Welcome to the first episode of our Finale Month! We wanted to kick off Finale Month in the same place we started this podcast with a remixed version of the MCU! The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a force to be reckoned with, both monetarily and popularly, but it had to start somewhere and some might say an eternity ago in the ancient year of 2008 with a “washed up” actor and a C-level comic book character at the proverbial chrome helm. We lay out the 5 fundamental somethings of the MCU, including who are the best heroes, villains, shows and movies as well as what the future holds and where we got our start!
Full Episode transcript available below:
Kalvin 0:06
To podcast, each week we dive deep into whatever it is we find interesting. I’m your host, Calvin, in joining me from Mad rapport to co host Nick Richardson.
Nick 0:18
I’m in Upper matterport let me just be specific.
Kalvin 0:21
Gotcha. I’m high definite nightclubs, ximo and whatnot.
Nick 0:24
Yeah, I’m in high town baby seamos got the moves learning from me.
Kalvin 0:31
I you know, I believe that I believe you have the exact same moves as emo
Nick 0:35
right, they call me Baron beemo. Fucker copied.
Kalvin 0:44
So we are diving back into the MCU. This is our first episode of our finale month for the next four episodes, we will be winding up this show. This is the first of them, where we’re talking about the MCU. And the reason we are talking about the MCU. Because if you go all the way back to January of 2018, our very first episode was also the MCU. So this is a remixed version of the MCU. We redoing it now in our new format. Just kind of a comparison to how far we’ve come. So if you’re new to the show, at some point, you can listen to this episode and go back 2018 and hear the very stark difference. You like that pun there with my man Tony Stark, but as in how far we’ve come? Because that first episode, Eric and I were recording on a phone in my living room kind of yelling into the same phone. And we don’t do that anymore. So that’s why I find this interesting.
Nick 1:43
Oh, man, I feel it. The days of being a podcasting caveman.
Kalvin 1:48
Yeah. So if you really want to see what we thought back then I my thoughts probably haven’t changed much I can get Eric’s thoughts on it, the previous co host here that new Nick’s thoughts will be new here. We’ve had some MCU conversations, obviously, before we’ve talked Spider Man, we’ve talked, I think we did MCU movie superlatives at some point. So there we are, there’s some content in there about the MCU. But we’re gonna try and keep it fresh a little bit. Now that you know, we’re about to go into phase four is we’re technically in phase four with the Marvel shows.
Nick 2:22
Well, I’m good. I’m definitely going to keep it fresh, especially regarding this face for action. Because since it’s the finale, I don’t get to talk like this with most people in my life. Like my mother was pretty big nerd like me and can have great conversations about it. But there’s often times where she looks at me, it’s just like, shut the fuck up.
Kalvin 2:44
I’m trying to What does anything you’re saying matter? Yeah,
Nick 2:46
right. It’s like, honey, I don’t care. And that’s okay. Definitely, you know, nothing wrong with that. So, I will thoroughly enjoy this. I hope you all thoroughly
Kalvin 2:56
enjoy this. It’s gonna be fun. We got four episodes left, including this one. So stay hang on to your butts. It’s gonna be a wild ride. So what is the MCU is the Marvel Cinematic Universe it launched in 2008. With the release of Iron Man kind of saw a soft launch in 2008. I’ll say with the release of Iron Man. As of recording this Wednesday, July 7, there are 23 movies through the first three phases of the MCU. But by the time this releases on Monday, July 12, blackwidow will have been released. So there will technically be 24 movies by that time.
Nick 3:37
I’m thrilled.
Kalvin 3:39
There have been a lot of spin off shows and like the the Marvel one shots, those were a lot of fun. We’re not probably going to talk about those too much. But let’s just mention real quick all the MCU spin offs the the TV universe, as it were just kind of a quick kind of list through the different shows not really talking depth here. So first, we have the ABC shows, which are also known as the Marvel Heroes shows. I never knew that until I was researching this on Wikipedia. Marvel Heroes, Wikipedia does. So we had Agents of SHIELD Agent Carter and the Inhumans which I can’t believe that existed. So you get two episodes of that. If you really want to go back and if you’re a real completionist
Nick 4:20
is a bad that. I don’t I’ve never saw it. I never I watched several clips from it. And it was just like, what the
Unknown Speaker 4:27
fuck?
Kalvin 4:28
Yeah, I’ve seen clips here and there and it’s it’s not good.
Nick 4:33
You know, it’s like, oh, Game of Thrones guy. I’ll watch that. in white, I think is his name.
Kalvin 4:39
It’s even something I don’t think it’s white. But the guy that played Ramsay bowl, so not a good dude in in Game of Thrones, but he was and he’s supposed to be like now the the most sadistic person in Game of Thrones is supposed to come over and be the the stand up hero of inhuman so you’re off to a bad start.
Nick 4:56
But he transitions to a villain. So it’s like that means Okay, gotcha.
Kalvin 5:01
I see. I couldn’t see that. Yeah, that dude’s a good villain.
Nick 5:05
But damn so that was before they realized they had to cut a check to make a good show cuz Yeah, that wasn’t cutting it.
Kalvin 5:12
No, you can’t just be like yeah, we exist in the same universe so people are gonna watch because it didn’t work. I watched Agents of SHIELD for like, I think the first three seasons and then I want to say it was right around maybe Age of Ultron that I was like, this just does not matter anymore. Like they’re they’re barely connecting it to the movies. It’s not interesting anyways, I just it was too much. It was like a slog. And the only reason I was watching it was to like, make sure that when I went into an MCU movie, I didn’t miss anything and that I didn’t Don’t worry
Nick 5:46
what the fuck is this? See I at that point I’d been saturated with some flash and green arrow and and got to the point where it was like not these aren’t that good anymore. I’d kind of fallen off with that. So I just I didn’t I didn’t even pick it up. I have zero clue what the fuck goes on and Agents of SHIELD outside that didn’t they have cosmic Ghost Rider on there?
Kalvin 6:08
I believe so. Yeah, well, it’s not cosmic Ghost Rider yet. Gabriel? I don’t know I had turned it off by then. Like I think I saw the introduction of the guy who was going to become ghost writer but he I didn’t see the part where he actually became ghostwriter
Nick 6:24
probably looked like a fucking paper machine. Ya know? I
Kalvin 6:27
think they did a really good job. That’s like one of the the top with like good things that I hear the show did was ghost writer. Anyway, after the ABC shows, fizzled, we got the Netflix shows which are also known as the Marvel Knights.
Nick 6:47
Marvel Knights. That’s a
Kalvin 6:51
nice with a K. Yeah, we’re cool. It’s good. And there we had Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, the defenders and the Punisher. All pretty good. Yes. Good. Good to Great shows. I enjoy iron fist. You will not disparage it here.
Nick 7:08
There are moments I enjoy an iron fist. But Finn Jones is wack as I look.
Kalvin 7:15
So I liked him as Danny ran. I know he couldn’t do the kung fu stuff and and it looks bad.
Nick 7:20
That’s two thirds of the character.
Kalvin 7:22
I understand that I liked everything he did outside of that. That’s he did a good job of being like the doofy. Well to do but not really world savvy because he’s been gone on a mountain in China fighting an actual dragon for the last 10 years.
Nick 7:38
So he had that portion of them down. So you had like a third of the character down? Yes. The second third What? Danny ran when it’s time, like when his fucking go time? This dude’s intimidating. Like you don’t fuck with Iron Fist? He did not have that.
Kalvin 7:55
And the girl that they had played was great. Honey wing.
Nick 7:58
Yes. She was fantastic. She
Kalvin 8:01
was the best part about that. She had some good misty Knight action in that crossing over from Luke Cage. She was great, too. Yeah. So there were there were definitely good parts of each one except the defenders or defenders was useless.
Nick 8:14
It made me upset just because it’s like, man. I would much rather be watching Daredevil right now. Yeah, he’s right there. Like what?
Kalvin 8:23
They could have made a such better show. And they’re just like, now we’re bringing everybody together. It’s fine. people show up?
Nick 8:28
Well, I think they already knew like the writing’s on the wall. Disney was gonna make a move. And you know, Marvel was going to be kind of off the table for Netflix. So it’s, you know, when the writing’s on the wall, you just kind of throw in it, Hope it sticks, make some revenue off of it and move along.
Kalvin 8:44
And then we’ve got the Disney plus shows, aka the ones that we’re claiming are the only ones that really actually for real this time count.
Nick 8:53
took them a while, but they’re their
Kalvin 8:56
recipes. They never actually happened. Everyone’s imagination that’s
Nick 9:00
sort of 1066 not 616.
Kalvin 9:03
Yeah, which is
Nick 9:04
our world.
Kalvin 9:04
So you guys know. So we had one division, the Falcon in the Winter Soldier, Loki, and then there’s many more coming throughout 2021 as part of MCU phase four. And there are also some other shows that you didn’t even realize existed. We got the runways on Hulu Hellstrom on Hulu and Cloak and Dagger on Freeform which is probably a channel that you didn’t even know existed.
Nick 9:28
Yeah, I knew. I’ve heard of all those shows. Never cared to pick them up. Cloak and Dagger are incredibly boring characters outside of their interactions with Spider Man. So it’s like I’m out Hellstrom. Like I’ve heard that name once or twice in my 20 years of reading comic books. And the runaways that might be a little interesting is that is that means
Kalvin 9:55
Yeah. And it was kind of it was kind of supposed to be
Nick 9:59
like a soft introduction. You know, cuz
Kalvin 10:01
it wasn’t it wasn’t necessarily supposed to be MCI cuz I think Fox had them at the time. So it’s got in the same way New Mutants was there kind of tangentially attached to the x men movies. runaways was the same kind of like the TV version of that. So yeah, but I think it did two seasons and I don’t know, I’ve never heard anyone say like it’s greater worthwhile in anyway. Yeah. So before we get into our five fundamental assumptions about the MCU, I want to mention that there will be spoilers ahead for potentially all current MCU movies and TV shows up to and including Loki. I don’t think we’ll be spoiling Loki. But we might. I’ve seen everything that’s been released so far, Nick is not. So I’m going to try and stray away stray away from it. But if it happens, it happens. But and we are recording this before Black Widow is actually released. So there cannot possibly be any Black Widow spoilers because we haven’t seen it. If you have somehow stumbled upon this after watching Black Widow hoping for some sweet Black Widow content. Not going to happen here. Sorry. Just go search your podcast app for the approximately 15,409 movie podcasts out there that are most likely releasing an episode on Black Widow this week. Oh, yeah. They’ve gotten covered.
Nick 11:24
Yeah, we got you. I mean, there’s definitely some things I will say about it.
Kalvin 11:29
Yes, but that’s what yeah, that Yeah, we might have some thoughts on it. But not actual spoilers, because we haven’t seen the movie.
Nick 11:35
Not yet. I wouldn’t. I’m looking forward to it though.
