The Short Box Podcast: A Comic Book Talk Show

The Big Blue Boy Scout Returns! James Gunn's 'Superman': Movie Review and Breakdown

Season 10 Episode 466

The Short Box Podcast: A Comic Book Talk Show - Ep. 466:

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's a new Short Box Pod!

Before making our way to First Coast Comic Con, Drew and I recorded a spoiler-filled review and breakdown of James Gunn's 'Superman' movie. SPOILER WARNING: We discussed everything from our favorite characters, standout scenes, and what we want to see next from James Gunn's DC Universe. Stick around to the end to hear about Drew's One Piece journey, and my review of Jeff Lemire's new graphic memoir: 10,000 Ink Stains

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SUPERMAN: MOVIE REVIEW - The Short Box Podcast Ep. 466

00:01
intro music plays

00:25
man sometimes I come up with the best questions while driving But people get so mad when I'm trying to write them down early morning Drew is the best because he comes up with like was firing Yeah, all right in a one and a two and a three. Yo Short Box Nation, cuz this episode actually might go it's on the main fee. We gotta wish oh, you're right This is the morning. This is the morning paper. Come on chief. This is the morning paper on chief All right. All right. Don't call me chief get his pair

00:54
Yo, Short Box Nation, good morning, actually, because me and Drew are recording this episode on Saturday morning. It is July 12th for anyone keeping track. And we wanted to hop on the mics, because honestly, I don't have an episode this week. One of my interviews fell through, which is all good. It happens. Lack of respect. The lack of respect. Do know who I am? It's Badr, all right? You know who I am? I'm Badar, all right?

01:21
Son of Joe. We were overdue a SFP bonus episode recording. So and then obviously I don't have an episode this week. So this episode might go on the main feed, which means Drew's on the main stage. Look who's headlighting now.

01:41
Get your ass in here! All right, there we go. That is introducing Drew  and to everyone else, hey, welcome to the podcast. You guys are tuning into a relaxed, chill episode this week. We're going to talk about Superman. We're also recording on the same day as First Ghost Comic Con, so we'll talk a little bit about that. And then, you know, we got to talk about the comic books that we've been reading. So hopefully you guys enjoy what we got lined up and we appreciate you hanging out with us. Yo, this morning vibe is...

02:07
I like it. It is. I feel energized. I haven't made any bad decisions yet. Exactly, but you got the whole world in front of you. think the other thing too is that I haven't been weathered and beaten down by like a full work day. You my brain isn't fried yet. My brain is wired up off this coffee dough. I still got to figure out how you make your coffee.

02:32
Bro, you worked at a coffee shop for years. a coffee shop, but like, it's like, you ever go to like, people's houses and they're like, yeah, turn on the TV, and they have like a remote that's from the fucking... There's a NASA logo on it. You're like, what is going on? Like, every remote needs to be the same. They're yo, just go to HDMI 25. It's HDMI 25. That's it. And it's like, where's your Roku remote? They're like, oh no, no, no, we don't do that. We got one of these blah, blah, blah, blah. So you're saying that my simple coffee machine, my Mocha Master... Dude, that Mocha Master, dude, that thing looks like a science project.

03:02
It really does. I love that I have the most basic coffee, because we know some coffee snobs. We know some coffee snobs who would look at my little setup as a grinder and a little mocha master. So I'm a drip coffee guy. We know coffee snobs that would look...  would look at that like... That looks like a Ninja Turtle playset.  Like an action figure playset you can put... Like it would make ooze.  Like the commercial would be, kids grab your moms,  grab your...

03:31
I can't even think of a good one. Grab anything green, celery, you grind it up and pizza time! Grab your mom's mocha master. Yeah, something crazy. Yeah, I guess you're right. I can see how to the, I can see how it's not like a typical. a place had more than a coffee. Like my coffee is just a nice little- You want like a Mr. Brew. That's what you want. Coffee. Yeah, I mean it comes in black, white, and then you- the more stain on the bottom.

03:54
Oh my god, we're already off to a decent start. But you know, I can actually get us a Superman from here. Because you know who drinks a lot of coffee? Lois Lane. Lois Lane. She likes a lot of sugar. Even I was like, OK, this is a little ridiculous. Think about your diabetes. So I guess with that being said, we'll pivot off that terrible coffee joke. We will be getting into spoiler territory. So if you have not watched the new Superman movie.

04:17
What the fuck is wrong with you? Yeah, go see it twice.  If you haven't watched it yet, I would recommend either fast forwarding a little bit. We'll get into some other topics later in the podcast. So on the count of three, we're going to get into our Superman spoiler-filled review on three, two, and a one. Dude, when Batman showed up, it was freaking insane.  I was actually looking for an appropriate sound drop, the drop, but that's even better. All right, Drew, we have both watched the movie. Experienced the movie. Experienced.

04:46
this new religion that is Superman. It really does feel like, doesn't it feel like a moment? This feels like from the promo, the marketing, the early reviews that came in this week, it feels like there's a lot of positivity around this movie. What was your theater going experience like? Cause I could tell you what mine is. Was your theater packed? you see a lot of- No, no, it was like there was a lot of people there, but it was like, I took my dad during the day. So it was like a Thursday. I think we went at two. It was perfect.

05:16
just for like, so you can hear everything, see everything, experience things. It was good, like there was, like dude, my dad was just  in  awe and just like stoked about this movie. He thought it was really, good. That's awesome to hear, okay.  Our theater was, it wasn't nearly,  in my opinion, I was talking to Blythe about this, when we went to see Jurassic Park  last week, I felt it was more packed. There was more people in there watching it.  She thought it was on par. But what I will say is,

05:43
I have never felt more out of place at a comic book movie than this movie because I did not have a Superman shirt.  I was like, did I not get the memo?  Everyone was busting out their Superman shirts for this movie. And it was kind of cool to see the different eras of Superman shirts, but just by the logos. It's like, OK, you must have bought that from Walmart  an hour ago.  then you've got the new 52D Superman shirt.  Ah,  I see an Earth 2 Superman shirt.

06:12
I didn't see someone dressed up as Shazam, which I was trying to figure out what the connection was. That's amazing. But it turns out that he had showed up with someone dressed as Superman. They just weren't around at the moment. just beating the shit out of each other. Superman fans go hard for Superman. You know what saying? I mean, I know that's a very blanket statement. Anyone No, no, no. I think I see more Superman tattoos than anything. And then Wolverine tattoos. yeah, Superman, people fucks with the Superman. Can I say that I will never forget learning that Shaquille O'Neal was

06:40
a huge Superman fan.  And this is like high school years watching MTV Cribs and then his episode aired and you got to see not only, think he had a, I want to say he had a Superman room. Cause I remember the decal was  printed huge on the floor. I think he had a big Superman bed. Do know that he has like the emblem tatted on his. And he was in a movie where he basically played John Henry's Steel. That's right. That's big one where you're like, won't let you play Superman, but you can play a version of him.

07:09
So theater going experience was good. both  caught it on Thursday  and I guess we were recording on Saturday. So we're like two days, whatever, almost three days removed from the movie. What's your mindset for the movie? How are you feeling about it? Like, dude, that movie, like James Gunn just does, just knows where to put the camera. He knows how to tell the story. This was, I felt like right in the middle of something. That's what I liked. I liked about where they placed us in this movie.

