling you anything you don't know. But I just think it's worth reiterating and worth celebrating in that sense. And that's why we love comics, right? Like it is the most collaborative medium. I mean, I don't if it's the most, but it's it's the one that I love the most, I guess. It can be. It's interesting. It's also one medium where you don't need like Daniel Klaus can do it all and do it better than I can.

There are And yet there is something magical that can happen with this collaboration between a tight band of people that's as cool as the best solo act out there. So I'm grateful for this medium every day. Is there an episode that you would have picked here? Even if it's not on this list, is there an episode that comes to mind that you think, wow, what a fun episode that was on the oblivion bar? I really like the conversation that we had with the bloom.

You know, had a little bit with John J. Pearson and Michael Conrad. Yeah. Yeah. Michael Conrad, John J. Pearson. Yeah. Those that that episode was like, I don't know. I really love that conversation because we got really deep into some not just talking about like poop, but really deep into like some conspiracy, not conspiracy theories, but like scientific theory. It just that was like a really all encompassing episode. And I think that was a really like fun thing to talk about.

So yeah, I also really loved your conversation with David Peppos. I'd love to have David back on the show at some point. You know, I really, really liked both of our midnight rewinds of Princess Mononoke and Paprika. What else, Aaron? What am I missing? We did two interview atons. Well, I mean, last year, obviously, but this year we came back from our hiatus with an interview aton of multiple, you know, different creators that we talked to.

And then of course, again, what we have here, Tom King, Scott Snyder, Amy Jo Johnson clearly interviews are a giant pillar on the show. Our Madam Web review. That was that was a fun one because we just destroyed that terrible movie. But Amy Jo Johnson, having her on the show was incredible. What a moment for us not only to like have her on the show, but sit within five feet from her during that conversation. What a moment. What? Yeah. What a moment to be able to just like.

my God, like somebody that you watched on television as a young child and was like, this is one of the coolest people on the planet. And then you actually get to meet them and talk about just like those things that you watched those when you were and the fact that you confess that you have this like never ending crush on her. Of course, was adorable. Listen, you know, it's not my fault that Amy Jo Johnson essentially created the structure of what I look for in the opposite sex. Not her fault.

It's not my fault. Just needs to be brought How true. That absolutely is. And I guarantee you, the woman that you marry does not have a Pink Ranger costume in the back of their closet, then you have failed yourself. Aaron, just being, I'm to be honest with you and the listeners. If we ever get to meet Danielle Fisher from Boy Meets World, Amy Jo Johnson and Danielle Fisher essentially created the structure of my, what I love in the opposite sex.

But we're not talking about the opposite sex and we're talking about Brian K. Vaughn who, if I could go gay. No, I'm just kidding everybody. No, Brian K. Vaughn. Not what a guy. We talked about it during, I think it was before the actual conversation in that episode where had to pull some strings behind the scenes to get Brian to get in contact with him. But what an intelligent, just thoughtful guy who Chris, did you pull the cancer string? I did not use the cancer.

I did not use the cancer card. I should have and could have, but no, it was, it was just out of the kindness of Brian's heart that he wanted to come on and talk about the return of saga. And, as many people know saga, I mean, arguably my favorite comic of all time. Hard to argue that. And Brian is definitively my favorite writer of all time. So it was such an honor to have him on. You crushed that interview. Like I've, I think I've listened to that one.

Maybe I think I'll listen to it maybe twice. one of my favorite, like just one of my favorite interviews that you've done solo, simply because of how you could hear it in his voice. Like he was just impressed by, and this is something that a lot of people don't, don't really look into, unless you're looking at the episode transcripts, you don't see how much work Chris puts into these episode transcripts.

You don't see how detailed they are, but what you also don't see just by looking at the transcripts is you don't see the amount of research that Chris puts into just simply the questions like, Chris listens to other podcasts that these artists, these creators have done on other shows and ensures that when he writes his questions, he is not just asking the same fucking question that these guys have been answering for decades or for years. Who would you rather write, Spiderman or Superman?

Yeah. No, like he cares to the point where like he is asking about like the process. And the artists, you can hear it because the artists want to talk about these things instead of just, yeah, my favorite Pokemon is, is, you know, mimic you. Yeah. Okay. Cool. You know? Yeah. Part of the reason why that conversation and I'm glad that you love it. Thank you for saying all that.

