Yo, yo, yo, yo, welcome to the grid episode 140. This is the patron exclusive show for the Abloving Bar, a comic book podcast. I almost said nerd culture because it's we used to be Aaron. Now we're just strictly comic books. Nothing else. Nothing else. Right. Just get your shit together. I'm Chris Hacker, one of your hosts here. And joining me this week is my BFF, Aaron Noles. I'm already on my bullshit, man. We're not even two minutes into the episode. Showing you.
Yeah, showing that ass showing that ass. What's going on? Welcome. Welcome. everybody. This is episode 140 of The Grid. What you're hearing right now is what we offer all of our programs, which is what we call all the people over on the Patreon and Dave and David. Yes, of course. Shout out to David. Not wanting to be a program. He's actually the official ISO of the podcast, which we will go over here in just a moment. But, Aaron, will you quickly just off the top of your head?
without any notes, nothing there to help you explain to everyone who just might be checking out the grid over on the normal feed. What is the grid and why do we think people should subscribe to this nonsense? Well, if you are a fan at all of the normal Oblivion Bar podcast, the grid is the dark, seedy underbelly of Grimy, the Oblivion Bar podcast. It is where Martha and Thomas Wayne do not want to be after the show. Correct. All right.
It is where Pearls will go a flying Pearls will just chill just hanging out in the grid. So that's where you but it's where they don't want to be. But it's where you want to be. You want to be there for sure. is the pardon the pun. It is the gritty version. It is the unfiltered, unformatted, unfettered, unashamed version of the Oblivion bar pot. It's where we can talk about anything because it's a digital sandbox. It's our playland, our toy box. is everything that we want it to be.
Plus as a Patreon, you get the chance to help us form it. get the chance to help us talk about, you know, yeah, as a patron, you get to choose topics. You get to ask questions. You get to do all these things as a patron for being part of our digital fam. Yeah, it's where we let our hair down. It's where we let our freak flag fly a little bit. Nope. I don't leave it there.
I will say that one of our segments, Aaron, This is a brand new segment that I'm not sure we'll ever return to after this episode. This will definitely give you a little bit of a taste of what we do here on the Patreon. I'll tease it there and then we'll move on here. Aaron, think to start off here for episode 140, we should probably go ahead and give out a nickname, seeing how we haven't given one out in quite a while.
As many people know by now, we were on a little bit of a hiatus through the summer. You know, I had to get through some chemo for some some colon cancer in BD. And Aaron was in the middle of searching for a new job because he just ETS out of the United States Army retired. Can I get a who retired as a fucking retired man? Show some put some respect on it. Okay. Put some respect on respect on it. All right. My apologies for not respecting it. R. S. B. C. Find out what it means to me.
Yes. Yes. But also I spent four months cleaning my office and we can tell And it's can totally tell everyone that was being I was being facetious there. Still a hot mess. But it's a it's like it's a nicer hot mess. It's a better mess. It's a better hot mess. It's a it's a lukewarm mess. It's like a ouch hot hot mess. Yes. It used to be like, boy. Yeah, that's gross.
Yeah. Now it's like, you know, when you pick up that new coffee like that, you you made yourself at the hotel lobby and Hotel Meltdown Holiday Inn. And it doesn't have the little sleeve on it. It's this is a little too hot to carry. it'll tell me. Yeah, little toasty. Yeah, we need to work on that, by the way. We should work on that background at some point.
But anyway, we're to give out a nickname again, part of being on the Patreon part of being a program is that if you join us at our highest tier, which is ten dollars, there are multiple tiers, one, two, five and ten dollars. One of the perks of the ten dollar tier, which is our I want to say that's our Super Mario. What is that, Aaron? that our, that's our gold star? I think it's a gold star too. Yeah. Power star.
And again, this is what you get on the grid every week because Chris, this is the only place you're going to hear Chris again, beyond that bullshit. That's so Aaron is correct. I will never ever do this on the normal show. I'm trying to make a good impression. We put on a clean show. Friends. But this week we are giving out a program nickname to Chris from the Bada Boom, who we actually got to meet for the first time in person. Well, you met him at what was it? Downtown or what was it?
Midtown comments at the Scott Snyder Nick Dragata. It's a drug or drug. I think I say drug, but I'm sure it's probably fine either way. Potato potato. Yeah, exactly. Jugada Jugada. Yep. But yeah, Chris has been a Patreon member for quite a while since March of this year. So we owe him a nickname. Now, really quickly, before we move on to Chris, I'm going to quickly go over some of our nicknames that we've given out so far. Travis is the official Dr. Indiana Jones of the show.
Dr. Jones. We have Christy, which is my mom, the official mama bear of the show. We have Kyle is the official Gipper of the show. Robert Gipper. do for the Gipper. Robert is the official nuke dealer of the grid. have George is the official wedding singer. We have Losey is the official selfless Swifty of the show. Taylor Swift coming to Indianapolis next week, Two shows. Is it still the eras tour? Still the eras tour. They're going to keep doing it until it's until she's done, until she retires.