07:35
I like the fact that it's not an origin. It's literally like, yo, he's been doing this for a minute. I like the breakdown. They're like 30 years, three weeks, three hours,  three minutes. Do you think there's something to that three thing they got? Three was a big theme. Like you said in the title slide showing you, hey, 3,000 years ago, the first metahuman showed up.  You know, three years ago, he announced himself a Superman, three months ago. You know, like. It just sounds good. It rolls off the tongue pretty good. Yeah, yeah, like. Can I give you my reach? This is like a super reach, right? I wonder if that's.

08:05
supposed to be symbolic with like, you know,  the father, the spirit, the father, the son, the Holy Spirit, the Trinity.  Trinity. Just saying, that's my like little. Like the Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman thing. I just realized that three was a big theme from that title slide. But then I also want to say that three showed up in a couple of conversations. But anyways, yes, I do agree. Just being thrown in with a quick little recap. It's like it's like a Star Wars movie. What else do we really need to do? I don't need to know how they got their powers. I just need to know that they got their powers.

08:34
And if you want to do some little exposition narrative, we kind of talked about it. That's okay. I don't need a flashback. And I think there was a couple of good moments where they were explaining, you know, like a guy Gardner's powers, Mr. Trey, you know, like they did a good job of like, Hey, here's who this person is. Here's what their powers is. You don't need any more. That's right. And that's what I ended up telling them life. Cause she was like, all right, how much do I need to know? Do I, should I had, should I have watched the other previous DC movies? Do I need to know anything about the characters? And I think I literally told her,

09:03
Just know that Superman is not the only superhero.  And that's really kind all you need to know. He's not the only superhero in this world. Other characters have already been established.  And here we are. I didn't know that we'd already be this established in this universe. They didn't even really take time to explain to you the Daily Planet or these cast of characters. Just like, look, he works in a newsroom. He works around some interesting, colorful characters. Yes.

09:29
And people keep saying that this is the most comic book-y. I'm like, yeah, it is. felt like you were in the middle of a  run. This movie was unapologetically a comic book movie. It wasn't afraid  of  being colorful, being kind of  goofy at times. Just some of the concepts, mean, like Pocket Universe, crypto,  Alien Baby with  Rex.  There were so many outlandish things that would only make sense in a comic book, but I thought  they did such a good job.

09:59
translating it to the big screen. As soon as you said that,  the thing that just popped in my head that I realized that people, maybe they'll talk about or maybe they don't, the henchmen, the two dudes, the two scientists, that you're talking about, the black dudes, whole squad. I want a squad as dedicated like that. Not saying the york, but like,  that squad. That guy? Awesome. They were down to do all the dirty work. Dude, it was freaking, some of them worshiped Lex and then like, my favorite was the,  like those two henchmen. The one guy that was like the super computer guy.

10:27
And then anytime something would go wrong, would be like, he kind of reminded me like almost like Carl Winslow.  Like he was just like, it'll get bigger.  Like, then like, what are you talking about? And the next scene, uh, guy, you know, speaking about the henchmen, one of my favorite  moments and lines in this movie is a throwaway, it literally had me like laughing out loud is when Mr. Terrific shows up at the end and he's trying to get the code to stop the rift. one of  Lex's henchmen, the one with the glasses that was like kind of, you know, on the computer the whole time.

10:56
was like, hey, I can show you the code. And Mr. Terrific just like smushes his face. He's like, I don't need your help.  Dude. I know we're jumping around,  but It's okay. Like Mr. Terrific with his teeth ears. Mr. Terrific was such a- I had no idea Mr. Terrific was going to get that much of a spotlight. Prior to this, I think he showed up maybe in a couple of Justice League Unlimited. I could be mis-memoring, but like, how have you always read Mr. Terrific? Or seen him? This is gonna sound weird, but-

11:25
like that, think. Eddie Gathegie brought a really cool vibe to Mr. Terrific. Smart, confident.  And I also like, because he's supposed to be the third smartest person. And I think  it's safe to say that  the higher the intelligence, sometimes the emotional intelligence.  He's not very empathetic. He's not  outgoing. And I thought Eddie Gathegie played him really well, where it's like, OK, he's not the friendliest, but

11:53
He is willing to help. is a hero at the end of the day. And he's super observant. Yeah, and such a badass. When they show up to that Lex's camp in the desert or base in the desert, and he's just going to town on everybody with the T-sphere, and you really get to see how badass the T-sphere are. Oh, yeah. I need to text Al, Al Letson, and be like, Al, the timing for your new series, Mrs. Terrific, year one right now, I'm so happy for you. You know, it's like.

12:18
The movie did him such justice. I know, I got a feeling people are already gonna be checking out Mr. Terrific. Okay, we've got a lot of ground to cover for Superman. I wanna ask you really quick, because I'm always curious what the Rotten Tomatoes score is. don't take it religiously, but it's always fun to kinda look at it. So right now, this movie is sitting at a 80 % tomato meter score and a 94 % popcorn meter score for fans. That's crazy. If you had to give this movie a grade.

12:45
A through F, know, or even just, you know, one through 100%. What's your score?  This movie was super. Like, I'm just telling you, I don't want to say it's like five out of five because there's like, we can get the nitpicky Greek, but I'm telling you right now, I went in that movie with a smile.  That smile stayed throughout my entire face. And then I left that movie with a smile. So I felt like this movie gave you everything you would want in a Superman movie and more, you know, it never felt. I did think that the movie like.

13:12
hit the ground running and never stopped running until the finish line.  So  I think at times it was like, wow, we're going through a lot of different plot lines that could be its own movie in its own way.  And I think that might be the only minor thing I had is that I think this movie was ambitious and I think it needed to be ambitious, especially to be like, hey, this is the first entry, the first movie in James Gunn's new universe. We need to make a statement. So it's got to be like, you know, we got to we got to give.

13:42
We got to give the audience everything they want and more. And I think at times it was a little over ambitious where it's like, OK, we're going to give them all these characters. We're also going to give them all these different plots and  things happening. And sometimes I feel like we traded  depth for speed, where it's like, we're going to get through all of this and give you all of this. And sometimes the plot lines and the characters felt just a little bit like boilerplate. Like, hey, you don't need to know much about them. Here's just the.

14:10
Characterization and let's keep it moving and sometimes I like man, you know We could definitely spend a lot of time in a lot of different little corners. Who do you think is more petty Kendrick Lamar or Lex Luthor? You know speaking about what you said about a henchman Lex Luthor Who is his is Holt. Thank you so much. I Love that. He was just evil. It's like hey look there is no real redeeming quality. No, but like super evil

14:39
He got monkeys to basically go on the internet and talk  shit. Alright, once again, speaking about Silver Age like antics. Silver Age, that's what crazy was that? shit, was that the hashtag? Super shit, bro. I love how that was like just a sub sub plot point where like Clark hates it. Like Clark hates it and then he finds out. When he finds out and you're like, oh my God, this is what I liked about it. It was so diabolical. Silver Age Lex Luthor is bad. Cause I was like.

