In this episode Joshua and Diego dive into the DCU, under the direction of James Gunn, looks promising. What sets it apart from the MCU and what things is it getting right, from the very beginning.
Welcome to Geekology 101, my name is Diego.
Joshua (00:33.437)
And my name is Joshua.
Diego (00:35.614)
And today we're going to be chatting about the DCU. We have, of course, by this point, seen a couple of trailers for Superman. We've watched Creature Commandos. We've heard news about certain things that have to do with the lineup that's coming up with films and shows and things. so for us, from our perspective, from what we've seen so far, things are looking promising. And we want to talk a little bit about why it's looking promising and why this has this honestly a lot more excited probably than the MCU.
Joshua (00:47.605)
Mm.
...
Diego (01:05.282)
does at this point. So we're going to get started by talking about the elephant in the room, which is the MCU. It's kind of impossible for you to talk about the DCU, the plans that are going on, the way that they're structuring things, the way that they're doing things without acknowledging that without the way that the MCU did things during the first three phases of their whole thing.
Joshua (01:05.481)
Yeah.
Joshua (01:13.748)
Yeah.
Diego (01:34.732)
I don't think we would be here with the DCU. Like, starting off because of the fact that like James Gunn came out of essentially the MCU, right? So what are your thoughts, buddy, on like how the relationship is and what things are DC learning from Marvel when it comes to the DCU?
Joshua (01:38.237)
Yeah.
Joshua (01:46.175)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (01:59.891)
I think DC has learned in some ways that not everything has to tell a continuous story and not every single project has to tie into another in a certain way. Because James Gunn has said multiple times on different social medias that different projects take place in different time periods throughout this world. So like Superman,
might take place in like modern times, but say like Lanterns, like that show might take place in a different like time period than Superman. So not everything is connected in that way where like one thing leads to another and one thing leads to another. And James Gunn I feel like has learned that you don't need to do that to have a successful shared universe.
Diego (02:31.662)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (02:40.141)
Yeah.
Diego (02:53.452)
Yeah, yeah, agreed. You gotta put your thing on do not disturb, by the way. Yeah, I think the whole slew of projects that they've announced so far, for example, as far as films, we got Superman, The Authority, The Brave and the Bold, which is Batman, Supergirl, Woman of Tomorrow, and then Swamp Thing. Then when it comes to television series, we got Creature Command, those would just finish the first season, Waller, which is a live action.
Joshua (03:11.637)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (03:21.578)
series following Amanda Waller, Lanterns, Peacemaker Season 2. Why is that not on this list? Yeah, you're right. Paradise Lost, it's like back in the past of Themyscira. And then Booster Gold, which follows the character Booster Gold. We can talk about it later, but yeah, clearly like a lot of those things are taking place in different timelines. And that's a really interesting way of approaching it, especially because of the fact that like we're seeing with the Superman movie.
Joshua (03:23.273)
Peacemaker Season 2.
Joshua (03:35.317)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (03:51.456)
and with creature commandos that were walking into a fully established world. There is no origin stories being told here, not in the...
Joshua (03:56.383)
Yeah.
Yeah, like James Gunn has said that like, I mean, everyone knows Superman's origin story, so there's no point in telling it. And I feel like that also, like a lot of people are tired of like every Batman movie. we don't need to see his origin story. Like that's probably the most like famous origin story of all time. And we don't need to see it. Like every single time there's a movie about this guy. So.
Diego (04:17.356)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. And it's just like, think that is as far as like points where the DCU is doing things differently than the MCU did it, that right there is probably one of the biggest differences. It's that they are starting off with a fully established world. Like back in the DCEU, the whole thing that Zack Snyder started with Man of Steel, you were essentially trying to tell the stories from scratch.
Joshua (04:34.613)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (04:47.17)
from the beginning and in doing that, they got into this insane rush of trying to catch up to the MCU while still telling all their stories from scratch. That was ridiculous, you know, and that ended up in an absolute cluster that, you know, we all know about. So this is a huge strength that the DCU has. It's not worrying about easing you into a world of superheroes and super villains. We're there. It's established. They've been established for ages.
And we're going to take you and drop you into different instances throughout the history of this world that we're welcoming you into and showing you how heroes and villains have already been a part of this world for so long. That is amazing because you at that point, like I keep on comparing this issue to the issue of Marvel when it came time to cap for Captain America Civil War.
Joshua (05:32.158)
Yeah.
Diego (05:47.16)
where the event in the comics, the Civil War event in the comics was a massive, yeah, it was a massive event. And you could afford, yeah, yeah, it's like two groups of five people. It's like the scale was so much smaller. Like this thing in the comics affected the entire world.
Joshua (05:50.985)
was like worldwide, like so many heroes. Yeah. And then in the movie, in the movie, there's like 10 people on like each seat.
Joshua (06:08.085)
And like.
Like in the...
Diego (06:11.638)
And you could even kill heroes off and you were fine, you know, cause there were like extra people like to spare. Sorry, go ahead.
Joshua (06:16.903)
In the comics, was like, it was like an actual long event. was like war almost. And then in the movie, they just like fight at an airport for like five minutes.
Diego (06:31.01)
Yeah. And so like that shows you how limited the MCU was because they started everything absolutely from scratch, right? Granted, they pulled it off. And I think that for the majority of people, they weren't necessarily...
Joshua (06:41.673)
Yeah.
Diego (06:54.392)
They weren't necessarily expecting for this to be like a world-spending event in the case of Marvel with Civil War because most people honestly had not read the comics and so they didn't care. But I feel like there's been more stuff in DC. Like DC has always had the stronger animated movies, for example. You've had like...
Joshua (07:16.34)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (07:20.408)
Teen Titans, you've had Young Justice, which have both been like respective hits on their own. For those of us growing up in the 90s, we had Justice League Unlimited, which was like, it was essentially like this kind of world that we're being introduced to. Justice League Unlimited was that, like it was a fully fleshed out superhero, super villain world. And they could pull characters from anywhere.
Joshua (07:43.728)
Yeah.
Diego (07:48.288)
It was insane the amount of characters that they featured on that show because it wasn't like just the rogue's gallery of this person or that person. It was like DC entirely. We can pull from anywhere. That is so huge when it comes to potential and storytelling, man, because it's like everything, every corner that we turn in this DC world is going to be a potential cool story to tell. And that's something that Marvel didn't really have.
Joshua (07:58.77)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (08:12.511)
Yeah.
Diego (08:16.397)
Anything else? What else when it comes to Marvel? What lessons do you think James Gunn learned while making Guardians and while being also like a producer in movies like Infinity War and Endgame? What kind of things could he have learned going into the DCU for him to be able to build this out in a more effective way? What do you think? After having seen Creature Commandos, which is the first thing, this thing was written by James Gunn.
Joshua (08:43.412)
Yeah.
Diego (08:46.572)
He's in the opening credits, sitting at a computer, you know.
Joshua (08:49.853)
Yeah, I think he's learned that not every movie or not every project in general has to be trying to outdo the one before it. Like, and I feel like Marvel got to that point where like every project was basically trying to have like a bigger threat than the one before. And every project was trying to like, just be like bigger.
and more like crazy than the one before. But I feel like James Gunn, he knows, I feel like that if you're, say you're telling a story about Batman and then the movie before that was a story about like Green Lantern. Like the Batman movie does not have to match up or be like bigger than the Green Lantern movie. Like, cause it's a Batman story. Batman is a, for like,
Diego (09:20.728)
Uh-huh.