Until she's dead. And the whole. probably already dead. She might be. This is like AI. I think at this point, yeah. They've actually transformed all of downtown Indy into like each street has been renamed into one of her songs. I've heard that. And then they drape like those friendship bracelets like over the Coliseum. And I don't know. have no. I don't understand. I don't understand the desire. You wouldn't get it, Aaron. I don't get it. You just don't get it. You just would.
I would explain it to you, but you just wouldn't understand. Have you seen her? Would you go see her? I would. I have not. I won't spend that kind of money yet. Maybe one day. I'm sure it will only get more expensive as time goes on. But I will say I'm a very passive Swifty. I was just talking to my girlfriend and fellow patron of the show, Olivia. I was just telling her how I'm like a very passive Swifty, whereas like it's not really a personality trait, but I can recognize her greatness.
Like she is one of the greatest pop stars like of all time. I've got a couple of vinyls because they're pretty. Music's good. I, you know, but I don't think I'm the same boat. I would, I don't think I would ever, I think I'd see her if it was like, yeah, yeah. Hey man, you want some tickets to Taylor Swift? That will never happen. Sure. No one's just going to hand you Taylor Swift tickets. You will have to give up like one of your cats or your first born kid to see you live. So done.
Done. All right. Good. Let's do that. All right. So as low C, selfless, Swifty, we have, as we said a moment ago, David is the official ISO of the show. Cause he's not, he's not a program. Excuse me. have don't like that. Nerf Alice is the official Batlin Brit. Got to see her a couple of weeks ago at. I love I love hanging out with her. Yeah. You got you got a commission at New York or New York. Yep. I said a few weeks ago it was last week everybody.
That's how long that's how time has has moved around since New York. Aaron's currently holding up his doom slayer. Is this this doom dude or is this doom slayer. It's doom slayer doom guy doom guy. That's right. OK. Okay, this one's gonna be hard. Miles is the official iron Hokie. how do we say? How to cog? cog. cog of the show. I will not explain what that is again. We've got Mac, our New Zealand bud. All you runners. No, no, no runners. Yep. We Mac, of course, he is the official Kapuka.
How do we say it again? Fuck was it? Yeah, Kapuka. Kapuka. Yeah, let us know. Let us know again. We already forgot. It's been too long. It's adorable. like little fesent thing. Yeah. Little pheasant bird from like New Zealand. Right. Yep. Yep. It's like it's like they're penguin, but it's never cold. Which is so that's so not true, everybody. I'm totally I'm messing that up. Sorry, Mac. We hope you're still listening. I still owe him a T-shirt, Aaron.
We need to send him a care package at some point because shipping is incredibly high right now internationally. So we owe Mac that. Speaking of folks that we met at New York, Ham Six, aka Ian, is the official red leader of the show. You got to meet him in your comic on, correct? No. where was this? No, you never met him. We've just we've chatted on online. I actually I'm not sure. I think so. The way that I met him was he actually bought some comics that I had that I had for sale through eBay.
no kidding. Yeah. And and he was like, like, you know, how did you get like these comics? How did you get these signatures? Blah, blah. And I'm like, well, I, you know, I've worked with CSA, my buddy Chris helped me and we just got chatting and he asked like, he's like, so what, how do you do it? Like, what do you do? You talk about all this stuff. I was like, yeah, we got a podcast. And so he became a, a Patreon member of our podcast. And you know, he, messed me.
He's like, Hey man, if you're ever going to New York Comic-Con again, I need this, this, exclusive from, John Jang. And I was like, gotcha buddy. you. Got you. Aaron, that's the type of B2B marketing that you bring to the show. You got that special sauce. Yeah. You know, I love chatting with people. I love bringing up the show and talking, know, just chilling out with cool people, even if it's online. Aaron likes to chill and relax with the peeps. He's one with the folks.
and relax and all cool, shooting some b-ball outside of the school. We've got Kenny, the official phantom freak. Now, this is freak with a P-H-R-E-A-K of the show. And then Chris, of course. So, Chris, of course, co-host of the Bada Boom Pod. If you listen to the Oblivion Bar, you're probably listening to the Bada Boom Podcast as well. What do we know about about Chris here? I know he really loves Ghost Machine. He loves that whole universe. Yes, he loves Ghost Machine. He loves Batman.
Huge fan of Scott. do we. He is. I am just he's just such a sweet dude. Yes. You know, really, really good supporter of the show. Always. always supporting us on social media, obviously supporting us here on the show on on the Patreon on the grid. I have a couple of suggestions. And you tell me if any of sound good or if you have something better. I would like to since I'm Chris as well. But I think Chris is like the absolute Chris. And we're in the absolute Batman.
he's the absolute Chris of the show. Thoughts? Hmm. I like it. I want to hear your others, though. I to going to like that one. Well, I was going to also say absolute Geiger. because of the ghost machine of it all. What are your thoughts? I think one of those two is probably a win. I like the Geiger. Absolute Geiger. Yeah, I like he's the Geiger. Either call him like Geiger number one or just call him the Geiger. That's what it reminds me of is like the Geiger.
So I like just Chris being the Geiger. The Geiger. All right. If you guys haven't read Geiger, by the way, it's Jeff Johns and Gary Frank. Good book. I like it a lot. It's sort of the pillar of the Ghost Machine universe. And I was sort of skeptical about all of that because, you know, it felt sort of it felt like they wanted me to invest in a universe that I hadn't yet read a lot of. But Geiger will get you hooked. If you have any passing interest in Ghost Machine, go check out Geiger for sure.