15:07
Which Lex Luthor are we getting? I was like, we are definitely getting the Legion of Doom type Lex But I like the conviction too, where he's like,  I know who I am. I know that like, you know, I can come off.  I know I'm petty.  There was a word that he specifically used and I can't recall. Superdog with a cape?  Yes. Superdog with a cape? Yeah. What'd you say?  I like that he was like confident in who he is and why he's doing these things where it's like,

15:35
You don't belong here at all. And there's no way you can be this good. There's no way that someone this powerful can be this good. At some point, you're going to crack. And we need to be prepared for have you ever grown up poor?  Yeah, Nicholas Holt  absolutely killed it, bro. Killed it. Speaking about Lex, I want to give props to R.C. Gamet, a listener of the show. He posted something. He caught.

16:01
a reference to All-Star Superman. Because that was a big part of the marketing and promotion was like, this movie is inspired heavily by All-Star Superman and  Birthright  by Mark Waid, which by the way, Mark Waid, he got a little shout out with that street name. Did you catch the, it was like Wade Street? No. Yeah, so he got a shout out in the movie. But R.C. noticed that in All-Star Superman, Lex in the beginning is hooked up to  a bunch of machines and I think he's controlling

16:30
A robot or a bomb? Oh yeah, that's right. In the very beginning of  All-Star Superman, he's controlling... like a 20-minute  delay or whatever. And he ends up blowing that spaceship or whatnot. So that was a cool tie where this movie he's controlling  Ultraman  and the fist of  Baravia, whatever it Everybody's playing chess and my boy out here playing Street Fighter.

16:53
As the one of the dude's explaining, he's programmed over 3,000 moves. Yeah, he's been studying this guy for all these years and he's developed over 3,000 moves, which goes to show you just how dedicated Lex is to the destruction of Superman. This man hates him and you could feel it. mean, a masterful performance. Since we're on the topic of specific actor. So we talked about Nicholas Holt. We've talked about Eddie Gathegie. Let me just work down a little bit of the line. Do you want to talk about the guitar?

17:20
The guitar guitar and that was so fucking inspiring guitar wrists were so good  at what point did the guitar and song really drop or was it always kind of cuz to me I always felt kind of like leading up to no I always like a nice back room T's and then at one point it does give it to you like when he's fighting and like fighting something you get like  Can I say we went to go see it in Dolby  audio  Drew that was the loudest  movie in the world

17:49
I kept looking at Blife like, is it loud in there? Yo, the D stands for deaf. Guaranteed, if you don't walk out of this theater deaf or at least hearing at least somewhat more worse than you came in, money back guaranteed. When Supes was getting his ass, which he was getting his ass up and down in this movie, but particularly towards the end when he's having his final showdown of Ultraman and...

18:16
He's got the nanobytes.  He's also fighting engineer. And they're flying into space.  And Ultraman is just whacking him, just punching him in the face. The sound. I swear if I had glass in that theater, it'd be breaking. It was so fucking  loud, man.  Just yoked in the face. It needed to be that. Because we're talking about super humans who could  literally collapse buildings with one punch.  So it definitely did a good job of immersing me in there.

18:45
I just lost track of what I was gonna say. What do you think of crypto? Can I? Good. I'm not a dog person. You are now. But I am now. I will say sometimes I'm like, damn, they are really  selling crypto. They want to sell these plushies. They want to sell these milk bones. Crypto is here to stay and I love- Crypto about that currency. And I love the reveal at the end. love they don't- Oh, yes. your point, they don't explain, they don't tell you why crypto's with Superman.

19:15
even though he kind of hints how he got him. Yeah, he just hints like it's kind of like a foster situation. And it's such a throwaway line, you're like, oh, OK, yeah, yeah. Superman's got a dog. to find out. Oh, Lois was upset.  Lois was upset when she found out that he had a dog. You have a dog? And he's like, no, But to find out at the end,  it's Supergirls.  To find out that we were going to get a Supergirl cameo. Did not know that that was going to happen. No, that was such a great surprise. She was in her costume, right?

19:41
She showed up in her closet, she's like, what's up? I like the fact that she's just drunk and angry. Millie Alcock, yeah, Millie Alcock. She was in screen for like 20 seconds and you're like, I'm gonna see this 20 seconds but you know, oh, she's going to do Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow justice. And what I liked about it is like, the way that they put it in, like he goes, like Superman looks at Gary and he goes, you know, she likes to party.

20:09
on planets with red suns so she can drink. And then she leaves and calls him bitch. I love that the dog, I think Gary where he goes, and that's why the dog has behavior issues. know? Cause they're watching, they're watching crypto put Supergirl into a crater on the ground from jumping on her. You know, like it just shows you how she's loving it. She's getting so excited that he's like basically ripping the house to shreds. Okay. I'm going to go down this list of IMDB. I want you to give me either a memorable scene that comes to mind or some thoughts.

20:38
Let's just start off with the man in blue, our big blue boy scout. David Korn sweat as Superman. His speech at the end. Which one? It's the one where he gets of speeches. Okay, he gets a couple of speeches. But it's the one Oh, where he's yelling at Lex, right? Well, yeah, when he's finally yelling at Lex about putting his best food forward, I'm always gonna make mistakes. But I try. Yeah, but I try. I was like, okay, I get it. That's my Superman. He is the perfect Superman for this universe. He, cause it's like, okay.

21:06
All the supermans before,  we're talking  Christopher Reeves, we're talking  Tom Welling, we're talking. Roof. Go ahead, Drew. Brandon Roof. We're talking  Dean Cain, right? Dean Cain. Henry Cavill. Henry Cavill. To me, all of them had a certain air of prestige. Like, hey, I've always got to be on my Ps and Qs. I'm proper. I  am a role model. And I think you respect those portrayals for what they are. And obviously, they're

21:35
the best portrayals, but this one here was fresh in the sense that this Superman is  young. It seems that he's very young in his  Superman journey, no superhero journey. He's brash,  he's willing to fly off and just be angry. I like that he wears his emotion on the sleeves, he's  when he's getting the interview with Lois and he's getting riled up.

22:00
Or like you were saying, like, towards the end where he's literally yelling at Lex, like, man, fuck off, dude. I'm trying. At least I'm trying. There's something  raw about that and then also relatable. Where you're like, oh, wow, Superman gets angry too, but  he knows better than to  really let his anger get a hold of him. I think there's something more human about that that I kind of respect. What do you think, though? Because in the moment, it didn't bother me. And I don't think it bothered me at all, but I'm talking about- Oh, murder shouldn't bother you.

22:30
I'm talking about  the decision to change the lore of Superman's parents and  the message. We don't know that was doctored, bro. I think, we might find out that message was doctored later on. taking it at face value and then also having Mr. Terrific, even Mr. Terrific is like, nah, man, that message and your parents' message about coming to Earth, know,  hashtag harem. Yeah, my God. Dude, every time they were talking about that harem stuff, that was so funny. That's the drink.

23:00
That's a drinking game for this movie. Every time they say harem, you gotta take a shot. But what do you think about that change, that slight change where it's like, his parents in Krypton are not all like altruistic. They're not like these perfect people. They kind of sent him to, you know, like build up his own empire. Yeah, yeah, they're like, we sent you to a place where you were gonna be the most powerful being. Like nobody's gonna be a fucking winch, y'all. I loved it. I thought it was really good because the relaying the further message, I think, is that you're not your parents. Your parent, like when...