Diego (09:29.848)
Yeah.
Diego (09:35.117)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (09:42.112)
Hmm.
Joshua (09:45.755)
everything he is a street-tier superhero mostly so just tell like what we need is telling a good story with like what that character is so if if you have a superman movie tell a good superman story with like what he does and he's like all like bigger than batman and everything so i feel like james gunn just i feel like he knows at this point that
Diego (09:48.832)
Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm.
Diego (09:59.992)
Yeah, yeah.
Diego (10:04.206)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (10:10.424)
Yeah.
Joshua (10:15.015)
Not every project has to be trying to outdo the one before it.
Diego (10:19.566)
Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point because that does give you a lot more freedom to like give more seriousness to each one of the characters just within the world that they move within, you know? Like, thinking of the movies that are coming out again, like Superman, The Authority, Batman, Breaking the Bold, Supergirl, Swamp Thing. Very different spaces, right? Superman is operating in Metropolis.
Joshua (10:29.417)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (10:44.787)
Yeah.
Diego (10:47.36)
Supergirl is following, supposed to be an adaptation of Tom King's comic series, which I finished reading not too long ago. Phenomenal, phenomenal book, beautifully written, Tom King. But that one is completely, they're really adapting the comic. And I gotta imagine that they're gonna be changing some things because already, like the inclusion of Lobo, for example, in that movie, he's not in that comic. So.
Joshua (11:11.763)
Yeah, well, I mean, I'm guessing that it could just be like a cameo or a small role. But I mean, I feel like people have been like wanting Jason Momoa as Lobo ever since. Yeah.
Diego (11:19.074)
Good bein'.
Diego (11:23.854)
yeah, no, I'm happy about it. I'm totally happy about it. I honestly thought that what they were gonna do was end up like changing the main villain of that story, which is this guy called Krim of the Yellow Hills, like changing him to being Lobo, which I was really was not happy about that thought. But I'm glad I read that they actually have like Krim of the Yellow Hills already cast and everything. So it is gonna follow the story. I imagine that within...
the span of the story. There's definitely opportunities in that story for like a bounty hunter type character, which is what Lobo is, right? Isn't he like a bounty hunter galactic? Yeah. Yeah. So there is the space for sure. Cause they interact with so many different creatures and aliens of different worlds and stuff like that, that Lobo could absolutely make his way into the story without necessarily like taking over the story. I don't think he needs to be the main villain. I don't think he needs to be like,
Joshua (11:56.201)
Yeah, kind of. Like an inner-galactic bounty hunter.
Diego (12:17.112)
part of the squad like with Supergirl and Homegirl who's the one that she's like running on this mission with. So hopefully he doesn't seal the spotlight too much but I love the fact that he's being introduced. I think Jason Momoa was like born to play this role man, this guy. I mean apparently Lobo, yeah, apparently.
Joshua (12:25.749)
Mm.
Joshua (12:34.013)
Yeah, way better. Way better. Perfect, like, than Aquaman. For sure.
Diego (12:42.094)
He said he said in an interview that he actually like that that was has been his favorite character since he was a kid I'm wondering if he like modeled his whole appearance after lobo because the man like looks like freaking lobo man
Joshua (12:48.499)
Yeah. And I remember.
Joshua (12:57.663)
I remember when the DCU had been announced and James Gellman was taking over DC Studios and everything, there was this meeting that they had with the actors from the DCEU and Jason Momoa posted on his Instagram that he was walking out of that meeting and he was ecstatic, just so happy. And he didn't say what it was for, but we know now that it was because he's playing Lobo.
Diego (13:19.958)
I remember that. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I remember that.
Man, been in the talks for a long time. It's pretty cool. Yeah, I love that, man. I think that's such a better fit. Anyway, back to my main point though, thinking of all those stories, right? You've got one that's taking place literally out in outer space in different planets, hopping through planets. That's basically the Supergirl, Woman of Tomorrow story. Superman taking place here on Earth in Metropolis. Authority, I'm assuming it's here on Earth as well. Brave in the Bold.
Joshua (13:30.036)
Yeah.
Diego (13:57.516)
Gotham City, is for all intents and purposes, its own frickin world. and then Swamp Thing, you know, the green, the red, it's nature and deep rooted things, you know, deep within like the world of nature and-
Joshua (14:06.739)
Yeah.
I mean, what, mean, Swamp Thing could like go anywhere on Earth, really.
Diego (14:13.44)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. But it's like a whole Swamp Thing deals with like the realms of nature in a way. So there's this thing called the green which he is a part of which poison ivy is connected to as well. And then there's the red which is like everything connected to like flesh and blood kind of creatures. Like the red comes from blood and there's another realm I think involved in it.
Joshua (14:24.179)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (14:37.877)
Mmm.
Diego (14:42.894)
So there's like these different realms that are essentially like keeping the balance of natural life in this planet. So like, as soon as you mess with Swamp Thing, you're going deep into like a whole different world that we really haven't explored on film yet for DC. Then you got Creature Commandos, which of course, very similar to Suicide Squad, just like with more monster type creatures. Waller, finished today, yeah. Phenomenal series, like just fun.
Joshua (14:54.196)
Yeah.
Joshua (15:05.459)
Yeah, which you finished today, actually.
Diego (15:13.492)
easy to consume. It's got all. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Joshua (15:16.169)
very contained story.
Even though the threat is kind of world ending, what happens in the show itself is really contained into really two countries, really.
Diego (15:23.394)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (15:27.522)
Yeah, yeah, Mm-hmm, yeah. Which is kind of like the, that's kind of like a thing within this, you know, the world of comic books. Like when you've got a fully fleshed out world, really, like a global threatening thing could be brewing in any corner of that world. It could be from like the magic side or the military side or the technology side or the superpowers.
It could come from anywhere. So I like that. I like that. like, worry a little bit less about, wait a minute, why was this big thing happening? Like with Thor, the dark world, when that was going on, the battle on Earth, like the part of the battle on Earth when he was fighting Malekith, he was in London. That final battle was happening in London, the third act.
Joshua (16:24.969)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (16:25.27)
And you gotta ask yourself, it's like, bro, Tony Stark jumps in one of his suits. He can be in London in like no time. The man literally breaks sound barriers in his Iron Man suit. Where the heck was he? You you keep on asking yourself that, but that's because there were only like five heroes in the whole world, you know? Whereas here, where you got multiple heroes, heroes literally have like jurisdictions, Flash is Central City, Batman has got them, Superman is Metropolis.
Joshua (16:34.644)
Yeah.
Joshua (16:43.605)
Yeah
Diego (16:52.878)
you've got this whole organization, like this really fleshed out world, you don't have to worry about that. Like, where was Superman? I don't know, fighting Lex Luthor, probably? Like, you know, there's plenty of things that can keep him busy. It's almost like...
Joshua (17:03.401)
Yeah.
Diego (17:09.938)
Marvel was afraid of building the world too quickly because they were so concerned with keeping everything interconnected and like continuity issues and all that stuff. And in reality, like taking it to the other extreme of having the world completely built out, it's almost like that gives you a more of a sense of freedom. You get to play in little corners and tell different stories and you don't have to worry so much about like, but where was this person? So I think that's a good thing.