Absolutely. Junkyard Joe, Geiger, Rook, Redcoat, Rook. Yep, I'm I am so excited and I haven't gotten a chance. don't I need to look into when it's releasing but the Rockefellers with a Masi Yeah, Tomasi and Manu pool. Yeah. Yeah, there's so honestly Ghost Machine is one of those again.
It's another one of those just Like groups that has come out of nowhere and it's yes all that It's like the most like some of the most iconic creators in the medium It's hard to say they came out of nowhere because it's it's not they came out of nowhere. It's these yeah It's it's all these iconic creators Yeah. And just and they're all like amazing. A big risk from them as well, because they all had like established jobs at the big two and otherwise. And they all said, you know what?
For the foreseeable future, we are off the books, everybody. We're we're so dedicated to this universe and creating our own thing. And I respect that. And I agree with you. think Ghost Machine has the legs to go the distance and really make an impact on the medium. I can go the distance and show you the world. Shining shimmering. Okay. That's a different song. Okay. I know Aaron distance is I know Listen, I know. All right. Okay. Sorry.
Anyway moving on we have up next I wanted to quickly share that I started reading and finished my first manga Aaron or well I've read manga before of course, but I actually went to Barnes and Noble Just went to the manga section said, alright I'm gonna pick something cuz I need it. I need to be more experienced in manga. I've obviously completely and entrenched myself in the meat.
Let's back this up, though, because this was a recommendation and it was to tell by whom this was a recommendation by Ethan Parker, a co-writer of the Eisner winning our shooting eyes when Eisner nominated Kill Your Darlings and what he actually recommended the the anime. But I wanted to start with the manga first. So that's what I did here with this. Any good weeb should. And I will say and I will say that I've really enjoyed it. I loved it.
And I don't how familiar you are, but Fearon, I'm going to put you want me to try to say the creator's names really quick. This should be entertaining for everybody, honestly. Okay. So we've got a kind of hito Yamada Yamada as on the story and then art by, and this is the best part of the art is honestly incredible. It gives very much early final fantasy vibes. Like we're looking, we're looking like final fancy tactics vibes. Yes. Art is by to Suka Abe. So anyway, really enjoyed it.
It's basically about this mage who outlives her party. The story sort of picks up as they defeat this demon king. And then the story sort of, you know, goes on with Fearon picking up new folks to like move on, like to teach and to hang out with. You see some of the older cast members, some of the old party members, but they're like, they're dying. Like every member that was at the beginning of story dies within the first couple of chapters. you're...
You know, it's basically the story of like, know, sort of appreciating what you have in the moment and not always looking forward. I think it's sort of the idea of the story, but it's just a really fun, like magic based sort of RPG. If you love if you love like classic RPG, you'll love the story. It's very D &D meets Lord of the Rings. Yeah, sure. Sure. Yep. And then you had something that you kind of wanted to reference as well, Aaron. I'll hand it off to you.
What was something that you've read recently or something? So I'm actually in the middle of it right now. And I'll tell you, the background of this is So whenever I go to DC, like, you my wife and I, like to stop by this used book shop called Friends of the Library. And it's where they sell like, you know, stuff that they have like an overage of at the library and, or it's like donations and all the money goes to fund the library. And so I like to go in there.
I check out like, obviously sci-fi, horror, a little bit of fantasy, graphic novels, they have a lot of comic books in there sometimes. And then I found this book kind of just sitting in one of the corners and it didn't have like a UPC. It didn't have anything. I didn't even look in. I was like, you know what? That looks cool. Just a by its cover. Just a book. But I judged this book by its cover and it's called Wild Nature.
And you don't see a lot of honestly, you don't see a lot of graphic novels like comic collections like this with a, know, like like person of color as the main character and really just highlighting them on the cover. And it looks completely badass again. Wild Nature. And I did a little background digging. It's by David Taylor. It's edited by Claire Napier. And it's, if you think about it, it's a lot like Hunger Games meets Running Man meets Death Race.
And if you like anything like that, it's kind of like this dystopian world. The world's been ravaged by, it's kind of odd because the world's been ravaged by these epidemics. And a lot of people go through this thing called the Academy where they end up like kind of training. going into these different groups and then joining this game as a group. So it's not individuals fighting each other, it's groups.
So at beginning of the book, you have like the animals and you have this one guy, his name is Swan and he's kind of the character of the book follows and it follows him as he retires and then it gets pulled right back into it because he's the best there ever was man. And he is brutal. He's almost because, and it's funny because you find out, I'll give a little bit of a spoiler. You find out that he kind of has like this almost like side, like secret personality, like split personality.
But it's almost just like his ultra violent nature. Like he's, he's good at it. sounds like a century in the void over at Marvel. Yeah. So he is just so good at it. And so basically, again, it's, it's the, it's him going against his past. It's him going against himself. It's him going against the lives that he's left in his wake that have been ruined. So it's just, it's really good. And I found out that this book was actually a Kickstarter. And that's what I wondering if the UPC not being there.
was thinking it might've been Kickstarter. Yeah. So yeah, it's wild nature and it's by three one three comics. David Taylor, T A Y L O R, is the, the author and I believe the artists as well, but, but wild nature again, it's, it's awesome. I'm about halfway through and I have, and that was the cool thing about this.