But also I think part of the reason why it sounds so great in retrospect, and I agree with you, I really love the way that conversation turned out is because I hyper researched and, know, again, I like to do that with every conversation, but Brian specifically, I had to make sure that I was on my P's and Q's not saying, um, trying to be as charming and on it as possible.

And actually speaking of, you know, that conversation, Brian specifically says at the end of that interview that he listened to one of the nominees here. I interviewed with Tom King earlier in March of this year. And he said that, and I quote, and I so enjoy the podcast. So just before I was listening to a couple of previous episodes, it's like, it's Tom King interview. This is the best Tom King interview I've ever heard. How you guys do your homework.

And thank you for just treating this nonsense so seriously. So I will hold that dearly and my heart forever. So Brian came on up there with, you know, Jim Lee, Chris Evans, James Gunn as some of like the people that I would love to have on the show. We can knock it off the list. Brian came on, been on the show, turned out great, could not have asked for a better result with that conversation.

But. Speaking of things that we wish we could have gotten better results for Aaron, let's get into our final two awards. The first being our stinker of the year. The nominees are Argyle, Joker, Folio do Madame Web, Rebel Moon Part 2, The Scargiver, Borderlands, The Last Dance. And the winner is... Wow. That is shocker, everybody again. Yeah. We covered it here on the show, everybody.

you know, Aaron and I, decided at the beginning of twenty twenty four that if we were to cover Madame Webb, which I for some reason wanted to do, I thought it would be a fun conversation. And it was it was I mean, it's a great it was a great episode. But we had also covered Craven the Hunter, which again, wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be. It didn't make this list. Exactly. And it was, but it was because of how bad Madam Webb was.

Is that why we thought that Craven the Hunter was going to be equally, if not worse as bad. So, Aaron, can I just get a, give me a gauge here of these films, Argyle, Joker, Folly, Ado, Madam Webb, Rebel Moon, Part Two, Scargiver, Borderlands, Venom, The Last Dance. What are your thoughts on any of these like fine to you? Like, do you like any of these? Argyle was not that bad. Argyle was, it wasn't terrible. It wasn't great.

I think When I talked about it on the show, there was just a little bit of an issue of them like having to like explain stuff to the audience. That was just like that was that was a little bit egregious. Joker folio do actually watch that in like a little like a screening room not too long ago. And I wasn't terrible. Wasn't wasn't the worst thing I've seen. So those are really the only two that I would take like I could say potentially for me.

could come off this list and I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't be too upset. What about Borderlands? Did you end up checking that out at all? No, it's bad. It's pretty bad. Yeah, I can't believe you went and saw that. I didn't go and see it. I saw it at home. I didn't. OK, so of these movies, the only one I paid for actually was Madame Web. Funny enough, because it's our winner.

And not only did I have a terrible group of people below me that I had to yell at at one point during the movie, but it's also just a bad movie. And and it's not. Again, I we all had to pay for these. We paid for this. We all pay in different ways. Everybody I pay financially and emotionally and all the things we all lost time out of our life. Yeah. All these movies again, I have to say again, creatively, I get it. It's tough.

These movies are made by committee and it's like being creative is hard. And but like all of these movies in different ways sort of prove that like when a studio gets involved or You give a director too much power, i.e. Rebel Moon, or you scrap a movie halfway through its production, Madame Web, Venom, The Last Dance. Some of these movies, I think I don't think any of these movies had a chance to be honest. Like none of them had a chance to be good.

And it's unfortunate because like Folly Ado, we were excited for that after the release of The Joker. I mean, it won an Oscar. Like this movie had legs to potentially be good. And it's just so unfortunate that Joker Folly Ado felt the need to look at the audience and go, you're fucking dumb. for liking these movies. How dare you enjoy film. It's an angry movie. That's why I don't like it. I know you thought you enjoyed it, but like I, it's just, it's an angry jukebox movie that has no heart.

And that's a great description. It's an angry jukebox jukebox movie. That's a great description. And know, and, venom and Madam Webb, it's the dying last breath of the SSU again, terrible borderlands like In Borderlands, the only person that looks like they're having any fun is Cate Blanchett. And it's probably because she got millions of dollars. OK, Rebel Moon Part two, Scargiver. What a shit property.

God damn you Netflix for giving Zack Snyder just a Brinks truck full of money to make whatever he wants, because this is what happens. You did this Netflix. Watched it. I tried. I started the first one and got about 10 minutes into it and just didn't have time to finish it. And then like sort of similar to that, but with Apple TV, Apple TV just throwing money at the wall saying, Hey, make a thing and we'll figure it out after that. Argyle, terrible.