Joshua (17:19.754)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (17:37.929)
Yeah.
Diego (17:39.522)
going for the DCU.
All right, let's see. What's next on our list, man? We got, what do you think about the relationship? Yeah, talk to me about that. What are your thoughts on that?
Joshua (17:48.721)
animation in life. Yeah.
I really like, even though I think that it's kind of like sort of unnecessary, I feel like it is like, think it's not something that you would need, but I think that it helps a lot because you wouldn't have to worry about like,
Diego (18:14.203)
Hold on, pause, just to be clear, you're talking about what?
Joshua (18:17.781)
I'm talking about how James Gunn has said that the same actors would play people, the same characters, in through animation, live action, video games, stuff like that. So I think even though it's not necessary, I think it definitely helps with not being confused. also if a character voices, say take like, I don't know, like the bride from Creature Commandos. Say she voices that.
Actress voices her in creature commandos if she ever appears in a live-action movie like it would be the same voice and I'm guessing they also wish yeah, I'm pretty sure you can tell in creature commandos They kind of like make the character look like the actress or the actor Which definitely helps with also the same? Yeah
Diego (18:48.59)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (19:01.93)
Mm-hmm. Yeah Just enough like just close enough that easily that person could play him. Yeah Mm-hmm for sure. You see it a lot with like with a brick flag senior and Frank Grillo who was the guy that voices him like Absolutely, that dude could totally, you know play him in live-action
Joshua (19:13.972)
Yeah.
Joshua (19:20.467)
Yeah.
Diego (19:23.342)
So what about that relationship then? Like what is it that you see promising about it?
Joshua (19:28.565)
I like that, I think it ensures that some of these actors are gonna be with the DCU for a while, I feel like. And I feel like that kinda gives me some hope in the fact that there's like definitely more projects in the works than we know about, for sure. So.
Diego (19:39.266)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Diego (19:51.66)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty exciting. Like, when I think of some of the characters that were introduced there in Creature Commandos, just like thinking of the bride and Frankenstein, for example, that could be, those could be characters who are featured in like Justice League Dark movie, for instance. You know, they could come back to make appearances there. Swamp Thing, same thing.
Joshua (20:12.053)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (20:18.892)
Right. Like Swamp Thing is very interchangeable with that whole world of Creature Commandos and of Justice League Dark. Like there's a whole dark part of the, of this whole thing that is probably going to be a big corner that James Gunn explores is because James Gunn seems to like all these dark characters. He likes playing with them. the other thing that I love, man, I really appreciate this about James Gunn and it's his desire to work with obscure characters, you know?
Joshua (20:19.423)
Yeah.
Joshua (20:37.129)
Yeah.
Joshua (20:48.413)
Yeah, like James Gunn, he turned grew into like a household name.
Diego (20:48.589)
because
Diego (20:54.582)
Yeah, for real. And to a beloved character, like... the same thing as he's doing with Weasel.
Joshua (20:57.001)
Like, yeah, like there's kids, there's kids that are like five years old and Groot is their favorite superhero. And without James Gunn, I don't think like any five year old on this planet would know who Groot is right now. So.
Diego (21:10.606)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (21:17.101)
100 % dude there there have been major events in like the comics and like the in in the cosmic side of Marvel comics that have happened with Groot like there's this whole thing where Groot like became this like Powerful world destroying force somehow. I don't know the details that I didn't like read it, but I read some comics that were like Tendentially connected to it
Joshua (21:37.951)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (21:43.231)
Yeah.
Diego (21:43.518)
And it was like the Guardians kept on running away from this massive force that Groot had become, like planet to planet. And none of that stuff would have happened without James Gunn giving the attention that he gave to those characters, man. The fact that the Guardians of the Galaxy roster became again, you know, Star Lord Gamora, Groot, Rocket, Drax the Destroyer, Mantis, those were, became the main
roster of Guardians of the Galaxy comics thanks to what was happening in the movies like he really Brought attention to two characters that really nobody gave a crap about That's pretty meaningful and and I love the fact that you know, he did it again with the Suicide Squad, which I rewatched recently. It was crazy. I I was watching Creature Commandos and I got to see episode 6 and then there were some scenes going on with wheeze with weasel and of course I remember that weasel was in the in the Suicide Squad
Joshua (22:17.407)
Yeah.
Joshua (22:23.658)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (22:42.904)
where we first got introduced to him in whatever for general audiences I guess I wasn't aware of weasel I didn't know who that was but I was like let me look for some scenes of weasel in live-action so I went over I was a max already I went over into the Suicide Squad movie and I start watching it yeah like the whole opening scene before the credits come out before the name of the movie comes out you know remember in that movie where it was like two teams get sent to
Joshua (23:01.511)
and just ended up watching the entire movie.
Diego (23:12.686)
Cortamaltese and one of them is literally a suicide squad like just meant for cannon fodder.
Joshua (23:13.257)
Yeah. Yeah.
Joshua (23:19.487)
They completely like Captain Boomerang, like everybody just died.
Diego (23:21.962)
Yeah, everybody's gone and weasel is a part of that team. anyway, like I thought that I was going to watch that first opening scene. I'm like, okay, I got my fill of weasel because weasel seems like he dies at a certain point. But then actually he doesn't by the end of the movie, but he's not in the movie. He was only in the opening scene. Anyway, long story short, I thought I was going to watch that opening scene, get back to creature commandos, ended up watching the whole freaking movie because it's so good.
Joshua (23:36.511)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (23:40.095)
Yeah.
Diego (23:51.584)
It is a good movie and it is dealing with these completely obscure characters that most people have never cared about. And it gets you just enthralled, man. It entertains you. It makes the characters interesting. Right. Mm-hmm.
Joshua (24:00.841)
Yeah.
Joshua (24:04.763)
I had never heard of Bloodsport before that. I think that was my first actual introduction to Peacemaker in the DC world. Polka Dot Man, that was the first time I'd ever seen him in action before ever. Rat Catcher, pretty random Batman villain to have in the Suicide Squad. So, I don't know.
Diego (24:16.739)
Yeah.
Diego (24:23.778)
Mm-hmm, right.
Diego (24:29.794)
Yeah. And her father, the original Ratcatcher in that flashback scene played by Taika Waititi. That was awesome, Yeah, like the movie, bro, like the dynamic between Peacemaker and Bloodsport was awesome. Like their whole thing of competition, like who's going to kill more people and more creatively, all that stuff was hilarious. The little moments of backstory for each of the characters. Like this guy really, James Gunn, finds a way of
Joshua (24:37.973)
Pyco ITT, yeah.
Joshua (24:51.231)
Yeah.
Diego (25:00.046)
Creating little moments for you to get to know these characters who are again completely obscure when the movie begins or the show begins And then you care you care about him like after Creature Commandos. I love weasel. I I Didn't have that one in my bingo cards, bro. I didn't know I was gonna care about weasel and I do
Joshua (25:07.507)
Yeah.
Joshua (25:12.245)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (25:18.133)
Dr. Phosphorus' backstory might be like actually the saddest thing, like of all time, ever. Like that was crazy.
Diego (25:22.358)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Very sad. Just, man, brilliantly done. So like, yeah, I appreciate this whole thing of taking these obscure characters and showing them love. And in the world of comics, there are so many obscure characters, man. my God. Like, there are so many characters that are just created and like for filler points in between things.
