Warning.
This podcast contains spoilers for the finale of Miss Marvel, for the finale of Boys season three, and for all of The Stranger Things season four, So be warned. If you haven't watched any of that stuff, please watch it and come back because it's a fun episode and I think you'll like it, but we don't want to spoil you.
Oh.
My name is Jason Sepsi, and welcome ext to a Vision the Crooked podcast where.
We dive all the way down to the.
Upside down, crawling up the ladder and then falling down as gravity reverses it to your favorite shows, movies, comics of pop culture. Today's episode, we're gonna such Stranger Things and the previously on we're gonna go to the airlock where we're gonna talk about Boys, the Bowl Please season three, and the Ms Marvel finale. And also we're going to take a victory lap. Who am I going to take
a victory lap with? I'm going to take a victory lap right now with the Comics Encyclopedia, the number one comics talker. She's writing, she's writing for outlets, she's writing her own comics. She's a creator, a producer, and an all around genius of nerd stuff. Please welcome to the stage, Rosie Night.
Hello. Wow to be introduced like that by the Jason conception, imagine.
Imagine who could have dream? Rosie? How are you?
I'm good, I'm happy to be a a wild day with that MS Marvel finale coming, my god, like that, and then nobody was expecting it. And we just coming off the boys and we are the things.
We get into that we write.
We need to make t shots, you know, like a the Magni. I was right, and now we will get into that.
But first let's get into Stranger Things.
Okay, Stranger Things season four, Uh, creative of course by the the Duffer Brothers, starring Winoda Ryder, David Harbor, Milly, Bobby Brown, the the incredible Stretchable Finn Wolf Hart Got Madrazo, my good friend Dustin, I love him so much, and of course the rest of them, including Myahawk, jo Keery, Charlie Heaton, Sadie Sink Hope you're doing well, Max. Uh, No recap to speak of, but let's just you know,
our good friends. They faced off against Vecna from different locations Nevada, Russia over in Hawkins.
Uh.
And they did it.
They it was a multi part plan to lure Vecna into Max's memories. UH eleven chipped in, of course over in Russia, our buddies chipped in by when Joyce realized, hey, hive Mind, I recognize those monsters. We can help them by we can help them weaken the enemy, because if we hurt these hive mind creatures, it.
Will it will hurt everything. And it was fantastic.
And I'll tell you as I was rewatching it this weekend, I the thing part of what why I liked it so much is seasons one, two.
Three are good.
I really I like them as well, but especially in the early seasons I'm not gonna say they felt disposable, but it felt like it was, you know, it was so nostalgia based and call that based that I was like that, it felt like what is here that is just of this show and what.
The answer was the characters.
Yeah, Now in season four we've gotten to the point where the nostalgia you know, we had these great moments as in this like extended fight against Vekna that was like operatic. It was operatic in the sense that, like everybody, every emotional moment, whether it's Joyce and Hopper, you know, Hopper finally like telling Joys like how he feels and kissing her with a mouth that hasn't been brushed.
In as.
Because he's been in like in a prison, eating like bed bugs and maggots and who lost those what It's like, it's these moments where these characters who were always great get to like create these mini loops of nostalgia from within the very own series. And that's on top of the nostalgia of all the callbacks to the pop culture references and things that were happening at the time and like and you know, like uh, textures from from Nightmare on ELM Street, h Spielberg stuff, Yeah, all that stuff.
And then on top of that the nostalgia of, oh, I'm getting to hang out with these characters that I legitimately think are great, and we're getting all these emotional payoffs of them finally like just coming clean with each
other about how they feel. And then on top of all of that, after four seasons, we now have, as we said in previous episodes, like a real world that has rules that we kind of know the shape of it, just like just like Joyce being like, oh, Hi've bind like as a callback, setting up a.
Rule of the world so we know how it works.
All of that stuff is great, like all the popa reveals all like the the mind Flayer flesh out. All that stuff is just great and I really had a great time.
Oh my, sorry about that.
Yeah, I think that Saul super regis a sawl just pop something. And the thing that I think is a really good point the characters have a history now, like we know them, we care about them. It's about the world building has grown alongside them. But something else that you said that really spoke to me. I definitely agree.
Like seasons one into a cal but season three was where I felt like the characters started to be on journeys that I really really cared about, like Max and Eleven having that friendships kind of building in the mall and everything. I felt like that was really great from that season. I loved Daker Montgomery as Max's brother. I feel that was such a great inclusion and that really added these emotional stakes. To me. It did something that I think we're going to talk about with the boys
a lot this season. It did something that I think the best versions of these shows can do using sci fi and horror as a space to explore trauma because so many of the reasons that we're drawn to horror and we're onto these grotesque, gory things, whether it's classic eighties style like Nightmare on Elm Street or like if we're into really really bleak like Hostel style gore, Like a lot of it comes from a place of wanting
to explore that stuff safely. So I think it's really cool when these shows take the time to do that. And obviously that's what Vecna's playing on here is like the notion of trauma, and then how do you beat that is by healing, is by personal journey, is by coming clean, you know, and we get really cool moments here.
I wrote a really fun piece at Nerdict about putting each of the characters into like a D and D class, and I did so much research, and like, one of the ones that I felt like is really strong here is is Nancy as the fighter, Because yeah, she might not be like a main stage but every time she's there and you need her, she is there with that shotgun shooting Vecner, I.
Love nothing more in any show, story book, whatever. Then gearing up for the final fight, I just love that shit like Monster Squad as a great one of those home alone Like there's there's so many great Commando there's great versions of this. And I'll tell you what man Stranger things with Nancy pumping that shotgun and buying it, like.
At the store buying it, that.
Was an absolutely like top level gear up scene.
Yeah, I was just like so excited, you know what you actually speak to something I think is part of why season four has been received this way, right, A lot of the stuff that happens in this season feels like they are earning and adding to the tropes and the cannon rather than just doing a trope because you've seen it elsewhere. Like you said that gearing up scene, people are gonna put that alongside famous gearing up scenes.
Now.
They didn't just do it because other movies do it, and I think as well, like I have just because this is this has been like my entire timeline for the last like since the show dropped. I mean, I've never seen a character come in and gain the absolute obsessive fandom of Eddie Munson Joe Quinn as Eddie.
Talk to Joe, talk to Dojak about it, right, Like I mean that dojah.
Please look at him without the wig. It's not the same Eddie.
Eddie, he's a good looking guye did you see the video of him really playing Master of PoCA.
Yeah, he played. He played guitar, and they asked him that when he was one of the things they asked him when he did the show, you know. And and to me to see that character represented something that I think has been at the fringes of Stranger Things for a really long time, but in this series hit on in a really really deep way, which is that notion of being othered and being the outsider.
It's all these outsiders that yeah.
And Eddie brings them together in this way that is completely selfless. And when you first meet him, you're like, okay, it's the aies, he likes Metallica, Like is he a jock? But then he has a do o back patch, so I was like, he's probably a good guy. And then but like he's actually this incredibly generous soul who's kind of constantly fighting against the evil of Hawkins, which is not just about the upside down, it's also about people's perceptions.
It's about this satanic panic kind of stuff. So I think they did so much interesting stuff here, and also I know nothing should ever be like just to set up the next season, but this does set up some really interesting stuff with Will and Eleven that to me, I feel like was like hinted at from the first season. But I feel like we might really get to see come to fruition in the next season. So I'm I would be most happy to see to see those two have a little team up.
I love the the like the little miniarc of Mike being like, yeah, you know Eleven, you know obviously, you know, like we're with We've been through so much together and I like you so much, and then she's like love whatever, love, and then like.
I can't even write it on the floor.
I can't even write it on the floor.
And then finally, like he he pays it off while everybody else is paying it off, and you get that wonderful moment where he admits how he feels, you know, he still feels that way.
You know, shouting out your little buddy. I think something that's been really cool as well is to see Dustin essentially go from like the comedy relief to being the true leader of the party. Yeah, like that his his pop culture knowledge and references. That is now his armory. It's kind of like us. It's like that's what he can pull from to know stuff. He doesn't drop it to be cool. He that is how he solves mysteries. That's how he solves problems. You know, he's the inventor,
the artificer. I thought I have always loved Dustin, but I was very happy for that journey and I'm really excited to see that because Mike used to be the kind of like, you know, go to leader. But I would say Dustin is really that.
I loved him.
I loved him, you know in the uh Luwer Away, the demo bats mission with Master Puppets and eighty Months and on Guitar Light like rip to my guy of how like delight there's fucking demons like around. We could die at any moment, and he's just like.
Yeah, this is he and he's like this is sick, this is sick. That was just absolutely delightful.
And I'll just say like I was a little bit as so as a as a reformed guitar player myself who went through a pretty heavy metallica phase uh and used to hang out with metal heads. The big thing as I'm sure Eddiemunson would tell you. With metal is it's all downstrokes that right hand picking technique. You know, your hand, you know, moves up and down right, So like the more efficient way to like do like a is to go you know down up, down, down, you
know like that. But in Metal, that's wrong. Metal is all downstrokes. Metal is all like punching down on the ground again and again and again. And I was a little disappointed that no like reporter, no journalist was like, so okay, Joseph Quinn, great incredible video of you playing Master Pubs. Are you doing all downstrokes as you were supposed to do?
Joseph Quinn, please send Johns's on a postcard that straight vision. We want to know. Come on here and show us. Was it all downstrokes? We need to know that people want to know.
Setting up for season five, which hopefully will not be spoiled by Legos this time.
We can dream.
Well, I just we should say so that's the Doffer Brothers were a little miffed because some plot stuff from season four was spoiled by Lego, which joined the club like.
It happens to Star Wars.
Strange, fantastic beast stock are strange, many many properties have been spoiled by legos. But I am ben what's gonna happen with Max. All of that stuff like going like eleven, uh searching like.
Her mind is going to be a big part of it.
And I think that as well, Like the I think so from the outset, if we look at the D and D stuff, which has always been really key to this, Like you know, Will, I think was always their wizard right and Eleven was a more generic like magic user was how Mike saw her, but she's obviously a mage. I think the end with Will's like connection to Vector Veckner, I actually think we might see him kind of take on like a good Hannibal reference, but like a Will
Graham like m Path style superhero. Well, he can hunt down Vecna, he can team up to l and get to have his.