And I'll tell you this when I, when I picked it up and I didn't even know it when I, when I bought it, it's signed by the author and there's a bunch of the art cards still with it from the design of it and it and they all just look phenomenal. I'm loving this whole thing. Check this out. nice. So it's got like a book plate essentially. Yeah, it's got a book plate. It's got these cool like this almost looks like it's like by Dan Hipp almost. Yeah. Yeah. So that's super cool. Very, very good book.
Nice find. Nice find, Aaron. That's I like it. OK, moving on. Let's go into our rest of your schedule. Now we're just going to go speed through this, Aaron. You sort of just give me your thoughts. know, if you have anything you want to say, say it, if not, I'm just going to go through all these. So if you're listening to this right now, this is sort of a sneak peek of basically every episode that we have planned for the rest of the year. Now, don't take this as, you know, law.
This could change throughout the year, but this is sort of what I've set up because believe it or not, Aaron, that has happened. It often does. Believe it not, we only have about two months left. I mean, we're going into Halloween tomorrow. We're recording this on. Wednesday, October 30th. tomorrow's Halloween. Happy Halloween, by the way. You know, there's only 62 days left in 2025 or 2024. So we hit 2025. Goodness. I cannot believe that days. That's insanity. Insanity. Insanity. That's right.
Well, OK. So our next episode, which comes out tomorrow, it already be out when you're listening to this will be our Halloween special where we covered Sean the Dead. I've I've already almost added that thing together. I actually really liked the way it came together. Aaron, if you remember when we finished, I was like, man, I am at my breaking point when it comes to recording and prepping for the show. lot of it was just a lot of that plus like New York and everything.
But I really like the way it. yeah. I like the way it turned out, honestly. I'm a big fan of it. So if you haven't listened to that everybody go check that out for episode 172. We'll be covering Agatha all along. So we go through a, we go through a stretch here and if people probably already know this by now. We get, go through these like stints where all we do is interview people. And then we go and like go the opposite way where all we do is cover other things besides interviewing people.
then very much a pendulum. Yeah. Every time that we get to that point, I'm like, well, we haven't talked to anybody in a while. We should interview somebody. And then it's like, we've done seven interviews in row. Exactly. Cause when we talk to our marketing folks at like IDW and dark horse and image and everybody, they're always like, well, we don't want you to just interview one person. Do want to interview these other seven people? And I'm always like, well, I do want to talk to them.
So yeah, let's talk to them as well. But we only have one more interview of the one more interview for the year. Everything else is going to be a normal regular segment. So again, episode 172 Agatha all along that last episode came out tonight, Aaron. And we'll last two. It's a double finale ending of the season tonight. Yeah. good point. Yeah. I forgot about that. They are doing two episodes. That's awesome.
Actually, that's probably what I'm doing after this is going and watching both of those episodes. Yeah. Same. You want to text about it? Let's text. Let's about it. Watch party. my goodness. party. I'm a little witch bitch. I'm a little witch bitch down the witch's bruh. Okay. Can I give you, we're going to talk about it here in a minute. I planned for the end of this episode for us to briefly talk about both Agatha and Penguin.
But can I tell you one needle drop moment in Agatha that I really, that I really, really liked was when Billy sort of gets his powers. And it's that Billie Eilish song that drops into the credits. I was like, shit, let's go Wiccan, let's go. My baby boy. That's my baby boy. All right. Up next, speaking of baby boys, we got the Penguin, which again, we'll talk about here in a moment. Maybe one of the best shows of the year. We'll talk about it. No comment. Aaron's given me a look. an episode.
Aaron's given me. OK, he the same. I think you'll like it. I think you'll actually I think you'll really like it. OK, I actually like binged it all because remember for a while there, neither one of you or I had watched any Penguin or Agatha. We went like four weeks without watching either one of them leading up to New York Comic Con. And then post New York, I was like, OK, I need to watch one of them. I'm still not caught up.
I feel like this last few weeks, I know keep derailing this conversation. That's the last few weeks have been in. Tensely busy. I have not had time to do anything and it's killing me because it's just like everything's piling up. You know, it's funny is that when we get into the fall leading up to like Thanksgiving, I guarantee both for our schedules. Let's go. Like we'll be able to do whatever we want. At least I hope so. He's sitting there just eating nothing.
Jerking my gherkin watching Penguin. I'll finish the sentence. I don't care. 174. We're going to be talking to someone who I've wanted to have on the show for quite a while. I think one of the rising stars in the comic world that is Zach Thompson. He's a writer of a couple of books you've probably heard of most specifically. And the reason why I wanted to have him on was for the Alien Romulus prequel that he wrote with Fetty Alvarez, the director of Alien Romulus.
So I actually read that prequel last night. Have you read that yet, I have it. I have not read it. Funny little tidbit. I forgot that I bought it. but I bought a variant cover that is actually on its way to CGC already. I pre-ordered it. And I just got the message like yesterday and they're like, yeah, your order's on its way to CGC. And I'm like, what order? Wait, hold on. What? But thank you. That's the, that's the beauty of pre pre-ordering, right? I do the same thing with movies.