Kalvin 11:39
So four or five fundamental some things about the MCU. We’re going to talk about where we got our start in the MCU. Our top five MCU heroes, our top five MCU villains are top five MCU films slash tv shows. And the heroes and villains can come from the movies or any of the TV shows that were supposedly attached at one point in time to the MCU. And then the fifth one, we’re gonna talk about the future of the MCU where we see it going or what we’re excited for there. So let’s start right out. Nick, where did you get your start into the MCU
Nick 12:13
as a wee lad, in fact, I was a 15 year old couldn’t even drive yet. When Iron Maiden came out obviously very comic books will look comics my entire life. So that was something me and my dad did is we went and saw like the first 10 MCU movies together. But yeah, before I mean, my wife started going together. No, it couldn’t have been that much. Anyway, first 10
Kalvin 12:41
would have taken me up through like, Civil War, I want to say
Nick 12:44
yeah, definitely not. So probably the first three, but we’d watched like all the x men in theaters we’ve watched all the spider man in theaters, so it’s kind of like tradition. Yeah, was not expecting much. I could have cared less about Iron Man. thought he was dumb. I had no idea who the fuck Robert Downey Jr. was. My dad’s like, he’s, he’s good. Trust me. He’s,
Kalvin 13:05
he’s solid. He was good. 20 years ago, and he’s been an alcoholic for a while. And now now he’s back. And I’m sure he’ll be fine.
Nick 13:11
Right? So I was I was apprehensive. You know, everybody deserves second chance. Especially rdg. Yeah,
Kalvin 13:15
no, I’m not disparaging him on that. But like that. That was his story at the time is like he was good when he was younger in the 80s. And then, because he had his problems. Yeah, he went to his comeback. Was this his first movie back? I don’t think it was his first movie back. But this was like his first important thing back. Well, I
Nick 13:36
mean, there was people were talking about it, but I think most people expected it to be like Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk Hulk Yeah,
Kalvin 13:44
yeah, I
Nick 13:45
mean, it’s it’s insanely popular, but it was mostly for toys. But he was it was a shit. He fought dogs. That was the big thing. Like he wasn’t Zodiac right before this was was great before this.
Kalvin 14:00
Yeah. 2007 The shaggy dog with Tim Allen. Come on now. Oh, fuck. That’s Kiss Bang Bang was in 2005. So he had done Scapa, in 2003 he It looks like he had been working but nothing huge, huge. Like this ended up being
Nick 14:15
nothing leading man. And yeah, needless to say, when I walked out of that movie. Wow. That was it was one of like the freshest movies I’d seen in a long time with a great mix of action, comedy, charisma and downright bad ass Ray. How can you not love it was one of the is one of the few times I walked out of a theater like I could immediately go back in and rewatch that and I went in giving zero fucks about Iron Man.
Kalvin 14:43
Yeah, I’m in the same boat. I started right with Iron Man 2008 it was so fucking cool when it first came out and then like a few months later, we got the Dark Knight. And that was even cooler. And so all of a sudden it was like Yeah, okay, I’m proud to be a nerd now like that. They’re doing stuff for me specifically now which is which is great. Really awesome and it was such a good origin story for the character that like like you said no one gave a fuck about it. Nobody knew a ton about iron man and his origins and like all the side characters everything like that coming in I surely didn’t. I was just like, Alright superhero movie whatever like Spider Man movies like The x men movies I’ve seen I liked to an extent I liked some of the things Daredevil Did you know? So like I was I was in on superhero movies. I liked all the Batman movies I had seen and just they hit the nail on the head perfectly with all the casting Robert Downey Jr. Gwyneth Paltrow even Terrence Howard like Don Cheadle is better than Terrence Howard by miles. Howard very still really good an Iron Man.
Nick 15:42
Well, let’s not john fabro was the perfect guy to direct that movie. He did a fucking fantastic with the CGI was just good enough. The practical effects were super good. His pratfall effect, Ironman suit was great the fucking dude as Oba diah stain. Really good. Yeah.
Kalvin 16:03
I can’t think of it. Jeff Bridges. Thank you. I kept thinking Jeff Daniels and last guy from Dumb and Dumber and I knew that wasn’t right. That the movie was also smart enough to take itself seriously, but not too seriously. That was like those mid like the mid level Fast and Furious movies where they’re like, Alright, we’re gonna do a heist, but we’re also going to do some crazy shit on the way.
Nick 16:22
Right? It Well, it was feasible. It was one of the first like, but the bang of Iron Man In The Dark Knight was one of those. It’s like, okay,
Kalvin 16:32
hang over in there, too. Yeah, I mean, good summer for movies.
Nick 16:36
today. That wasn’t that that was that was later that was two years later. But anyway, that’s that’s when these movies started to be taken seriously. Because before it was like, Spider Man X men 1x men to to a certain degree, and Spider Man and one and two were white the top the cream of the crop, like everyone thought those were going to be the best that ever, you know, came out at the time. But there were still campy movies with some terrible dialogue you know, yada yada, and not a lot of humor. And then I think Iron Man is from movie making standpoint. Like I don’t like the movie better than the original Spider Man movies.
Kalvin 17:22
Best like the care of spider character of spider man better
Nick 17:25
a hell of a lot better, but I rewatch spider man to the other day. And while I love that movie, there are some points in it that is just like, wow, what the fuck
Kalvin 17:38
is a better film for any of those movies right from a filmmaking standpoint, but I enjoy the story being told on the Spider Man movies more than than Iron Man. Just because I like the character better. And I want to like to stick with Peter Parker and because he’s kind of your every man more so than Tony Stark ever will be. And Iron Man, it gave us those incredibly fun like only in a comic book movie moments. While still like you said it was still grounded enough in our real world that it was you can kind of see it happening. It’s kind of feasible, that you believe that maybe this technology could exist if we really pushed it, you know?
Nick 18:18
Oh, definitely. I mean, it’s totally feasible that in 2008 a billionaire like a billionaire could totally do some shit like that. I could I could totally see if they want to get sued into the fucking ground. I can totally see Ilan musk donning a suit of armor that shoots missiles and lasers and shit. And fly. I’m surprised he hasn’t yet. I think he’s a little old for it. I think he gets that. Not very fit either. rd,
Kalvin 18:46
kid, so he’s probably building it for when it was kids like 16 so again, when the car is gonna get in the fucking Iron Man suit.
Nick 18:52
That’ll be the Tesla s 22. She’s sick. Oh my god, that’d be so cool. He should. I’m gonna tweet it Ilan must be like dog. don’t really do this, please, that would be so evil.
Kalvin 19:08
I remember the important starting point for the MCU because I remember seeing it in theaters. And he didn’t stay through the credits. And nobody did. The only movies that had really done at that point were Pirates of the Caribbean movies. And nobody even knew that those had post credit scenes either. So it just it just wasn’t a thing in 2008. But then the buzz kind of started up on the internet and in like these nerdy friends circles that there was a stinger scene there with fury kind of announcing the Avengers. And you weren’t going to pay to go see the movie again. Just to see that in YouTube wasn’t really at a place where you could get existed but you couldn’t just find any movie scene you wanted to at the drop of a hat like you can’t now
Nick 19:50
so it was like pirated you’d have a pirate that shit.
Kalvin 19:53
Yeah, and there’s like 15 people standing up in the middle of it trying to walk out it was weird. So like you just kind of heard this buzz for Six months, as you know, people had seen it and some people had stayed and you’re like, and you think most of the people are just lying to you, right? And and now that doesn’t happen. Why would they do that doesn’t even make any sense that you know, the iron Rand is not the starting point for the Avengers that doesn’t even It doesn’t mean anything.
Nick 20:17
But it’s just as a comic book. I mean, I think the Avengers were like, the furthest thing from anybody’s mind when it came to an Iron Man movie. Avengers was be the Avengers were see list until you know this scene.
Kalvin 20:33
Yeah. And so just a quick side note at the time, like Marvel didn’t have this grand MCU plan, either. It at the time, it was just a fun easter egg. And they did it again, an incredible hulk and then they did it again, and Iron Man two. And I think that’s really when it started to pick up steam that these are really all connected, and they’re gonna cross over at some point. And Marvel really started moving towards that. I think, in the beginning, it was just like, yeah, let’s throw them in there. It’ll be fun. But I don’t think they could have ever imagined that 15 years later, they’re still making these movies and they’re still all connected. And the continuity is mostly good. You know, there’s some bad there’s some missteps in the continuity, but that’s okay.
Nick 21:15
It’s like 90% solid. Yeah. I don’t think this was an accident. I I know Kevin fire. He was like involved in Marvel Studios at that point. I
Kalvin 21:23
don’t think it was an accident. But I also don’t think it was like, I don’t think it was a serious plan that they’re like we’re gonna focus in. In four years, we’ll be releasing an Avengers movie. With all these people in it.
Nick 21:34
I think it was really just, Yo, this is really good. Like what you put together here is really fucking solid. We got to leave something gonna leave the back door open just right. It’s like what it does.
Kalvin 21:45
And and it’s there’s a devil’s advocate. They got it right with Iron Man. Incredible Hulk was a
Nick 21:52
but Edward Norton fuck that movie up behind the scenes.
Kalvin 21:55
Yeah. And and so But Captain America could have been awful. You know, Chris Evans did not have a good track record. Last point, especially in comic book movies. Thor could have been awful Chris Hemsworth wasn’t nobody like that could have just lately fallen flat. Tom hillston was nobody also.
Nick 22:12
So if those B and C movie, you know, be right, Lister,
Kalvin 22:16
if those two movies just absolutely suck and bomb, the Avengers doesn’t happen anyways. Or even if they’re just as bad as the Incredible Hulk, which the Incredible Hulk isn’t bad. But if they’re not markedly better than that, then then they’re like, there’s no way we’re gonna be able to get people in the seats to bring these five people together.
Nick 22:37
Oh, it’s just crazy is the Incredible Hulk is yes. It’s like who made that movie? It doesn’t even say it doesn’t even have the soul of Marvel that, you know, this touches all our movies?
Kalvin 22:49
Well, no. And that that’s part of the they didn’t have this grand scheme of an interconnected universe at the time because you can tell they’re, they feel like they’re in two completely separate worlds.
Nick 22:58
They want 100% do just
Kalvin 23:02
but but all of this mean Iron Man a day one rental blu ray by and rewatch, because like you had to see for yourself. If that really happened in the post credits, and you wanted to see it. And I think that was totally worth it. And 13 years later, this thing is still going and it’s going strong, mostly because that first movie hit every market needed to like we just said, and then the next five hit the marks that they needed to if any of those fall we don’t have what we have now.
Nick 23:30
Yeah, they’re I mean, they’re all in what’s, what’s great, is it was obvious at the time, and especially now in hindsight, is they were getting better with each movie. Like I think Incredible Hulk is definitely an outlier. But I think Iron Man is a good movie. I think Captain America The First Avenger is a great movie.
Kalvin 23:52
I really like that one. A lot of people have it low on their list, but I like The First Avenger
Nick 23:56
love that movie. And you know, for
Kalvin 23:59
the first time force. It does good with what it had to work with. Like Thor is a hard character to bring the screen is super hard in the scope of what Asgard is. And what they’re trying to do is it’s not easy.