For those of you hero moment for those of.
Us, that's a reference to Will Graham from the Thomas Harris Silence of the Lamb's novel Red Dragon is the one from and then adapted later by Michael Mann and Manhunter and then later became a series.
And Will Graham is just.
He's a fascinating character, because basically the whole thing with him is he understands what drives a serial killer so well because as Lecter is always kind of like teasing him, he almost he's like an inch away from me, like he could almost be one. And that dynamic with Will, I think would be so amazing.
He's the ulti outsider and he can start to feel it and that it can take advantage of those manipulations. And I would just say, like, if you haven't watched the the if you can believe it was on NBC, you'll never believe. It doesn't make sense. So it's so grotesque, so brilliant, But that really explores that notion of of of being an EmPATH to the point where it's like a superhero and a curse and how it can be manipulated. And I feel like they will be very smart to bring in this element.
Yeah, I think that that's right on. I just need them to get Will a better haircut.
We can't just commit yeah, yeah, let's just commit to it. Please.
Oh my god, no, it's so true. Did you see that There was a really really hilarious meme and it was like how could It was like somebody had posted like how could Mike not see Will crying? And then they were like, oh they could see, and it's just the thumb with a bowl cut. Oh please, we need the Joyce than the Joyce Special. Please.
One more thing I want to shout out is my friend Heidi was said this to She's like, I realized like the last like three episodes that I just had my fist clench the whole time, Like particularly the uh Chapter eight Papa episode when Eleven went, you know, Papa's running and the sniper is from the helicopters like shooting at him, and Eleven is like shaking the helicopter with her powers trying to throw That was as visually like stunning as anything I've seen in a while.
I was just like, this.
Looks great, Like I felt like I was watching this on a big screen. Like some of the action sequence in this were just so great.
It's actually nice to see where that thirty million dollars an episode went, you know, aside from cast which like pay those kids, because something definitely more.
Who has more leverage than these fucking kids? Right now? You got five? What are you gonna do? Say, say Dustin? Dustin died off screen.
Yeah, like he's gone up to space, you know, like that's the episode. But it's definitely one of those things where like the other thing that this show has always done really great from the beginning, which I think is why targets people like me and you because this is one of our favorite things. Found family, kids, yagtag group, who you care about, who you would die for? This does that, Umbrella Academy does that. We're about to get into how Miss Marvel really leans into that this episodeisode,
Like I love those stories. It goes back to the X Men, which has always been one of the most important touch points for this show. You know. The first episode of this season is called The hall Fire Club, a big you know, X Men reference, even though it has historical resonance outside of that, it's also what D and D Club is called. So it I just think like there's so much in just those relationships that can carry it, and that's kind of where the heart of the show is.
We were talking about we were talking about the the the Norwegian movie Worst Person in the World before we hit record, and I was saying what I liked about it was that it was less a plot driven movie and more a movie in which everything turns on how well the main character is fleshed out, and it's like we've hit that. For me, Stranger Things has hit that point where it's just like you just know who these people are and it's so great to spend time with them.
I will say, here's my one. It's not even a disappointment. Lucas, man, you gotta have hands.
How are you your ass? He won the fight. He did win the fight.
I will say, though, bro, in terms of happened and in terms of that very aspect of the characters, I would love to see them bring in some writers who can really do justice to Lucas and Erica next season. That would be like my big gat. I also say, like resurrect Eddie. I think that that that's what the people want.
I could bring him back and spooky ship.
Like, that's what the people want, man, they're giving you free that And next time Lucas gets to fight like a like a dickhead jock who's been a piece of ship for the entire season.
Instead of like, instead of making it like a like a back and forth he saw battle. How about is Lucas just pummels the guy's face and then eventually that guy's body gets destroyed.
But I'm telling you.
Like, this is why just watch Lucas stop this guy for five weeks.
That's the next step in this idea of like, look, people are racist, and there are ways of showing that and the dangers of it and how terrible it is. But you know what, everyone has seen. Everyone's seen black people being victims of racism. Everyone's gotten to see the horrors of that. Can we just see somebody stumping out a racist I would love to see it. That's the next step.
I don't like there have been some critiques some of like, oh, we're not exploring small town racism, bah blah b buh Okay. I get it, Like that's that is an absolutely important thing to explore and to show at times. But I also like again, like and I don't want to speak for anybody, I'm speaking for myself, Like just from my personal experience that I can, I can interact with those ideas.
With that history, with stories like that, there's a million choices.
I really appreciate the fact that when I'm with my friends from Hawkins, it's just the reality of this world and it's and not to say disconnected from the real world. But it's a different It's a more heightened pop culture inflected version of that world in which we can just like enjoy this plot. And I would have enjoyed Lucas playing a little bit more if Lucas would have not struggled. My god, Lucas, you gotta Getty before season Deva is.
From that that power that this has of getting to be distanced. Lucas doesn't get that freedom. But I'm really hoping Lucas and Max want to see it, Eleven want to see it. Like there's things I want for these characters. You know, I'm now a step and Eddie shipper, but I like the Steve and Nancy stuff that they hinted at. Come on, you're telling me, in any world, anyone's gonna go out with Jonathan instead of Steve. I think that's
the same way Will Will has a crush on Mike. No, you would have a crush on Steve Stephen.
Everyone would have a crush on one.
That is a character for the Ages like that is there was one thing from the beginning to now that has always been consistently great. It is a character of Steve going from the jockish, bully, popular kid to becoming his caretaker leader, who who he respected. Even in these moments of telling Nancy how he felt it was all about her boundaries. This is how I feel. I don't want you to feel that way, but I need you to know.
I know I did wrong, absolutely so much. Steve.
Yes, Steve's having a great time. Jonathan. I got to say, next season.
I thought there was a second there where I thought Steve was about to get topped off in the upside down. I thought it was I thought it was about I thought I thought it was about.
To go down. I'm talent. I'm telling you and listen, has it ever happened before?
Let's make history, folks, Steve Nancy Like, next time we're down there, let's make history.
That's all I happened. There was a moment, the feeling like it isn't that you can put up. You could put a warning beforehand.
Was watching this show? Okay, up next the airlock.
We're stepping out on the airlock to talk about the Boys and Miss Marvel. First up season three of the Boys. The season three finale Instant White Hot Wild, written by Log and Richie and David Reid, directed by Sarah Boyd.
Here we go.
Homelander lands at the farmhouse where his soup son Ryan Butcher, has been hiding under the care of Boys founder and former Payback Team member and former CIA director Grace Moult.
Generally evil woman.
She's done a.
Lot of bad shit and she's trying to make up for it, and she's not doing a great job.
She's doing a bad joke.
Homelanders like, I just want to talk. When is Wendy ever believe that.
From this guy? Anyway?
This is Homelander. Grace and Ryan are terrified, clearly Homelander. It reacts with the iconic and stereotypical Homelander simmering rage. When Ryan refers to Malory as Aunt Grace, He's like, aunt, okay whatever. Aunt Grace is like reaching for her cell phone, Homelander, where this superhero?
Here's it? He's like, don't even fucking do it.
Ryan asks Homelander in a really actually like whenever this show gets heartfelt, it's crazy.
But Ryan is really.
The touchstone for a real emotion in this show, and he's like, Hey, you know, are you mad at me for you know the thing where I burned Stormfront? The woman you love, the Nazi woman you love into like a little stump person with it was like melted face. And also my mom died in that incident or.
It was mortally wounded. It was tough. Are you mad at me for that? And Homelander's like, no, no, of course not absolutely not.
Was I was I still masturbating to that stump Nazi.
Earlier in the season. I was.
But I'm not mad about that I killed. I'm Homelander, and you know what, I kill people all the time by accident.
It's really not a big deal.
I killed the whole passenger plane sort of by accident once because I lasered through the pilot's skull and destroyed the uh, the insurance panel. So that happens, And so I'm not mad at you. And they embrace and they fly off outside HQ pro Starlight protesters fired up by Starlights.
Social media leaks.
A lot of social media meeks in these finales, yes, lot, it's a lot of it. Are squaring up against pro Homelander protesters. Meanwhile inside the building, the Deep and Ashley are like.
What the fuck do we do?
Uh? The AG the the Attorney General General is coming here. Uh, she's got a search warrant.
And when did man.
You know it's serious when the Attorney General is coming in person.
Yeah, uh, because I.
Take video because of a TikTok video saying that Mave is not really in rehab, she is imprisoned in Vought HQ. So they're like, what do we do. Here's what they do. They spray some kind of sedative into mave cell and they're going to get her out of there. Meanwhile, Hughing and Butcher have their own concern. Soldier boy. Of course, we've seen that this guy is suffering from a mighty, mighty mighty case of PTSD, which is not an excuse for what a terrible person he is, but he is
suffering from that. He's and now he's having to deal with the prospect of murdering his the issue of his body, Homelander, his son Homelander, and so he's kind of self medicating as he's off to do with with whiskey. And then there's of course the issue of the fact that Hughey and Butcher could die at literally any second because they've been taking the temporary v and Hugh he's like bleeding black shit out of his ear.
Yeah right, he told you something like absolutely this was a terrible idea, Quei.
Any times Starlight says, iying, just listen, because she's right one hundred percent of the time.
I will say this is a great I feel like the the use of ving this the temp V and this show has been a really really great U microcosm for how thoughtfully the boys hand or stuff because they don't. They didn't use it to be like this is about addiction. They used it to be about this is about toxic masculinity. This is about an obsession with power.
And I think it's about power.
Yes, that's exactly so good and it's and they even have a great moment where Starlight says to Qui, She's like, I thought this was the drugs, but actually it's you, and it's it really is a very thoughtful, like forward thinking use of addiction to tell a story that's really about something else.
Yeah, because really the central critique of The Boys, if you could say there is one, is what would happen if people had ultimate power, superhero level power, and then the people who oppose them have to take the position that power must be limited. So what happens when those people begin to dabble.
In unlimited power?
And I and that's been a super super interesting driver a lot of the a lot of the story this season. Butcher, of course, uh is just like he's cannonballing straight ahead. He does not care about any of this stuff. He's like, uh, you know what we need to do. We to go, we to go get Mostly we'll as Huie telepull us to the bad guys and we'll take and after we tight the lee, we'll kill.
