Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to another edition of Nedificent. I am
Speaker 1: one half of your host, Danny Fernandez. That sounded spooky
Speaker 1: and sitting across from me, Hey, how's you? How you doing?
Speaker 1: Is your boy as always coming in much? I wanted
Speaker 1: to say the reason why it sounded spooky is because
Speaker 1: our host today, who is the host of Geek History Lesson,
Speaker 1: Ashley Robinson, just brought up the Adams Family trailer up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, I'm sorry. We also we don't cuss,
Speaker 1: but they'll believe I'm sorry before we started we do,
Speaker 1: but um, we're not supposed to. Sorry. So you liked it,
Speaker 1: but but I saw a lot of people online that didn't.
Speaker 1: I did like it. Um. I like it because I'm
Speaker 1: trying to hope that everything is awesome, Like what if
Speaker 1: it's awesome instead of what if it totally because I've
Speaker 1: been surprised by things that I thought were going to
Speaker 1: suck and turned out to be awesome in the past. Um,
Speaker 1: and the opposite as well, like with some current movies
Speaker 1: that are superho genres in the theater right now, and
Speaker 1: I really like the cast, so I was super into that,
Speaker 1: and I'm into the fact that the art here is
Speaker 1: more referential to the original comic strips. Totally like it
Speaker 1: because it feels like a departure from the nineties cartoon
Speaker 1: or the live actions. Yeah, but the cast is so incredible.
Speaker 1: I mean, Oscar Isaac what so I was really excited
Speaker 1: about that. If everyone else isn't excited, there's more for me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's fine, that's fine. I know. There's that weird thing
Speaker 1: that it feels like people are like, well, if people
Speaker 1: are liking a thing I don't like, I have to
Speaker 1: make sure they know that they shouldn't like it. Like
Speaker 1: people don't like have differing opinions anymore. It feels like, well,
Speaker 1: we're not allowed to write and then if if they're
Speaker 1: a fan of you, they get extra mad about it
Speaker 1: because we're all supposed to be friends online. But you
Speaker 1: know what, friends disagree in real life and it's okay.
Speaker 1: I promise it'll be okay. I'm so for like wanting
Speaker 1: things to do well, and um I love anytime, Like say,
Speaker 1: if a movie doesn't do as well but someone loves it,
Speaker 1: I like that because it means that you were able
Speaker 1: to enjoy it in some way, Like any time the
Speaker 1: world is horrible and anytime anyone can enjoy anything. I'm
Speaker 1: a fan of it. Yeah, it's also start hurting anyone, right,
Speaker 1: that's the big role. Um. If you what are you
Speaker 1: into this week? Oh man, I'm into I got back
Speaker 1: into Rainbow six Siege. Tom Clancy's Rainbow six. It's great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I used to go so hard at it
Speaker 1: and then I just got distracted by other games. And
Speaker 1: today me and my boy Mr Moogli, we did a
Speaker 1: squad stream and got all the way up to uh
Speaker 1: gold too. So I think I might actually hit Platte
Speaker 1: for the first time in my Rainbow six Siege career
Speaker 1: this season. So I am proud of you. I can't
Speaker 1: tell if Danna no, okay, never mind. I thought somebody
Speaker 1: was clapping in the back, but they weren't. That was
Speaker 1: towards the dog, you said, Mr Magoo when you were explaining.
Speaker 1: So in my brain, you've had a tiny white blind
Speaker 1: man following you around throught the whole game. If I'm
Speaker 1: super into the Twilight Zone that dropped, and that's another
Speaker 1: thing that a lot of people have been Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: I do feel like it feels like the original Twilight Zones.
Speaker 1: Obviously it's not going to feel exactly like them. Um,
Speaker 1: nor should it. Probably it's going to be somebody else's
Speaker 1: take on it. But I do feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of people who are just like I saw the twist coming.