23:28
Pa Kent is giving  Clark that conversation where he's giving that speech where they're sitting down. just, that's I love about it too. He's just eating cereal, like just what you do at your parents' house. You're just chilling out in the front. I thought it was really clever. I thought it was really good about like, oh, okay, he's gonna rise above that. I think it enhances the theme of like, you know, found family is family too. You know, it doesn't necessarily mean like your blood. And I think  it also enhances his conversation with Lex where he's like, hey, I choose to, you know, it's like, yeah, my.

23:57
My one set of parents wanted me to do one thing, but I choose to do better and  the power of choice. The more I think about it, I can see both sides where it's like, this is, once again, I think this is  needed for a fresh new take of Superman.  It's like, hey, this is the James Gunn universe, and he's always been willing to introduce some interesting conflict and emotion,  or things that the characters have to internally get over. But at the same time, I can also see where it's like,

24:24
In a way, I can  see how it can downplay his Kryptonian heritage, because Kryptonite is important to Superman. Krypton is important to Superman. And the fact that that's a missing piece of him, I always thought that was kind of cool. It's like, OK, I've adopted  Earth and  the human race as my family now, but I'm always going to honor Krypton. So I'm curious to see how they continue to play on the whole Krypton part going forward.

24:50
Like I said, in the moment I was like, oh, okay,  that's an interesting change. You know what saying? It's like, we have so many Superman movies that have followed the script. I'm okay with like one. Like this one right here, kind of like, eh, we're gonna play around with Yeah, yeah. Cause not everybody likes their parents. Like you're like,  oh, you guys are not cool. Okay,  so what else can we say about David Cornshoy that we haven't said already? Oh he was just good. the fact that- I think he's only gonna get better too.  He's still a relatively young actor. I don't know if he's got like a lot of things under his belt. He was in Twisters.

25:20
Like I said, I don't think he's got a lot of things under his belt.  But I feel like this is a role much like  Chris Evans in Captain America or Henry Cavill in Superman where... Chris Evans is a good one. Christopher Reeves.  Where they're going... It is such a prestigious, honorable... You're playing an American icon. I think David Cornsworth from what I've seen in the media interviews and the stuff leading up to this... His name is David Cornsworth.

25:49
You gotta play Superman, bro, and I think he's from Chicago, too I think he's like he's a Midwest dude, too. So he just makes sense I think he's only gonna get better. He's actually really real and this is how they're introducing Superman into our universe. I Would uh, this is a good little palette cleanser. I'm like, what else can you do? Okay, let me go down the list. Who else have we got? Oh Bradley Cooper real quick as playing Jor-o is such a fun little like cambium. Oh, I was gonna ask you What was your favorite Superman fighting move?

26:17
Give me yours it might help me think of some dude when he was doing his little spin move and he's just lasering everybody I was just like  this is pretty cool.  I Liked the use  of his air breath when he's  when he's using it to like get out of that black hole Strong I'm sure there's some science that says this would not work  But in the moment, right my man was trying to save that weird baby, which mr. Terrific had me cracking up when he's like

26:43
know, Lois and him are looking for Superman in that pocket dimension. They're using the T spheres. And Lois goes, did you find him yet? He's like, yeah, I found him. I found him, a dog, a weird baby, and a squidly man.  Those are the best lines. just said delivery was so dry. It was so good.  Yeah, OK, so Superman, great.  Let me go down the list.  No, we got to talk about Lois Lane. We got to put some respect on Lois Lane. I don't like how IMDb sometimes gathers.

27:13
These names. Okay, Lois Lane played by Rachel Brosnahan. What'd you think about Lois Lane? Listen, I'm telling you right now. You better keep it PG. Yeah, I'm trying to right now. respectful. Dude, it's just like, I believed her character so much that like, was like, she didn't feel like a damsel in distress. Hell no. She just felt like, I'm gonna get like, this reminded me so much of Peter J. Tomasi's Lois Lane run, which I was like, oh, I'm here for it. She was like.

27:40
She did everything, she was raising really good questions, I like her version. I like the fact that she knows what's wrong and right, but she's like,  but I don't,  this is my opinions. This has to go further than that. She respects  journalism. She respects being a journalist and where it's like, it's not about how I personally feel, it's about the facts, it's about the larger picture.  She's fucking punk rock, apparently. They made a bunch of punk  references as well.  And to your point,  definitely not a damsel in distress.

28:10
When she shows up with Mr. Terrific to the  Lexus camp and then inside of like the black hole little portal, I was like, what is she going to do? But you know what I'm saying? That's Lois Lane for you,  is that she will dive head first into some danger to get the story. She's smart in this. She's confident. And she didn't back down. think Rachel Brosnahan. Awesome. think, you know, if we could kind of  pivot to the larger Daily Planet crew. When you told me.

28:36
Because you called me after you watched your movie and you're like, hey, get ready for this. It's going to be awesome. When you told me, hey, by the way, this version of Jimmy, I believe he has what the kids call  Riz. One, I laughed and you told me that on the phone.  But when I got to see it in person,  played by Skylar Gizando, what's the name of the actor? Jimmy Olsen, man.  So  it made me think, OK, James Gunn also, we're talking about comic book influences. That Jimmy Olsen run.

29:05
from a couple years ago. Matt, uh, Fraction run. Yeah, the Matt. Jimmy Olsen's Pal, Superman. Or Superman Pal, Jimmy Olsen. Uh, I Yeah, Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen. OK, it was Matt Fraction, Steve Lieber. That's right. Which I've heard. I mean, actually, I read the first, I think, two or three issues. And this is a very funny, like, Silver Age-inspired comic book series. So we get a lot of different comic book. And it feels like recent comic book stuff, too.

29:34
I think I've seen somewhere online where someone made a good comparison where it's like, hey, this version of Superman is not only inspired by the Supermans of past and then obviously the comic book, you know, the all-star Superman, the Mark Wade stuff, but also the latest version,  the latest  Superman TV series,  which I think you were a big fan of and you watched  the animated Superman, like the anime  Superman,  the  like the actual Superman animated TV show. Yeah. The one that did, but the recent one.

30:03
Oh, yeah, yeah, the one that Dennis Quaid's son's playing. It's like they looked at all of the recent Superman iterations and was like, OK, like this is what's in the now. Let's take some of this DNA and put it into this. Anybody that's going to complain now is probably dead. So we can just make it a young Superman. All right. Anything else to say about Jimmy Ulse? My man did have some Riz. Dude, yo, his character was so great and fun and I believed it. Like, I really did like his scenes, like the scene where he's trying to get the story and Homegirl's like, you got to

30:33
Take me out for a weekend. He's like, a  weekend? Yeah, yeah, and this is like gonna, this is, this  story is gonna save the world and Jimmy's just  like,  can save the world, but I gotta hang out you for a weekend? Can we talk about the fact that like Lex Luthor doesn't murder people? Like this isn't a murdery one, like he's more diabolical. He puts him in a pocket universe.

30:56
Yeah, it's like this is how petty and just the evilest dude is. I mean, he's putting ex-girlfriends in this prison. He's putting, you know, reporters that talk shit about him in this prison. When I saw the pocket dimension to me was such a crazy... I thought that was Darkseid. I honestly thought he was using BoomTube. was like, holy shit, automatically they're already new. like, you find out like, no, Lexis has kind of been doing some fuck fuck shit. Can I say on the topic of Daily Planet, window pierce.