I'll pre-order a movie in like February and then November. Like it happened to the other day with a, in a violent nature that that horror film that came out recently about like the perspective of the slasher. It just showed up at my door. But I was like, Whoa, this is awesome. I forgot I ordered this. Well, it's like, you know me. I don't remember what I had for breakfast two days ago. And it's like you expect me to remember something I preordered in August. That's right. Fuck out of here.
I actually read that Romulus prequel last night. It's really good. I think you'll like it. Yeah. No, got I got I got a stack. Latest void rivals, latest. And then the alien robinists. My buddy at my local comic shop. He he was a fucking. He came in tweet and he me that he got me that movie poster cover. Nice for the alien Romulus. Yeah. very cool. Very cool. Was that the one that you got sent to CGC or what was the one that? No, it's a different.
is this is just this one was like cover a and it's like, yeah. OK, cool. But Zach has done a lot of good work. I'm excited to talk to him. Then one seventy five. We're going to do a double feature here. We're to be reviewing both Gladiator two and wicked, which is the weirdest double feature ever. But. I really want to talk about gladiator two and Aaron, think you really want to talk about wicked. So instead of leaving one out, we're just going to cover both of them.
The funny thing about this is a I guarantee is probably going to be split into into two episodes. More likely. Yeah. And then the other thing is this is to be the longest like like study up for it like I don't I think isn't gladiator like a couple hours. I don't know actually, but I've heard a lot of people say it's incredible. But I would imagine it'll be it'll be over two hours for sure. Yeah, yeah, I know wickets gonna be long as hell. Are you interested in gladiator 2 at all?
Like do you have a little bit? You are okay. Cool. Absolutely I've been trying to get into the screenings here, know Carly and I've been trying to into screenings here for a while while I will say I was not at all anticipating wicked lead like a couple months ago and but I feel like wicked has become the new trailer that I've seen in front of every movie here recently and I'll be honest.
I feel like I could I could definitely go for like a nice Disney Musical right now, right and I've heard good things. It looks like a CGI throw-up mess But if it looks good and the music is good I'll I'll be on board. Did you hear about? What were you about to say you're gonna say something there?
I was just gonna say that I'm excited because I recently finally after a long struggle to get it done saw wicked on Broadway and it was it was it was amazing like the sets everything the singing the design like the story itself was Awesome. And so I'm excited to see how it translates onto the screen. I think I'm a little bit hesitant. There's a couple of things I'm hesitant about, and that's obviously, what's her name? The singer Ariana Grande. Ariana Grande. Ariana Grande. I'll take a grande.
She kind of worries me a little bit because I'm just, you know, I'm not the biggest fan of her acting. Sure. I like, you know, I her performance, like her singing. Not a huge fan. She's fun in like smaller parts, but this is a big role. And this is one of those roles where it's like, to be honest, I would say the only thing I could kind of compare it to is if they actually made like a, like a movie version, a cinematic version of Hamilton.
Like, feel like that would be the only thing comparable because you know, if they fuck up one thing about it, the masses will like... It'll be pitch. It'll be Frankenstein like pitchforks and torches if it's messed up, you know what I mean? Or at least that's how it should feel like in the in the media because this this is a beloved story. This is a beloved Broadway show that's been around for years. There's books after it.
You know, it's it's created this like subconscious subjoke, subculture, subgenre of like Broadway enthusiasts for, you know, Wicked itself. And it's just crazy. Like you can see by all the What do call it? All the merchandise that's come out and people just going like Target has in having those Stanley cups and people going insane. Like that's the level that they need to be on for this. Disney has really leaned into a lot of the marketing for this. So I agree with you.
think based on the fact that they are pushing so hard in terms of their partnerships and the marketing, everything, I think that it'll be pretty good. Have you heard really quickly? You don't spend a ton of time on this, but have you heard about the controversy with Cynthia Arrevo? Yes. And the poster, the fan made poster. Can you briefly explain that to the listener just really quick? Cause they hadn't heard about it.
I'm hearing like different things recently about it, but the overall, the overall concept is that a fan made a poster that they felt was a little bit more, I guess, what do call it? I guess the poster accurate from the source, source accurate, to them, to the musical, to the characters themselves. Because obviously Hollywood, they tend to like change things and make them a little bit more beautiful, a little bit more pretty.
And apparently, you know, the one of the actresses who's in the show, I think she even knew the person or knows of the person who did the, you know, and they're like, hey, instead of like, basically she had an issue because I guess the red lipstick that they use, she almost considered it to be like the blackface kind of concept being put onto this. There's a lot of, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of sensitivity, which I honestly, I respect somebody for how they feel about something.
But yes, if there is what feels like a little bit of a reach. again, it's the same thing with like Hermione Granger in the source material for Harry Potter. People were saying that she was initially supposed to be a black character. They made her black in... the cursed child, was on Broadway, you know, and it makes sense like, but why be racist about it? Why, why take it as an offense when somebody goes to the source material and creates a fan depiction of it. Yeah. They're obviously a fan.