Nick 24:16
Honestly, I think it I would refer to it as great if I’d never got for Ragnarok
Kalvin 24:20
Yeah, well, and they’re trying to bring this high fantasy world into try and make it feel more grounded and real life and that’s it’s not easy to do. But could you imagine for a minute if Iron Man and incredible hulk release dates were flipped? Do you think we have the MCU if Incredible Hulk comes out first,
Nick 24:37
no chance? No, no, no chance. Because you you don’t have a bonafide star that you can work with in the future like Edward Norton burns bridges, wherever that dude goes. Already j i think had fun so it’s come back.
Kalvin 24:52
So you have to think that the last few movies that that are attached To Marvel are x men x men three, Spider Man three, blade three. The incredible The Incredible Hulk and 2003 Hulk, like all that they’re just missing a missing and missing nobody’s gonna show up tired man. If If Incredible Hulk comes out first and then Iron Man comes out. That’s like the fifth strike of Incredible Hulk. Nobody’s going to see strike six and Iron Man. Everybody’s just gonna assume
Nick 25:26
that the last gasp of a desperate man. Yeah. Yeah, no chance.
Kalvin 25:34
Alright, so let’s talk about our top five heroes. So we’ve got five each just gonna talk about who we like why we like them. So we can’t pick a whole team. But each member of a team counts as its own hero. So you could like pick Drax, but he couldn’t pick the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Nick 25:48
If that makes sense. It makes total sense. All right.
Kalvin 25:53
So I when I picked my five I only accounted for their characterizations within the MCU not the entirety of the characters history, throughout comics and other movies and all that stuff. So it’s just what are they like in the MCU?
Nick 26:05
Right. I’m gonna go first. Hit me
Kalvin 26:08
with Luke Cage. Oh, nice. Yeah, want to go off the board here. I love Luke cages setup. Mostly. He’s his bulletproof guy can’t really be hurt. But he never takes that for granted. He’s extremely cautious. Well, let’s not say extremely cautious. He’s relatively cautious for a bulletproof man. And he has he does try to like plan out his attacks and strategize a little bit. He always stays true to himself, for the most part, doesn’t try to take on anything bigger than he can handle. Like, he’s perfectly fine saying like, Nah, that’s not me. We’re gonna let the vendors handle the chare. I’ll take out cottonmouth You know, he understands his limits. And I think that’s important for the hero.
Nick 26:51
Oh, 100%. And I think Luke Cage is one of the sickest heroes. Like you said, He’s not abundantly cautious, but I think he’s a certain kind of cautious that fixes fits his characterization perfectly. Which is Yeah, just might be a little work. But being a black man in America, that man’s had to be cautious the majority of his fucking life. And it’s personified in like his harrowing. It’s really weird. And john Coulter did a fucking awesome job with it. Mike called Mike Colter. I’m sorry.
Kalvin 27:24
He’s He’s aggressively cautious. Let’s say that very cautiously aggressive.
Nick 27:29
I love it. Now, it’s just like is he will
Kalvin 27:32
he’ll throw down right away if he needs to. But yeah, he knows what he’s getting into before he’ll do it. He’s not just gonna walk into something blind. Absolutely not. Jessica Jones would often do.
Nick 27:41
He’s very mindful of his words and actions, but he makes these decisive.
Kalvin 27:50
So who is your number five hero?
Nick 27:53
Number five, so I can pick from the Netflix shows?
Kalvin 27:57
Yeah. Anything that was at one point supposed to be connected to the MCU.
Nick 28:01
Okay, I had him as a runner, but Daredevil. Yeah, he’s good. There double. Matt Murdock blind, played by Charlie Cox. Dude really good. He, he brought that I used to love reading Frank Miller’s Daredevil back in the day. And something he did so well was portrayed this really conflicted character between his faith and his actions, like his moral obligations, and the background he came from. And while I’m not a faith, kind of guy, I definitely understood the inner conflict and stuff like that. Plus he’s the man without fear. That’s dope as fuck. And yeah, they brought him like perfectly thought it was amazing. I will pay 10s of dollars to watch more data. I will.
Kalvin 28:54
Yeah, I just I want to see Charlie Cox shine as as Daredevil I don’t care about you know, Fulton read as foggy or whoever the woman was that that was playing. What’s her name?
Nick 29:07
She’s really hot though. Karen Paige guess her character’s name but
Kalvin 29:12
you know, King rose kingpin was really good, but so good. I don’t care about the hand or anything like that. But like getting more and Farley Cox and then center off rails kingpin would be really cool. And like if anything came over, like I just mentioned how much I liked Luke Cage. I don’t care if he comes over into what the MCU is now. I could do without him. But if anybody needs to come over, it’s probably Matt Murdock, Daredevil and vincitore off rails. Wilson fist slash kingpin. Yeah, they’re just absolutely great.
Nick 29:41
Hell’s Kitchen needs to come to life and something that they achieved with that show, especially in the third season. I remember sitting down to watch that first episode. just amazed. absolutely amazed that they put that to TV. So good. And then in the season three finale when he finally hadestown Wilson Fisk, and I’ve just I love that trope that’s always been out there. Like, I think there’s means of it out there to where, you know, they don’t want to wear masks because it’s really hard to tell their expressions. And then you see that scene where he wins and then just screams in his fucking face. Yes, so good.
Kalvin 30:21
All right, my next one is the wasp.
Nick 30:25
I dig man, I didn’t have Angelina Lilly
Kalvin 30:28
was great. She does a fantastic job in both Ant Man, an Ant Man and The Wasp. just bringing the loss to life like Paul Rudd’s great, but I don’t think either of these movies work without her. Also, you know, the first movie, she has to kind of have that balance of being jealous of Scott, but also trying to help accomplish her dad’s goals and her goals to stop there and cross because he’s this insane person, and they know what he’s trying to do. And Scott is not up for the job on his own, obviously. And then an Ant Man and The Wasp, she kind of gets fully unleashed. And you can tell she should really be top billing for these movies at that point.
Nick 31:09
Oh, 100% man. And I know we’re just pulling from the MCU characterization. But they did once again, they did really well with her. She’s the West Coast Avengers leader. Like she’s been the leader of so many strike teams and stuff like that, because she is brilliant, incredibly tactical, cunning, and charismatic. And they did a great job with that in the MCU.
Kalvin 31:31
Yeah, she eventually lose perfect. And just very sad though.
Nick 31:35
That first one.
Kalvin 31:37
Yeah, that’s right. I think it’s a wig.
Nick 31:39
It’s, yeah, like, You’re way too pretty. We don’t want everyone focusing on you. So we’re gonna put this wig. It just really makes you look bitchy for some reason.
Kalvin 31:51
But like you said, She’s a much more capable fighter than Scott Lang. She understands the technology better. She’s just kind of better and more level headed person than Scott ever is in his movies. And you know, she can hold her own. Eventually Lily can hold her own against Paul Rudd in the comedy department, like kind of how she pokes fun at him about his one sided relationship with cap and like she’s always just kind of there. You know, given them a little elbow in the ribs on everything that he does and and she’s perfect for it.
Nick 32:18
Yeah, she’s she’s got chops, man. She’s got some comedy chops.
Kalvin 32:22
Yeah, she’s great. You got next.
Nick 32:26
I got Hulk, Mark rathalos Hulk, specifically. always been a huge fan of the Incredible Hulk and while I think they’ve done my boy dirty that the first Avengers movie unreal. That was, you know, watching the Hulk was so cool. And obviously, you know, Bruce Banner. I really wish they would do like they would have done some kind of origin story for him. That wasn’t that was specifically with Mark Ruffalo. I think it would have been a lot better. But he do. He nails it as once again the conflicted character of Bruce Vader and the Incredible Hulk.
Kalvin 33:10
Yeah, that has always been one of my favorites, too. He’s He’s very interesting that that inner turmoil with him of trying to control his anger but also needing to let loose his anger to to fully realize himself and how the two sides don’t like each other because they they don’t understand each other. And I just Hulk has been really great throughout the MCU. He I mean, Edward Norton did a fine job and Incredible Hulk, it’s just not a very good movie. It’s not a well put together movie. They don’t give him a lot to do. And I think that that’s probably a lot of his meddling is like they were doing so many script rewrites on the fly because of him. That the movie just feels a little disjointed.
Nick 33:51
Yeah, I just I don’t think he has it. Like he’s, he’s good. He’s fine. But I think Mark Ruffalo plus this is their third outing, as you know, creating the Incredible Hulk and I think they just be there tighter charm. better job, you know, like he I just never really sat well with the Edward Norton Hulk outside of that, like first scene in the bottling plant, that that felt very HOLC, like, Mark Ravello just as such a brilliant job as Bruce Banner. Like that.
Kalvin 34:25
He dies he gets both sides of it and he
Nick 34:27
can the other guys spit it out. So that shit was heartbreaking.
Kalvin 34:33
Good choice. I like that. My next choice is even better though. My boy. Captain America,
Nick 34:41
America. Man.
Kalvin 34:43
I don’t think we need to say too much about America’s ass.
Nick 34:46
But I’ll say a little bit on I’ve been waiting to say that. You son of a bitch.
Kalvin 34:51
That’s America’s as Chris Evans is just again, perfect casting and that there’s a theme in the MCU that pretty Pretty much everyone that has come back time and again, is perfect casting. Third time was definitely the charm for Chris Evans in comic book adaptations. I couldn’t be happier that they gave him another chance because, you know, he was done dirty. He didn’t go to Johnny Storm, but those movies were just bad the Fantastic Four movies. He did good in the losers, but again, just not a great movie.
Nick 35:22
Well, Scott Pilgrim to Oh yeah, he’s
Kalvin 35:24
in Scott Pilgrim. I need to watch Scott Pilgrim again. I haven’t seen that in too long.
Nick 35:29
Also comic book movie.
Kalvin 35:31
Yes, he through so forth. Time was the charm for Chris Evans. They just keep they just kept giving until well, I like Ryan Reynolds.
Nick 35:37
I think it’s interesting that he they wanted to give it to him earlier, but he kind of ran away from the role. But it’s, I mean, it’s like running away from Destiny. That dude is so perfect. And just had that stupid optimism plastered on his dumb face.
Kalvin 35:56
It’s stupid optimism. But it’s also not like he gets that the character is not just blind patriotism. It’s optimism. But it’s not just like, well, America, America, America, you know, the strength and responsibility to question the ideals of what the country and the flag and the outfit he’s wearing. And to fight for what’s right, not, you know, what’s most American, quote unquote, is is more important to him. And that that comes from that, you know, doofy optimism that you’re pointing out. And I think the Falcon The Winter Soldier, it wasn’t a really good or really necessary show. But it had some moments where it was kind of able to shine light on the shortcomings of the idea of America that the first three Captain America couldn’t really do. I guess, Winter Soldier did a little bit with the spying and Hydros infiltrated everything. But I think I think Captain America is gonna continue to be a top three character for me, even with Anthony Mackie behind that Ill fitting Cal, because we’ve talked about, yeah, it’s a very bad mask, I hope they get a new mask before the next movie comes out.