31:22
playing Perry White is one of the is  chef's kiss casting. That's Rachel's dad over there. Freaking suits. Yeah.  And he plays this role in a couple of I think the Jack Reacher show. He plays like Jack's handler boss, if I'm not mistaken.  So he's used to playing. Oh, shit. I mean, in The Wire, he plays a fucking, you know, like cop. So this is such a great casting.  The casting and the energy, the way they play off each other.

31:49
It's a James Gunn movie. So there's a few things that James Gunn is gonna have in this movie. He's going to have a lot of cussing. This was a lot of cussing for a Superman movie. Actually, yeah. A lot of cussing. I'm like, nah, no. There's gonna be a lot of cussing.  He's going to have some sort of like weird alien creature. In this case, Element Man Metamorpho and his weird green baby. I didn't... he made him like OP as hell. Oh yeah. Like I was just like, damn, can he really do all that stuff? Like, correct is kinda like What else is the James Gunn trope?

32:19
He's going to have some indescriptive.  Like a gross sluggy, like he'll always have like a gross scene. Gross alien or creature.  Indescript country that is at war. He loves putting in like some random country that is at war or needs saving.  I mean, look at the Suicide Squad movie. was like whatever that country that they were in.  This movie, you know, the two  warring countries.  He's not afraid to kill people. I was saying like he'll kill people. It's like not a problem.

32:47
Yeah, there's a lot. There'll be some more, but there's a lot of James Gunn tropes in this movie. The music is another one, All right. Any other characters we got? I guess we should talk about the Justice Gang. OK. How do you enjoy your boy Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner? It was not Nathan Fillion. It was Guy Gardner the entire time. If that makes sense. Like when he came on screen, I was just like, wow. I was like, this feels like Guy Gardner. I love everything he does. He was fantastic and wonderful. And I liked all the.

33:16
His redeeming he's always gonna do the right thing at the end like I love how he talks about he took vows He's like I'm a Green Lantern. I don't like I do this. I don't do this and then at the end he's like nah I'm gonna go like when he comes up and they do the Green Lantern ring and he's just beaten like even his construct I've always liked that You know every Green Lantern's construct is like as a reflection of their personality and you know, there's certain traits You know if we're looking at his traits and the constructs in the movie. It's like

33:44
The middle fingers, you know? The baseball bat. The baseball bat, you know? He's like, he's a tough dude, he's a shit talker, and like he's willing to back it up. know, his bite is just as much as his bark. I love the oven mitts. When he gave that guy the oven mitts, you're like, what are they giving the oven mitts for? You're like, oh, okay, because he can't scratch it anything. All right.

34:05
Yeah, Guy Garner, Nathan Fillion. want to see. I'm sure Nathan Fillion is going to reprise his role as Guy Garner in whatever this Guy Green Lantern TV series is coming out. he's going to be in the TV series. And he said that in the Green Lantern TV series, he's dropped the most F-bombs he's ever dropped in any role. All who else we got on the Justice game? We already talked about Mr. Terrific. Hot Girl. Hock Girl, not Hot Girl. Oh, Hock-Tua Girl? Yeah, Hock-Tua Girl. Isabella Merced, who played recently in

34:34
The Last of Us, what you laughing at?  Just the fact that it's a hock to a girl. Holy shit. She plays Dina in The Last of Us. She also played in Alien Romulus recently.  I she also played in Madame Web. I think I missed this casting. I didn't know that she was going to be in this movie as Hot Girl. And I also did not know that they were going to give Hot Girl screaming the entire time. I was just saying, her entire role was just screaming. Screaming and whooping ass with that mace.

35:02
I forgot who she hit with the mace. I think it was one of Lex's henchmen or one of those ravens. She kept hitting the kaiju in the eye. Well, she got her knee stuck in his eyelids. Oh, god. And that's another James Gunn trope, too. He's going to have some disgusting moment where they're stabbing the kaiju in the eye. was like, oh. I think actually in the movie, there's the camera pans to a crowd that's watching it happen. There's a black lady filming it, and even she turns. Oh, that's disgusting. Yeah, Isabella Merced as Hot Girl.

35:30
Hot Girl, Mr. Terrific, and Guy Gardner. That trifecta worked off each other so well. They were different enough, but similar enough to where them playing off each other as this  reluctant team just felt so believable. I loved that the Justice Gang  headquarters had moving in by, you know, it wasn't even set up yet. They were living off of the sofa and couches and boxes. Did you have a feeling  that Metamorpho, played by Anthony Carrigan,

35:59
was going to, like, I think when we saw the casting, we were both like, oh, that's a great casting. Anthony Carrigan already looks like Metamorpho without the makeup. Yeah, he just needs to show up in purple and yellow. I don't think,  I didn't think I was going to have such an emotional response to his storyline. You know, him trying to save his kid.

36:20
you know, him failing to, you know, watching that guy get killed in front of him and having a hero moment. And then also for them to spend so much time with him to show like his power and move set. He goes, why are you still weird looking? Imagination is a key word that I can use to describe this movie. This movie had so much imagination. It was like, hey, let's just, let's go all the way weird, you know? Like let's have some colorful shit. I will say that sometimes though, and speaking about Metamorpho, the scene where

36:48
Supes is trying is fighting off two of like the the Raven, know armor dudes in that weird river Holding the baby. I think sometimes the CGI at times was a little hard to follow Especially in that scene to me because I'm like is he where's the baby at and where's the river end?  He was like in a video game river  Yeah, it looked like some shit from my crap Ralph breaks the internet. Yeah Yeah, but Anthony Carrigan man,  I want to see more of him because you're right when you

37:17
Watching his powers on the big screen you're like, oh he can do they can do a lot with this Yeah, y'all like oh he's making elements and like he's changing his body He's also becoming a jet, you know a living human rocket which is crazy to me All right. Any other characters standout characters that come to mind for you peacemaker?  Good old peacemaker cameo I like how they had him in a talk show. You're like,  oh Who are you hoping to see I was hoping to see Lobo I was hoping that Lobo was gonna show up but then

37:47
They switched it and were like, nope, Supergirl. Lobo is going to fit so bright with this universe. Because this universe is like,  hey, this  isn't your dad's DC comics or Superman.  This  is that plus James Gunn sensibility. So  we're going to cuss, we're going to have like crude jokes. And that, to me, speaks volumes for Lobo.  It's like, he's going to give the character of Lobo and who's playing Lobo?

38:17
Yeah,  Jason Momoa. Jason Momoa. You know that he's going to give him like full reign. Dude, I was like, if Jason Momoa gets an Oscar for this, they're going to be like, wow, this is chocobo. Drew, you know that I wrote down some notes during the movie? I just want to go really quickly see if there's anything then I one thing that I want to ask Oh, good, good. Ask you while I look through this. Oh, what did you think of the opening credit scene?  The  graphic where it's basically. Yes. Oh, actually, that's one of my notes. OK, go for it. Yeah, the Fletcher Superman logo.

38:45
Busting out the chains and then it goes into the DC. Is it the DC logo? The old school DC logo, right? Yeah, the bullet logo. That's tight. know, that's like a cool way to pay respect to what came before.  To like, know, a fan favorite logo. Nah, that's a great logo. I was like, man, this feels like a really... because like, whatever you see, the first thing you see... Gets you in the mood. This one, I feel like this is good.  I'm like, okay, this is already at a right start. It's different enough from Marvel.

39:12
You know, because Marvel has already nailed it. People know  the comic flip that sound effect. F-f-f-f-f. You know?