They're not doing it to be anyways hurtful. Yeah. They're not doing it. And I think sort of the chestnut of all of this is that the reason why Cynthia got so offended again, as I was said a moment ago, I don't really see where she's getting at in terms of like the the she said it was like a racist depiction of the character and the poster. Basically the fan made poster put a shadow over the wicked witch of the West's faced again to emulate that original poster from Broadway.
Cause in the Broadway you don't see the wicked witch of the West's face at all. don't see her eyes are her eyes are blacked out. Her lips are red and yeah. So basically somebody made that to be a little bit more Again, source material authentic. Right. Anyway, again, I don't want to too much time on it. I just thought it was interesting. We'll definitely talk about during the review up next. After that one seventy six, we are talking with Greg Lictai and Bodder Milligan.
They're going come on to the show to do our twenty twenty four comic book creator review or comic book creator draft. So last year we did it with Sal from Comic Pop and Brad from the comic book couples counseling. It's actually still to this day, our most listened to episode like in the history of the show. I definitely attribute that to their audiences coming over and listening to that episode. But point being is that Bodder and Greg both wanted to come on to do that.
If you haven't listened to that episode from back last year with Sal and Brad, I highly recommend it. It's a lot of fun. It's basically just us drafting our favorite comic book creators onto like a team. And then at the end, we sort of see who has the best team. You know, we each have like a budget. We each have like a hundred fake dollars. And then we, we draft our You know, like an auction draft for fantasy sports, mostly like fantasy football does this exact thing.
Hey, Chris, when was the last time we did a battle royale? It's been a bit everybody and it's been one. It's been a while since I've been. We've got after episode 176 with Bodder and Greg. 177 is our most anticipated films of 2025. Yes, this is going to be a good one. Yes. 2025 is going to be an IP driven year. Everybody, we are so fucking back, everybody. Aaron and I are going to have so much to talk about on a weekly basis because because of the SAG-AFTRA strikes earlier this year.
Was that this year? Earlier this year? It ended early earlier this year. Yeah. I cannot remember. God, time is a little. You also had like the writers, had the voice actors, like all that stuff. So it's been an ongoing issue. A lot of people, or excuse me, a lot of companies put a lot of their IP stuff on the back burner. Marvel, DC, Disney, Sony, Paramount, everybody. So they pushed it back to the next year.
if you just look and see, even today, Marvel put out like a little teaser for everything that's coming out in 2025, Daredevil Born Again, Wonder Man, What If Season 3. zombies, Marvel zombies, all the things. Brave New World. All the things. That's not Marvel, but yep. Agreed. It's all these things. You name like one thing that was totally not Marvel. I was just going into the 2025 anticipation. The one I'm excited about. Got it. All right. It's one of those.
It's one of those things where this next year is going to be insane. We're going to have too much to talk about. Real quick. Are you excited for Minecraft the movie? Sure. I mean, I will watch it. You know, I love Minecraft, right? So I don't want like Shakespearean thought provoking gobbledygook with a Minecraft movie. want silly Steve, you know, builds things and breaks stuff down and all that. And it looks like that's that looks like what we're getting.
So I'm in like, I don't really know what else to expect from that, but it doesn't look incredible. I'll say that, but whatever. Who cares? Let's see here. We're in December, by the way, for episode 177. That's the first week of December. Second week. Aaron wanted to talk about this, everybody. Earlier in the year, I wanted to talk about Madame Webb and Aaron said, OK, Chris, I will do it. But you have to give me Craven the Hunter. So for episode 178, we'll be talking about Craven the Hunter.
He's got lion in his blood. I just assume now that when Russell Crowe's in a movie, it's going to be bad at this point. He's gotten to the point in his career where every time he does something, I'm like, no, I will say the next, the last trailer doesn't look terrible. It looks all right. It looks pretty unoffensively normal and like nothing.
this is, it's at this point that you're going to see Chris start to change his tune until the movie comes out and he's going to be right there with me like the entire time. I thought this was going to be a great movie. Whatever. No, I don't think this is going to be a good movie. I just don't think it's going to be as terrible as Madam Webb. I will say that. is it, have you seen venom the last dance yet? Nope. I just wanted to be better than that. I haven't seen it yet.
Ask me if I want to go see venom the last dance. Chris, would you, would you go on a date with me to see venom the last dance? If you were, if you went with me, yes, but ask me if I want to go see venom the last dance. I would go with you and hopefully we're the only two in the theater. We would be. Not for weird things. Don't take it the wrong way. I mean, if you do, yes, take the wrong way, but like just because it would be fun just to, to, the entire movie. Do your best venom.
want to hear it now. I, you got to speak like venom. I'm hungry. Feed me. I'm hungry. Brains. Brains. All right. Well, I will say another movie that I would love to see with you, Aaron would be for episode one 79. We're going to be talking about. And this is our second to last episode of the year. Our last movie review of the year. We'll be talking about Sonic the Hedgehog three motherfucking Keanu Reeves. Got a little shadow in this one. So excited.