Noir and that's it. We'll kill Helm and then we're finished.
A lot uh, and soldier boys like whatever, I'm gonna go drink more whisky tonight. Vought paramilitaries take the sedated mave across town.
Uh.
So the AG can't find her, but of course, maybe is a fucking superhero. Folks, you think she hasn't been through shit like this before? She wakes up, sheet run the car. She's wonder woman, and what do you just think? You gotta dose her again?
I can't do its in Jurassic Weld. You got to keep them, got to keep them comped up.
Man, she can go toe to toe with Homelander and you're just once, yeah, what are you doing? She wakes up, she kills that one and fucking escapes frenchyet over at mm's house comes to MM and is like, uh, hey, I know what we can do to take down Soldier Boy.
Uh.
Now that we lost the previous sedative, we can use the neurotoxin novachuk, which is a real life poison which the Russians have often used to take care of troublesome dissidence. There's only one dose on the Eastern seaboard, and so
they're going to try and get it. MM the moral heart of the boys, And I would actually say, if there is a hero on the Boys, it is MM. Mother's milk is the hero of the story, the moral center, the beating heart, the one character who is always keeping insight like what they are there to do and what and what they are fighting about, and keeping those lines clearly drawn.
Yeah, it was really funny. I had a moment when I was watching it and I was like, EMMM doesn't have powers, And then I remember that the whole notion of the boys is none of them have powers, and they hate soups, but they've gone so far down this rabbit hole of temporary v and experiments and stuff that is it's easy to forget that. But he is not
only is he like a moral center. But what I really love about him is it's not some pure botanical He is like a great guy, and he is someone who is very human in a way a lot of the other characters have lost, and he is the one who when Starlight says to him like, no, we need to do something good, he is the only one who will listen. He is the only one who remembers that it's true she can't go to anyone else and get
that help. He is the helper, He is the care I mean even this episode shows it really well, we'll get into it in a minute, but even in his personal life, he makes mistakes, but he makes up for them in a way, and he.
Feels bad about them like a lot of our other heroes. MM in this case, right now, in this scene, he's feeling bad because he punched his daughter's stepfather, who is a homelander loving fascist and deserved it, but still.
Don't want to do that. Yeah, you don't want to do that in front of your daughter. I get it.
He feels bad for losing control. Frenchie tells MM, like, you're the best human being I know. Just the respect that French she shows to him is.
Really great here.
Uh. And then and then he's like, listen, you just have to tell your daughter the truth about your family history. Your family was murdered by soldier boy, et cetera.
And also get back on the lix of pro man I love and Kamika.
That's like a I love them.
Back at Vaught, Ashley in the deep find Homelander in his suite watching n NC news. Uh, just watching a report about Vaught stock prices which are in the toilet. Is the result of Starlight's various social media missives and her most recent post, in which she secrets taped Homelander going on one of his trademark psychotics creeds, which, let
me just say, they should have released the airplane tape. Originally, this was like an actually crucial mistake that the boys did when when Homeland was like, I'll kill a million people, I call your bluff. Because here's the thing. If as the champions of limited power, the Boy's backup is people, it's public opinion, and they just needed to they should have released the video.
But that's neither here.
No, no, no no. But I think that's really I think you raised an interesting point because I wonder if the notion of it is like you see over these three seasons as like the boys going from this tiny enclave of like violent men to like spreading out and understanding more about like community and bringing in different voices, and maybe they like needed to have that journey. But obviously, yeah, that's one of those I call it like a walking
dead thing. That's like my walking dead thing is where like you can you could have done something five episodes or a season ago. I'm been in the same place, but you have to do the journey to get that. So this to me is smacks of that.
I love this season, but there are notes of that throughout. Yeah, this episode will continue. Ashley and the Deep are absolutely shitting themselves because they now have to break the news to an already pissed Homelander that may have escaped, and it's it is one hundred percent more Ashley's than the Deeps, but it's their fault. Homelander here is this, and he's about to fucking blow his top and maybe kill one
or both of them. Only when Black Noir prodigal son Black Noir returns, he's of course been on the run, and Ashley in the Deep clear out clearly relieved. Noir Show's Homelander a note that says soldier boy will come we kill and then they embrace at a gas station somewhere. Butcher socks Hughey, knocking him out so Hughie can't make more v and come on the mission with them, he'd Homelander then gets back to the car or Soldier Boar wakes up.
And says, where's the congosler.
Christ And he was like, you know what, you were right. He was a coward. He ran for it and he less and now we're gonna do it. All sells, aren't we uh? And so s B is like, great, we'll go back to sleep. A Tran arrives at his brother Nathan's house. Nathan and now without the use of his legs because of the attack by Blue Hawk, which is essentially a train's fault, Nathan isn't doing great. Nathan is surprised to see him, and a Train is like, hey, I'm alive. After the events of herogasm, I got a
brand new heart. He does leave out the part where it's Blue Hawk's heart.
Such an absolutely evil move by votes pr Pass and she just did that to funk with him, like yeah, come on, it's it's very cruel, it's very it's almost like very like Arie Indiana, like you get the Hall and will it make you? But I mean I will also say as well, like we'll get into this later. But something this season just does so well that all the seasons have done well, but this is the extra
version of it. Is like this is just so searingly real about how these corporations work and that relationship with a tran I think is is very, very very key for good way that these heroes are like token eyes then and utilized as tools.
Someone on Twitter and I forget who and I apologize to them for not getting their tag but said that paraphrasing now, But it's like The Boys wields its satire like Paul Verhoven, like RoboCop, like where it's just absolutely bashing you in the face with the second Stashap Troopers. That's what's great about the Boys. There's nothing subtle about the Boys. They're still like there is a character named Stormfront, I mean.
This season and they did and some people they didn't realize she was a Nazi. But like this season as well, you introduced the legend, you know, the stan Lee character by play by Paul Riser, and they literally have words of him. He literally sits there and has a scene where he talks about how he sat there making up myths and earned millions. Like they're not afraid to just
be real. They you know, at one point, Soldier Boy says, you know, shut up or I'll slap you, like Connery, Like they're just like and then you get the stuff with when they're talking about Disney or Warner Brothers and and the kind of notion of how these superheroes are wielded almost like a modern god pantheon. It's it's very very funny. But you're right, the vere Hooven, Yeah, Jacob.
Jacob Jacob Hall. This was Jacob har from.
The vere Hoven. Is such a good call because like when Starship you know, he's maybe my favorite director, but definitely one of them. And when Starship Troopers came out, you know, that was a movie that was widely misunderstood by critics who were like, oh, he's making this horrific pro military, pro America movie, and it's actually just an incredibly grotesque satire of those very things and the boys. If you watched it, you could be like, oh, is this like, are we supposed to like them?
But I mean, all the all the Homelander fans suddenly that was this season was like, oh wait, he's the dead guy.
Yeah. And I think Eric Kripkey does a really good job of balancing that constant on that constant knife edge of well, we're making entertainment and you're choosing to watch it, and the entertainment we're making is also the thing we're critiquing constantly. That's really hard to do, and I think they do a really good job in this season. This season did a better job than any other season.
Free so a Triann tries to reconcile with his brother, but but Nate doesn't want to hear it. He's angry because a Trian rather than bringing blue Hawk to justice, which actually, listen, I wanted to see blue Hawk dead too. But I think for actual act for what Nate want, which is actual change in the community, someone needs to pay a price in the in the legal system to actually change things.
And now that's been taken from them because.
Held accountable in the light of of the courts, so everybody can see it didn't happen because his brother killed him. A train initially tries to lie like a soldier boy did it, but Nate knows it's not true. And then they fight and Nate falls out of his chair and that's it for that relationship. Starlight picks Huey up from
the gas station. She is super mad because he has been lying for a long time about taking vee and stuff, and Starlight, realizing that Butcher has not as he promised to do, told Hueye that that one more dose of combat he could kill him, tells him and Huey realizes then that Butcher punched him to save his life. He has some further realizations about just like what moral strength is, and he apologizes to Starlight for everything.
She's like, fucking told you, uh, And.
Then star gets a phone call from mave Mayve is it m ms hue and mm give a star and Mavee some privacy may have credit Starlight's social media campaign with giving her the opportunity to escape, but she's also like, why don't you just fucking like a real superhero just fucking bust me out?
What is that?
Meanwhile, Camiko uh can't stand to see Frenchy abusing himself the way he is, you know, totally depressed about like the way that his past has come up and he's been re traumatized by things that have happened in his past and his past failures, and he's storting lines and generally acting like he doesn't care about life anymore. Uh but Camiko, and you're absolutely right, this is like I nothing can happen to them. No, that's I'll protect them.
Yeah, real riot like their job.
Nothing can happen to that.
And they did. They did a much better job of this season as well. I think of of giving Kimiko a space to eliza feelings and her relationships with people and stuff and in multiple inventive ways. So I really love to see this, and I love the way that for Kamika was like I didn't think I could ever be, you know better, but you saw something in me and and don't give up because I see it in you.
I think that's really powerful and the just an incredible performance all around by Karen Fukarhar unbelievable.
She dores so many episodes in this season. When I was watching and rewatching for the for the prep where I was just like, oh, fuck, but you.
Are with with with facial expressions, with gesture, with posture, and she's just so fucking good.
She's great. Uh.
Mavee is freaking out after learning that Soldier Boy is Tom Landers Dad.
Undistudable, Yeah, understandable.
Starlight, meanwhile, is like on the phone to Vaught trying to raise the alarm so several thousand people at tower don't die. She leaves a message on the answering machine. The boys plus star may have come up with a plan. Okay, we're gonna go take down so Boy and save Butcher.
Right.
Hugh is like, we're save Butcher too. He's like, good, he saved my life mms.
And so sure. He's pretty sure that that Butcher has.
Gone all the way bad because of all the compound v he is taking. But Hughey says, listen really deep down, like I mean deep, like all deep, Yeah, like all the way down.
I think there's still so good.
And then he says the thing that I think is kind of the central ethos of the stand that this show is taking, which is we save everyone even if they don't deserve it, especially if they don't deserve it, which I think raises an interesting moral quandary which I've been thinking about, which I'm now going to ask you about now. Yes, So I think that unlimited power is of course terrible. Superhero power is.