Joshua (25:41.448)
Yeah.
Diego (25:51.01)
There are characters that are like from the silver age or golden age of comics that seemed ridiculous at the, like in modern day. And so they were never again touched or mentioned, but they're still potentially out there. And James Gunn seems to have an affinity for like picking these things and bringing them to the forefront and suddenly making us care about them. So I, in a fully fleshed out DC world,
Joshua (26:02.389)
Yeah.
Diego (26:18.03)
I can't wait to see what else he does, man. Like what other characters he brings to the forefront, because he's got a gift for that, for sure. And again, like back to like the whole relationship between shows and movies, the fact that we can see one of these characters in live action, see him in animation, no matter where they come from first, we can at any point expect them to show up in live action. That's like, that's awesome. That's really, really cool. So that's a really cool thing about it. What do you think about the tone?
Joshua (26:22.367)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (26:47.698)
The overall tone of the DCU and again, the only thing really that we've got so far from the DCU is the Suicide Squad considered DCU.
Joshua (26:56.373)
Preacher Commandos.
Joshua (27:01.063)
It's considered loose camp. mean, we know the only stuff that we know that is canon from that is like project starfish, which we can assume includes starro, I guess. Because they mentioned it in creature commandos. I'm pretty sure Amanda Wilder mentioned.
Diego (27:08.024)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (27:12.952)
How do we know that's Canon?
Diego (27:18.062)
yeah, that's right. And you mentioned the death of Rick Flag Jr. too, right?
Joshua (27:23.645)
Yeah, so we know that that's canon. I'm guessing from Peacemaker. I mean, I feel like we can't really, I feel like we can assume in certain points. James Gunn has said that the entirety of Peacemaker besides the Justice League scene is canon. So, yeah.
Diego (27:44.024)
I can live with that. I can live with that. I'll ignore that last scene. I don't really care. I think Peacemaker was surprisingly good, man. John Cena, that's like the best thing that I've ever seen John Cena in. And I'm saying that wholeheartedly because I just watched the Royal Rumble. You just watched the Royal Rumble. And John Cena is an absolute cartoon in the wrestling ring. My God. The man is...
Joshua (28:02.557)
Yeah, this dude, I like, he really brings out his acting talent to the ring.
Diego (28:11.598)
Acting talent or lack thereof I don't know man but again you see in peacemaker like as peacemaker
Joshua (28:17.365)
I mean, I think John Cena is a good actor. Like, he can act in certain... yeah.
Diego (28:22.796)
in the right roles. In the right roles. I think he actually has more potential than Dwayne Johnson actually at being a good actor. Yeah, he's always the same. He plays himself. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Bautista. I do this range.
Joshua (28:30.877)
I don't like doing Johnson as an actor. think, yeah, he's the same character. Yeah.
And also, like Dwayne Johnson, I remember during the campaign for Black Adam, Dwayne Johnson was talking about the hierarchy of DC is about to change for Black Adam. This guy actually thinks that in every role that he plays, he's going to be the strongest in that universe.
Diego (29:00.066)
Yeah.
Diego (29:05.262)
Yeah, he was really betting on himself right there he was betting on himself and it failed miserably Yeah, anyway, yeah, I think when it comes to tone Excuse me the Suicide Squad and Creature Commandos are really establishing a certain kind of tone but that tone feels pretty different from The tone that we're seeing in Superman in the trailer
Joshua (29:09.545)
Yeah.
Joshua (29:34.675)
Yeah, I think though, I think that's okay because I feel like different corners like, like, like the Brave and the Bold movie, like that should have a completely different tone than Superman or like creature commandos. Like I think if it's a different enough corner of the world, then I feel like having a different tone is okay in that kind of scenario.
Diego (29:36.066)
Was your grate?
Diego (29:40.344)
Mm-hmm. I agree.
Diego (29:50.44)
Mm-hmm, agreed.
Diego (30:02.786)
I agree. I actually want that. I prefer that because I want Justice League Dark to be a horror movie with superheroes. You know, I want Swamp Thing to feel like horror, to have horror vibes to it. I want Batman to feel dark, know, to feel Gotham City. Like I want to feel Gotham City in that movie. I want...
Joshua (30:13.866)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (30:19.636)
Yeah.
Joshua (30:29.339)
Mm-hmm. I want like in a way that the Batman did, but like even more because I want this Gotham City, because this is a more fantastical world. I want Gotham City to feel alive, but in a different way. I want Gotham City to like personify crime in the way that like when Batman's like doing work or something, he'll like, you'll be able to hear like a robbery going on in the background or something.
Diego (30:39.96)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (30:58.658)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (30:59.071)
Like I want Gotham City to feel alive in a similar way that the Batman did, but with more like fantastical elements and like actual villains.
Diego (31:08.344)
The Batman, like Robert Pattinson and Matt Reeves? You mean? Yeah.
Joshua (31:11.133)
Yeah, no, like I want the Brave and the Bold movie to feel, to Forgotham to feel alive like it did in the Batman.
Diego (31:20.844)
In the Batman, yeah. Yes, I think, I think we, the thing that we haven't gotten yet is a dark enough Gotham with enough of the more flashy superhero elements of the Bat family being established. that's a thing that we haven't gotten yet. We've gotten the dark, we've Nolan's very, you know, kind of grounded.
Joshua (31:39.359)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (31:48.258)
dark interpretation of Gotham. We've gotten the Batman, which is even darker, know, seven style type of Gotham world. We've gotten the very flashy Joe Schumacher, you know, Batman and Robin, Batman forever type of vibes.
Joshua (32:06.644)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (32:10.057)
Yeah.
Diego (32:12.852)
Maybe. And then we've gotten the whole like gothic vibe of Tim Burton's first two Batman movies, which are probably the closest that we've gotten to dark and campy. But.
Joshua (32:29.001)
Honestly, I want Gotham City in the DCU to feel like how it does in the Arkham games. That's my favorite iteration of Gotham City. And especially, I mean that in Arkham Knight. Like the look of Gotham City in Arkham Knight and Arkham City, it's just so like, I don't know. It's so like, it feels so like.
Diego (32:38.999)
Yeah!
Yeah.
Diego (32:46.414)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (32:57.525)
high and mighty, like the city really is. I don't know, it's just like, I love how Gotham feels in those games.
Diego (33:05.314)
Yeah, yeah, there's something about Gotham City in those games where the city feels like it has layers to it. Like there's places for evil to hide. Like that's the kind of city that I can be like, it's run by a secret society called the Court of Owls. Yeah, I could believe that. These guys could be running things where there's like so much relationship and like a symbiosis between crime.
Joshua (33:11.281)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
Joshua (33:23.156)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (33:32.96)
and the infrastructure of the city that you can't separate the two from each other in a way. Yeah, I like that. I like that vibe and that'd be really cool to see there.
Joshua (33:37.748)
Yeah.
And I also want the city to feel, want, okay, I Arkham Asylum to be like an island, like it was in the game. Like I want Arkham Asylum, I want the people that are housed there to be so dangerous that they can't take the risk of Arkham Asylum being at mainland Gotham, yeah.
Diego (33:49.763)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (33:53.806)
Hmm. Right.
Diego (33:59.246)
Hmm.