I don't know why, because the Sonic movies for some reason are actually good. I think the Sonic movies have overtaken the Fast and Furious movies as the silly. Now the silliest. Like camp that I know is not very good, but I'm just always going to have a good time at the the theater. Do you know why? Why? Jim Carrey. Yeah, I could I could see that. That's really the only reason these movies are as good as they should be. Or I like I like Ben Schwartz as a Sonic as well.
And yes, all the human characters are so disposable. Yes. And then to finish off 180 episode 180, we will be getting into our final episode of every year. our last call awards or 2024 last call awards, which is like the LCAs. Yep. The LCAs, your LCAs are in the mail. Everybody. It is a, it was, it was shipped priority with no, tracking, no, that's yeah. All trophies are NFTs. Okay. And it's not refundable. We lost the password.
We don't have the passwords and you can only get them from You can only get them on the DC universe app. They're on the black web, the dark web. Well, no, you have to torn them. You have to dark web. I'm my bad. I'm sorry. I said the black web versus the white web. Why does it got to be black? The dark. It's the dark web. All right. All right. Well, there's there's all of our episodes. Yeah, well, I'm excited. I think we've got a lot of great episodes lined up.
Sure. There'll be some things that will come in between that. But yeah. OK. Couple more things before we get out of here. And yes, ma'am, I tease it already, but I want to. do it now, I guess. This is a new segment here on the show. I'm going to call two in the pink and one of the stink. Reactions. Gross. Gross. Okay. This is two pieces of good news and one piece of bad news. Are you ready for it? Okay. What do you want first? Do you want your pink or your stink?
I always want, give me a stink sandwich. Stink sandwich. Okay. First piece of good news. one bad, one good. Okay. First piece of good news. And actually this is debatable. Honestly, it's up to you if you think this is good news or not. I think there has been sort of mixed reviews to this, but I called this by the way, go back and listen to I think it might've been episode 136 of the grid, because I just watched Rebel Ridge. has been cast as Jon Stewart in the DC universe in the lanterns movie.
Now, Aaron Pierce is the guy who was the lead actor for Rebel Ridge, as I said. And I said, as I was watching it, this guy would be an incredible Jon Stewart. Now, Aaron, ask me in like the most, you know, sensitive and just, you know, I'm trying to think of another adjective here. Like you have no idea. Why would this be bad news? Ask me. Just ask me why it would be bad news. Chris, why, why could the cat, the star of rebel Ridge being cast as John Stewart be it be negative in any way?
that's interesting. I'm glad you asked Aaron. apparently people say that he's not black enough and here's why. And I think this, I will say, I don't agree firstly, but also who gives a shit what I think I'm a white dude in the Midwest. But if I'm to give my nerd reaction here, it's that John Stewart. Is the Aaron's about to get up and walk away? the reason why people says because John Stewart and I, I want to kind of, I want to sort of sympathize a little bit with this take.
I, again, I, I am on the record saying I like, want to say no, you don't know. I do. I get it. I get why people are upset, but also I think he's going to be great in the role. I will say people have said that John Stewart is the original black superhero in the DC universe and Neil Adams and I want to say it was Dennis O'Neill who created Jon Stewart back in the day during the, I think it was the green arrow, green lantern series.
They made a very specific choice to make Jon Stewart like dark skinned. You know what I mean? Not like light skin, which is what I guess you would call Aaron Pierce. And they made a very specific effort to do that as a way of showing that superheroes can come in every shape, ethnicity, all the things, right? So. Folks are slightly bummed that this version of Jon Stewart is not like, I guess if you want to say this, I don't know how else to say this, everybody.
I apologize if this is not PC, but like not fully black, guess. Yeah, it's just, he's not black enough. He's not dark enough. And as, as somebody who faces, who has faced that shit my entire fucking life, it's, it's absolute bullshit. And I, and I, and, that, that I don't, I don't let a lot of stupid shit upset me, but that really makes me fucking mad. I'm sorry. That's like. That's really stupid. have I I'm gonna tell you, I recently faced it. I think I told you a story.
I recently faced it when I was downtown in New York. I was working with the New York City Ghostbusters, you know, and I was walking down the street with a group of guys who were we all dressed up like Ghostbusters and some guy was like, hey, you guys just all you need is the black Ghostbuster. And I'm like, dude, I am black. You it's like but he's like, OK. It's like I was just like the greatest response you get from a New Yorker. He could have totally told you to fuck off or something.
Yeah, like. But that's that's you know, you face and then you got people why don't you act black enough? Why aren't you dark or blah blah blah? The guy I don't care how Like I don't it to me doesn't matter. We've we've had so many superheroes on the big screen now that it's like we're in a different era like a Superhero does not have to be black anymore simply to be a a pillar of blackness. Sure. Yeah You know, and take a look there. He's like a fucking shit brick house.
This dude is stacked to the brim. He looks exactly like what he looks the part. Yeah, he looks like Jon Stewart. I'm sorry he's not black enough, but he looks the part. Yep. Yeah. He's got blue eyes, too. You ever seen a black dude with blue eyes? And they're there already. Yeah. Just stare at man anyway. An Asian with green eyes. I think Jon Stewart actually has green eyes in the comic. Yeah, I think he has green eyes in the. Something can be a being the green. It's like the ring.