Of course bad, and that it should be critiqued and should be fought against.
And if you're going to power yourself up, as as our friends do here, it should be done very very carefully, with a lot of a lot of oversight. But the thing I was and I respect mm's stance and I agree with it most of the time. The thing I was thinking of in the context of our.
Broader world is.
When are you talking about power to win or are you or are you talking about meeting structural power with structure power? What I mean is this, if one side is using power to win, at what point do you decide the game? The rules of the game have now been so warped that you have to meet that power
with power in order to balance things. And I think that that is a very seductive question, and everybody thinks that they know the right answer, and usually what happens is you pick up the scepter of power.
And you are wrong or you go too far.
But I also think that it's a it's a it's a thing that needs to be thought about in debated because if the other side has all the superheroes, and they.
Are empowering and upholding like a despotic fascist system.
And the only way to bring them down is to power yourself up for a little while.
Yeah, you have to seriously consider doing it.
I mean, it's the Boys, It's the it's the Boys asking the ultimate superhero question. It's the Magnio argument versus the Childs Xavier argument. It's the notion of do you meet power and violence with power and violence, or do you try and take the higher ground and protect everyone. Well, I really actually like about the way that The Boys is presenting it is it's not this notion of kind of a lot of times this gets pulled down to almost like a non violence versus violence and non power
versus power. Here, it's more like we're gonna do what needs to be done and try and reek as little damage as possible, which I actually think is a pretty radical That's like a very realistic yet radical notion where it's like you have to do something terrible to stop you have to do something terrible to respond to him, but and all you can do is think how many people can we save and how can we cause as little damage? Collateral damage as possible.
Yeah, that part of it is I found myself thinking of that.
Very interesting question a lot.
Over at Boys HQ and the Flat Iron, Soldier Word Butcher chatting about dads, and it turns out they both had really bad ones. Butcher recks his phone rather than pick up a call from Grace Mallory. We learned that Soldier Boy's dad was a complete piece of shit that, even after Soldier Word became the superhero's dad was like, you cheated, you took a shortcut. This is Cly resonating with Butcher, whose dad, as we have seen in the flashbacks,
was also like a real, real, real piece of shit. Troublingly, Soldier Boy then says I always wanted to have kids.
I think I'd be a better.
Father than my dad, which triggers Butcher to be like, you know, hey, he's no your son. Demind him to replace you. You didn't rise him truth bombs. But listen, Soldier Boy. Is he looking for that emotionalkitch? We don't know, and it's unclear whether Butcher and Soldier Boys still have a deal. Over at Vought Home, later finds Noir sharpening his katana. He asks, Noir, uh, like a Soldier Boy. What was what was he like that? Nora scribbles Homie then asks Noir the key question, did you as Soldier
Boy's former teammate on Payback? No that And by the way, I can see you because I have ExtraVision, I can see your face under that fucking mask.
Did you know he was my dad? And Norah's like yeah, uh.
They embrace, and then Homelander disembowels Noir, tears his guts out, and Noir dies as his cartoon friends keep him company throughout his final moments.
Yeah, I think again, do we think is dead or no?
Generally I've kind of felt like he was near immortal slash very good at healing in a Wolverine or Deadpool star way in the past. This seemed pretty brutal and fine. That's where everywhere I also, I have to say, like this is to me, Noir's arc on this this season has is a is proof of how inventive and thoughtful the team behind this is because the using his this is a character who is essentially faceless, emotionless in the experience.
Yeah, and is a clone of Homeless.
Yeah, exactly, And and and here is kind of like that we only experienced so far in the show. Up until this point, we've only really experienced his experiences through other people's perceptions of them. And by adding this PTSD imaginary friend to loocinogenic aspect of these animated characters, which one, by the way, beautifully animated and Amazon's animation unbelievable, two, it made his death have so much weight. It felt really sad.
It felt really sad because it sucks, and he sucks.
He absolutely sucks. But you learn about his PTSD, you learn about there's another thing, like we were saying, I was saying about stranger things, and I think The Boys does it in a way way more expansive and deep way. This whole season is about these cycles of abuse and cycles of trauma. The government is abusing these superheroes by raising them. You know, Homelander was raised to be this fascist Nazi piece of shit. Now does that mean he could have changed a long way? Of course it does.
Does he constantly make terrible choices? Yes, but we get to see you with his son as well, Like these cycles continue until you break them. And this show has done such a good job of just being really empathetic to everyone, both good and bad and giving everyone a kind of humanity. And it's so funny because if you were like, yeah, there's a character who wears a mask and he's kind of like a Deadpool esque Batman character, and then he started seeing all these animated characters and
it was really emotional. People will be like, what the fuck are you talking about, But when you actually watch it, when it hits, it hits, and then when he dies, you're like, oh, I care because it's not the first time he died, and the other times I was.
Like, eh, do I catch what I think is part of I love what you said, because I think part of what our heroes in this show do really well is give each other the opportunity to like take the off rint before they pass on their trauma to someone else.
Before they act on it.
Act on that trauma as a way to take back agency because something bad was done to them. Therefore I can do something bad to somebody else. I'm taking back control. This is the way the world works. But all of our heroes, the way they talk to each other, the way they suggest. You know that a character you know talk to janis this French She says to mm as starlight. You know the way Starlight comes clean and talks to Huge.
They're all giving each other these opportunities to like get out of take the off ramp, yes the cycle before they pass on the bad stuff.
I love that, and I'm very excited to see how that kind of manifests for Butcher in the next season, because, like he has these huge moments this season, especially when he has that whole flashback to Lenny and his childhood and the mistakes he made, and for the first time he sees them. At every point when he is watching that happen, he's saying, no, do something different, don't do that,
do this, He's already learning it. But the question but then in that even after that experience, he couldn't just be truthful to Huey face to face. It had to he had to do it in some weird, convoluted way that he turned to violence to push him away in order.
That You're right, just the fact that he is like engaging with those memories in a.
Way, why he blaming himself.
He's he's actually taking for the first time seemingly in his life, taking taking stock and processing those events and finding out how they power him. Listen, Like, like for anybody who's been to therapy. What happens you start talking about shit, like the earliest stuff. It's that's always where
you go. You go for me anyway, you end up going back to stuff from your kid and what that's like the root of who everyone is, It's all comes from there, Like, uh, all the feelings of like not being accepted and being traumatized, it all comes from there. And because that's the time in your life when you just had no power, you no agency, uh, and you were looking for it and you were looking for signals
about how to wield it. And so yeah, I loved It'll be really interesting to see where Butcher goes next.
He's never going to be a classical hero. That's not where he is, that's not what the show is. But I'm interested to see what his you know, traditional classical heroes journey is now that he's coming to terms with that, and how it manifests itself in the next season.
Back at the Flat Iron, the boys find Butcher. He's about to take some v MM gets in his face. Hue pulls them away. They try in this moment to talk, but you're into being like actual heroes for once, Like, think about all the people that are in that tower of thousands of people, there's janitors. It's just like normal people going about their work. We need to stop Soldier Boy. Uh maybe is like Dewey and she takes the novachuck. She throws it twenty.
Miles out the fucking window.
Sorry to whoever that yes, it went into.
Yeah, They're like, oh, look at this, a little Starlight.
Perfew and then they're dead. Homelander needs to die, she says, whatever it takes. Starlight is pissed, but then Soldier Boy shows up and they all make everybody get in the safe. At Vought, the Deep, a Train and Ashley are listening to Starlight's voicemail. The Deep is like, uh, should we should we do like an analysis to make sure it's really her? And also should we evacuate a home? Layers like, no,
we stay in Project Strength. When the Deep lays out his plan, you Nora's bait for Soldier Boy, Homelander drops Norah's head just to help on the table, and then Uh proceeds to tear into his teammates for being not up to the standards of Homelander. He's like, you guys fucking suck. He decides to teach them a lesson. He's like, Deep, Uh, if if he wants to help, uh, here's what you do.
Anything whispers in his ear, and whatever it was he said was clearly bad because the Deep very reluctantly agrees to do whatever he says. Then he tells Ashley take off your wig.
Here we learned that.
Ashley has has like a no hair.
I'm interested in this because like I can't, I can't help but think, look, we have a character hair soldier boy who's radioactive, right, that's very Doctor Manhattan. To then have somebody who's in that realm losing their hair, maybe being sick, maybe having cancer, I think that that is going to become He does it to to shame her, because he's to shame because he's misogynistic, but I think it is going to lead to a bigger.
I've been We've been waiting, We've been waiting for now three seasons for the turn from Ashley, and like maybe it's in sight, but we're not quite clear if it is. And then finally a Trane is like, how dare you kill pop Club? Remember when you did that back in season one? A fellow sloop and then he says noir was worth more than all of you put together. Uh. And what was the thing that Homelander whispered to the deep? It was for the deep to kill Lamar Bishop aka Dakota Bob's.
Vice presidential candidate.
Who and he does them by drowning him in his pool by I guess, waiting in the pool, which is the weirdest way to do it.
It's like he had to like sit at the bottom like he was because he can breathe under the wall. I had to show off he has really had Truly what an oarc?
What an arc? From that guy?
Starlight punches our friend's way out of the safe. They of course need more nerve gas and Frenchy figures it out. He's like, hey, guess what, there is a lab that has everything we need. It's inaught tower. Okay, So they come up with a plan. Frenchie will cook up the nerve agent while everybody else fights Homelander and Soldier Boy. Uh. And on the way out the door, Huey finds like under the couch another spare vial of some of that
temporary view. Butcher Mave and Soldier Boy find Homelander watching old World War two footage.
Of Soldier Boy. Oh Dad.
Homelander then tells everybody that Nor's Dwett, that Noir is dead, and then he is just like, hey, Dad, can we just like reconnect?
Can we just like team up? Like no one could stop us if we team up? Like uh?
And then Butcher alarmed to get it. This is like, Hi, this zeal Son. Don't lose folk Soka, you didn't rise him. Then Homelander brings out it's a very tough moment, terrible.
He's add into the annual.
Homelander wants them to be one big, weird, murderous, genocidal fascist superhero family, and Soldier Boy luckily, weirdly luckily, Soldier Boy is a complete piece of shit, and much like Homelander is, is triggered by any.