Hmm. Having him in the mainland. Yeah. Yeah, I think that that definitely makes sense. I would love to see that. And then the good thing is, is like, you can have a Batman who is, you don't have to take Batman too far in the campy direction, even though like we still haven't yet like seen a Batman in live action, who is like the Batman in the comics necessarily. And even though like,
depending on which writer is writing Batman at any given moment, like you're gonna get slightly different versions of Batman, right? Like little tweaks here and there. like reading, I was reading the Batman and Robin comics for I think like 20 issues or something like that. And a lot of the story, because it is the Batman and Robin comics, a lot of the story ended up centering around like
Joshua (34:37.027)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (35:00.504)
Bruce Wayne, single father, you know? And so like, trying to convince Damien to go to high school, for example, and Damien didn't want to because he felt like he was smarter than everybody at the school, and he was, you know? Like he really already knew everything that there was to learn in a public school in Gotham City, so he had no interest in going. And what got him interested was that he started realizing that there was like...
Joshua (35:02.899)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (35:12.17)
Yeah.
Diego (35:25.198)
Mission that he was trying to accomplish like a crime that he was trying to solve there might be somebody in the school connected to it and so that's what made him interested in school so like I I Feel like there's a different side of Batman that we can explore that has never been explored before on live in live-action and the Batman brave in the bold which will give us a new Batman He is already established
Joshua (35:31.966)
Okay.
Joshua (35:42.365)
Yeah.
Diego (35:53.73)
He's gonna, we're gonna be introducing Damien Wayne for the first time in live action.
Joshua (35:57.237)
Also just the dynamic, like a good modern dynamic between Batman and Robin in like actual comic book fashion, not like it would be like some kind of like realistic twist on it. Like an actual father and son that fight crime. that would be amazing to see in live action. Which we never have like.
Diego (36:19.053)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (36:26.269)
as a replication of the comics that we have today, like modern comics. We've never seen that.
Diego (36:30.275)
Yeah.
No, closest thing to it, I would say, is Big Daddy and Hit Girl from...
Joshua (36:39.061)
See you guys.
Diego (36:40.174)
From Kick-Ass, yeah. That's the closest thing we got into that. Those two are actually fighting crime as father and daughter, and they were really good at it. Used all the weapons, used all the things. They had a really cool dynamic going. That's the closest thing that we ever seen to Batman and Robin, as far as Damian and Robin.
Joshua (36:58.569)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (36:59.054)
So I'm really excited for that man. I'm really looking forward to that. I really hope that they don't just focus on the Batman and Robin part of it. I really hope that they do Bruce Wayne and Damian Wayne because that is something that is going to make this Batman completely different from every other Batman that has ever been on screen. The fact that he is going to be not just Batman, but now his most unexpected challenge is he is actually now a single dad and that's insane. And I speak from experience. It's game changer for a man.
Joshua (37:12.629)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (37:22.578)
Yeah.
Diego (37:27.662)
to become a single father, little less for freaking Batman to become a single father. So there's like so many comedic moments that even without forcing it are gonna be there. Funny moments where it's like Bruce Wayne trying to figure out how the hell it would be a single dad while being Batman. All of that is gonna be hilarious. Not to mention like the fact that, know, Damien Wayne, hopefully we're getting him from like the beginning of his introduction where he's literally a little ninja assassin who wants to kill every criminal. And it's like, how does Batman reign that in?
Joshua (37:32.446)
Yeah.
Joshua (37:44.085)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (37:54.1)
Yeah.
for sure.
Diego (37:57.536)
my god, hilarious. And if we're introduced to the rest of the Bat family, who are presumably already established at the very least, Dick Grayson as Nightwing and Batgirl, hopefully. There you go.
Joshua (38:06.132)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (38:09.589)
I feel like I actually did the math in my head. Because if Damien, assuming that we've gotten Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damien, I did the math for how long he would have each robin and how long. And I figured out that the perfect age to me for Batman to be to have Damien is 37 years old.
Diego (38:20.686)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (38:29.838)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (38:35.022)
That sounds about right.
Joshua (38:36.265)
I figured that out and I think honestly that's like the perfect age that Batman should be in live action.
Diego (38:41.506)
Yeah, I think that's perfect, man. think mid-30s is probably like, mid to late 30s is probably like the everlasting canonical age of Batman. I think that's pretty much where he's always at.
Joshua (38:44.499)
Yeah.
Joshua (38:53.205)
Yeah, like I feel like Batman is like forever in the comics like 35 to 38
Diego (38:57.738)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I like that. I like that. Speaking of Batman, so what do you think of casting? We got the little glimpse of Batman in that one scene in Creature Commandos. Bulk-y, big-looking Batman. What are you thinking? Two? What was the first one?
Joshua (39:08.468)
Yeah.
Joshua (39:12.007)
Mm-hmm. We got two looks at Batman in Creature Commandos.
in that flashback or in the flash forward actually of all the dead bodies.
Diego (39:24.382)
yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, you're right. Mm-hmm. That's right. I forgot about that one. Yeah, there's this like prophecy that is being like shown into Amanda Waller's brain. And in that prophecy, there's like this one character in the Creature Commando season one show where like she becomes, you know, basically takes over the world and somehow takes out the entire Justice League. And so they're all like on spikes or something like that. And we get a little glimpse of Batman. What does that Batman look like again? Like, what do they actually show?
Joshua (39:27.23)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (39:30.836)
Yeah.
Joshua (39:47.827)
Yeah.
Joshua (39:51.679)
So I actually really like that he doesn't really just have a cape, he has like a cloak. It like covers his entire body. It's like really, it's like draping over. It looks like in that look that we got of it, he has a black cape and like black headpiece, mask. Yeah, but in the other look with the Dr. Foster episode,
Diego (40:09.4)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (40:15.768)
But Kyle.
Joshua (40:20.509)
It kind of looks like he has blue.
Diego (40:23.532)
Hmm. Does it?
Joshua (40:24.211)
Like blue adds the cape color and everything. So I'm not sure.
Diego (40:27.288)
Hmm Well, that's something else we haven't gotten in live-action yet that kind of like blue tint to Batman's Batman's gear, but then again like Batman he has so many iterations of a suit You know, he's kind of like Iron Man in that sense. Like he's constantly iterating suits and stuff like that. Even like showing up in a slightly blue. no, wait, actually didn't we get like a bluish Batman in the flash movie? Yeah Yeah
Joshua (40:32.476)
Yeah.
Joshua (40:44.948)
Yeah.
Joshua (40:54.153)
Yeah, I think so.
Diego (40:55.842)
Yeah, he showed up, yeah, slightly blue, I think.
Joshua (40:59.337)
think the suit that I would want Batman to have would be close to the Scott Snyder suit.
Diego (41:01.165)
I think.
Diego (41:09.016)
Scott Seidersen.
Joshua (41:09.149)
I think from the new 52.
I really like that suit. mean, it's just pretty simple black and gray. I think black and gray is, that's my favorite color way of Batman, for sure.
Diego (41:20.995)
Yeah.
Diego (41:25.9)
Yeah, me too. And I just, that's one of the reasons why I wish we would have gotten more of Ben Affleck's Batman in solo movies. Cause man, I love that suit that he was rocking. It so cool. But yeah, Batman, think a lot to look forward to. I think as far as like tone, when it comes to Batman, a lot of the change to Batman's like brooding seriousness can come from the relationship with Damien Wayne.
Joshua (41:32.297)
Yeah.