Nick 36:59
It’s very comic accurate, but Oh,
Kalvin 37:01
yeah, I know. But it looks very stupid. I can’t imagine anything. Mackey likes wearing it. But he is he makes everything better. He’s great in every movie, just by bringing his presence to it. And that’s not I think that’s gonna continue with him in the MCU. And I also kind of like that the character now can challenge these classic ideals of what America means to different people by coming from a place of understanding that it’s not the same for everyone rather than having, you know, this tall, blond, beautiful white man, tell us what it’s supposed to me. Well,
Nick 37:33
I think the idea of what America is supposed to be has shifted dramatically. Well, yeah, population. And when I look at Captain America, specifically Chris Evans, Captain America, and you said it really well. I feel like that’s what it’s like to be an American. That’s what it’s that’s what it fucking means to be an American. And in 1941,
Kalvin 37:52
we’re fighting World War Two. Yeah, it
Unknown Speaker 37:55
is.
Nick 37:56
Well, I think now as well, just the, you know, if if the ideals quote unquote, are wrong, then why blindly follow them? You know what I mean? Just you made the point of blindly being patriotic and shit like that. When he’s not, I think that’s what it means to be an American. You know what I mean? Yeah, and I think Anthony Mackie does it very well as well. It’s solid. Yeah, man. I’m getting woke on this episode. We’re about to get all the one stars people like this one fucker is woke is shit.
Kalvin 38:28
I know we’re getting a lot of listens with that this black widow release. So but yet the hate mail coming. You’ve heard that and EPA something out alone underscore podcast. Oh,
Nick 38:36
yeah. Hit me up. Let me I would love to have a conversation about what it means to be an American eat with you. But have you heard the newest outrage about Captain America?
Kalvin 38:47
Now,
Nick 38:47
they released a comic last week called the United States of Captain America. And there is a new young gay man who has taken the moniker of Oh my god. Oh, that’s, that’s not even it. The original Captain America, Steve Rogers has a conversation with them. And basically says, you know, these people, they they built up what the American dream was, but in reality, it never fucking existed.
Kalvin 39:21
Oh, I saw that panel.
Nick 39:22
Yeah, like how they they say it existed this ideal. It’s it’s money. It’s gray waters like in you know, you’re gonna navigate it on your own accord. And I didn’t know the full
Kalvin 39:33
context. But I did see those panels.
Nick 39:35
Yeah. Oh my god, it’s so unreal. And I think he’s basically just saying, you know, this is alright that you’re gay. Like, well, yeah, America is not one singular thing that can be wrapped up in a bow. You know? No, it’s not. America is not white men and women marrying each other appropriating and praising Jesus but
Kalvin 39:53
the people who are going to get the people who are going to be loudest are the ones that think it should be and they think that their way of life should be that only thing.
Nick 40:01
Yeah. So it’s like no, sorry.
Kalvin 40:06
Hi, let’s move past this. Get to real here. What’s your number three fucking work, bro.
Nick 40:11
My number three is Captain America America’s ass. Definitely think
Kalvin 40:17
we’re gonna have the same top three for some reason he’s fucking packing.
Nick 40:20
He’s got cakes. He was doing them squats. Okay, Chris Evans is my wife celebrity crush. And when that happened, audibly She goes, Oh,
Unknown Speaker 40:37
I couldn’t even play
Unknown Speaker 40:42
all right, yeah. You know,
Nick 40:45
so I can’t pack them pants like
Unknown Speaker 40:51
oh,
Nick 40:54
I’m gonna give her some which ship after this. So we kind of kicked kicked Captain America up and down the street. Yeah, lovely character. I i sorry, I’m like crying because I was laughing so hard. I did I never cared for Captain until once again, I got the comic book background in an ultimate Spider Man. by Brian Michael Bendis This is pre Miles Morales. Captain America is the fucking man like Peter Parker keeps trying to you know be a part of the Avengers to certain degree and captures like listen kid, you’re not fucking ready. And then he ends up saving Peter who ends up dying in the end anyways, but you know cap shows up and nearly saves the day like as Peters die. You did good kid. It’s like, that’s my guy. fucking love cat for that. And when the MCU came alive was like, okay, they did a good job. They captured that for me.
Kalvin 41:55
Yeah, I completely agree. So captain, well, I don’t completely agree. Sorry. Agree with me. No, I agree with what you’re saying about cat but I he was always one of my favorites. It my top three like comics and other media. Marvel superheroes are Spider Man cap and Hulk. So like he was always up there. I was really excited for The First Avenger to come out. I was a little let down by the Winter Soldier because it was a little too much political intrigue for my interests. And then Civil War hit and I’m just like, I’m back. And so like, yeah, Chris Evans just did such a great job at at every piece of it.
Nick 42:33
sidebar, if you’re looking for some great Hulk reading, read the immortal Hulk. Okay, on it. Amazing.
Kalvin 42:45
Amazing. Amazing. My number two pick. should not be number two in anyone’s book, but he’s number two in my book, The Black Panther. Nice. Yeah. I can’t even start to imagine what the next Black Panther movie is going to look. Like without Chadwick boseman. boseman he was so good in this role.
Nick 43:13
He was trying to find the right word. So good. It’s two words, Calvin. Dammit. Good. exceptional. Yeah, there you go. But he was he was absolutely stunning. And this
Kalvin 43:31
is just beyond him. Because I, it’s it’s gonna be hard to talk about the role beyond him. Because it doesn’t exist yet. The character design was still really awesome. Even if it’s not him behind that math. You know, the way he uses the suit and all of the technology and advanced weaponry he has access to. It’s, it’s just all super cool. And my favorite moments for Black Panther still go back to Civil War, when we first get introduced to him. And it was just immediately obvious in civil war that he was just cooler and better than all the other heroes that we had met so far.
Nick 44:05
was just okay, this man is lethal AF and regal AF is believed.
Kalvin 44:13
And I don’t know what they did differently in Civil War versus Black Panther. But he seemed to just move so much faster in Civil War, and watching him chase down Bucky and capture the streets is still one of my favorite MCU scenes of all time.
Nick 44:25
Well, I think it’s because we had, we knew how fast Captain America is. Yeah, we learned very quickly how fast Bucky is, but I don’t really think you see many references in regards to speed with Black Panther. After that. It’s usually no well running solo or
Kalvin 44:42
right. He’s either by himself or he’s with other wakandans who are using the same advanced tech right or they’re riding on these big Rhino things. So yeah, you don’t you don’t ever get to see it really again, other than Him, chasing them down. And it’s just it’s an awesome seat. What do you do next?
Nick 45:02
My number two, correct?
Kalvin 45:04
Yes. Scarlett wagle deuce. Oh,
Nick 45:07
big Scarlet.
Kalvin 45:09
Witch second most powerful Avenger. No. Look, man vision does not have a real body can’t be hurt. I mean, I guess he’d get a milestone ripped out of his head.
Nick 45:26
Premium body and got wrecked. repeatedly. They took that motherfucker apart. How do they take him apart? That’s fair. Like do they have? Do they have Vibranium?
Kalvin 45:40
Now they had Corvus, gleaves little thing.
Nick 45:44
Right that could cut through. So anyway, Scarlett, which one of the most she’s obviously a omega level being some I refer to her as a mutant. That’s, that’s what I think she is. But anyway, she’s just incredible. Like her powers her storyline throughout the MCU is great coming and coming as a orphan child who grew up as basically a guerrilla fighter who has experimented on and now has mind control powers to a certain degree. That’s pretty dope. And the utility in which he uses her powers throughout the MCU is also super dope. And Elizabeth Olsen is great. That’s pretty much what I got to say about Scarlet Witch
Kalvin 46:32
she is other than the the fluctuating accent.
Nick 46:37
She does. I’m cool with because I think it makes sense with in the MCU. It’s heavy, early on, and it slowly fades away. When I think she’s had a predisposition to American. You know, people speaking English in America is what I mean through television, like we learned and that sort of which I think she has that in the back of her mind. Like if you went abroad and spent a couple years in England, like you’d probably have that accent readily available, but as she’s among them, Americans more and more. Maybe it just fades away. Natural. Yeah,
Kalvin 47:13
okay. All right. So number one, drumroll. Spider Man,
Nick 47:19
better fucking be spider man. Yeah.
Kalvin 47:21
It’s always gonna be the answer. 100% of the time. He’s always my favorite. Tom Holland is great. He understands what he needs to be in this world. And he fits into that mold. I get the criticism that these movies make Spidey feel like Iron Man Jr. But that’s not Hollins fault. It’s not spider man’s fault. That’s the direction that the movies wanted to take him. And that doesn’t met make Spider Man any less amazing.
Nick 47:46
Yeah, I just don’t care about In fact, if you could make him go Strider Jr. I don’t give well, that’d
Kalvin 47:53
be like, that’d be dope. Like, let’s do that.
Nick 47:56
There is a cosmic spider man and he’s nursed it.
Kalvin 48:01
Tom Holland just feels like a teenager in a way that Tobey Maguire Andrew Garfield never really did. That’s a big part of what makes this character so great in the MCU. He always feels like he’s in over his head. And that’s when Spidey works best. Because even though he’s in over his head, he’s going to find a way out. He’s going to find a way to do what’s best.
Nick 48:19
He’s an every man. Yeah, with great power comes great responsibility. That is like the dopest mantra in the history of humanity. And Tom Holland does a very good job and they’ve just scratched the surface. They really have they could make six other Spider Man movies, they would really bring the character to life even more, because they haven’t really touched his background at all. Which I’m okay with you I’m fine with that. But
Kalvin 48:46
yeah, I think well, a big point has been made with him about Tony’s death and and i think that his like, obviously Uncle Ben died at some point but Tony’s death is his Uncle Ben’s moment within the MCU I don’t think we need to go back to see uncle band. I also
Nick 49:03
know I wouldn’t 100% agree with that, but I think you could. I definitely think you could. But it was an Infinity War when he’s fading away. Like that. Really did a number because I mean, Spider Man damn near seems invincible at times. Like he took Captain America. He’s a kid obviously. He’s doing all this crazy shit building.
Kalvin 49:24
He didn’t take captain america he he fucking he stood up to Captain America.
Nick 49:30
That’s Samsung.
Kalvin 49:31
Yeah. Oh, it definitely is.
Nick 49:33
That’s that’s that saints in. Spider man could kill Captain America with one punch. So easy.
Kalvin 49:39
I don’t know about that. Captain America is still super soldier. He could kill like war machine with one punch.
Nick 49:46
And now he could kill captain america he could he could probably take Captain America’s head off legitness him
Kalvin 49:51
catching buches arm and just like so down softly.
Unknown Speaker 49:57
Arm Do you have a medal of honor? It’s so cool. Like that was just that was probably like his face was like What the fuck?
Nick 50:06
I’ve literally never had this happen. This is interesting. And I remember when they released the teaser for that it’s as Hey everyone I watched that trailer.
Kalvin 50:19
Yeah his his appearance when he when he shows up to the airport is great but I’m pretty sure they put him catching the arm in the trailer too and that was too much.
Nick 50:27
I don’t recall seeing that until the movie.
Kalvin 50:29
Really? Okay, maybe I’m misremembering. We don’t need to see everything in the trailer stop making trailer so that’s like bout to go see Space Jam two and a couple weeks I feel like I know the entire movie not that it’s like a huge plot but like I’ve so many trailers in so many commercial spots. I could tell you exactly beat for beat what’s going to happen in that movie as it happens?