Speaker 1: I'm like, then, maybe it wasn't about the twist. Like
Speaker 1: if it was just about the twist, it might be
Speaker 1: like an m Night Shamalan type of thing. But there
Speaker 1: are some very heated points of social commentary that happened
Speaker 1: in a couple of the episodes that I feel people
Speaker 1: are not talking about. And I feel like, as a
Speaker 1: woman of color, I did kind of especially Adam Scott's
Speaker 1: hit me in a different way. So um, that's all
Speaker 1: I'll say on that. But yeah, and wait it and
Speaker 1: I can't wait for the next one to drop this Thursday.
Speaker 1: This is not an ad for them, weird? Should we should? Though?
Speaker 1: I should be getting my CBSL access for free. Um,
Speaker 1: here's here's a fun thing about CBSL Access. If you
Speaker 1: can't see your subscription a year and a half later,
Speaker 1: you can still access everything that's exclusive on there. Because
Speaker 1: I canceled mine to Valentine days ago and I still
Speaker 1: have access to all the exclusive content. Are you sure
Speaker 1: they're not charging you on? Like something that I forgot about.
Speaker 1: Called them and I checked all my bank statements and
Speaker 1: shout out to Reshot, the gentleman who helped me, and
Speaker 1: he's like, he was like, I don't know, man, just
Speaker 1: keep watching it. Okay, We're always giving you guys hot
Speaker 1: tips here Underdificent or maybe they just know who you are,
Speaker 1: and it was like, we want you to write about it.
Speaker 1: We really liked that thirty one episode Star Trek parody
Speaker 1: web series that you made in So you can watch
Speaker 1: Discovery as long as you want. And it's funny because
Speaker 1: I'm not the one in my household to watch just Discovery.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Anthony rap is not enough to keep me
Speaker 1: watch in that show. And I do love Rent. So
Speaker 1: I'm going to keep watching all of twilight Zone because
Speaker 1: I want to see what the other episodes are there.
Speaker 1: You go, um, today we are covering teen Titans, and
Speaker 1: actually you are an expert in these in these kiddos,
Speaker 1: they're my favorite super team. When Danny asked me if
Speaker 1: this was a subject that I knew anything about or liked,
Speaker 1: I was super thrilled and I was like, how nerdy
Speaker 1: can I get? Because they're the best. They were the
Speaker 1: top selling DC title for twelve years. What years were those?
Speaker 1: Uh eighty two, nine two? It was between them and
Speaker 1: then the Uncanny X Men or the top two best
Speaker 1: selling comics. That's the new Teen Titans, the Wolfman Perez
Speaker 1: era that affected and inspired the TV shows that I
Speaker 1: think we're gonna be talking a lot about today. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but yeah, they're very important, and they're actually in terms
Speaker 1: of profitability, DC's most profitable franchise really, So we like
Speaker 1: to think about the Justice League, but to the Justice League,
Speaker 1: how comics? Uh, Teen Titans have comics as well. There's
Speaker 1: also Titans Young Justice. All fall under that same banner.
Speaker 1: It's all the same creative teams and all the same characters.
Speaker 1: So they have more titles consistently that sell better than
Speaker 1: Justice League, although Justice League has more issues. So if
Speaker 1: you did, I can't do math, and I certainly can't
Speaker 1: do math for inflation, Justice League probably wins in the comics. However,
Speaker 1: we've only had one Justice League movie, and it's arguably
Speaker 1: a whiff. It's controversial at best. We've had one animated
Speaker 1: television show that's over a decade old. Teen Titans had
Speaker 1: the original animated television show Teen Titans Go, which is
Speaker 1: DC Warner Animations most successful DC property show that also
Speaker 1: spun out on an animal there. Even though I know
Speaker 1: you're on this okay trend because this is gonna be
Speaker 1: my one like rant and I'm gonna try and keep
Speaker 1: it at that. But the reason I stopped you at
Speaker 1: Teen Titans Go is a lot of people grew up
Speaker 1: on the teen Titans before that me included, and loved it.
Speaker 1: And I feel like Teen Titans Go got so much
Speaker 1: hate online from people out of the age range, like
Speaker 1: so many people who grew up on the first team
Speaker 1: titles like not my teen Ties, not my teen Titans.