Kind of vulnerability or weakness.
This is the toxic masculinity of which you spoke right. The way that society imprints on men to treat weakness or any kind of show of vulnerability.
Is attack it. And this is what Soldier Boy does in this moment.
He's like, you're such a fucking sniveling pussy star for attention and then they fight, which very again, very very lucky for Butcher and our heroes that Soldier Boy is so toxic because if not, they might have teamed up and become a family.
It's kill everybody.
It's really interesting as well, because like we've had this journey for Hue this season with the temp V where he is essentially living out his toxic masculinity fantasies where suddenly he's able to be the strong man and the man who can do all the things that his girlfriend can't do. And and he's seeing this kind of beautiful to him, this kind of like you know, Garden of Ambrosia, where he can be everything he's always been told he can be. But at the same time he's been hanging
around Soldier Boy. He's just an absolute piece of shit. And like there's a line where he is like everything you say is gross, and I'm like please, son, Like he this is the lesson, Like this is what you are. This is the end game. You know, we were talking today before on preper about end games, like where do you end up if you follow that path? That is the ultimate version of it. So yeah, Also, I just had to say Jensen acles he was ready for this role.
He is just like he is so happy to not be on TV.
He's exploded from the soap opera world, from the CW world, and he is just fucking doing it.
Man, he's great good.
He is so good in this role.
Uh, it's almost like this is gonna be this is not quite the comparison we're kind of. It reminds me of the first time I saw John Hamm and Madman.
Where I was like, where the fuck is this guy?
Like do they just have like handsome good actors, like in a warehouse somewhere where there.
Was absolutely deep, like gut wrenching acting, And Jensen just like commits so deeply and he makes the character so unlikable, which is his power as an actor. You're not also Jensen being unlikable. You're watching this, You're watching I mean, this is it's the most basic take, right, but this is the truth. You are basically watching, like this is what I would be like if Captain America existed. It absolutely is.
And the thing that makes it not obviously again this is it's not a subtle performance. But the thing that I love about what Accles does here is he makes Soldier boy so like marinated in his own like his own like self hatred of him, you know, like his own toxic self hatred and PTSD is this.
Intense stew that he just.
Can't deal with in any other way other than smoking a lot of weed and drinking a lot of whiskey and then occasionally literally blowing up.
In a so that I think is like the realist ship, right, is not just this notion of self medication, which for a lot of people can be the only way that you can treat yourself. But also this is a great example of the boys doing the most all version of an analogy. Yeah, the notion of his PTSD is that when he gets triggered, he literally explodes.
It's a literal exclusion.
It's not a violent it's not so but it works. And it's really really especially because they even have like a Geiger counter to measure how radioactive he is to see if he's gonna go off. But no one at any point does a good job of like trying to comfort him or stop it. It's more like even they just see him as a weapon. It's very interesting stuff.
Ryan gets knocked out and then Homelander goes to tend to him, so our friends grab him and Soldier Boy lines him up to do the hero gasm on him.
And depower him.
But then Butcher is like, Ryan's gonna get zap too, and he feels bad about it. So now it's Butcher versus Soldier Boy and May versus Homelander with starlight and MM thrown in for some good measure, and we get some truly like movie level super action. It's it's like, it's just great superhero action, great great, great superhero action,
which the show is delivered all absolute season. Now, I will say, small note, I think there's a great like device that's at play here, and you see it a lot in suspense movies, suspense books, where it's like, uh, it's like every time our heroes get the thing that they want in their grasp, it gets pulled away, It gets pulled away, it gets pulled away.
I will say it's a little it flirted with a little.
Too, like just blast Homelander already, like it was a little.
Yeah, there was a little the walking Dead thing, there's a little.
There's a little moment earlier this season as well where Soldier Boy and uh, Butcher and Hue do get to the point where they could have just killed him, but Butcher and Butcher and hue having a little like you go, no, you go, and I'm like, they just kill.
Just kill killing babe.
There's lots of just killing babe moments.
That is an absolutely minor. It's very.
You're like, I love the characters, so I'm okay with chill him with them, but also just kill him ill again.
I just want to acknowledge that.
Huey gets on the PA he's in the security room and he calls trying evacuation, so everybody's all the civilians are leaving. Meanwhile, French, she is cooking up the nerve agent as Comiko to the dancing to the tune of Maniac from Flash Dance French. He finishes making the nerve agent, but then he gets shot in the ankle. Upstairs, Homelander pops out Mavee's eye. Terrible Soldier Boy gets the best of Butcher, Comiko and MM and the security room.
Huie sees this. He sees the danger.
He's about to take the vial of v but instead he turns up the lights in the studio to their highest level. Starlight gets super super powered up to levels we have never seen before, and she hits Soldier Boy with all that she has doesn't knock him out, but it stuns him and it's a big hit. Camiko and Starlight hold him as mother's milk slips that nova chuck in halo over Soldier Boy's mouth.
He says, from my family, he's breathing it in.
But Soldier Boy is super pissed. He's powering up to blast off. And then Mave, after stebbing Homelander in the ear, sees all of this and very very very regretfully understands that she has to be the hero.
Now, she has to do something.
So she's like, fuck, I guess I gotta, I gotta, I gotta do it. I gotta be wonder woman. She tackles Soldier Boy clear of the building, and Soldier Boy detonates in the air, wrecking the outside of Vaught. But it's fine and killing Mave, we think, But everyone else is okay, including Homelander. Fuck, this guy is still up and going.
There's my guy. I can't believe this guy is. He's not even sprat. He's a termination. He's going to.
He did take like a letter opener to the neck. But like, this guy is still going. He confronts Butcher, who's like raw in come but Ryan is like, Dad, let's go, and he means Homelander.
Unfortunately he means Homelander.
But Ray, he's a he's a cut any but no, Ryan definitely wants to go with Homelander and then they just leave and Butcher's brain then starts bleeding black shit.
And he passes.
Sorry.
Fast forward, we watch a Vaught news piece on h on Mave ri ip May the whole world is turning out uh to celebrate the life of Mave. Butcher in the hospital learns that the v damage is terminal and he has maybe eighteen months. MM tells Janine about his and his family's past, including the deaths of many of the family at the hands of Soldier Boy. He tells her how he's fighting just like her granddad did, to get justice. We learned that Mave is alive.
Fantastic.
I was very very happy about this. She lost her eye, Yes, she did lose her powers also, but she survived and now she's just gonna lay low on a farm somewhere with Elena and they're gonna go off.
They're gonna live a great life. Over at Vought. Ashley and Anika UH see the security footage that may have survived.
They see MM and the rest like picking her up and putting her in the van and spearing her away on the security camera.
And as she's like a race that shit, they erase it immediately.
The ton is it coming?
Is coming? They erase it is.
She sick of it.
Grace Mallory, back in power, oversees the return of her former teammates Soldier Boys his body to Stasi's containment. Sleep well, dear Prince Soldier Boy. The Deep watches Cassandra.
His X on TV announcing the the.
Very fast publication of her tell all. I guess she must have been writing. You're absolutely right she was writing it while she was with him of her new tell all in Too Deep, My journey to Freedom to Choose being the number two's of course, about her leaving a toxic relationship with her squid fucking soup ex boyfriend. The Deep at the Flatirn Starlight throws her starlight costume away. Doesn't double bag it and tie and double knotted as she as MM, who is ocd about cleanliness, would wish
her to do. But of course they're welcoming her to the boys as wonderful.
She is part of the.
Team now, but then newsflash, the TV is announcing that guess who, Victoria Newman is replacing Lamar's Dakota Bob's new vice presidential candidate. That's right, Victoria Newman, who can pop people's skulls. Though no one knows it, it will now be one popped skull away from the highest the highest throne of power in the land.
That bitch definitely has gotta go elsewhere.
Homelander introduces Ryan to his and stormfronts right wing supporters at the protest that seems to be always going on outside Vought. When a counter protester throws a drink at Ryan, Homelander just lasers the guy's head off in the in the broad daylight, in front of everybody. Yeah, and Janine's stepdad is there and he's like, I love it, And then Ryan smiles and season is over.
Wow.
What Wow?
Season?
If you didn't know who Homelander is meant to be, they made that I could shoot someone in the street and people would still vote for me.
They made it.
It's right there, bab he literally blows up a guy's head, and Todd and everyone else is.
Like, yeah, this is great love that I knew. I think the.
Ryan thing is a really good choice because it's just realistic. That's what happens. When your dad is a fascist, You're probably going to become a fascist, and if you go out of it, it will be later. And I think that there was a moment. I'm a softy in some ways, even though I love like action and stuff. So there was a moment at the end of season two where I loved the idea of Butcher being there for Ryan and that being a way of him showing his love
for Becka. But the reality was he was shipped to Becca, he was shipped to die, and he basically abandoned Ryan and allowed Homeline.
As Ryan extreame don't leave, Yeah.
And he's like bye, and he left up with Grace and then he opened up this space for for Homelander. So I think it will be really interesting. I think we haven't really seen a soup with a sidekick yet, so I'm very excited to see the Robin Batman Homeland Ryan thing that they'll obviously do next season.
Can't wait for a season four coming next year. Miss Marvel Finale episode six No Normal teleplay by Will done A. C. Bradley and Matthew Chauncey story by Will Done, directed by a deal in Billal We open on Jersey City agents Diver and Berry of the Department of Damage Control or examining the wreckage outside the Circle K Bruno's apartment, obviously above that this is what happens when the wrong people get powers. Diver says absolutely.
Absolutely about absolutely.
Absolutely letting us know that the Department of Damage Control is gonna be a part of the Sentinel program eventually all of these people who very very clearly don't like Howard for or at least she is she is for sure, and well, listen, I think what they were signaling two episodes ago when the Clandestines were were being put in prison but then the guards just started being really physical and.
Abusive towards them, is letting us know.
That this is an entire This department is staffed with people who feel this way, and we're headed that way.
I think that that. I think this episode is really interesting in that way because we see a distinct extremism from Sadie Diva, which is not surprising because she's been going that way. But then are the DODC agent who he met in No Way home. He takes a ton against that. I'm very interested to see if we'll get some kind of split.