Nick 50:52
Yeah, I tuned it out. You know why? Porky Pig rap was it for me? I was saying right now, man, they’re putting I love rap music. But they’re literally just abusing that in advertising like fucking crazy. Pop Tarts dog. What is rap music need to be in? Why do you have like, cuz this is fucking pop tarts. Like, hey, you want to pastry filled with fucking sugar. holler at me. It’s called pop tarts. You don’t I think it’s objectifying a certain degree.
Kalvin 51:27
So obviously one of Nick’s top MCU MCU villains is Pop Tarts and rap music. So we’re gonna move into our timeline.
Nick 51:36
I love Don’t get me wrong. I love rap music, but I don’t think you get your pop tarts. Pop Tarts go back go together.
Kalvin 51:43
I we’re gonna move on. If everyone’s okay with that. No Pop Tarts to the top five MC No, Calvin. Again. Same thing five each. Who are they? Why do we like him? I am not including Loki. Here he is the obvious most obvious of all obvious answers here. I’m purposely excluding him from my top five. I just I don’t think it’s fair to pick Loki. He’s given me way more screen time than any of these other ones and character development than anybody else to the point that if he wanted to, he could probably claim he’s a hero at this point in the MCU.
Nick 52:15
So he’s an antihero for sure.
Kalvin 52:17
I’m not touching Loki.
Nick 52:19
For me, Thanos is off the table.
Kalvin 52:22
I did not pick Thanos but that’s
Nick 52:26
fine. are off the table.
Kalvin 52:28
Yeah, but Oh, so he just shut us off now. I guess. My number five? Oh, yeah.
Nick 52:38
My, my fifth here. Okay, my heroes were a lot closer than I thought that would be. My fifth is ego. From guardians. That dude is a sociopath. And yeah, especially being a celestial. He has enormous power. I mean, he’s a fucking Living Planet. He basically just all over the goddamn solar system. And he’s got fucking kids out the wazoo and then murdered most of them. 99% of them and tried to do 100% of his goal is to literally take over the universe. And he had a great way of doing that, except for he fucked with the wrong Terran. I,
Kalvin 53:21
I like the idea of ego. I don’t know, I like the execution of it, like Kurt Russell is great. So I’m not trying to take that away from him. I just, I there’s not much about Guardians of the Galaxy, too, that I really liked. And so ego ego just like falls into that. And so it’s not ever on the top of my head when I’m thinking of things I like because it’s just, it’s too heavy handed. They’re like these long, boring stretches that feel like nothing’s happening. I just and there’s a lot of forced familial relationships and like building of these relationships that it just feels forced the whole time. I’m not a fan of Guardians of the Galaxy too. And so I think Kurt Russell’s great performance of ego kind of falls victim to that and why he’s not on my radar for this.
Nick 54:07
See, that’s, I think it’s kind of the opposite for me. I knew ego before this came out, right? I just wasn’t on board. Until I saw it. It was just like, okay, I never really thought of living planet is being necessarily lethal, or like capable of really doing anything outside of their immediate territory. But that kind of changed the game with ego the execution in the movie, and that really brought StarLord to another level as well. Like I think,
Kalvin 54:41
I think I did but I just I don’t know that that what happens in the movie, really did the things that it was trying to,
Nick 54:49
I think you could have done it by shaving 60 minutes off that movie that that is definitely you turn that into an hour and a half movie. It is a nine out of 10 but It’s two and a half hours long. You know, it’s it’s way too fucking long or two hours in like 14 minutes. Some stupid.
Kalvin 55:08
My number five pick going back to Luke Cage with cotton mouth. I don’t know if he really counts because they are shallow Lee Yeah, I mean you give me Hershel Ollie as Brooklyn kingpin with a biggie poster behind him in his office Give me that every day of the week. I’m there. I can’t believe he wasn’t the final villain of Luke Cage. And when he died in like Episode Six, the show just lost most of its charm.
Nick 55:35
They killed him up way too early though. I wasn’t happy. Where he was just it was one of those was like, okay, you have a diamond in the rough he is it? And you know, we’re
Kalvin 55:48
gonna we’re gonna push him out and bring in diamond back who was fucking terrible and Alfre Woodard was out, right. But like, I don’t know, there’s just something cool about Hershel Ollie.
Nick 56:00
I feel like he would beat the fuck out of me. Like, yeah, any any time of day doesn’t matter. Martial alley would beat the fuck out of me and then get on. He got down on his haunches and be like, Listen, brother. You’re on the wrong path.
Kalvin 56:14
Yeah, he looked more like he belonged on the wire than Netflix superhero show. Yes, yes. I like that’s what Luke Cage was good at. It didn’t feel at all the time. Like a superhero show. It was it was very low stakes. And it was it was kind of this underground political intrigue. It wasn’t you know, high politics like Captain America The Winter Soldier it was. Who’s going to who’s going to rule? The underground world of Brooklyn?
Nick 56:46
Yeah, I mean, they’re not looking at
Kalvin 56:48
hot melt was the perfect person to do that. And then shout out to my man.
Nick 56:55
Yeah, my boy.
Kalvin 56:57
Oh, we got nice. I have hella. Okay. That’s a good pic.
Nick 57:03
I enjoyed her characterization very much. So in the MCU she was legitimately a great villain. She crushed Monier, she revealed how terrible of a person Odin, you know, was in his younger days. She brought Thor Loki together. I just I gotta say, I’m so glad they didn’t redeem her. Yeah, that would have been stupid. That would have been dumb.
Kalvin 57:33
Don’t be bad. Let her get eaten by a giant wolf.
Nick 57:36
Well, she’s got one of the sweetest powers to just conjure knives. Sales insane. And I like what he
Kalvin 57:43
said about how they didn’t Redeemer because it would have been so easy. Have you had this? This gem in? Cate Blanchett playing hella and she did such a great job. And it would have been easy to kind of pull a Loki with her and just be like, No, we want to keep her around. She’s so good that we want to keep her around. So let’s keep our round. And they didn’t take the bait on that. They’re like, no, she’s here for one movie. We’re gonna kill her. We’re gonna let her just be a badass. And she was so good for them.
Nick 58:09
Oh, 100% and I think that was that was the right move ultimately, because she she probably would have lost a lot of her flavor as time went on.
Kalvin 58:18
Yeah, well, and then you you get this kind of dueling low keys, which is is not going to be fun over time of like, that’s gonna be luckier You know? And that’s I don’t think that’s what you want to get into.
Nick 58:29
They can both phase knives in they they both are quippy stuff. Yeah. That and let me just throw Karl Urban in there too low. Oh, so good.
Kalvin 58:40
My next pick was number four. Justin a hammer from Iron Man to nice man. Nice pic. So most of my picks here are made mostly on the strength of the actors and Sam Rockwell. Always, always great everything.
Nick 58:55
Okay, love say Rog, whoa,
Kalvin 58:57
me too, is one of the bottom five MCU MCU movies easily. But it’s not ever Justin hammers fault. I wish they would have done more with Justin hammer, especially with how Iron Man always kind of loomed over the entire hero side of the MCU it would have been really cool if Justin hammer was always kind of working in the shadows throughout the MCU kind of like how Norman Osborn is in the Spider Man comics you know he’s just always he’s the one pulling the strings him Loki is kind of pulling them on a cosmic level and Justin hammers pulling them on an earth level, setting things up doing things to get these heroes in these jams. I would have you know, I would have been pretty much up for anything it just to give more of Rockwell’s energy to these films,
Nick 59:42
did they they would have made the stakes a lot higher, especially going into phase four and being in phase four. If Sam Rockwell came back in just two three minutes snippets with Thunderbolt Ross and just casually met Baron ximo And either was a part of the Thunderbolts or the Dark Avengers. Yeah, that’s how you would set that storyline up and he would be perfect because he’s got the military connections. He’s got the bread, and he’s got the fucking wherewithal to a certain degree. He’s fake it till you make it guy.
Kalvin 1:00:14
It could have been really cool if instead in Captain America Civil War instead of ximo, it’s just a hammer doing all this stuff. Or in Captain America, the Winter Soldier, instead of Robert Redford, Alexander Pierce, I guess was this character’s name like that Justin hammer somehow got into the government and move made his way up there. And he’s the one kind of pulling the strings in there. And he’s leading nouveau Hydra now. Like, there’s so many places where you could put him and then he could again, connect back to Thunderbolt Ross. And you could keep this thing going. And they
Nick 1:00:48
did. You know, let’s just have him provide the bomb for winter soldier. Right? Yeah. And then you have the Justin hammer steaks, not only with cap for doing that crazy shit, The Winter Soldier out there for being the provider of the bomb, but also the entire nation of Wakanda. And just seeing like a dark Iron Man, basically against Wakanda. That’d be interesting.
Kalvin 1:01:11
Yeah, there’s a lot of cool stuff that they could have made me just say Morocco didn’t want to be in these movies for the next 10 years. I don’t know, but I would have liked to see more of him.
Nick 1:01:21
Absolutely. And I genuinely hope they bring him back. That’d be a good pick. That was a really good pick who got next. Fucking Baron beemo my boy, parent Zeebo. I could do without him. Nah placement Daniel. Daniel brawl is out of this world and parents email Like I said, I mentioned him with two things Dark Avengers and thunderbolts so he’s got a lot of connotations in the future and the fact that they did him so well and
Kalvin 1:01:52
yeah, I think it’s gonna be thunderbolts It feels like it’s gonna be thunderbolts because they’ve got but I think Ross in their xenos in the raft, I think. I think thunderbolts resonates with more people than Dark Avengers like you keep saying Dark Avengers. I don’t even know what that means. But I know what thunderbolts is. Get Flash Thompson to be Agent Venom, somehow, we got it.
Nick 1:02:16
Dark Avengers is started by Norman Osborn. So
Kalvin 1:02:18
I think Yeah, so we don’t have Norman Osborn. So how are we gonna get there
Nick 1:02:21
yet, but he’s reportedly going to be
Kalvin 1:02:24
fucking everybody reportedly in the third Spider Man. Like, let’s not even get into third Spider Man rumors. Let’s
Nick 1:02:29
just say he Okay, well, I’ll not touch the subject. But
Kalvin 1:02:34
I go on with his email.
Nick 1:02:36
He’s just a normal ass dude. He is. And he successfully took down the entirety of the Super Soldier program and continues to this day to take out the Super Soldier programs, other super soldiers outside of these said, their own programs, etc. etc. dude’s super fucking rich too. And he’s got a little class. He’s not a he’s not a mass murderer. You know, he’s not crazy. He’s a genius. Very interesting character. And I hope they do more with him in the MCU. But I thought he’s
Kalvin 1:03:10
definitely he’s definitely there.
Nick 1:03:12
Like he’s gonna be believable as like a major Captain villain. Yeah, did such a good job with the Winter Soldier that it’s like, okay, yeah, this dude could really get Captain America fits in. It’s not just physically.
Kalvin 1:03:25
No, and you’re right. And they’re embroils.
Nick 1:03:28
Whoa, would you say?