Let's stop talking about bad movies and Aaron. Let's get into our most coveted award. Our David A. Weiner movie of the year. And the nominees are Anora, Deadpool and Wolverine, Dune, part two, Look Back, Sing Sing and we defied gravity with Wicked. And the winner is for our David Weiner movie of the year, Aaron. The winner is Dune, part two. You will never lose people on training. We gave them something to hope for. That's not hope! Chip and shatter. What a movie. What a great follow up.

Denis Valneux coming in and just absolutely killing it with the second part in the Dune franchise. We're still in book one. So, I mean, there's plenty of plenty of property to go over, but I'm excited that Denis Valneux will last forever. It will last until we get to the time period that Dune takes part in. We're just 10,000 years into the future. Denis Valneux and company Timothy Charlemagne, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista.

Charlotte rambling, Javier Bardem, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Christopher Walken, Lee Sadoo, Muad'Dib. What's he doing? Why is he taking my spice? In Arrakis. man, what a movie. Gosh, watching that opening scene. And I saw this movie at the IMAX downtown here in Indianapolis. It was the 70 millimeter version of Doom Part II. Just a euphoric religious experience seeing that movie in that setting.

That opening scene where you get those Arrakis dudes like hovering up into the ship and hunting all of the sand people there on Arrakis. I was like, we're in good hands. We're fine, everybody. This movie is going to be fucking awesome. And how could you not be excited by what we have with this final installment with Dune Part 3 eventually with Denis Valdez and company? There are two again, absolute stand stand. that's I can't even say just two. This is incredible. All these moves are incredible.

I mean, The choice, there was three choices really back and forth for me for the winner of this one. Wicked was obviously up there because it really had a... it was very popular, yes. Dune part two, Deadpool and Wolverine because I think I tried explaining at the beginning, I was like, it's either Deadpool and Wolverine or Dune. And I said Deadpool and Wolverine because like it's really the only one that's made me want to go back and... watched the movie over and over again.

And then I realized what I was saying and I kind of stopped myself because I didn't want to go any further and explain to you why we both said Dune Part II and I was like, so just like, yeah, yeah, Dune Part II. And this is the reason, this is what I wanted to reveal at that time, but I decided content, let's save it for this award. Everything is content, everybody. Everything is content.

But the reason I said Dune Part II is because none of these other films, have really made me want to dive in to the entirety of its universe. Deadpool and Wolverine was great, but I already know enough. I don't need to go and research any other character. I didn't feel the need to go back and watch any other movies. I didn't feel the need to go and read any other comics to understand any of these characters within this world, this particular universe.

However, Dune Part II not only has the new show, Dune Prophecy, but also I've started going and getting the books again because I wanted to start reading. and start seeing what this Dune universe is really about. I think this Frank Herbert guy all about what's this Frank Herbert and his son writing about. And so I think that that's really important when it comes to deciding which really deserves the movie of the year. And it's the one that has that those lasting ripples in your life.

Not only you thinking about the character, the implications, the religious acts aspect of everything that's going on on Arrakis and in the Dune universe. but also the fact that it makes you want to dive head first into everything that is encompassed in that, even in other mediums. So I think that that for me was the reason that I was like absolutely doing part two. And to sort of go down the list here, Anora, what an incredible movie. It's definitely in my top five of the year.

Mikey Madsen should get a nom for best actress. Sean Baker, the director should get a nom for best director. It won a pompadour for best screenplay at the Kansas Film Festival earlier this year. So, you know, it's an incredible movie, Aaron. I know you haven't seen it yet. If you're listening right now, go check it out. I think it's still in theaters, but if not, just wait till it comes out on streaming. You could definitely wait.

It's not something you have to see in theaters, but I'm just saying go watch it at some point. And you've already heard us talk about look back and incredible. It's my favorite animated film of the year. Go back again to our best animated film of the year conversation. Sing Sing, my favorite eight 24 movie of the year, Coleman Domingo. basically creates a theater program for a bunch of inmates while in prison. Aaron, you said you want to see that one.

I don't know if you had a chance yet, but if you haven't yet, still go see it. And everyone, you haven't seen it, my second favorite movie of year, actually it's honestly, it's one a one B between doom part two and sing sing for my favorite movie of the year thus far. And then again, we already defied gravity with wicked go back and list that review. But Aaron, we were so right too. I don't know if you saw, but they're releasing sing along. Viewings for wicked we called it.