Yeah, I think that that is well, we'll get there, but I think that that is going to happen. Notably, Deaver says that she wants whoever this powered person is that they haven't caught but they're looking for. She wants him brought in and studied. Sounds like the Sentinel does. Meanwhile, Bruno and Comrade are on the Path train and they're
headed for Manhattan. The plan is to transfer there and then to head upstate, which I'll just say a in an episode filled with Easter eggs about mutants and the X men heading up state felt like it means something. But listen, and there's a teenager who can't control his powers and he's thinking about heading up state.
That's just like an X that's so many experts.
And I'll tell you this, So loo watch this episode with this in mind. Compared it to the other episodes. Not only is the camera moment and that's like part of the story. We have Agent Divas starting talking about experimenting on people. That screams Weapon X. It screams that they could need genetics for the drones that will inevitably become the Sentinels, as Jason so rightly pointed out last week.
And the other thing is this looks different. This episode opens with these huge, sweeping shots of the New York skyline and these towering images of the Statue of Liberty, and then we go swiftly onto the train and it's all very urban. It looks like it looks like a zero S X Men movie. It evokes that exact thing. It's letting you know where you are, it's it's placing
you in the mindset of that. And that continues throughout this episode, not just thematically but also like literally, as we'll get into.
Back at the can Household, Kamala tells her family that she has superpowers.
She is the super hero.
The family reaction is very proud and very positive, which is wonderful, although and fairly so, and understandably so, Uniba and Usuf are worried about the danger inherent.
In a superhero life.
Nakia calls Kamala, learns about the destruction of the show k and that Bruno is missing. She rushes upstairs trying to call Bruno. She's in a panic, but then Munia enters and Rosie prediction comes true.
Her mom made her a suit. Oh it's so great, take a victory lap night.
We're just this is our most predictive series in one project. And the thing I love about this is they made the suit so narratively intertwined with the show and what was important about the show and what worked about the show an intergenerational story about family acceptance. It also does something that contradicts one of my worst but also I
understand most necessary tropes in superhero comics. For a long time, I felt like, over this one hundred year history of superheroes, so much of what the heroes and the people that we look up to do is predicated on lying. They have to lie about their secret identity, They have to put their family. Spider Man, how many times is aren't May in the hospital because of him in his secret identity? You know, Batman, even Clark Kent Superman's had that problem
at times. Like but what I love about this is that contradicts this and in a way that it's not only oh, my family are know about it, but they're proud of me, and they're actually co conspirators. And her mumble made her this gorgeous costume, classic superhiotrope as well. This costume looks too legit.
My neighbor is a great seems stressed, but like this is the other thing, a stark level costume. Not to keep, not to not to bring it back to the X Men as we're going to do multiple We're.
Going to bring.
Acceptance, acceptance and community is that's the key to an X Men mutant story, and that's what this whole show and then and in particular this episode is about, is we are co conspirators because we're a community.
I totally agree. And also something that I think they did really cheekily here that I'd love to know if it was purposeful as well, because I feel like this whole episode they basically got to write an X Men's story, which is really fun. But they also the whole show is about found family. But that's not just family. Who isn't your family. It's about like finding your family again, which I think is really cheeky because found family is the heart of why we all love the X Men
so much. So there's just so much good stuff here. I love that the costume now includes the red Dagger scarf, you know that kind of hint about the connection between the Red Dagger and the Clandestine and a collaboration in their future, which we'll see more of later this episode I needed. I love predictions, but this if Manieba after them showing she's a brilliant seems to just showing her punky roots and all that. If she hadn't made that costume,
I would have been actually pissed. Usually I'm like, my predictions are wrong, I don't care, but this one meant a lot and the moment is so well live it. The actress who plays Maniever is so spectacular and obviously imman Bellani is just so wonderful. So they just that delivered and the costume is stunning. Jamie mckelvey's brilliant costume design just brought to life on screen.
Uh.
Bruno and Comrade arrive at the mosque. Naki's like, what are you doing here, and they're like, mosques are suppose he place as a refuge And then one of the funniest lines of the entire show, this is a mosque in America very much? Do you don't understand that this will not be respected as a place of refuge. Nakia then suggests that they head to the high school because it's Saturday, no one's gonna be there.
Damage Control and Agent.
Diva enter the mosque and they're looking for that high level threat that is Comrade Shakob Dollah stands up for his flock ably, but of course Diva and her goons are gonna search anyway. The chic while that's going on, is already escorting Bruno and Comrade out the back door to an alley where Kamala finds him.
No time for catchups, however, I just.
Want to say really important moment there, which is where we get another X Men moment where she Gabdullah says, you know, just because he's being peaceful, he's he's meeting them as friends. He offers them cookies. Agent Diva once again doesn't take off her shoes, disrespectful, racist bitch like she is just the worst. But he still comes to
her with cookies. He comes to her with friendship. And you know, the kids want to know why, and he says, just because they make you their enemy, it doesn't mean you have to make them yours. That's your Charles Xavier moment, right that just because they hate and fear us doesn't mean we shouldn't protect them, doesn't mean, we shouldn't come with peace.
And that was when I realized.
I was like, oh, this is this is textures.
They really are.
This is text going for it.
And it is early X.
Men too, because I will one thing that I think in the mid two thousands to now that X Men stories have done really well is is radicalized in a way that felt earned. We can get in later when we talk about the X Men.
But at a certain point.
When you've been engaging with the Charles Xavier philosophy for that long and all you were met and all you are met with is jen literal genocide like twenty million dead on Genosha, constant genocide, you have to ask, at what point is it enough? We're not there yet, but it's uh. I love what Shakob Dilla said there, and thank you for bringing that up.
Okay.
Kamala finds Bruno and Camraan in the alley and they all get away just before the sirens find them. Kamala calls Kareem. It's like, listen, I have a friend. He is a clandestine I'm sorry about that. I know you don't like them, but we got to I have to get him out of here. And he's like, Okay, I know someone who can get him out, get him to the harbor at midnight. Very mysterious, but hello, Kareem, he's bought some secret connections. We need to know more about this.
Our friends then break into the school where they meet Nokia, who's definitely pissed because Kamala didn't tell her about the powers and the bangle and stuff. Kamala apologizes, but there's no time to apologize because damage.
Control is outside. Pause here. I think, damage control, how.
Are they following him? How did how are they one step behind camera all the time. I think they've developed, as the Sentinels in the comics, they have this technology. They have developed somehow a way to target onto a power signature and to follow it.
It's obviously at very early.
Days, it's not super refined, but they've figured out a way to do it.
I agree, it's essentially in the MCU world right. There is only so much fantastical stuff, and we're getting a lot more into it. But I definitely think you could do something like power signatures, heat signatures. There's a radioactivity because the waves of power. It's not genetic mutation yet, that's not what they're sensing. But they are sensing powered stuff.
And I was I just want to say, like when yeah, the high choosing the high school, that is another X Men moment, you X school and you know that is something where as we'll see that there is no way that it cannot evoke, especially the X Men comics, but especially those Zeros X Men movies where the d O d C are coming through these halls. So you've got these military people in these school halls. It feels like an X Men movie. They they know what they're doing and there's a great moment where as.
The even the way they're geared up, well we'll get to this, but like even the way they're geared up, you're absolutely right, this is X two X Men United exactly, exactly.
Totally they have They have a moment that comes up like just in one minute, which we would which is just so throwaway, is like they what are they using to prepare for this fight? Right in the high school and they choose softballs, and the X Men playing softball is like one.
Of the beloved t's an absolutely touchdown.
Technically they in the Clemont stuff, you know, it's baseball, and throughout comics it kind of has changed between the two. But you know that that was when I was like, oh, okay, they know no. I was like, they're not doing this. You're literally using softballs in your part, Like this is a thing that you're doing, and you know that you're essentially letting these kids, Bruno, Nokia, you know, Cameron soon
to be joined by Kamala's brother. You're letting them have the X Men moment, and I just love that.
Kamala tries to get Bruno and Nakia to leave, but before they even talk about that, Zoe shows up. She's like, I was in the theater of filming tiktoks because of the lighting. Babe, get a ring, light ring.
They're very, very cheap.
She wants to be a part of this big fight mission and you know what, why not?
Sure?
Actually she has an important role to play. Everyone is staying put, including Kamala's brother Amir shows up, and so it's time for the big plan. And here it is distract damage control so comrade can get the safety. Meanwhile, Zoe will leverage her social media file to put out a call to action to the community to get eyes here so people can see what's happening, so damage control can't just go like full like kill the mutants or capture the mutants so they can well capture the powered people.
We'll just call it an individual and enhanced individuals so that they can study them. By the way, you know, just want to mention love the.
Use of the.
The Circular Star Wars and New Hope Stun ray.
That's what.
You know, established in nineteen seventy seven. This is what the stun looks like. It's that little hollow, smoke ring circle that goes out and hits people. Okay, outside Divers on the phone with Agent Cleary, Damage Control is ready for a siege.
They're outside the school.
They're getting ready to charge in, and Cleary is like, are you fucking crazy? Even yeah, you're gonna tack kids in a school. Don't do this, like stand down absolutely right now. I want to hear you say it. And Dever's like, yep, standing, yeah, you got it, hangs up and goes Nope, call additional units.
We're going in.
Uh now our heroes for our friends. Their plan works. There's only a few hiccups.
Uh.
One hiccup is Kamala and Comrade almost kiss, and then Bruno's.
In the classic The X Mans.
Trigle, gotta have that love. Trigle love love a love triangle between enhanced the individuals. Uh uh.
And then the other little wrinkle is Comrade figures out that his mom is dead and that uh and that Kamala has been hiding this from him. And then naturally, because he learns this, he's already not in control of his powers, but then he just takes all the safeguards off and we it's kind of cool because we get to see what Commrad could really do. He pulls all the lockers down on the damage.
Control goons, but and then.
He steps out of the high school doors and faces down damage control. This is Magneto at the police station, is the first, That's what it is.
And also he has his this is his Magneo moment, you know, and Zoe.
Has Zoe has gone.
He's gone, right, but like, and Zoe's called all these people via her social media and they're all outside watching very Spider Man two on the train. Right. The public is here, The public is in support, but for Cameron, it's too heartbreaking and and it's very interesting because they get to have Kamala and Cameron get to have this. Eric and Charles moment, it is very Eric.
Where is that?