Joshua (41:38.133)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (41:55.586)
can come from Dick, can come from Batgirl. He's surrounded by people who are a lot more lively than he is. And I think that could be a really good way of bringing the levity without sacrificing the Gotham of it all and the Batman side of it all. Mm-hmm.
Joshua (42:08.871)
Mm-hmm. one more thing about Batman that I want to mention. I need the Batcave to be like really comic accurate. And when I mean that, mean like I need the Batcave to have the big dinosaur in it. I need it to have the big penny. I need to have like all these like Batmobiles and all this like tech. I need that. Like that's...
Diego (42:16.782)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (42:24.554)
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Diego (42:30.252)
Yeah. Yeah, the Batcave, the Batcave in the Snyderverse was weird. Like, I couldn't, I couldn't define it. Like when you, when you, when you get, when you venture into the Batcave in the comics, you almost always get some sort of like panoramic shot, like a wide shot and you see the entire thing. What?
Joshua (42:48.927)
Wait, this is kinda like...
It is kind of... that's... it's not even really a cave.
Diego (42:54.967)
Tell the people what you're looking at, because we can't see what your screen's showing.
Joshua (42:57.949)
Yeah, so the main thing that I see is it's the Robin with the, like the Robin suit with the Joker writing on it. Yeah, so it's not really like a cave. more like a, it kind of looks like a museum almost. There's like glass cases with like stuff in it.
Diego (43:08.51)
Mm-hmm. You're talking about the Snyderverse Batcave. Okay.
Diego (43:19.304)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's like a
Diego (43:24.3)
Yeah, it's like a multi-level kind of thing. It's a little odd, it's a little odd. And here, I think I can, I've never tried this before, but what the hell? Let's go ahead and show this.
Joshua (43:28.445)
Yeah.
Joshua (43:40.595)
Yeah, it's pretty weird.
Diego (43:45.614)
Here, so there's an image of the Snyderverse Batcave. that is like, it's almost like an office setup built into a cave in a way. A lot of stairs, a lot of levels. It just doesn't strike you as the actual Batcave. Whereas like, let me take a look at the Batcave in the comics. Because this is like the iconic.
Joshua (43:47.103)
Yeah.
Joshua (43:56.213)
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
Diego (44:13.954)
back cave that think Josh was talking about that he wants to see. So let's see.
this right here.
to a lot more in line with what we're looking to see.
Joshua (44:28.873)
Jason Mugg.
Diego (44:31.234)
take a minute to show some love to Chonky Jason. That's Chonky Jason, All right, here, this is Tiny, but there you go. That's the kind of shot that I'm talking about that you always get in the comics. Like when you visit the Batcave, boom, it's a freaking cave. You got Batmobile collections, you got T-Rex, you got the coin somewhere, you got the bat suits. Yeah, absolutely, man. This is the kind of Batcave that I want to see for sure. That'd be so fun.
Joshua (44:34.791)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (44:48.873)
Yeah, you need the Sioux collection for sure.
Yeah.
Yeah, the perfect Batcave in my eyes is the Batcave from the DC animated movies. You know I'm talking about? Those, yeah. Like that's my perfect Batcave. And I think like there's nothing really wrong with like that in live action. Honestly. Yeah.
Diego (45:08.034)
Yeah, right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, that's exactly agreed.
Diego (45:19.212)
No, why? Not at all. I mean, it doesn't look any less doable or realistic than the other Batcaves that we've seen, really. We got, think probably the closest thing in live action was actually the Batcave from Tim Burton's Batman, but in the Flash movie. You know what I'm talking about?
Joshua (45:29.247)
near.
Joshua (45:41.813)
Mmm. Mmm, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Diego (45:44.526)
That was interesting. Like that one had like those sort of like sections for different things and it even had the suit collection, which was pretty cool. I guess what yes, yeah, yeah. And he said it needs to feel like it's all one thing, not like it's a whole bunch of separate little sections either. Anyway, yeah, I think I'm pretty excited about Batman in the hands of James Gunn and Peter Saffron because like,
Joshua (45:51.381)
Yeah
I need it to be big.
Joshua (46:02.421)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Diego (46:13.368)
They are really, as of right now, it looks like they're just trying to bring the comics to life. That's it. There's no like watering down what people look like. Like take a look at Guy Gardner's Green Lantern. They gave him the bowl cut. Yeah, dude looks like the comics. Like he's wearing something different because of the story or whatever, but he looks like he looked in the comics and I think that's really promising. I can't wait to see that.
Joshua (46:20.575)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Joshua (46:28.501)
ball cutting, yeah.
Joshua (46:37.737)
Yeah.
like
Diego (46:41.996)
Lantern series too, because that's going to be cool to see, like, to undo the damage of the original Green Lantern movie.
Joshua (46:43.647)
Yeah.
Joshua (46:47.829)
Mm-hmm. really like, honestly, I don't have as much trouble with the casting of, what's this guy's name? Hal Jordan. I think I'm not that mad with it. I really like Jon Stewart casting. I think that guy's perfect for that. Nothing wrong with Nathan Fillion's casting. I think...
Diego (47:03.662)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (47:07.244)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, that was a good acid. Mm-hmm.
Joshua (47:17.723)
the suits. I don't know how, I don't know what like they would get the suits to look like, but I have faith. mean, I don't know.
Diego (47:24.696)
Right.
Diego (47:30.252)
So.
So this is the cast of Lanterns. Let's take a look at this. Now that I realize that I can share for the first time in our podcast history, this is the cast, right? All right. So that man, thanks to TikTok, is Mufasa. That is Mufasa. TikTok, the dude in the middle, Aaron Pierre. Aaron Pierre, that's Mufasa. Aaron Pierre. Have you not seen this on TikTok?
Joshua (47:39.465)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (47:43.538)
Yeah.
Joshua (47:51.741)
in the way who wear.
Joshua (48:02.335)
No.
Diego (48:03.584)
Okay, TikTok clearly thinks that I love freaking Jennifer Hudson intros. Like there's this thing with Jennifer, the Jennifer Hudson talk show where like when the person is, the guest is coming out of the green room, they have to walk through this like hallway. And then the whole staff of the Jennifer Hudson show is like along the sides of the hallway. And they're just singing a particular, a unique little chant that they created for this one guest to hype them up as they walk out to the, to the like set. And
Joshua (48:30.856)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (48:32.044)
This guy's thing has become like viral for whatever reason. He's the voice of Mufasa in the new Lion King movie. And so like their whole thing is like, Aaron Pierre, that's Mufasa. Aaron Pierre, that's Mufasa. And dude is like being all sly, know, good looking guy, high fiving people. Anyway, yes, he is Mufasa. But he is also a real man, John Stewart. And that's kind of dope, man. I like it.
Joshua (48:38.077)
okay.
Joshua (48:43.433)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (48:51.41)
Yeah.
Joshua (48:54.899)
Jon Stewart. Yeah.
Diego (49:02.082)
I don't have a problem with an older Hal Jordan. think that...
Joshua (49:04.607)
Yeah.
I think that guy, Cal Chandler, can honestly match the kind of charm that feel like Cal Jordan has. I feel like he kind of has that look to him.