Speaker 1: And I get that you want something for you, but
Speaker 1: just go ahead and repeat what you just said about
Speaker 1: Teen Titans Go. That is the most successful animated show
Speaker 1: and it's spun out its own animated movie. So many
Speaker 1: people try and push this idea online that they keep
Speaker 1: pushing this bad Teen Titans Go. But if it's it's
Speaker 1: most profitable, it seems like it's not as bad as
Speaker 1: we want to believe it is. I get you want
Speaker 1: the serious, you know, dark teen Titans uh that we have,
Speaker 1: but that time's over. We had it and we enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: Now the kids that the demo that is watching that
Speaker 1: time slot is getting something they enjoyed, so layoff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean we saw that with Shira and with ThunderCats.
Speaker 1: I mean that was yeah, I'll say that was just
Speaker 1: straight up bologny just with those because at least teen Titans,
Speaker 1: you know go, We're like, oh, I know, I know
Speaker 1: because I was. I'm of that same one. But no
Speaker 1: one was watching Shira like that, Like no, just on
Speaker 1: the original Shira. But the people who were complaining about it,
Speaker 1: We're not like sheep show me the Shira figures show.
Speaker 1: We saw that at at least with ThunderCats were like,
Speaker 1: not my animation. I'm like, come on, like we are
Speaker 1: Why would they redo something they already did? Yeah, someone
Speaker 1: did a really good uh post about it. Someone uh
Speaker 1: And normally I hate long drawn out YouTube rants, but
Speaker 1: this one happened to be on my side and it worked.
Speaker 1: But they pointed out that there was a dark ThunderCats
Speaker 1: that they did and it flopped. It did not do well,
Speaker 1: so what so what are you asking for them to
Speaker 1: do the thing that didn't work again or to try
Speaker 1: something fun, which, once again we just said, teen Titans
Speaker 1: Go is the most profitable teen Titans. So now that
Speaker 1: makes you now, now maybe that you're hearing facts, you'll
Speaker 1: understand why they went with that art direction because the
Speaker 1: kids that it's made for like it. I was. I
Speaker 1: was in that camp as well, where I was like,
Speaker 1: not my teen Titans super mad, Like the original Teen
Speaker 1: Titans did the Judas Contract, which is so great and
Speaker 1: like so monumental in comic book history, like forget about
Speaker 1: Teen Titans history, And I was like, what is this nonsense?
Speaker 1: But if you watch Teen Titans go, it is excellent,
Speaker 1: and they make dark side jokes which is a very
Speaker 1: deep cut. And then if you go to any convention,
Speaker 1: you look around there are tiny children dressed up like
Speaker 1: Raven and Beast Boy and Cyborg and all these characters
Speaker 1: that otherwise nobody cares about. And that's the power of
Speaker 1: that show and that's why it matters, and that's why
Speaker 1: it's important. And if you don't like it, then don't
Speaker 1: watch it. And like we were saying earlier, and I
Speaker 1: want everyone who complained online and me included, I I
Speaker 1: felt it when I saw it, and I knew it
Speaker 1: was our fault. All our complaints are the reasons we got.
Speaker 1: And I know it's going to get bleep Batman. That's
Speaker 1: that's that was gonna be like, oh, y'all want a
Speaker 1: dark teen Titans, All right, let's help you out. We
Speaker 1: did that. For people that don't what you're referencing, iffy oh,
Speaker 1: for people who don't know, there's the live action Titan show, which, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I feel got It's funny because I'm in
Speaker 1: a weird place with that because I feel like there
Speaker 1: is some hate to be deserved, but I also felt
Speaker 1: like it got too much hate. Like I'm like right
Speaker 1: in the middle where it's like, well, let's calm down.
Speaker 1: But also, yeah, this is not looking that great. But
Speaker 1: there everyone knows Batman's code. He doesn't kill we Actually
Speaker 1: we're talking about that. Not too long ago, there is
Speaker 1: a scene where Robin snapped someone's neck by stepping on
Speaker 1: them and someone says something like Batman and he goes.