Kamala realizes that what Cameron needs she cannot give him. But what she can do is give him a chance to leave. This is not the right choice. Don't become this danger, don't become the thing that they want you to be. And if you can't do that, just go and I'll let you go. And I was like, wow, it's Charles and Eric, baby, it.
Is in miniature is Charles and Eric. Uh?
So Cam faces down damage troll, Kamala uh protects him.
This is all.
Witnessed by the crowds, who Zoe called Kamalavin like is able. She has just been practicing enough, working at it enough, has hit that emotional level into and intellectual level and physical level where she's she unlocks like the final level of her powers and we can see everything she can do.
She's got the two in big in hand.
She's punching Comvi's across the fucking She's giant, She's giant manning.
She's like bullets are bouncing off her.
She's catching the hum vy that that Comraon accidentally through at like the entire community.
She saves all their lives. And then, as you said, they have that.
At Eric and Charles moment, she puts this like shield of light around them and then they have it out. They have that talk and and she is like fine, punches a hole in the ground as like just crawl through there, escape to the harbor.
Go.
Damage Control tries to arrest Kamala, but the entire neighborhood stands in between them and just crazy Dear. They deer est her, and then Kamala escapes. Cleary calls Dever and he is fucking heated. He relieves her of command. The question is, well, let's let's finish this.
There's no glow. He relieves her a command.
Later, all of Jersey City is buzzing about the historic events and they all got to witness it. And and not only that, but they have their very own superheroes protecting they are. And as Spider Man does Manhattan, as Daredevil does else kitchen.
This is so great.
They got their own superhero. Kamala in her room, posing in her suit as one would naturally do if one was a superhero. She talks to her dad and they talk about just life and her journey, and he says, you know what Kamala means. It means kind of means Marvel sort of, you're like our miss Marvel and the name is coined.
It's a wonderful moment.
Love that.
Meanwhile, Cam makes it to Karachi where Kareem gives him a little head nod and takes him in. And then we fast forward. One week later, Brunio and Knakia pull up in com Run's whip, his sports car, which I have to say, who's paying the insurance?
There's a lot of questions about that. Can you just keep doing?
Can you just keep driving this car? I understand did he sign over the title and everything? Anyway, I'm not gonna worry about it. Bruno has big news. He has been studying Kamala's biological makeup and also her powers, and he says.
You know what, your geets are a little different.
It's almost like you've undergone a mutation. Burning man. The fact that they threw that in there, it almost felt too much about it.
Honestly, they want to.
They had to do it because the truth they had to tell you. You've heard, We've heard the term mutation in the MCU before and.
You're like, ooh, but this one.
They were like X men. They were like, right, now the plan will we see it for see? Who knows? But the plan right now, she is a mutant. This is X Men. She is an X Men style muntant. And you that is how powerful that theme is that you can put that there and everyone's like, oh shit, she's an x Like, this is X Men, the X Men in the MCU and you started it.
Here as old King Mike on Instagram DMed me, uh, he dm me, he dm me that the meme picture of the guy who was you know, outside is Hater's funeral and he said how the X Men undressed as they watched the final nail go in the in Humans coffin. Yes, it is true, irony that the character who in the comics was created because Marvel was looking for a way to have X Men that they owned as their own IP.
To put in the movies and it was gonna be the Inhumans.
To now have that character in the in the TV and film property side now be revealed to be a mutant is just crazy, unbelievable shit.
Especially because like Kamala, everyone's assumption was she just was a mutant because that is how people in the comics get their powers. But then it ended up being that she got her powers through terogenesis, she made her an inhuman, the most famous in human arguably ever honestly and the most well known because of past successful The comic was the very funny thing is it put her in this very hilarious group of characters like Spider Man, like Falcon,
where it's like they were almost a mutant. But then it revealed that they all at times they almost made the mutes. So this feels very full circle.
Though I'm still talking to those birds.
Now, you know, I'm saying in the comics they never really they never really bds.
Is that a secondary mutation?
So I have a I have a theory.
Well, let's go let's do the Oh, okay, okay, let's go through the stinger and then and then we could dive into it. So Stinger, Kamala's in her bedroom when the Bengal starts acting weird, She's suddenly thrown through her closet door, crashing into the closet, and then when she comes out, it's not Kamala, it's Carol Danvers. They have switched places in the universe somehow, and we can only assume that Kamala is somewhere where Carol just was what
is going on? And then we're done, and then it says, uh, miss Marvel will appear, will be back again in the Marvels. Okay, let's talk about everything. First of all, let's just say we were right.
Yeah, we were right, we were right.
We read about about this story, which yes.
Me, okay, I'll explain this thinger. So, so this is very funny because I think it is a very interesting choice because I think for maybe fifty or sixty percent of people who watched it, they were like, oh, maybe Kamala shape shifted into Carol. That's a comic book powers They were like, maybe that was weird, why did it happen? But if you are a comics reader of a certain age, or you have read a lot of old comic books, you were immediately like, oh my god, they just Rick
Jones us Jones. Now, who is Rick Jones mass. Rick Jones is like the Marvel's perennial sidekick. He is very much maligned. He began as a Hulk sidekick. He's been a sidekick to Captain America, where he was essentially.
Captain America by pretending to be Bucky.
Let's just say that in the comics. So the origin story of Rick Jones is the reason that Bruce Banner is the hok is because Rick Jones is a fucking moron and he wandered into wandered into like a Gamma bomb experiment site and was just like hey, and so Bruce Banner had run out and like tackle him into like a ditch so he wouldn't get it radiated. And that's how Bruce Bayner got I radiated.
And at some point.
Someone was like, oh, yeah, we should like make him like a superhero. He's gonna from this team, the Team Brigade. You know, he's gonna be an accessible kid hero and and kind of throughout comics he's been. He's been in that role for many many characters beginning he's.
A bomb and he was a rock star.
Yeah, and he's always just a really generic dude. That's like the funniest thing. And it's like he is just a perennial that guy in London. We would call him a side man. Yeah, it's like so it's like it's really funny. But the reason he is relevant here is that in the original Captain Marvel comics, Marvel Marvel was given the Naga Bands which we were right. We did predict that the Negga bands may be the Bangles, maybe
a representation of them. Remember we saw the bangle first come off a blue skinned arm, which implies they were Cree. Captain Marvel was given the Nagga bands. When he and Rick Jones wore the Negga bands, they could switch places. Yes, Rick Jones essentially became Captain Marvel's Earth alter ego, and when he tapped the Negga bands, Captain Marvel would take his place. Now, whenever one of them was not on Earth, the other one was stuck Nega bands in the negative zone.
It is very interesting to then see that here because that is essentially what we just saw happen to Kamala. The big question is, as we have briefly mentioned before in Marvel, we have not met the negative zone. The negative zone is an important Fantastic four location. There are a lot of connections that could be made. Yeah, what we have met is the quantum realm, and there is a version, a later version of the bands that are the quantum bands. So which one is it gonna be?
That's kind of the big question. But that's that's the Rick jonesiness of it all and that is all.
So let let me add it well before we go there, let me add another wrinkle to this, another X Men style wrinkle in the comics UH Rogue, famous X Men. Who's whose power is that she touches someone and then she takes their memories And if she touches.
A powered she touches a music power, she steals.
Their powers for a time, and for a time because she had come into contact with Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel, UH, Captain Marvel's psyche became embedded in Rogue and would occasionally come out at different times and it would be Carol Danvers, where am I?
What?
What?
Body? Man?
What?
Was?
Are they?
Are they not just Rick joinsing Kamala? But are they roguing Kamala?
Are they roguing?
Are they roguing Kamala? And Captain Marvel.
I'm trying to work out, like Saul just put Freaky Friday, So I'm basically saying like I'm trying to work out what the purpose of this choice is. It definitely seems like it's setting up the Marvels, right. Carol has to find where this young girl went missing or get back to where she was, so she enlists Monica, and obviously they're gonna have to get over that beef that Monica understandably has with her for like constantly just breezing on Earth.
But what I think is really interesting is we definitely know one thing. Carol was off Earth and nobody knew where she was. That is a recurring talking point in this season where people like, where's Captain Marvel? Why does nobody know? We assumed she would just being her usual off in the universe, leaving everyone by themselvesself, But obviously she was trapped in this place, and in some way it's connected to the band, or the band called Carol
back because of her connection to the Cree. It is unbelievable. I've always ever since they did introduce Carol into the MCU, I've wanted them to do the rogue stuff. I hope that if it happens, that is another addition of rogue coming in. Maybe they need rogue to separate the two of them or something. But seeing as we only have one bangle, I think the Marvels is going to continue our art to fact trend and we're going to have to see Carol seeking out that other bangle to kind
of get control of this. Now what I really want to know because this could be very fun. I have to say, yeah, this I'm hoping whatever the Marvels is is a little bit of a recontextualization of Captain Marvel in the way they did with Thor and with Doctor Strange. Because I loved this end with Brie Larsen. There was so much more humor in it than Carol's been allowed to have before, and it was very kind of wacky,
and her costume was badass. So I would, yeah, I'd be very happy to see where this is going to go. And I really want to know if Caroly and Kamala will be able to communicate because Rick James Jones and Captain Marvel they can communicate when one of them is in the negative zone. So it will be really fun
to see if that's something they bring in. And also another thing, this is kind of more serious narrative, but like I wonder if because now Caroly and Kamala are so connected, I wonder if they'll follow the comic book ark that they took, where Kamala comes to that realization that Carol is not necessarily the hero on a pedestal.
That she and it's different. Yeah, there's a different. I mean, listen, Carol is Carol. Carol in the comics has taken the side that I would prefer her not to take. I can come multiple multiple times across the history of the Marvel she's on the wrong side of both civil wars.
Like I love her, but she she she's a cop.
She's just she's a space cop. She's a space cop. I don't want to see who she votes for. Let's just put it that way with Carol, who again I love. Let's talk about you know what we've talked so many times about how how are they going to bring the X Men?
How are they going to do it?
First of all, let's just say that what this shows us, and what WandaVision showed us as well, is that mutants are here. Whatever however they do it, they've already laid.
The groundwork for mutants are already here.