Doesn't it make his eyes like green when he powers up? Yeah, I think so. Point being, this is silly. I just like I said, I can't really have an opinion on this, but I'm glad that you you think it's also kind of silly. OK, so there's one. That's your paint. Y'all about to bring out the devil in me. We got all hyped up for that one pink. Here's your here's your stink. Peter Cushing, who was famously. How is that? How is that the good thing? Because I like Aaron Pierce's Jon Stewart.
think that's good news. OK, so that was OK. Sorry. That was a pink. We might need to work on this game, man, because I don't like this game. Well, two of the pink one of the stink. You never know, right? just your holes are being filled, right? Getting hyped on this shit. OK, so Peter Cushing, who was famously recreated with CGI during Rogue One, it looked terrible. He is now being resurrected with AI in an upcoming Hammer Heroes, Legends and Monsters documentary. Wow. So that is absolute stink.
We are not learning our lesson. Everybody, of course, he, he famously played Dracula back in the day and, there, don't know why they're recreating him. he passed away in 1994. he played Van Helsing, back in, in actually five Dracula films. And then he played Frankenstein in six of those films as well. So anyway, that's stupid and silly and pointless. And I hate it.
did did you hear recently speak kind of speaking on this topic, but did you hear what Robert Downey jr. Said, he said, I will see all future executives who make AI replicas of me. And I love that. Aaron asked me what the other pink is that I had for you. just go and ask me real quick. Chris, what's the other pink that you have? Robert Downey jr. Says he will never let anyone recreate him with AI and he will even sue after he's dead. Great. My single like buddy. Yeah, sorry. I didn't know.
all right. Steal your thunder. That's all right. I just, I I can't come. So whatever. It's not a big deal. Anyway, Robert Down Jr. Will not. You don't fuck with a man's nut, Aaron. It's rule number seven on the grid. This is why we don't have more to listen. Cause this is the shit that we put on. happens on the grid, everybody. All right. So there's our new segment, two pink and one, two in the pink and one We gotta work on that. I'm not sure if I'm feeling that.
We're just workshopping it, everybody. We're just workshopping it. It's college trial. We do it here on the grid. We do it for you guys. Welcome to the grid. All right. Quick thoughts on, well, you haven't watched the Penguin, so never mind. But quick thoughts on Agatha all along. What are your thoughts so far? You know, I am, I really like Agatha so far. Again, the problem. still facing the same problem with things like, you know, secret wars and, some of the, was that, was it secret wars?
Secret invasion and some of the other like shows. mean, I, the only reason I'm still attached to this one is because I love Aubrey Plaza. love Catherine, Catherine Han, and I'm starting to like these characters a little bit. I'm starting to see, but it's honestly like, it's still not, it's not like a top tier show, you know?
It's it's I would say this is for me kind of close up there with like brave and not bringing to work But I was gonna say Captain America and the Falcon and then also after America than the Winter Soldier No, no, was Falcon and Winter Soldier then it became Captain America Winter Soldier.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. What was the other one you said and and she Hulk, know, it's like, you know, they're fun They're they they introduce throughout the story characters that I do care about and maybe I'll start to care about them Maybe in the next season or whatever the iteration is if we see Wiccan if we see some of these characters further on But other than that the only reason is because of my attachment to the the actors within the show.
Yeah I will say Agatha I'm I'm actually really excited to talk about it this weekend with you because I am of two minds I really I like certain parts. I like the feel I think they put a lot of effort into this show, but I'm with you I'm not really feeling it as much and then the pain like it's too often the corner by itself, right like If I want a movie in the Marvel universe, I want it to have like Marvel things happen.
And the only thing that's happened in the show so far that has to do with Marvel is we see Wiccan and we see, we hear Mephisto be mentioned. That's it. There's literally nothing else. And I mean, and obviously, you know, Abu Plaza as Rio, who is apparently supposed to be death. Okay. So what exactly, but we, I mean, we've, they don't, they don't, this is another character that has had so much ramping up in the Marvel universe.
that was supposed to have like an established supremacy within this universe and is just kind of milled down into this like witch that is on the witch's road and doesn't really do anything. Right. Yeah, she just showed up in Infinity War and Endgame as like someone who was sort of courting Thanos at one point, or maybe she showed up in Deadpool and Wolverine as one of Deadpool's potential lovers down the road. All that would have been cool. even if she would have ended up being Mephisto.
Like if that ends up happening somehow, I think that would probably be a good turn. Again, the two new episodes come out tonight. So well, who knows? But I actually, I'm more excited to talk to you about the Penguin when you eventually catch up, because I think this is much more something that you're going to like. And I think you're, I think it's one of the best shows that's come out this year. For sure. I'm looking forward to it. All right, everybody, we've got to get out here.
Aaron has to get out of here. Hard stop at eight o'clock, he said, and we are five minutes till. So, Aaron, really quick, quick pitch to everyone who's listening for free. Why should they join the Patreon in less than 10 words? Well, if you've listened this far, you know how awesome it is. You know how it be. Yeah, to do in the pink and one in the stink. That's what we do here on the top. that everybody is just two best friends shooting the shit, cutting it up, talking to each other.
All right, everybody from Aaron. I thank you so much for joining us here on the episode 140. We will see you back behind the paywall next week for episode 141. But until then, bye bye.