Speaker 1: They put it in the trailer downd DC Universe two
Speaker 1: years after they promised we were getting DC Universe. Also,
Speaker 1: what's funny is like, as much as people hated that,
Speaker 1: there were some people online who I saw I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's good, that was probably me. I love it, but
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not trying to be a trolled. I just
Speaker 1: like when ever people people are going to get upset
Speaker 1: whenever people take risks and do like a different take.
Speaker 1: But I understand, I understand why that doesn't always work
Speaker 1: to me. I just like when we're super I like
Speaker 1: seeing the bizarro world. Yeah, I like the opposite, Like
Speaker 1: I don't always want the same thing. I like seeing
Speaker 1: like what if this person did go off the deep
Speaker 1: end and was like, yes, go off the deep end.
Speaker 1: But honestly, that's the true heart of comics, because that's
Speaker 1: how you get things like Red Sun, and you get
Speaker 1: things like you know, Old Man Logan like you, that's
Speaker 1: the there. Someone pointed this out to me a while
Speaker 1: ago when I really were was reading capes and they're
Speaker 1: saying they stopped reading capes because they got too obsessed
Speaker 1: with cannon and we stopped doing these one off fun
Speaker 1: things like All Star Superman and Superman is fun. I
Speaker 1: mean it's fun in the sense All Star Superman made
Speaker 1: me like Superman because I was to Superman and then
Speaker 1: when I saw it, yeah, yeah, it makes down. Wait,
Speaker 1: how did you not like Superman? He was doing perfect
Speaker 1: but you like, go he's dumb. Goku's dumb. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. His flaw is that he has this
Speaker 1: childishness about him and that he does put people in
Speaker 1: danger because he wants to challenge himself. Superman is just perfect.
Speaker 1: He's smart, he's handsome, he is the top of his job,
Speaker 1: he gets the girl. He can't do anything wrong. He's
Speaker 1: not dumb, you know. Like, so he is too perfect.
Speaker 1: But I could see where you would think, oh with Goku.
Speaker 1: But Goku does have so many flaws that I'm constantly
Speaker 1: debating against online. Also, we're not here to talk about Superman.
Speaker 1: But when you were, Um, I'm originally from Canada, so
Speaker 1: when you're not American, yeah, Superman is sort of held up.
Speaker 1: It's Superman in Captain America, held up as like these
Speaker 1: bastions of American identity. So for me growing up, I
Speaker 1: was like, you can't like Superman, I'm not American, which
Speaker 1: is funny because he's like an immigrant. But yeah, but
Speaker 1: I hadn't thought about that as a a I mean,
Speaker 1: I married a white guy from a farm in Kansas,
Speaker 1: so clearly I've come around. But I remember when I
Speaker 1: was in university. I went to the University of Ottawa,
Speaker 1: which is Canada's capital City. UM had a really good friend.
Speaker 1: He's actually on that YouTube show Wayne now is one
Speaker 1: of the twins. I haven't seen it. That's just the
Speaker 1: thing that people might know. He had a Superman belt buckle,
Speaker 1: and I was like, you're Canadian, you cannot wear that.
Speaker 1: We were like getting vites about that. But Superman is
Speaker 1: a difficult character for people to come around on, which
Speaker 1: is why I think Teen Titans, like I was saying,
Speaker 1: was so successful, because they are deeply flawed. Um, Robin
Speaker 1: is the best among them, and Dick Grayson as the best.