We should have we gave them there. We gave them our great idea So they're gonna make millions but very very happy with giving this award our David Weiner movie of the year our most coveted To doom part two and again as we say every year Aaron your awards are in the mail is ground shipping no tracking And media mail media mail. Yep, and we didn't even lick the envelope. We just put it in a box I don't even know if we put labels on them. Did we put stamps on it? no. That was my job. shit.

well, anyway, they're in the mail, everybody. So be on the lookout for that. They're in they're in their mail. They're in a mail somewhere. They're in a mailbox. They're in a box. Did you put a return address so we can get it back? We paid for that. I write on anything. my God. All right. Well, that's OK. Anyway. All right. Well, that'll do for our last call awards. And we thought here at the end of our last call awards, Aaron had a good idea. He wants to talk about just one.

What he had one good idea this year, everybody. He did it on December 26th, the last episode of the year. Contribution done. Nailed it. Three things we want to approve on in 2025. Aaron, I'm going to let you kick us off here. You know, looking back again, this is, this is a great opportunity for us to look back at our, at our whole year. It's a, it's a year in review.

It's, know, not just the movies that we've watched or the shows that we've watched or the comics that we've read, but kind of us in general as a show. And these are the things that I decided that I really want almost like New Year's resolutions. You know, I really want to get better with helping Chris out with doing like things like the social media, creating content, because that's something that I am passionate about. And I just have not used any of those passions really. for the show.

so, you know, peek behind the curtain. I'm a piece of shit. I'm a huge piece of shit. Not a big deal piece of shit. And second up is really like we got some good ideas that we've been brewing for the newsletter, which I'm excited about. We're going to start improving that. So we're going to be better with the newsletter. At least I'm going to be better with the newsletter for 2025 and going forward. We have some, again, great ideas for. our patrons, great ideas for our listeners.

And I think this is gonna be a really fun time and a really fun way to improve the interactivity with the community and the newsletter. And then last for myself is I wanna do better with creating and sharing my like letterbox lists like Chris does, because that's one way that'll help me kind of really review and remember the movies that I've seen. Because we watch so many movies and again, I have a big dumb brain that has a lot of damage in it. And are on it.

And so like this will be a really good, I'm used to doing lists, but lists don't necessarily stick around very easily. So I can create a list on my letterbox account and rate and review all the movies that I see. And that'll be super helpful for the show, which I think is great. Yeah, I love that. Those are all good things to look at for 2025. 2025 is going to be a good year for us here. And I can already, I can already see it in my, my inner brain.

And I'll say from my end, The three things that I want to improve on is I want to interview some creators that I don't already love. And the reason why I say that there's plenty of creators that I really like. But a lot of times when we get interview opportunities, I'm like, oh, yeah, I really love this, this and this. What I want is I want to maybe bring on some creators that I don't know everything about already. And that way, maybe I can discover like a new creator that I really like.

You know, like I think a good example that already spoke on him earlier in the episode. But Tyler Crook was someone who I liked his work through Harrow County with Colin Bunn. But it wasn't until I started talking to him here on the show that I discovered the Lonesome Hunters and other stuff that he's done. And now he's one of my favorite creators, not only because he's an incredible dude, but he's also one of, in my opinion, one of the most unique voices in the medium.

I also want to stop hyper fixating on social media. And I talk a lot about this with a botter and Greg over in our comic gents chat. I get really discouraged by social media and I think, man, engagements down and I got to create this, this and this. I got to post every day. I got to, I got to interact. all the things, you know, I'm just tired of it. I'm tired of social media. I know it's a fun way to connect with all of you guys who are listening and I still want that.

Like that's still going to happen, but I'm tired of hyper fixating on like the value of social media because it's not that valuable. Honestly, it's, it's not the end all be all. It doesn't, it's not a good gauge to see how far we've come with the show and what's our value in sort of like our space. I'm tired. I'm tired of everybody. So honestly, if I've sold this to Aaron many times, if you listen to grid, I've complained about it constantly.

But like, if I could just give up social media and be done with it, I would be done with it. Like if, we had someone handling our oblivion bar social media and I was like happy with the quality of that they were doing, I would delete my own personal accounts because I just don't care. I'm done with it. Tired of it. then the last thing is I want to start properly utilizing Comic-Cons, Aaron. Like when we go to Comic-Con, we go to a lot of them, San Diego, New York, Megacon, C2E2.