39:22
That'll be a contest we do in the future.  Listeners, you got to send in your best  Marvel opening logo sound effect.  DC's felt different enough that it's like,  they're making their own stake. That's what I'm saying. This movie gets me excited for what's to come next, whether that be the Supergirl movie, whether that be, I think they're already talking about a  Mr. Terrific spinoff and things like that.  Yeah, James Gunn, man.

39:48
That's been the best decision DC and Warner Brothers has done, is hiring that man to completely revamp everything. Superman, they immediately got rid of that  critique against Superman, where it's like, he's too strong. You don't know, like, what's exciting about a guy that can't be beat? The fact that Superman quite literally gets his ass beat from the beginning of the movie to the very, up to the very end. It's like, I think getting rid of that and making him a little less powerful and so reliant on the sun, which by the way, anytime that he has to get healed in the sun,

40:18
I don't know if because the theater was so loud, but you could hear the bones breaking and reforming. I don't know if you noticed that. No, no, I definitely noticed that. was like, oh shit, we are out here breaking people's arms. All right, I got Bradley Cooper as a note. We were talking about the Yellow Sun. Logo chest to movie logo. Dolby sound was super loud. These are little notes I wrote while watching this movie. Lex Corp logo, international incident. What do you think about Clark Kent's parents? Perfect. They were perfect. I hate to say this because their acting was so great, but it's basically like, yo,

40:48
Regular like yo you have regular people regular people. It's just like Henry Cavill's dad was Russell Crowe Kevin Costner and anything is Diane Lane like you're like damn your parents royalty You want me to believe they own a farm in the Midwest?  Nah, they own they also own a home in the Hampton. They got it. Yeah Like I like the fact that it's just like you know the mom that mom and dad were so perfect because I love like

41:15
down from the way that the mom was yelling at the cell phone. Drew, I literally was going to say that. I was gonna say when his mom is talking on the phone and she's got it on the table, I'm like, yo, my mom's done that. I think that's how she actually calls me, you know, default. What did you think about the two other villains on this? So we got the engineer and then Ultraman. Were you surprised by the big twist that Ultraman was Supes clone?

41:38
I was not surprised, but I thought we were going to get like a bizarro Frankenstein looking freak and not just a really good looking tall curly haired man. Can I say that when they revealed it was, you know, you know, it was Superman. It was, was, you know, it was corn sweat. was like, actually it kind of made me respect David even more. I was like, oh, so he played kind of two characters, you know, alternate version of himself in the main Superman. He played Ultraman. But I do wish that they would have maybe made him a little more grotesque because, you know, my mind immediately went like, oh,

42:08
Bizarro's in this movie and Bizarro's no longer in this movie. Yeah, he's like he's here, he's gone.  The fact that Superman had to pull his shoulder out of the socket in order to fling Ultraman  into the bus that was  going towards the black hole. A nice touch. nice touch, because it's like, oh, Superman is willing to put himself as he continues to show in harm's way to save the day.

42:32
Like as brash and like kind of like a little like a rough around the edges, I think this version of Clark is in Superman. The fact that they show his heart and his his love for humanity and all things, not just humans, but like literal animals to through action instead of words, because he ends up saving a squirrel. You know, Drew, I'm going to tell you something. I like pets, I like animals, but if I'm finding a giant kaiju, the last thing I'm saving is a random ass squirrel. You know, like that little moment, you're like, oh, wow.

43:01
This dude cares about everybody. know, the fact that he wanted to save the Kaiju was a little upset that, you know, they had to kill it. He was thinking of way, so many options to help this thing rather than hurt this thing. Did you get to all the end credit scenes? Yeah, I want to. Sometimes, sometimes I want to like know, is it worth staying the whole time? Cause I, what did you get out of that final end credit scene? Or it's Mr. Terrific? Oh dude, that was perfect. Dude, it was to me. Well, it wasn't perfect. It was actually not aligned.

43:30
Nicely done. hope James Gunn, because Superman and Mr. Terrific get along so well, like as much as I would want it to be Batman, it's like, oh, I really hope that like Mr. Terrific is going to be ushered into this and like gonna be like one of the main dudes because of just, I like that two scenes with them. And then like Superman's like, I shouldn't have said anything. Like he was just trying to be real be such a jerk. Yeah, yeah, that was so good. He's such a, oh man, lovable man. He's a lovable dude.

44:00
Last thing I will say, and this is maybe another reach too, but there was so, the cinematography in this movie, and I think a lot of it goes to them not being afraid to use some bright colors and just really embrace the colorfulness of a comic book. There was quite a few scenes of Superman that I wanted to just screenshot. I was trying to mentally keep it in my brain.  Is that the sound effect that my brain takes in screenshot? That's good.

44:30
That's me going through my mental roller. Okay.  But there was quite a few scenes of Superman in all his glory, just like flying or standing that felt  really  splash page Alex Ross vibe.  I can't recall a particular  what happened, but there's a scene where like he's just like hovering in the air and there's like some dust or smoke. think they had just defeated the Kaiju or he stopped something. But the way the sun hit the logo, you know, like there were certain shots in here that were so beautiful that you were like, wow.

44:59
This feels like  Alex Ross painted Superman cover, know, like that regalness, those like bright, you know, sharp colors. I'm buying red shorts from now on. Like I'm just buying like red mesh shorts.  That's like how much I love the Superman movie. The suit look great. I'm going to be wearing jeans underneath them. The suit to me kind of reminded me, have you ever seen  the suit from the original, the original like black and white series  of Superman, of the serials? Let me see. There's a black and white, you're talking about the fly shirt?

45:29
Not the cartoon. Okay. But like the old black and white. Yes, from 1948. And it was played by, yeah, Kirk Allen. Do you know who else played Superman? Ben Affleck. When did Ben Affleck play Superman? Ben Affleck. Oh, that's right. It's like super, super inside baseball. Well, I mean, for people that don't know, what was it again? So he was in a movie about- Hollywoodland. There it is. From 2006. He plays the dude, he plays-

46:00
What's his name? Oh, George Reeve. Yeah, I think it's George Reeve. Yeah, it is. A detective played by Adrian Brody uncovers unexpected links to his own personal life as he probes the mysterious death of Superman actor George Reeves who was being played by Ben Affleck. Oh, that's kind of a cool premise. Good catch, Drew. But now, what I was trying to get at is that this Superman suit feels like an homage to the 1948 Superman serial, the Fletcher cartoon Superman. It feels like a good amalgam of lot of different Superman suits.

46:29
I wasn't mad at it or the red shorts on the outside. All right, Drew, in closing, is there anything else you want to say about this movie or what the DC universe has got lined up next? I guess, you feel like, do you feel hopeful for the future of DC movies after this? Yes. Yes, I do. I really hope the weirder, the more obscure, the better. Yeah, I'm here for, and James Gunn is someone to me, he gently comes across as someone that respects

46:59
the comic books, the creators. I  cannot tell you how many photos I've seen from like comic creators who got invited to go on set of Superman, meet the cast,  talk to James Gunn.  I do respect that a lot that he's willing to put like,  give the creators like toss them a bone. It's like, look, I know that you guys don't get treated the best,  especially monetarily wise, but I'm here to like let you know I love what you guys do and put it out. And I think this was a great love letter to Superman.