Kalvin 1:03:30
I said, You’re right. And Derrick Rose. Great. That’s I just like other people better than him. Oh, that’s fine. He just he just he doesn’t excite me in any way. All right. He’s no Sam Rockwell.
Nick 1:03:41
Yet can we do a follow up episode in like a year and a half when Dark Avengers and North thunderbolts comes out? For there’s word of it, and then we can just theorize
Kalvin 1:03:51
maybe the I mean, the feed is gonna stay active. And like 30% of the reason it’s gonna say active is if I need to talk about something other than TV, I can come back to this feed and just put out an episode on it.
Nick 1:04:04
So hit me up.
Kalvin 1:04:06
Yeah. So my next one is Carly from the Falcon in the winter soldier. I’m just kidding. It’s not that I was gonna say she was awful me. I just hit him on parents email and I’m gonna go Carly. Now is ghost format man in the wasp. And so this pig Yeah, that’s the only pick that has nothing to do with the strength of the actor. Because the actors not very good. All right, Hannah, john common. I’ve only seen her in this movie and Ready Player One. She does pretty good in Ant Man, the wasp, but the character design is the selling point here with this villain. He did. He did. Sweet. Yeah, they did a great job with her phasing effects, making her look like a formidable opponent to both of the heroes. And then you add in her tragic backstory, and she’s kind of the hero of her own story. You’ve got an almost perfect on there
Nick 1:05:01
seems like a normal last person that just found her way into correcting.
Kalvin 1:05:04
Yeah, right. Well, and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She got fucked up by some Pym Particles. And now she’s just trying to fix it and she needs lots of money to fix it so she’s gonna start stealing shit. I get it. Give me the money. Yeah, I mean, hashtag ghost did nothing wrong. Hashtag free ghosts. Yeah. He got next.
Nick 1:05:26
I got Wilson Fisk.
Kalvin 1:05:30
Yeah, I should have picked him once. Like once we start talking about him. When you start talking about Daredevil. I was like, I should have picked him over cotton mouth. But let’s start with
Nick 1:05:38
something I didn’t think I would feel with Vincent D’Onofrio is fear. Like, yeah, I’m not sitting here like afraid of a TV obviously. But I didn’t view him as intimidating. Dude, but he fucking nails it man. And he’s no Michael
Kalvin 1:05:57
Clarke Duncan on the screen. You know?
Nick 1:06:00
What? He’s he’s got the range that Michael Clarke Duncan could never get right? Like he’s, he’s just got that. Really sociopathic, kind of fucked up guy behind behind those eyes. his facial expressions are just so good. And you feel like that man could swallow you whole. It’s freaky. And he just his crime where with all and just knowledge so good. He’s got
Kalvin 1:06:28
the right attitude. that’s for damn sure. Oh, yeah, he pulls it off so well. And I’m sure they do some some fun. And Charlie Cox is not a big person. So that’s helpful. But I’m sure they do a lot of stuff with the cameras to make him look more imposing. Because he’s not dense enough. He was not a huge guy. He’s not like he’s
Nick 1:06:44
like six, three or something.
Kalvin 1:06:46
But he’s not like bulky either. Like No, no, he’s you look at other portrayals of the kingpin. And he’s a fucking wall, literally. Like, look into the spider verse, right? That was just the comics. Like he’s just huge. And I’m not saying that the character has to be that.
Nick 1:07:03
Oh, that’s that’s pretty solid. Yeah, he’s bigger than I thought. Wilson Fisk gas.
Kalvin 1:07:08
I mean, Charlie Cox is like five, eight. So that helps.
Nick 1:07:13
That does that does help a lot. But he, I think both with Daredevil and the Punisher. You really get to see it in the pilot, his his connections, his he knows what the fuck to say.
Kalvin 1:07:26
It would have been really cool if we could have seen him cross with cotton mouth.
Nick 1:07:31
Yeah, that would have been great for some underground Kingdom shit. Like if you get cod mouth quartering when it kingpins you know, lackeys and he’s like, who fucking sent you and the lackey shoves his face down spike. That would have been cool to work twice.
Kalvin 1:07:46
So my number two is killmonger. from Black Panther. Hamza? Yeah. Yeah. Michael Jordan, is awesome. And he’s, it’s the same with how a black panther showed up in Civil War. When Michael Jordan shows up in Wakanda. You know, there’s something different about him. He’s just cooler and he’s better. And you just you knew something made him better than most of the other villains we had seen up to this point in MCU. Movies. And, you know, I don’t he’s got a Gen, I say, quad. I can’t put into words. What he does is killmonger that makes him so captivating. It’s just there. You know?
Nick 1:08:28
He’s a regular ass dude was swag, like massive amounts of fucking swag.
Kalvin 1:08:34
Right. And I’m not I’m not here on the hashtag fan O’s had a point, brigade. But I think killmonger ghost and then my next pic. All had very good reasons for doing everything they did. They didn’t always go about it the right way. But they at least made you stop and think like, you know, they’ve got a point here. You know, they’re trying. They’re trying to make something out of this. I get it.
Nick 1:08:56
Absolutely. And I think we killmonger it was, you see what his end goal is, which is basically to take the throne of Wakanda super powerful nation that he never would have even dreamed of outside as his father tell him as a kid. And just the path he took to get there, I think is absolutely the most human of all the heroes
Kalvin 1:09:21
are all the heroes, all the villains. I mean,
Nick 1:09:23
especially Yeah, he killed a shitload of people. But that makes sense as a villain. You know what I mean? Yeah, it fits the characterization very, very well. And Michael B. Jordan has that heart of a lion. Plus the dude is fucking horrendously jacked.
Kalvin 1:09:37
It’s unreal. But yeah, thanks, creed.
Nick 1:09:40
Yeah, thanks, creed, and you know, just a little the scarring all over his body and stuff like that. So something where you would look at him and one B, you definitely wouldn’t think, Okay, this dude has the blood of Kings running in his veins. But he does
Kalvin 1:10:00
Yeah, and since Boltzmann’s death and like I know a person died and we should respect that and all that but I’ve had this constant inner struggle with whether I want sharee to take over the mantle Black Panther or if I want them to bring kill monitor back in some convoluted way, it’s a very like difficult decision you know, I think bringing killmonger back you you it’d be the most comic book II thing you could do right? Yeah, bring that to life from the dead. But I really I want to see more female lead super movies in the superhero genre. Sure is super cool, super smart. And killmonger would constantly kind of teeter on turning back to the dark side which I don’t know if you need that in Black Panther.
Nick 1:10:42
No, because I think he was already ready to unleash devastation upon the world. He had cells everywhere you you just can’t go back on that.
Kalvin 1:10:50
No, but I think if they do bring him back, he has to be at least reformed of that right? He has to be trying to do good.
Nick 1:11:00
I just don’t see it. I think in Baku would be the best
Kalvin 1:11:03
boxer would be kind of cool. I like Panther. What I absolutely don’t want to see his nicaea becoming Black Panther. Right now. Daniel. Oh, yay. Oh, wait. No. It Dana kalua Colonia Lula
Nick 1:11:19
I’m yeah, to get the I need to get their last names down. I think he would also be a very good
Kalvin 1:11:24
he could be good. I just I don’t like the Peter anyango is a really great actress. But I don’t see in it. They didn’t take enough time building that character at all either. I really, like I just I I don’t like the character of nicaea that much. I look Lupita is fine, but like I just don’t do it. It’s got to be Sheree. Or I think Daniel Colombia is he’s probably the one with the most star power behind it.
Nick 1:11:53
The chat that you can act is
Kalvin 1:11:54
for a pass or you have to bring killmonger back. I don’t think it’s gonna be in Baku. I think he’s too big.
Nick 1:12:03
I’m sure everyone can hear that screaming
Kalvin 1:12:05
I didn’t hear it. So you’re alright, who is your number one?
Nick 1:12:09
Pick killmonger Okay, number one kill on the plains. He enacted fantastic the Alliance’s he good enough. Good evil plants for he’s super good. And he went out with class. That’s how all my villains to go out. Like Nah, dude, fuck you.
Kalvin 1:12:27
He got the redemption. But also I don’t want to get to continue continue on.
Nick 1:12:32
Right? I don’t want your redemption. Maybe I have redeemed myself that’s on the content of my character. But fuck you. I don’t want your loved it like that.
Kalvin 1:12:42
Good pick is number one. My number one was Voltron. From right pick, he’s just a man out here trying to provide for his family. You know, when the government is in and shuts down his entire operation. He’s got no choice. And I like the wrinkle of him being Liz Allen’s father. That’s really great. And just the way it put Peter Parker on edge. And then how the struggle that he has. And I just love Michael Keaton. He’s incredibly fun to watch. I really hope they follow through on bringing him at least him back in the third Spider Man movie. You know, there are a lot of rumors about the third Spider Man movie. I don’t want to get into all those but he is supposed to be back in. That’s
Nick 1:13:20
gonna be cool. That’d be fantastic. Because he’s great.
Kalvin 1:13:24
He has Michael Keaton is always great.
Nick 1:13:26
When he answered that door, do you? Oh my god. So good.
Kalvin 1:13:30
That was good. All right. So let’s go to our top five movies and shows. We picked five MCU movies and shows each. We’re just gonna talk about what the movie is when it was released. Why we like it. I have no Spider Man movies on my list. They’re all really fun, but they’re not my top five. I tried to pick movies here that if I’m laying around on a Lazy Sunday and want to just watch something fun. This is what I’m going to put on not as these aren’t necessarily the best films, these are just like the ones I want to rewatch the most. Absolutely. Alright, so I go first here, my number five is Guardians of the Galaxy. Gray part. There is absolutely no reason that Guardians of the Galaxy should have been as good and as fun as it was. And it’s still amazingly fun every single time you watch it, just endless fun. Um, so that’s why I like that.
Nick 1:14:27
They nailed it with casting and the soundtrack, the writing the directing. It’s another thing in Iron Man Jr. in the sense that it takes B list characters and make some dope.
Kalvin 1:14:39
I don’t even know that they’re B list character. like nobody heard anything about any of these characters before.
Nick 1:14:45
They’re effortless characters.
Kalvin 1:14:46
Yeah. And bringing them on the screen and the way that they did it and having it worked so well is absolutely amazing. So good job. Marvel yet again. Yeah, again. What do you got for number five
Nick 1:15:00
Number five I get Infinity War. Okay. Mostly because it’s it’s just a great movie. And sometimes I like a little you know kick in the shorts. Like it’s pouring rain outside here right now. So a day like today or like a time like right now would be a perfect time for me to just sit down. Listen to the rain throw on Infinity War and watch the sadness.
Kalvin 1:15:27
Yes, watch the sadness. I Yeah, I agree. I have more thoughts on Infinity War when I get there because it is on my list. But yeah, Infinity War is absolutely a ton of fun to watch. And definitely top five MCU movie. That’s all I’m gonna save on it right now.
Nick 1:15:49
It feels like it could be a little shorter, but he has no wasted time. Like No, that’s totally it’s an oxymoron. I know. It doesn’t make any sense. But
Kalvin 1:16:00
I get exactly what you’re saying.