Speaker 1: Robin is a deeply flawed leader, but he grows up
Speaker 1: to lead the Justice League. So yeah, so let's get
Speaker 1: into the characters. So you brought up Dick Grayson. What
Speaker 1: would you say his personality for people that are just
Speaker 1: listening to this as far as his motivation and yeah,
Speaker 1: so Dick Grayson is the o g Robin Um. When
Speaker 1: he was first introduced, he's very much what you would
Speaker 1: think of as like the Ward Robin from the Adam
Speaker 1: West Batman. He's very like, ah, ge, I'm the perfect
Speaker 1: sidekick and I'm enthused to be here, Like he is
Speaker 1: the light to Batman's dark and that evolves into a
Speaker 1: more interesting thing as the character goes along and he
Speaker 1: takes on the night Wink d Unity, which happens during
Speaker 1: this New Teen Titans. But the o G Teen Titans,
Speaker 1: which is funny, are not in the show notes. UM
Speaker 1: We're started in nineteen sixty four as an answer to
Speaker 1: the Avengers, UM and some of the first teams that
Speaker 1: Marvel was putting out. So it was Robin Kid, Flash Aqualat,
Speaker 1: and Wonder Girl, and they only ran for a couple
Speaker 1: of years in a bunch of backup stories because they
Speaker 1: weren't very good, and then they put them to bed
Speaker 1: until Wolfman and Perez, who, in my opinion you can
Speaker 1: fight me online about it, are the greatest creative team
Speaker 1: in comics. UM created the New Teen Titans in the eighties,
Speaker 1: So that version of Robin is the very like Plucky
Speaker 1: Galli g We're here to do our best and that's
Speaker 1: all that they do. They fight like a bunch of
Speaker 1: kind of star ow starfish monsters and a lot of
Speaker 1: their adventures. But then later on UM it's a it's
Speaker 1: all about when they bring on these new character it's
Speaker 1: about stepping out of the shadow of your mentor, which
Speaker 1: is why I think again, they're flawed and people like that,
Speaker 1: and Robin in the beginning is a bad leader because
Speaker 1: he's a bit like the eighties were the beginning of
Speaker 1: Super Dick Batman thanks Frank Miller, where he's really mean
Speaker 1: and he like he actually punches Nightwing in the face
Speaker 1: like in the early two thousand um and Dick has
Speaker 1: a little bit of that kind of turn because he's
Speaker 1: trying to do all of this on his own and
Speaker 1: he has to learn to open up to everyone around him,
Speaker 1: and then he dates an alien for a while, so
Speaker 1: but he's always the de facto leader, and then later
Speaker 1: on there's different incarnations of the team, but always there's
Speaker 1: always a Robin in charge. So like right now it's
Speaker 1: Damien Wayne, which makes me mad, but it's why why
Speaker 1: do you not like Damien Wayne? I if I could
Speaker 1: undo one thing in comic book history, Damien Wayne, I
Speaker 1: love it because it was the To me, it was
Speaker 1: a perfect wrench in Batman, even though Damien Wayne came
Speaker 1: at a tough time, which I can see why, because
Speaker 1: Damian Wayne came at the time where there was seven
Speaker 1: bat comics. You had Batman, you had Nightwing, you had
Speaker 1: the Black Batman, which I forget his name, bat Wing,
Speaker 1: and you had a Bad Girl Batwoman, and you had
Speaker 1: Batman incorporated. It was there were so many bat comics
Speaker 1: and then they're like, oh, and there's Damien and you're like,
Speaker 1: all right, this is there's too many bats. It was
Speaker 1: almost when it was class season for Marvel when you
Speaker 1: had Dack in which da can I can I love
Speaker 1: him and hate him at the same time. But then
Speaker 1: you have Wolverine x twenty three and and then they
Speaker 1: all had their own comics a comic together, and then
Speaker 1: Wolverine had like three different comics. Uh so I I
Speaker 1: remember at that time being like, this is getting super expensive.