47:28
but also the comic book industry. I hope to see so much more. I think this movie, I think this Superman is going to have the best shot at chance of when you see Superman, Batman and Robin together.  Like I really  cannot wait to see what his Superman is gonna talk to whatever version Batman they have,  especially Robin. Like I feel like it's gonna be one of those like worlds,  it's gonna be world's finest for sure. Oh, they could definitely do a movie like that. So I think in closing.

47:56
I will go ahead and give this if we're following like the 100 % tomato meter score type things. This is a solid like 90, 95 % movie to me. Like I would give that the score. I already told you my minor gripes are that  sometimes that felt like we were moving too fast. We didn't get a lot of depth. Some of the plot lines like the two warring factions, I feel like  it was almost like too much. We could have just done with finding out Lex has got  portals to this pocket dimension and that could have been

48:24
to me and then obviously the Ultraman, the engineer could have been its own  one thing. think adding the two warring countries, I know worked into the major, the rest of the plot, but I almost felt like it was like too much to try to keep track of. And sometimes it felt like we were getting a little too boilerplate, you know, characters,  certainly like characters. And with that being said, listeners, hey, if you have any remarks  or thoughts about the Superman movie that you want to share, maybe we got something wrong. Maybe you agree with something. Maybe you disagree. Hey, we'd love to hear from you.

48:54
Shoot us an email at theshortbikesjaxx.gmail.com. With that being said, that is it for our Superman spoiler-filled review. I will probably think of several points that I missed. But don't worry, because you have the power to basically re-record your thoughts and place it, whatever you want. That is true, the magic of editing.  We'll call it a pocket universe. Yeah, boom, put it in the main universe. OK, Drew, the last things I want to talk about is that we are recording this on the day of First Ghost Comic Con. First  Ghost We actually need to get ready to leave for First Ghost Comic Con.

49:23
Is there anything that you're looking to pick up at Sad First Coast Comic Con or anyone you're excited to meet?  No, I'm just excited just to kind of walk around. want to see  all the stuff. I want to see, I want to put some headphones in.  I want to see what comic books. Okay.  I can see cover wise. I will say if I do see some Muppets,  Muppet comic books, I'll pick those up because I'm kind of excited about seeing them.

49:50
But honestly, I really want to see what kind of Jurassic Park dinosaurs I can see. That's right. You on your Jurassic Park and Muppets. Yeah, I just want to see what figures I can see. Hopefully there's a lot of collectors there and I can just see some dork shit. So I guess I always got a list of comics I'm looking for. in particular, I am hoping to get in line for Jimmy, Pommiotti, and Amanda Connor. I brought two comic books I'm going to get Jimmy to sign. One is the Super Soldier Manowar series from the Amalgam universe that combines Captain America and Superman together.

50:20
He was the anchor on this with  Dave Gibbons and I think Mark Wade is writing it. And then I'm going to get him to sign hardware number one from Milestone. He was the anchor on Dennis Cohen's artwork. Jimmy, pull me out. He's been around, man. He's been around for a long time. He's gotten around. He can do it all. And not only that, but after interviewing them, they are so fucking lovable. Really? They did the interview together.  They sat together. They were hugged up.  Jimmy was such dude.

50:48
class a gentleman, know, ladies first, Amanda, you go,  you know, hyping his woman up, bro. He was like, I didn't know that you married Superman. He was hyping his woman up. was like, look, Amanda is one of the best this and that  he,  one thing he said about Amanda Connor that made me appreciate her artwork more. I've always, I feel like I've been sleeping on Amanda Connor too long.  So getting ready for the interview, I ended up reading,  she's got two,  I think two or three different art.

51:14
book collections where it's like, the best of Amanda Conner comics. I read  one of them. So I've read like, you know, all of her best hits, some Harley Quinn issues. I've read like a couple of Power Girl issues. I think we don't put enough respect on how good she is in terms of like the way that she draws. She's got a unique style.  You know, I'm stealing the Jimmy's words, but she is one of the most expressive artists. All of her characters have  unique expressions, whether that's like shock, laughing.

51:42
you know, their, you know,  being emotional. And then the way that she draws realistic, you know, like body shapes where no one is like stupid jacked or like, you know,  weak. Like they just look normal, but obviously super strong.  Yeah. I don't know, man. I just became a huge fan after talking to them. think, I think in that wedding box there is the green, the green arrow and black canary thing. I think she did that one as well. Well, one thing that they both talked about was  how in their Harley Quinn series was that

52:12
they  put a little bit of their therapy sessions in it. They were like, hey, we were going to therapy, know, like we were feeling burnt out from work and then it was impacting our relationship. And like we started putting our therapy sessions when we learned into that Harley Quinn series. And Amanda said something that was really moving. I was like, hey, like, you know, what's the most, you know, interesting interaction you had with fans? And she was like,  I still get people that come up to me and they're like, hey, your Harley Quinn series was so moving and so powerful that like,

52:40
you know, she's like a few of them were in abusive relationships and they're like, hey, after reading Harley Quinn and seeing that she, you know, was like, hey, I don't got to put up with this. I too was like, I ain't got to put up with this. I was like, yo, that's- That is really good. You know what I'm saying? So these two right here, you can tell they put a lot of heart and soul into their comics. And I feel like I am overdue of like reading a lot of their grates. Cause that Harley Quinn run is like, you know, it's like one of the best things that came out of new 52. Like that series was so good that it re-

53:09
Invigorated Harley Quinn like that's why we got Harley Quinn with Margot Robbie that characterization and  the TV show you know So do you remember when we were stuck in the elevator with them? What we went to Megakon and we were stuck in the elevator with them. I? Did not know that yeah,  I don't remember mm-hmm. This is the power of friendship. It's like you remember things like I remember we were stuck in the elevator going up with them  and You had said something really funny because like we were all in the elevator and you said something charming  to Amanda

53:38
And we all got- was like, ever talk to my woman. If you ever do a podcast, I will never be your guest And then when we left, I told him, found out, was like, I'm gonna ask Amanda and Jimmy, like, did you guys drive a Volvo? Cause I'm pretty sure they were in a Volvo. They look like a Volvo. I don't know what that means, but they look like a Volvo. No, no, that was like a Volvo station wagon. I guarantee you, I'm gonna ask Amanda. It's not weird. And I guess to wrap things up, Drew, what have you been reading comic book wise? One Piece, bro.

54:06
Dude, sweet in fact, this why was, this only reason why came here.  Yeah, One Piece. Honestly, I got back on my One Piece grind and oh my God. I guess, is that the beauty of One Piece is that there's so much One Piece is that you can take a little like sabbatical? Yeah, dude, you can take, yeah, I took like a good sabbatical like a couple months and I was like, okay, I think I'm ready to go read it again. And then it's like, oh my God, I forgot how good you were. All right, I guess for  other One Piece fans, where are you at?

54:35
Chapter wise, number wise, all that. I'll tell you this. So chapter wise, I'm  977. Do know how wild that is to hear you say it? I'm on chapter 977 of something. Yes. Insane. Technically issue 977, right? It's done by Oda. Like he did everything. He wrote,  it. Everything in this artwork is amazing. Right now they're in Wano and  all of the pieces are coming together.