I want to use these events. to our advantage on the show, meet creators, meet other people who have YouTube channels and podcasts in our space, meet publishers, sit down with publishers, do interviews at the cons, create, again, we're just talking about the hyper fixation on social media, but this would be a great opportunity to create like content for social media that is, you know, people will engage with. So I want to better utilize our Comic-Con experiences going into 2025.

know, what's funny is I was actually talking to my sister. Yesterday because it was Christmas. Yep, and I found out that my sister is hugely into webtoons and We've had You know at least one webtoon creator on the show. I know yep, and I'm us Michelle fuss for Ava's demons or Ava's demons. Excuse me one but also just one The other that I know like I actually own some books of a webtoon called Lore Olympus.

Yeah And what's really interesting about that is I didn't know that that started off as a webtoon. And so I am excited because I asked my sister, I was like, hey, send me recommendations of these webtoons that you're reading, because, you know, we obviously have similar taste. So maybe I'll find some and then I can bring those artists, those creators onto the show as well. Webtoons, we've talked about this webtoons are a really good source of like really good, like, you know, again, content.

And we found some really good webtoons that are really impactful and beautiful and interesting. And I think that's a really good place to start getting some more, you know, lesser known creators that have bigger impacts. Absolutely. Yeah. It's a giant audience. The Webtoon market is huge. That and manga both are two sort of subcategories of comics that I think Aaron and I both want to tap into in the future. So that will do it, everybody for 2024. We are officially. done with the year.

can put a stamp on it, close the book on 2024. What a year it's been. We want to thank you both Aaron and I so much for joining us here on the Oblivion Bar all year. Honestly, without everybody listening to the show, interacting with the show in any small way, it just means the world to us and it makes it worth it for us to do the Oblivion Bar.

If we have one person interacting with the show and liking it and listening to it, telling us how much they enjoy it, that means All like we'll forever do the show because of that alone. So I've just I was watching the the my like some of the notifications on my phone I was checking on it and the interactions that we were getting from the sonic the hedgehog three post All hey crack was cracking me up.

Yep. Who cares as engagement is engagement Yeah, but erin is anything you want to say to the folks before we head out of here? No, again end of the year love, just Appreciate being along for the journey. We hope you guys stay for much more and we hope that we can bring more to you guys that you care about. if there's stuff that we're not again, you know, feel free to send us messages.

Let us know what you want to hear, who you want to hear, who you want us to bring on the show, what you want us to interview, what you want us to watch, read, play, whatever. Just this, this show is not just for us because we love experiencing new content in all of these different mediums. So please reach out to us and let us know. what you love because we can, we can love it too. That's what this is all about. We're going to have a fun conversation regardless.

So give us something to talk about and we're going to, we're going to get our kicks out of it. So that'll do it for episode 179. We will see everyone in February of 2025. We always take every January off. So we, will not see us for the next couple of weeks, but don't worry. We are already planning for February and on. So Aaron, take us out of here. Subscribe to our podcast Apple podcast Spotify YouTube audible. I heart radio wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.

That's where we are Thank you to our patrons Alex Alice Erin Potter Chris has Chris white Christie David Elliott George Johnny Greg Haley hamsticks Jake Jeremy Kyle Lucy Mac miles Mike Olivia, right? I write and boop Robert and Bradley's Thanks for leaving poop You did let the poop in there. You really shit the bed, Chris.

If you want to support the show without spending any money, a follow on your preferred podcasting platform and a five star rating and or review on Apple podcasts and Spotify helps the show a ton. Even if you just go in there and click five stars, it's so easy. Just follow the show. I do it. You're probably already following it, but if you aren't for some reason, following the show helps the so easy. Follows on social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Blue Sky and threads at Oblivion Bar Pod.

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And last but not least, do not forget to tip your bartenders 20 % or more, especially if you're that piece of shit couple that was at hot pot last night and you were talking shit about. all of the other couples around you. could hear you because we were in the next booth over and then your cheap ass left less than a 10 % tip for a woman who was probably working her own restaurant. So her workers could go home for Christmas and you leave her a less than a 10 % tip. Sorry, 20 % or more.

Yeah. Thank you. That's, that's terrible. and fuck those people and, everybody again, thank you so much. We will see you next year for episode one 80.