Now, what we didn't know and what we said in the past was super important track to be laid to eventually introduce these mutants is we need to get to a place where powered people are hated and feared or else. Why even have the X Men? They're just like superheroes,
Like everyone we've we're getting there now. Ye yeah, we're the way that Deaver acts the way they exactly department, which, by the way, is hilarious because Department of Damage Control is just like the fucking Keystone Cops and the car exactly.
So this is this is the thing I'm really interested in. So I think that two routes that Diva could go. I think that we will either see her essentially go to Sword and steal some kind of technology from DODC and take it there and create what the sentinels are because we saw the big size mechs, we saw something like that, So I feel like that could happen, or a really interesting route, which is another incredibly important thing
to have in an x Men story. I wonder if she doesn't necessarily continue her route as a agent, but she becomes the x Men hate the pat that enhanced individual hating politician. That's such a key part of the x Men law, and I could definitely see her running on a platform. It's very easy to stoke mass violence and mass fear and mass confusion when you have a
huge political platform. So I think that could be another route where we go on this escalated version and then once she is in power, she can take over DODC or she can create it. Even by the way stream version.
What a great platform for Armor Wars for roady O to be like, they're using my friend's technology to hunt people down.
That's what they're using it for. I have to stop this. Uh, it's awesome, that's great.
And by the way, and so I think the X Men are around somewhere. I agree as we said, as we said last episode, like it would be no problem for Charles using his powers of Magneto with the abilities he has to just hide the whole school from everybody.
If Kamala exists as she does and is her only interactions with Damage Control have been when she manifests her powers in a very public way. There is no reason that other people who a mutants might not have been around. And it's actually very narratively easy to explain it. You have these big government backed superheroes. You don't need to go out there, you don't need to put yourself in that risk. Captain America exists, the Avengers exist. That is gone. Now there is a new or there is a new
generation of heroes. There is a potential that a more responsible adult in that situation at Charles or maybe even a magneto on the other side of things or a storm. You know, that's one of them. She's one of the most perennially popular characters and has been the head teacher. I think that we could see a world where they're gonna come out of that hiding to help these young people.
Well, I think that the cool thing is that we've gotten to a place where it is actually the anti powered, the anti enhanced individual kind of like feeling makes a lot of sense because the previous people who had powers, everybody knew who they were.
There were no.
Spider Man is the first character who had a secret identity.
Nobody knew who he was.
But crucially, Tony Stark co signed for this person. So it seemed like, you know, you could see how the general public Okay, well Tony's that's just fine.
Yeah, that's okay.
But but Deaver nailed it. This is what happens when the wrong people get powers, and and that is the dynamic that's going to be at play now that mutants are starting to come to the Foe. Now, now we mentioned that clearly Damage Control has some kind of technology where they can track powers, they can hone in you know, in a very very primitive way on a power signature
comrades in this case, and follow that person. They're going to hone that I think right, And I already mentioned my crazy theory that that Arnhem Sola's like algorithm is going to be a part of this process.
That's actually really small. I think it makes sense.
We know what they knew about doctor Strom way back in the day.
Look, you know what the history of real world has told us. Yeah, any government does not have a problem with using Nazi technology or Nazi a film's science. That has been the history of.
Many whoever has done the best tech. It's exactly care I like who you are.
I do not believe that d O DC wouldn't have Shield tech because they care about er that is that that is gonna be what I think.
I am like what we've again, we've been like, how do they do it?
How do they do it?
I think that there's a world where as I mentioned last episode, they have this technology where they can track powers. They had that Hydra algorithm that Shield had that allowed them to kind of like crunch numbers and figure out who's going to be a threat. They combine those two things. They turn on the computer one day and they just see like some mansion in upstate New York is just
all lit up with power. What and so Diver or whoever happens to be in control of this program at that point in time, just says, you know what, send in the upgraded drone and that gives us, gives us our entree to the X Men. It's just like a a classic the Sentinels are at the mansion fight between the X Men and the Sentinels.
You know, we know how much X Men the animated series is impacting this at this point with the theme with the show coming out, you know, maybe they'll have them at the mall classic style, you know, I mean the classic fight where you find the Jubilee, you find the more rare at kids. I feel like there is a lot of scope. We have been thinking about this a lot because we love the X Men shock spoiler a lot, but like, I'm so impressed by how casually and easily they made it seem absolutely possible.
Now Here's my question is, are have Charles and have Charles and Magneto split yet in this in where we are post end game, post blit, all this stuff is for like, are they still together or did they split? Because, as someone on Twitter replied to me, you could very easily see Magneto saying, well, look, look who they accept who has powers? These normal people, they accept them, but if we were to come out, they would hate us.
So we should just the power people are here and they're taking the spot that we should have as Homo superior. We should just reveal ourselves. And I could see that being, if not the break, the kind of philosophical argument that starts the break, whether or not they've actually split up.
So I still think this is the biggest question because we are, you know, so far away from World War two now, but Magneto's origin is absolutely vital. So I will be very interested to see in my because of the stories I enjoy. I think I love to see a contemporary Charles and Eric, but we are in the realm of multi versus old timelines, et cetera. Time travel. Maybe there is the way that you can still have that. Maybe they're just slightly younger, Maybe they have a you know,
we've seen Wolverine. He's a character, never really agent.
Eric is a they can make Eric a grandchild of another way they could do it too. But I do think listen, if the again the Zola theory is all mine, it's no, this is it's crackpot.
But at the same time, like you could.
See if if they maintain Eric having that lineage Jewish superhero survivor of the Holocaust or children child of survivors, where he'd like, go, look.
All their all their technology is.
Nazi anyway, Their main security international security apparatus was like ninety five percent Nazis. Their Captain America was powered up and was supported by active.
Nazis work for active Nazis.
Didn't know, but still, yeah, I think that's we need to do something about this, Okay.
So then I think the funniest thing is it is like very wild to be talking about this where next week we will both be in San Diego Comic Con and we will buy two weeks probably have an idea of where this is all going, because I feel like bringing in the term mutation playing the X Men team, We're probably going to get at least a title reveal or a release date for an X Men project at San Diego, maybe casting for the Fantastic Four that seems
a little bit closer. So I'm very interested to see how much more that will lay out, because I think you make a really great point, and like, look, we are both Marvel stands, Like we remember the world the four Marvel studios, and we remember the desolate times of the nineties and the like Captain America movies and stuff. As much as I love them, it'sah it, we are big.
We have a lot of love for these franchises. But there's probably never been a more pivotal moment since they chose to make Iron Man and they cast Robert Downey Jr. And they ended the movie with him saying I am iron Man, and they took that near bankruptcy inducing deal
to put that movie up. There's probably never been an as pivotal moment since then as there is now of them getting this right, because if you don't get the X Men and or the Fantastic Four right, you're probably gonna that the road of the MCU is going to change. So I feel like it's I'm so excited, and for me, this is a great way to start with a young Also, this is very very in the weeds, but I do
think it's very cute and I think it's intentional. In the comics Cininically thanks to Chris Claremont's X Memoran Our favor X Memoran, Jean Gray aka Marvel Girl, is Charles Xavier's first student. I love that in the MCU there is a world where Miss Marvel is his first student. I think there are parallels here that they're trying to make that would be really lovely and would hark back to the past of the X Men while also doing something new.
I cannot wait.
I cannot wait for the X Men to finally make their appearance. I And to your point, it's obviously like a huge, huge, huge step for the for Marvel to introduce the first family, the Fantastic Four and of course the X Men, who's been the flagship heroes for you know, maybe not the last ten years, but certainly the previous thirty five to forty, so it's going to be a
huge deal. I'm weirdly more worried about the Fantastic Four intro, of course, though that's a class movie, because I think because I think that they've really like every To your point, this entire the finale of Miss Marvel was like an X Men story, and if and how hard they went into the Outsider no thiss, the the creating your own community, the like just embracing who you are despite the fact that like society is going to shun you if they do that, that like, if they commit to it, that
this hard. When they introduce the X Men, it's all gonna be fine. I can't wait to see what happens.
Yeah, unbelievable.
Well that's it for us.
It's a big thank you to Rosie Knight for joining us on X ray Vision.
Rosie plugs plugs, plugs, plugs, plugs. Blug buh buh buh bu bu bub blub blug. Hey, well, do you got a plug?
I got things to plug so you can stop putting things in your diary for cool uh events for the Godzilla signing, So I'm gonna be signing Godzilla Versus Batcher with Mark Martinez, who did an brilliant cover for that at Nostalgia Comics, So you'll be able to see us there on the release day, which is going to be Wednesday, the third of August, and then on on Saturday, the sixth of August, we will be at Pulp Fiction, which is my local comic shop in Long Beach, doing a
massive Godzilla Day with a ton of cool artists. Oliver will be there, the amazing artist. We will have a bunch of local artists from the inc and Dral. We'll have my friend Brenda Chieves, an incredible cover artist Fi DW. It's just going to be really fun and that will be really cool. And next week I'll be doing a lot of stuff at San Diego, so you will be able to see there live vicariously through me. There, Jason, you will also be there.
Right, Yeah, we're gonna be there.
X Ray Vision has a new YouTube home that takeline channels now dedicated all things Extra Vision, so check that out for recaps, primers, etc. Also, we have a discord. Check the show notes for the link to our discord. Please join love to have you there for.
Next week's episode.
We're going to be at Comic Con, as we said, and we're going to do this really we've decided this whol thing. It's twenty twenty two, which means it's forty years since the summer of nineteen eighty two when a million million cool movies came out.
We've got to poll up now that will be running.
Up to next week, where you can choose. You can vote on which of the many, many, many great movies of nineteen eighty two. You want to hear us cover from Comic Con next week, so check that out. The voting process has already begun. Check out the Uncultured page on social.
Media and vote. Your vote is your voice.
Please vote, then tune in July twenty second to find out which film is chosen and which we talk about. Don't forget five stars. Wherever you get your podcast, rate and review us. If you want to review us, give us the five stars.
We love it. X ray Vision is a Crooked Media production.
The show is produced by Chris Lord and Salrubin. The show is executive produced by myself and Sandy Gerhard are editing and sound designers by Vascillis Fatopoulos. Dylon Villanueva and Matt Degroup provide video production support. Alex Rella for handle social Media. Thank you Brian Vasquez for a see music, See you next time. Bye bye mm hmm