54:59
where it only took 970 chapters for all the pieces to come together. so funny, was talking to Zach and I got really excited because I was like, bro, I'm on 977. He kind of like looked at me and I was like, I'm almost there. And he's like, are you sure? And then I looked, I was like, oh my God, dude, I'm not even close. No, no, no, no, no. Look, it says according to one piece dot fandom dot com, there is a thousand and fifty seven manga chapter and they're still coming out. 105 manga volumes.

55:29
A thousand and eighty five manga episodes. Wow. So right now they're in Wano. Wano is basically Japan in one piece and it's just dealing with a lot of like still with a lot of social commentary, class commentary. That dude, that's one thing that's got crazy in the Wano stuff is you find out like there's this one character, his name is Orochi and he was basically experimenting on food and then giving it to the townspeople.

55:58
just trying to see like what would happen. Like if it gave them powers. Oh wow. Yeah, yeah. It was called smile. Like it's these fruits that called smile fruits and statistically they don't all work, but they have the drug in them. So what it can do is it'll either give you powers. Yep. Or no powers, but you're left with just laughing. Like all you do is laugh. A character gets murdered, like basically executed. And that, that was crazy in the book that they did that. Like

56:27
People die, but it's not like how this is this. They change it up. We're like, oh shit. They're like shooting people in the back of heads and stuff. And like, I'm sorry, they're executing. Dude, they execute this one dude. And then all these people are laughing and Luffy's like, this man is dead. Like, and he's getting pissed. He's like, yo, they, they just killed this man and everybody's laughing.  And homegirl was basically, no, like, you don't understand these people. They were experimented on and they're actually crying, but they can't laugh. Like you're just hearing laughter.

56:57
but they're actually crying and homegirls,  homeboys daughter is just like trying to wake her dad up and she's just laughing the entire time. It's like, the most heartbreaking thing ever. Jeez Louise. Oh my God. This is one thing about talking one piece with you as someone that has no idea, you know, as I pull up these images on Google, to me, you know, I look at them like, this is, know, typical anime manga looking stuff, you know, everyone,  interesting character designs, but then you reveal like this dark sad truth. You're like, Oh man.

57:24
You think that smiling girl is fun? Wait till I tell you this heartbreaking story about her losing her dad. All right, I will be honest with you, I haven't been reading a lot of comics. lot of manuals. But I have been reading this Jeff Lemire memoir called 10,000 Inkstains. Got an interview, hopefully in the works, but they, Dark Horse was kind enough to send me a copy of the book. That's a thick Oh, it's a thick book. That's a big It's a thick book. May I? It's actually still in the wrapper.

57:53
Because I've been reading the digital. They sent me a digital proof As it may sound this is a memoir that is drawn. I mean, it's not drawn by Jeff Lemire But I mean he writes the entire thing There's a lot of his army by me cousin me. I'm a sucker for a good comic book documentary I think more and more creators should be telling their story I mean obviously, you know through a podcast or through a YouTube series, but in particular I think a memoir like that is a good look especially for a visual medium

58:19
A visual history would be nice. This is Jeff Lemire telling you about his entire life and career. I mean, he's very honest in that book. mean, and the way that it's laid out is chronological. He starts with like, here's how I got into comics. Here's the very first, you know,  indie publishing, you know, Xerox copy stuff I did. Here's some pictures of it. Here's some, you know, like there's a bunch of photos in there. There's behind the scenes stories  and every chapter is broke. Like he's got a, Hey, this is my DC new 52 chapter. Here's my Marvel years chapter.

58:48
And the shit that you learn,  especially in that DC New 52, I thought that was pretty interesting because he kind of says, like,  I love DC Comics, but at the time I was not a fan of working with DC. The editorial, like the agendas they were pushing,  agendas in terms of like editorial agendas where they needed to hit,  just how much hands were in it. And then he also is very transparent about the politics of like, know, certain people don't like certain people and you got to learn how to navigate.

59:17
you know, the comic industry, which was all new to him then. He goes on later. of fucking divas. Yeah. Hold on a second. I literally got a text from the First Coast Comic Con organizer, Big shout out to Mike. Someone is asking for you here at the show. We need to get going. OK. Anyway, I will wrap this up by saying 10,000 Inkstains by Jeff Lemire, a memoir.  I believe it will be available on July 15 or 16, or by the time this episode comes out. You can buy it from your local comic shop from Amazon. This is not sponsored in any way.

59:47
It is an amazing book. you like Jeff Lemire, if you're a  process junkie, if you like, you know, behind the scenes stuff, or if you just want to learn about one of the most successful comic creators ever and you know, like what went in his, you know, what's going on in his life in his mind as he was creating things like  Sweet Tooth, Essex County, and you know,  Superboy, and Moon Knight. This made me appreciate Jeff Lemire in a whole new light. This dude has been around and very successful, so.

01:00:15
Anyways, that's what I've been on. And I think with that being said, and apparently short box is needed at First Coast Comic Con. Drew, I think it's time for us to wrap this episode up. You got anything to, any parting words? We're just gonna make some guitar riff sounds. Go ahead and me with guitar riffs.

01:00:32
Ladies and gents, this has been an episode of the Short Box Podcast. We love you guys. Thanks for kicking it with us. We hope to hear from you. If you got anything to say, any words to share, there is links in the show notes to send us emails and voicemails and texts and all that. We love you guys. And yo, go watch Superman for a second and third time. I already got my second time tickets. Are you going to go catch it a second time? Yeah, bro. I'm thinking of the second time. Yeah, bro. What do you think this is? Not amateur hour. It's Superman. There we go.

01:00:59
Alright, SureVox Nation, take care, I'll catch you next week, right? Peace!

01:01:05
There you have it short box nation. That's the end of the show.  Thank you for hanging out. Thanks for being here. And a special shout out if you made it this far. If you enjoyed this episode and you have some thoughts or comments that you want to share with us, write us at the short box, jacks at gmail.com. And if you really liked this episode,  help us spread the word, share this episode with a friend or someone you know that loves comics as much as we do. And don't forget to leave us a five star rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify.

01:01:33
or wherever you get your podcasts. It takes two minutes tops and it would mean the world to us. Leave us a review. Now, if you want more content like bonus episodes or perks like early access and commercial free episodes,  and in some cases, free comic books, consider joining our Patreon community at patreon.com slash the short box. It's an easy and very affordable way to support the show  and get rewarded for being a fan. Once again, sign up at patreon.com slash the short box.

01:02:00
Speaking of our Patreon community, want to give a big shout out to our current members, including Adam Chaitani,  RcGamut, BJKicks, Blake Simone,  Blythe Milligan,  Bo Evers,  Brian Brumley, Chad Lannenberger, Chris Hackett,  David Morales,  Greg Lichtig, Hershel,  Mack Jacobson,  issue number three, Brad,  Jay Sinner,  Jeff Fremid, Jerome Cabanatan, Jose Sepulveda, Justin McCoy, Corey Torgeson,  Matt Godwin, Amanda Maron,

01:02:29
Melissa Burton,  Nick Wagner,  Ryan Isaacson, Steven Gamet, T-Mix, The Wait For It Podcast, Tony A. Uppie, Trey Namo, Walter Gant, and last but not least, Warren Evans. Big shout outs to the patrons.  And with that being said, that's it. That's what I got for you this time. Thanks for listening. Tune in next week for another episode.  And most importantly, take care of yourselves, read a good comic, and continue to make mine and yours short box. I'll catch you soon. Peace.




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