Nick 1:16:02
And the ending that ending Yeah, well, so my jaw hasn’t hit the floor like that since I saw fucking Rachel weiss’s ass and enemy at the gates when I was like 12 Wow. All right. Specific very specific.
Kalvin 1:16:19
I was gonna go back to diva toxin turbo a Power Rangers movie, but all right. No, that was it. Man. Enemy at the gates. It is. Yeah. Just like my number four is Ant Man. heist movie. superheroes. Paul Rudd, Michael Pena, ti. Anthony Mackie. You’ve got yourself a stew going here.
Nick 1:16:40
Oh, you fuck it right you do, buddy? Yeah. Evans incredible. They really is. has no business being done. No,
Kalvin 1:16:49
it’s he’s such a dumb character. And it doesn’t like the physics don’t make sense. And that’s okay. They do such a great job of introducing the character setting up how he can do everything he can do. I already talked about how great Evangeline Lilly is and her how great her character is. And then you add all these other people on top of that. It just works.
Nick 1:17:10
surprisingly well.
Kalvin 1:17:11
I did not think it would work. I was like, Oh, this can be a stinker. You put Paul Rudd in anything. It’s gonna be watchable. Well, you put them in a heist movie. And you add in all these other elements. It’s rewatchable on rewatchable on rewatchable.
Nick 1:17:24
That was like their first heist movie. I think it’s really the only heist movie and by me we have the time heist. Yeah. For me in the back of my mind. I remember a man vividly smacking his girlfriend in the comics, so it was just like, yeah. I feel I wasn’t familiar with Scotland either. Like he was paying.
Kalvin 1:17:43
I didn’t know anything about him. Yeah. And then they hit you with that shit. Yeah, so much fun. All right. What do you got? For number four?
Nick 1:17:53
hit man in the wasp.
Kalvin 1:17:55
Oh, all right.
Nick 1:17:56
I like the watch too. Also a heist movie? Yeah,
Kalvin 1:18:01
yeah, to some extent.
Nick 1:18:03
I think Michael Douglas is really really good, as is Hank Pym? I think all around. It’s a better movie. Because like they they found their spirit they found that sound so stupid. They found their their groove that makes any sense.
Kalvin 1:18:18
I get what you’re saying. Michael Douglas is the heart of Ant Man and The Wasp in a way that he’s not an Ant Man, because he the it all hinges on him trying to find his long lost wife, who he thought he could never recover. And so him kind of pushing things forward. Makes it like it gives it that extra heart which which Ant Man doesn’t have it man is more. To me. It’s more fun because of the heist element. And because it focuses more on actors I like better in Paul Rudd and ti and Evangeline Lilly, but I think what you’re saying is right with Ant Man, the wasp, where were they? There’s a heart to that movie.
Nick 1:18:58
Yeah, there’s a it’s a tough one to compare to other movies in the sense like evangelium Lily, so many characters kind of come to fruition. I think like, a man becomes a player like he’s genuinely. Okay, this dude is is an asset and not just a goof. Plus, it’s set up in game to a certain degree of Angela and Lily. Absolutely. Is the heroine that the MCU movies needed. And she’s so good in that movie. That’s so nice. Yeah, if I want to feel a good kick to the shorts, that’s what I throw on.
Kalvin 1:19:39
Yeah. All right. I feel my number three. Avengers Infinity War.
Nick 1:19:46
That’s a great pick. Yeah, no, it picked it at five because it’s sad as fuck.
Kalvin 1:19:52
Yeah, it’s hard. It’s hard.
Nick 1:19:53
It’s a great pick though.
Kalvin 1:19:55
But So up until the last 20 minutes. It’s a ton of fun. The last 20 minutes rough. So I always
Nick 1:20:03
like going 100 miles an hour for three hours.
Kalvin 1:20:08
I’m always going to pick infinity war over endgame. You know, endgame did something super special. And finally bring everyone together. And it’s amazing that it happened as seamlessly as it did. But Infinity War in my mind is a better movie. From like a filmmaking standpoint, from a plot standpoint, from everything that goes into into making a movie. I think Infinity War is better, it has greater stakes, and it leaves you completely torn apart and just searching for answers when it’s done. You know, and I’ve said it a million times. Infinity War is The Empire Strikes Back of the Infinity saga. And it’s probably the best movie from a film standpoint, quote, unquote, you know, film standpoint of the first three phases of the MCU
Nick 1:20:52
that’s such a great analogy. It is the Empire Strikes Back.
Kalvin 1:20:56
Because even even in the Star Wars in the first the original trilogy like nobody says return the Jedi is their favorite. It’s to me it’s the most fun movie again, but it’s not the the most well made movie by any means. And that’s kind of like what endgame is to infinity war is you you have to cap it off, the good guys have to come back and win. But when you take your second installment and and leave the bad guy on top, you’re just confounded by it. And you don’t you kind of don’t know what to do with yourself. After you leave that theater.
Nick 1:21:26
You just pass the time until you can see the conclusion. Right? That’s all you can do.
Kalvin 1:21:33
What do you have for number three?
Nick 1:21:35
Number three, Black Panther. We’ve talked a lot about Black Panther. We’re very happy to see this black panther was once he was is a favorite character of mine. He’s probably in my top 20 there are several moments I had with black panther that I really enjoyed. So going into the movie, it was just like, Okay, this is sick, it opens a whole new world, and just a whole different sides of the MCU that hadn’t been readily available yet, which is the technological advancements that is provided by Vibranium in Wakanda. That is, that is unreal. And we had teases of it throughout and I think everyone else’s mind kind of went to Adam antium when you thought of like Captain shield and you know the strongest metal in the MCU and stuff like that, it’s more than
Kalvin 1:22:30
right? It’s like a living metal more so than in adamantium.
Nick 1:22:33
It’s inorganic, you know, basically like that stuff is sick as fuck. And when you get pieces, pieces, geniuses like Siri working on stuff like that. And then Sheree
Kalvin 1:22:44
Siri answer she probably had an iPhone.
Nick 1:22:46
I’m sure she did. I’m sure she did. They probably need
Kalvin 1:22:50
a W phone. Right.
Nick 1:22:54
But yeah, Black Panther. Love that. Yeah. So like the soundtrack is super good. Yes, actions great. The stakes are great and villains grade all around, it’s got all the cookies.
Kalvin 1:23:06
Black Panther is my number two. So I’ll just roll into my thoughts and it’s pretty much the same as yours because we’ve talked it to death but they brought in a whole as fictional country and made it feel real made it feel lived in. It’s got its own set of internal issues and advanced technologies. They did all this in a single movie.
Nick 1:23:22
Right? It cultures and dialect. Yeah, you know, stuff like that.
Kalvin 1:23:27
It’s a super cool place and they give it somehow they give it this great depth and have time to build out several side characters nicaea Shuri Koi a, whatever the fuck Daniel, Colombia’s name is Baku. All these guys. They they give them enough time to breathe in this new world and have them feel real. Also Ulysses clause there for the first time, kill mongers there for the first time. You bring in Martin Freeman’s character, and give him a little bit more to do there. And yeah, I just can’t believe that we got to see all of this on the screen for the first time. And they made it feel so real. And they did just such a great job. And you know, I think a lot of the credit has to go to Ryan coogler and what he was able to build within Black Panther. And I’m really excited to see how they continue the story of Wakanda because I think I don’t think you can fully replace Chadwick boseman. So I think you have to make it about more about Wakanda and the culture of Wakanda and how it you know, this is gonna sound like kind of dumb and cliched, but like how black panther is a part of all of them how black panther is a part of all of Wakanda and how they can take that legacy to the next level? No, definitely.
Nick 1:24:43
Dude, I think it it’s, you’re right. He can never do the Chadwick boseman. Justice, or a second Black Panther movie justice without him. But it’s it needs to be made. Like if that makes any fucking sense in If any MC MCU movie needs to be made, it’s black panther to
Kalvin 1:25:06
Yeah. Let’s get it
Nick 1:25:08
for reasons that are to work for much of the audience. Because good fucking movie.
Kalvin 1:25:15
So what’s your number two? Number two?
Nick 1:25:19
A Captain America
Kalvin 1:25:21
him number two. Number two
Nick 1:25:26
Civil War
Kalvin 1:25:28
damn you’re just one ahead of me I have that as my number one so let’s get it all out here yet then
Nick 1:25:33
my number one might surprise you. Civil War is the
Kalvin 1:25:37
Thor The Dark World, isn’t it?
Nick 1:25:38
Yeah 100% it was actually the Incredible Hulk 2008 Yeah. Civil War is not my favorite movie, obviously in the MCU but it’s the best movie in the MCU
Kalvin 1:25:53
It’s so fucking actually infinity wars a better movie, but I Yes, it does.
Nick 1:26:00
I mean, so many introductions of key characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Also, like further depth, providing, you’re dividing them down this, this this line? And I mean, that’s a stance that a lot of people are, I’m sure. I don’t I’m not the only one that would say this. But that’s the stance that I would take in real life. Like, you know, fuck you or not fuck you. It’s one of the and you’re you’re doing that. Like it’s your allies and stuff other superpower beings, you know, your friends. That’s a tough decision. And they personified that well, the the sadness and despair between Captain America The Winter Soldier and all that stuff.
Kalvin 1:26:43
Yeah, it’s for me. It’s the most fun of all the mashups out of the Big Five, you know, Avengers Age of Ultron Infinity War endgame and this, those are your biggest mashups. Right? I think this one is the most fun out of all those we like you said, we get the introductions we get black panther we get spider man for the first time, Bucky starts his turn back to the good side, you get ximo in there playing cap and Iron Man against each other. You get the scene of cap Bucky and Iron Man in the three way battle, you know, in the old Soviet rundown Super Soldier lab or whatever. And I think with these movies, where you’re building a superhero movie, and superheroes always have to win 90% of time superheroes have to wait. Obviously, Infinity War is the exception that proves the rule in this case. But I think this is the only way you can really really have stakes in these big superhero movies is the good guys. They’re gonna win in most movies. So even when you pit them against each other, you’re not gonna see anyone die. Right? Right. But in so this is something that civil war did better than like Batman vs. Superman, is you felt that break between the two sides, Batman v Superman, like they never felt like they really had a reason to be fighting each other. But this break, you felt in the two sides, they both had their points, they you could see where both of them was coming from. And I think it was far more detrimental at the end of the day than any chitauri invasion ever could be this break between the two sides. And I think part of what makes Infinity War such a good movie is we finally see that all come to fruition we see the full fallout of that that the team can’t come back together to take on the stanols level threat because of how truly broken they were after Civil War. And that’s what makes civil war so good is it effectively played them against each other gave them a good reason to be battling. And at the end of the day, they didn’t kiss and makeup. They went their separate ways. Right
Nick 1:28:40
and then irreconcilable differences stayed there. They divorce they stayed their separate ways. conscious uncoupling Yes.
Kalvin 1:28:50
What do you got for number one?
Nick 1:28:51
Number one, Thor Ragnarok 100%. This is my five favorite Marvel movie. I get it. I’ll do it. It makes me feel good every time I watch you
Kalvin 1:29:02
over the head with the joke sometimes and annoying and
Nick 1:29:05
I’m cool with that. But I love it. I love it.