Diego (49:13.154)
Yeah, mm-hmm. He can, yeah. Yeah, and he has the ability to act serious too. Remember him in the Godzilla movie? He was like the, yeah, he was the dad of Milly Bobby Brown. And he can act serious and he's a decent actor and the fact that we're going into an established DC universe, it makes sense that Hal Jordan has already been operating for a minute.
Joshua (49:20.661)
Mm-hmm.
I think so, yeah. He was the dad, right?
Diego (49:40.866)
You know, I'm totally cool with that. Whereas, whereas Jon Stewart dude obviously looks younger. It makes sense. He's a newer recruit, et cetera, et cetera. I'm looking forward to seeing Jon, to seeing Aaron Pierre in a more like tough guy role. He's got the voice. He's got a good voice. So I'm really looking forward to seeing him in that, in that capacity is going to be cool. This series I'm really looking forward to, man. It's like, they're describing it as what is it?
Joshua (49:41.748)
Yeah.
Joshua (49:55.786)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (50:04.276)
Yeah.
Diego (50:11.694)
How is that they describe it? Like a...
Joshua (50:14.783)
but like a cop.
Diego (50:16.536)
cop procedural kind of thing, but in space. Like a cosmic version of that. And I'm down for that, man. I love it. I mean, if there's anything we know is that James Gunn knows how to guide cosmic level outer space stuff. So, that's gonna be cool.
Joshua (50:17.973)
Yeah, what did they describe that like, like a yeah.
Joshua (50:34.355)
Yeah. I'm also glad that Jon Stewart is like gonna be one of the main characters, cause that's my favorite Green Lantern. Cause I mean like in the DC animated shows, like Jon Stewart was the Green Lantern. And like Jon, yeah, Jon Stewart's Green Lantern to me. Like that's the Green Lantern.
Diego (50:42.306)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (50:51.82)
Yeah, I agree. My take on this is that they're gonna head in a similar direction to where DC Comics has headed. In recent times, you've had, well, you've had a lot of events, but how Jordan has been like missing in action, he was gone for whatever reason. And...
The Justice League just became the Justice League Unlimited in the comics and they have a brand new watchtower and there's like super crazy technology and magic and everything involved in creating this like impenetrable watchtower. And every hero on earth is essentially invited to become part of Justice League Unlimited. Card carrying members. Booster Gold, who comes from the future, has to do with some sort of vision. He had it seen in the future like
Joshua (51:31.207)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (51:38.291)
Yeah.
Diego (51:48.214)
one of these cards and it was like his dream to become that. We've got a booster gold series coming up in the works as part of this whole thing. And the one thing that you notice is that there is no Justice League movie at all in this first slate of films or shows. And so I think it's a good thing. I think it's a very good thing. I think this tells us that they're gonna take their time, even though we're starting off with an already built out world. I love the fact that they're not jumping into a Justice League.
Joshua (51:55.071)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Joshua (52:03.593)
Which is a good thing.
Diego (52:17.358)
And so I would guess that when it comes to the the cast of the lanterns, I would guess that this guy, Hal Jordan, is going to pass the mantle on to Jon Stewart leading to the Justice League so that the version of the Justice League that we get is similar to the version of the Justice League that so many people grew up watching.
Joshua (52:17.429)
Mm.
Joshua (52:39.989)
Mm.
Joshua (52:46.473)
with the animated shows. Yeah.
Diego (52:46.798)
in the cartoons. Yeah, so I think they will make, they will make how Jordan like the first established veteran Green Lantern on earth, but I think you'll pass the baton over into over to John Stewart would be my guess.
Joshua (52:59.859)
You know, I also want the Green Lanterns to have like their, I want their suits to be different. Like I want, cause like I want how Jordan's suit to be his iconic one with like the green body and then like the black arms. want Jon Stewart's suit to be his iconic one. I want Guy Gardner, once he gets out of that like kind of sponsored suit, I want him to have his like iconic vest and everything. I want the Green Lanterns to like,
Diego (53:06.86)
Yeah.
Diego (53:13.656)
Mm.
Diego (53:26.51)
Yeah.
Joshua (53:30.025)
differentiate themselves. I also want their constructs to be based off of their personality.
Diego (53:32.44)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (53:37.262)
Yeah, man. man. That's something that I can't wait for. I love the fact, my favorite Green Lantern is a guy, and I don't even know his name. I always forget his name. Kyle Rayner, thank you, yes. Yeah, yeah, for obvious reasons, right? I've always been an artist and stuff. so his whole thing, I remember reading a comic a long time ago, and his whole thing was like.
Joshua (53:40.991)
Yeah.
Joshua (53:51.989)
Kyle Rayner?
Diego (54:04.898)
you know, inspired by his creativity as a drawer, as an artist, an illustrator, which is just super cool. It's something you can kind of come up with.
Joshua (54:07.827)
Yeah.
Yeah, something something I don't want is for there to be a Green Lantern and they're going up against like some like threat and they make like a hammer. Like you have all this creativity. You can make anything you can put your mind to and you make like a minigun. Like make something like make I remember in the Justice in Injustice 2 like Green Lanterns.
Diego (54:31.542)
Right.
Mm.
Joshua (54:39.241)
finisher was making like a Gundam. He like makes this mech and he like stomps on you. Like I want to see some of that. I want to see real creativity with the Green Lantern construct.
Diego (54:42.723)
Yeah.
Diego (54:50.508)
Heck yeah, remember that comic, the Godzilla comic where you ended up having, who were they fighting? I think they were fighting Mechagodzilla at that point. So it was Godzilla versus Kong versus Justice League. And there was this one scene where you have Mechagodzilla coming into the mix and then all, like five green lanterns combine their construct to create a massive, like,
Joshua (54:54.645)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (55:06.281)
Yeah.
Joshua (55:18.197)
Like Voltron?
Diego (55:21.002)
Voltron. Yes, thank you. Like a Voltron style mech to fight Mechagodzilla. That was epic, man. I've never seen that done before. I want to see creativity like that. Yeah, man, the constructs thing is going to be fun. And it's going to be really cool.
Joshua (55:26.555)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Joshua (55:34.675)
Yeah, I'm definitely excited for lanterns.
Diego (55:37.998)
Yeah, I love the fact that it's a show too and that it takes place in different eras because that means that the kind of constructs are not only going to be based on personality and character, they're going to be based on the time period, right? So if we've got a lantern, you know, over in, I don't know, the Wild West times or something, what are their constructs going to look like, right? I don't know, that's going to be really cool. So to wrap things up here, what would you say is the thing that has you most excited overall?
Joshua (55:40.724)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (55:49.353)
Yeah.
Joshua (55:58.26)
Yeah.
Diego (56:07.192)
for the DCU.
Joshua (56:09.383)
I think it's that, I think the thing that has me most excited is that James Gunn really, and I know I've said this, but it is the thing I'm most excited about is that James Gunn isn't afraid of, like James Gunn with what he's doing with like having different time periods, he really has the creativity. Like if a character's killed off, he can still tell a story with them in it.
Diego (56:34.638)
Hmm.
Joshua (56:38.153)
just in a different time period when they were alive. And like if something, say like Dick Grayson is already Nightwing, we could get like a project where we see him and Batman working together as Batman and Robin. Yeah. Like James Gunn and just the DC Studios team in general has the freedom to do anything that they want with this universe. Video games, I remember he mentioned that in that slate.
Diego (56:47.971)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it could be animated. It could be animated. It could be live-action series.
Diego (57:02.057)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Diego (57:07.042)
Yeah, man. that would be phenomenal, bro. Being able to tell a backstory of a character through a video game, come on, that's innovative, that's different. Yeah. And I think to answer my own question, I think the thing that has me most excited is probably the multimedia side of this whole thing. there's, right now I'm reading this comic called No One, and I've been sitting on this comic for a long time because I was waiting for it to be collected completely. This is a comic that...
Joshua (57:08.36)
Yeah.
Joshua (57:12.991)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Joshua (57:26.079)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (57:36.746)
where inside of the story, there's a character who is a journalist and she gets forced by her superiors to create a podcast, like a true crime podcast following the story of this lead character was like an anti hero type of thing. And there's been some murders and stuff and she creates a podcast, but the podcast actually exists in real life and I can subscribe to it on Apple. And so after every issue that I read of the comic, I listened to the episode of the podcast and there's more.
Joshua (57:53.087)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (58:06.882)
The anti-hero, he's like a hacktivist. So he's like one of these guys that is like a hacker but tries to do good things with it. He's created this web portal in the comic where he's doxing a whole bunch of people who are doing the criminal activity in the city of Philadelphia, somewhere in Pennsylvania. And he's putting out videos.
Joshua (58:14.463)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (58:30.498)
he's putting out secret documents. He's putting out audios. He's putting out all sorts of things and he posts these messages on there, like where he like always signs off with no, am no one. All of that is accessible online. I can go.
Joshua (58:43.413)
So this is like, I don't know if you would notice this, but it's like an ARG, basically. Do you know what that is? It's like in, it's like a, say that there's like a video that you stumbled across on YouTube and it's like, it has some like cryptic message and you like decode something. Like an ARG is basically a puzzle that's like online.
Diego (59:01.336)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (59:13.607)
and it spans over multiple different types of media and you're trying to like figure out this like mystery and there's like secret puzzles and like codes and stuff that you have to like figure out and that's kind of what it sounds like. Yeah.
Diego (59:24.75)
Mm-hmm, something along those lines. Yeah, something along those lines, yeah. And so it's like this whole experience where you're looking for stuff online and you're looking at photos and you're listening to audio recordings and you get to hear the voices of the characters from the comic book. And then the podcast is basically feeding you more information, carrying the story along, and it's like this whole freaking experience where you're submerging it in multiple ways.
I'm excited for that kind of experience when it comes to the DCU. I hope they release.
Joshua (59:57.557)
Yeah, like getting information about something from multiple different types of media. Like you could get different pieces of a character's backstory or you can just tell different parts of a character's story in a video game, in a comic book, in a show, in a movie. Yeah, like DC comic books, that would be, I don't know.
Diego (01:00:03.4)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's exciting to me.
Diego (01:00:09.603)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (01:00:14.798)
Comic books, yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, I'd be there, man. And they have the potential to make this really worthwhile. Like typically when you have like live action movies from Marvel, let's say, and they release tie-in comic books, it's always like some light connection. It's always some slightly interesting backstory, maybe like the events leading right into the movie, but it's never something meaningful, like substantial. It's never like, we're going to tell the origin story of X character from this movie.
through a short comic book series. I would be there, man. I would jump all over that. So I'm excited about the fact that they began with all this in mind. We're gonna tie it all together. Games and movies and shows and series. We're gonna show this universe in this way. I feel like that has more potential to be timeless compared to Marvel, which is Marvel struggling. There are shows.
Joshua (01:00:52.682)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (01:01:14.28)
Yeah.
Diego (01:01:20.002)
were executed in a very weird way. The animated stuff, like, you know, hasn't fully, there's just nothing substantial that's coming out of it, you know, feeding the main continuity. The movies have started feeling more and more disjointed. And like all of that, when they haven't even fully built out the whole universe yet, they haven't built out their whole roster of characters yet. The drama with Sony, all that stuff.
Joshua (01:01:29.173)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (01:01:48.408)
DCU does not have to worry about it and that to me feels promising I feel like I'm gonna be able to tap into different cool stories at any point if I choose to ignore something it's all good like It's just I don't know. It's a better flow. I think it is feeling very promising to me I'm excited for DC. I'm excited for all these products that are gonna come out. I feel a little bit more excited as a comic book fan
Joshua (01:01:50.474)
Yeah.
Joshua (01:02:17.941)
Mm-hmm.
Diego (01:02:18.186)
about the DCU because I feel like the stuff, the world that I'm moving in in DC Comics, like I'm going to be seeing a lot of that in all these things and that's really cool. So I'm definitely optimistic about the DCU. Think you are too, right?
Joshua (01:02:28.052)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (01:02:36.527)
Definitely, yeah. I'm excited for a lot of the projects that are going to be coming.
Diego (01:02:38.435)
Yeah.
Diego (01:02:41.848)
Can't wait man. The next thing is what? Superman I guess, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yes sir. July, America.
Joshua (01:02:45.001)
Yeah, and that's coming what, July? So... Yeah.
Joshua (01:02:53.395)
America.
Diego (01:02:53.87)
Truth, what is, what was this catchphrase? Truth, in the American way? Is that what it used to be about back then? I don't know. Superman.
Joshua (01:03:03.379)
yeah, catch me.
Diego (01:03:05.07)
Yeah. Yeah. It was the whole thing. It was used to use it in his marketing. I'm old. Ignore me. All right. Thank you all for listening and for watching to this episode of Geekology 101. We've been doing the themed episodes a lot more for the actual podcast feed. But in this case, I think it's such a like a pivotal moment in the history of like comic book movies with the DCU that it merited.
just having a whole full length conversation about it. hopefully you guys are as excited and listen, if I can give you guys out there, one word of advice, don't nitpick these things to death. Like stop worrying about his face looks when he's flying for God's sake, enjoy the story for the story, man. Like enjoy the world, enjoy the universe that you're being introduced to. Stop nitpicking things.
Joshua (01:03:35.903)
Yeah.
Joshua (01:03:45.395)
Yeah.
Joshua (01:03:51.125)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (01:03:55.943)
I feel like 90 % of this stuff is just like, Henry Cavill didn't look that way when he was flying. Henry Cavill had his arm up and not behind his back. It's a movie about a guy who has a red and blue suit and flies and beats up big monsters. Why are you talking about that his eyes are facing this way? Just watch the movie.
Diego (01:04:19.916)
Yeah, if the the story is good, that is what matters because that's what's been lacking in the majority of superhero movies after Endgame. It's good storytelling. And I have a feeling that we're going to get this. If Creature Commandos is any indication, we're going to get some solid storytelling, man, starting with Superman. So I'm really looking forward to it. If you want to join the conversation over here, if you want to get to know us a little bit better, you can head over to our website, Geekology101.com
Joshua (01:04:25.225)
Mm-hmm.
Joshua (01:04:38.356)
Yeah.
Diego (01:04:49.39)
There you can find out all about us. There you can find the different ways of subscribing and following us online. And if you want to go ahead and join the conversation, there's a contact form at the bottom of our homepage where you can fill out some quick info and join the combo that way or.
Joshua (01:05:05.747)
If you want to help do more traditional means, can contact us at g101podcast@gmail.com at gmail.com.
Diego (01:05:12.632)
Thank you all for listening. Thank you all for watching and we will catch you in the next episode. Peace.
Joshua (01:05:17.695)
Goodbye.