Kalvin 1:29:07
Sometimes I need it. Really My only complaint about it is is some of the jokes. They’re just like, Did you get it? Did you get it yet? No. We’re gonna keep making the joke. Are you sure? Did you get Oh, okay, now you got cool,
Nick 1:29:19
right? But I love the tone. I love the stakes. I love the fucking colors the soundtrack the character building.
Kalvin 1:29:25
I love it. Yes. Tyco ytt control that was the best thing It’s so
Nick 1:29:30
fucking smart they they totally upgraded Hulk they upgraded Thor they upgraded Loki they upgraded Odin. I mean, you got fucking hell in that shit. And then you got a falconry as well that that’s just a hole in the law. You got a lot of depth with you know. I can’t even think of it. Now, I know the Homeworld Asgard Asgard. You got a lot of depth as And then you get this whole nother fucking exposition dump on you but it all makes sense it’s played out well.
Kalvin 1:30:07
And well and and they, they bring about the apocalypse they see the prophecy through it’s one thing to make prophecies and to have Thor’s dream and Age of Ultron. And you know, you could just not do any of that, right? You can just say, well, they change the timeline and we’re not going to bring Asgard down we need Asgard But no, they they stuck to it, they brought it down in a believable way that that makes sense for it not to exist anymore, and then they move the characters to somewhere where they’re more needed now. And that’s really great.
Nick 1:30:35
Love it such good movie I rewatch that probably once every month.
Kalvin 1:30:39
Wow. As often and passively. Alright, so let’s talk the future of the MCU what upcoming official movies and or shows are you most looking forward to and why these are officially announced movies. I’m not considering things like fantastic for any x men projects, technically officially announced because they’re not technically officially announced. They’re just like these things that Yeah, they’re gonna happen sometime, but we don’t actually know what’s going on. Right. Thought real things. What are you excited for?
Nick 1:31:12
A musical with my number two pick first.
Kalvin 1:31:15
So I did. Did you have five? No. Okay, good. No, I just got two. Okay,
Nick 1:31:22
I was like fuck am I supposed to have five? No,
Kalvin 1:31:24
no, when he said number. I was like, I have like one and a half here.
Nick 1:31:27
Yeah, what? I’m equally excited for both these number two on that’s not true. That’s goddamn lie because it’s number two, just blackwidow I’m so excited. I want to see taskmaster. So I want to
Kalvin 1:31:40
see taskmaster, but everything else I don’t care about and likewise I’m sorry world
Nick 1:31:44
jolina biloba so good. So this is where being a comic book fan yeah the very end for you. She says words mean nothing to me. Plus, Rachel Weiss has been my celebrity crush and housing apparently is old. She’s
Kalvin 1:31:59
learned a lot about you and Rachel vise today. She’s hot. She’s She’s most likely taskmaster. So there you go. Yeah. Do you ever see her and taskmaster in the same taskmaster in the same place? Didn’t think so?
Nick 1:32:16
You don’t see David Arbor though either?
Kalvin 1:32:18
No, I think but David. Fat task.
Unknown Speaker 1:32:23
Fair.
Kalvin 1:32:25
Oh, man, that’d be that was something that boy COVID told me pointed out on Twitter at one point I was like, Yeah, yeah, I think he’s right there because it doesn’t make sense to make this female lead. Like Girl Power movie. And then have the bad guy just be some beefy dude knocking the shit out of women for three quarters of the movie until they turn around on
Nick 1:32:44
elections tie. America.
Kalvin 1:32:47
I’m not excited about Black Widow. I’m sorry. I the characters fine. I don’t really like Scarlett Johansen that much. It This is a movie I never wanted and I I don’t get you people that do I don’t get it. We’ve heard her story. She’s done. I don’t care about what happened in Budapest. Like I want give me all the female lead movies in the world. The same for me. I don’t want. I’ve done Scarlett Johansson. I and I know this movie is most likely more of a movie to introduce Florence Pugh as the new black widow and she will be Black Widow throughout phase four in the next few phases. And so she’s gonna come in and do all this black widow stuff, but we have to meet her first. I get that. But I don’t care. I’m sorry.
Nick 1:33:31
You Lena that’s fine. I mean, you Lena biloba is fuckin tight. I want to know what happens in the Red Room. I got another background. It’s like Jason Bourne. But we know we know what happens. You? We do Oh, no, you
Kalvin 1:33:44
don’t do you do give me the proof. She was sterilized. She was abused. She was taught to be a murder weapon. What else do you need?
Nick 1:33:56
Fucking dancing. Dancing. Ballet shit.
Kalvin 1:34:03
So what’s yours? Ah, I got to also like one and a half. Like I said, spider man. No way home, obviously. And I really want to see quantum mania. Yes, quantum mania just seems like it’s gonna be wild and super fun. So give me more in the Ant Man world. Like I love everything about the Ant Man world. Spider Man is a no brainer. I want to see how they handle his outing as Peter Parker and how he continues to kind of rise to the occasion and become one of those forefront characters in the MCU I don’t I don’t think we’re actually going to get a fully realized spider verse here. I don’t think we’re gonna see Tobey Maguire. I don’t think we’re gonna see Andrew Garfield. I don’t think it’s happening. There’s nothing other than people on Reddit saying it’s gonna happen. That it’s true. Like there’s no gonna happen. There’s no backbone to any of those rumors. But it does like it’ll be cool to see Alfred Molina, come back. It’ll be cool to see Keaton come back. It’ll be cool to see Jamie Foxx come back. Hopefully we get kind of a fully realized Scorpion in there too. He’s been kind of teased for the last two movies. So those are things I want to see. I don’t care if we bring Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield into it. That to me. I feel like at this point that would be shoehorned in they don’t fit in the story we don’t need them like they can stay in the past this Peter Parker can learn from the people but we’ve got fucking 50 heroes already he can learn from them he doesn’t need other spider man to teach him Yeah, but spider verse bro, does it does it really teach does it really fix the critique of well, he’s just Iron Man Jr. If now, instead of like finally Iron Man’s gone the shadow of Iron Man is gone. But now we’re gonna bring in these other two spider man to be his mentor. Like he’s got to get out of the shadow of a mentor at some point he has to be a hero in his own right. If you keep bringing in mentor characters that’s never gonna happen. So like I don’t I don’t want to see more people come in to tell him what to do.
Nick 1:36:00
You don’t want to see Iron Spider Jr. squared.
That’s the hero’s sick
Kalvin 1:36:08
unless if you’re doing spider verse just bring in spider pig and then we’re good. Spider ham. Spider ham. Sorry.
Nick 1:36:16
It’s about family. All right.
Kalvin 1:36:18
I know I was thinking so like my mind always goes back to the Simpsons Movie where he does the spider pig thing. Spider pig. Yeah, but are big. So that’s why I always say spider pagan. So spider ham. My bad. JOHN Delaney. Alright, so what was your he said he had to what was your other one?
Nick 1:36:35
xiangxi.
Kalvin 1:36:36
Okay, that looks pretty cool.
Nick 1:36:38
I cannot fucking wait for the master of kung fu xiangxi
Kalvin 1:36:43
as we know from a couple episodes ago, you are a master of kung fu movies.
Nick 1:36:49
mean you’re goddamn right. But I’m all about changxi he was always a really dope character. And I mean, back in the day, you get his comics for fucking nothing. And they’re good. I’m down with him.
Kalvin 1:37:02
I had never heard of him until like a year and a half ago. So I but it looks good.
Nick 1:37:06
Yeah, it’s pretty. It’s pretty. It’s pretty sweet.
Kalvin 1:37:09
Alright, so now we come to our final segment. What would you do Nick? If you were an actor? What existing MC you role? Could you see yourself playing?
Nick 1:37:18
Like this been in the MCU? or?
Kalvin 1:37:21
Yeah, like actually, you’re replacing an actor that’s already in the MCU you’re going to be that character.
Nick 1:37:28
Crossbones. Okay. All right. I can see it. I like that graph with few lines.
Kalvin 1:37:36
So I went I went like hero side I think I could feel I think I could pull off like Star Lord maybe. Or like I’m slightly more charismatic Hawkeye I definitely couldn’t be the absolute front and center heroes here like I’m not going to be Tony Stark. I’m not going to be cap not gonna be Spider Man. But give me one of these kind of bit parts and let me spin. I’ll be it. Give me a few one liners. Some dance moves. I’ll be fine. Right or give me like, can be like the token white guy in Wakanda role does that exist? That would be kind of fun.
Nick 1:38:07
The White Tiger.
Kalvin 1:38:10
Yeah, there you go. Yeah, why wolf? White Wolf. Yeah, I don’t want to be Bucky, though. I want to be a different token white guy. So you can be tucky for a stretch tonight. So the final question here. If we lived in the MCU, and you had superpowers what existing MCU hero would you actually be?
Nick 1:38:37
Wolverine. I know. I know.
Kalvin 1:38:39
He’s not in the MCU I know. I know.
Nick 1:38:42
I would be the Hulk.
Kalvin 1:38:45
Okay, I like that. I mean, that my answer is always spider man.
Nick 1:38:49
I would love to be I just don’t have the charisma. I have. I don’t have the quippy one liners.
Kalvin 1:38:54
I feel like that comes with the territory though. Once like if you’re a teenager and you get those powers, like the quickness is just gonna start coming naturally.
Nick 1:39:02
Hell Nah. So and that’s it would still come four hours later, while I’m laying in
Kalvin 1:39:07
bed. That bad guy. Maybe he’s still webbed up. Okay, go check. Don’t get sick. Your mom’s the fat one. Gotcha. Well, are the cops here yet?
Nick 1:39:17
I don’t eat Hello. So something like that.
Kalvin 1:39:24
That’s why I like how could be a good one. I think I feel like I could do that. I could get mad.
Nick 1:39:29
That was my nickname back when my first job was a little buzzer people. That’s the nickname you want to carry around. Nick. I turn out all right.
Kalvin 1:39:43
You got anything else on the MCU before we move on? I don’t. That’s a good target. We’ve got a few MC use in the MCU episodes in the backlog if you want to hear more from us and our ideas on the MCU go back and listen. We had a lot of fun here today. Again, follow us on Twitter to tell us your favorite things from the MCU. That’s at APA something and at alone underscore podcast. As this is finale month, I’ve talked about our new projects. Well, Nick’s existing project is the URL lone podcasting. Find all that information on alone, podcast calm. And my next project will be the magic number is three when it comes to TV podcast. And that is there’s a couple episodes on the feed right now if you go search in our favorite pod catcher, and you can follow us on Twitter at magic three TV pod. And there’ll be more news coming there as we finish up the show and I start moving to that show. So if you’re interested in TV, definitely give that a follow and we’ll be coming hot and heavy soon there.
Nick 1:40:44
You should do it. Calvin’s got things to say about TV and it’s good stuff.
Kalvin 1:40:48
Yeah, we got a lot to say about TV over there. If you like the music for a podcast about something, you should check out those cats because they provide all of it. And you can check out more stuff from us in the show notes below in all these cool links. Stay sassy. Stay
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