Speaker 1: But what I like about Damien is it is the
Speaker 1: ultimate challenge to him because it's like, Okay, Batman has
Speaker 1: always had a robin, but what if there's a robin
Speaker 1: he can't just fire because it's his son and this
Speaker 1: person straight up, Mrs people, did you know that Wolverine
Speaker 1: skunk Bear. That's my favorite thing about Wolverine, Yeah, skunk
Speaker 1: So we have a joke on Geek hisry lesson that
Speaker 1: Wolverine and all of his adopted children because they're never
Speaker 1: like part of his actually they're like a pride of
Speaker 1: illegitimate skunk bearers because they just like follow him around
Speaker 1: and sometimes I'm trying to kill him. Um. And then
Speaker 1: I understand Damian Wayne narratively because you are presenting us
Speaker 1: with what if Bruce Wayne never had Alfred? And like
Speaker 1: that's that character exploration. But for me, Tim Drake is
Speaker 1: my favorite superhero, and Jim Drake is the best of
Speaker 1: all times. Your favorite superhero Red Robin Jason Todd is right. Okay,
Speaker 1: there's like seven, depending on if you count Carrie Kelly
Speaker 1: or not. Oh man, you always got a country. I
Speaker 1: always got. I used to find and when I was
Speaker 1: in university, I used to find the one guy at
Speaker 1: a party with a Batman shirt and get in an argument.
Speaker 1: There's always one. There's always one, and you are the debate. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I like to scream at them about how important really
Speaker 1: named seven of his records? It was I didn't. I
Speaker 1: was not popular. Oh you used your nerd um for
Speaker 1: for bad but I respected. Okay. But the reason I
Speaker 1: don't like Davien is because I think it is so
Speaker 1: powerful that Batman, even though he is so broken, becomes
Speaker 1: an adoptive father, and I think giving him a biological
Speaker 1: son who we can never get rid of because he's
Speaker 1: his biological son. I think for me it sort of
Speaker 1: cuts the power of that narrative off at the knees.
Speaker 1: But I've enjoyed him. I really enjoy him in Super
Speaker 1: Signs where he's against the new super Boy. I think
Speaker 1: that's really interesting. Um, but I would still lendo him
Speaker 1: from me, I cannot, I would super him. He's My
Speaker 1: favorite representation of Dick Grayson is in Lego Batman, which
Speaker 1: is so funny. Why are you giggling? Because that's the
Speaker 1: cutest one I know, But it's the most robbin thing
Speaker 1: I can think of. And it's so funny because Hector Navarro,
Speaker 1: who we all know that's his favorite iteration of Batman
Speaker 1: is Lego Batman. That's a ton of people's online. Sorry, no,
Speaker 1: it's it's so perfectly uh, I think illustrated. I didn't
Speaker 1: laugh because it's a bad thing, because it's just it
Speaker 1: seems like such a d I think it's that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you go for like the super innocent because like for me,
Speaker 1: Dick Greyson, because I came up reading nineties comics, is
Speaker 1: like kind of the sexy robin and he should always
Speaker 1: be played by Matt Bomer, who he will never be
Speaker 1: able to be played by because Bomber and Doom Patrol. Now,
Speaker 1: I used to want him to be Vegina. I wanted
Speaker 1: everyone to be Vegina. Um yeah, anyways, fun fact about
Speaker 1: Doom Patrol. Uh, because cyborgs in it. Haven't you noticed?
Speaker 1: Um that Okay? I really one of my favorite things
Speaker 1: about the Justice League movie, which I think you can
Speaker 1: also put under the Teen Titans is a great franchise
Speaker 1: standard because it does have Cyborg in it, is Ray
Speaker 1: Fisher as Cyborg. He's I think he's such a great
Speaker 1: live action Cyborg and he brings such manity to that character.
Speaker 1: Where Um, this is light spoiler because I heard this
Speaker 1: mention before the show started. The shows the cartoons like
Speaker 1: to be like, I'm a robot and you're like, but
Speaker 1: you're a real boy. Like if it's not a Pinocchio scenario,
Speaker 1: Um yeah, I really the one. I think Doom but
Speaker 1: you I cannot believe it's any good. It's very good
Speaker 1: asterisks except Cyborg. They looked like they glue to target mask.
Speaker 1: Then maybe that was a good thing because I auditioned
Speaker 1: for Cyborg and I was and that was a big
Speaker 1: moment for me because I told my manager years before
Speaker 1: Justice because Lee came out. I was like, it was
Speaker 1: when they first announced Titan. It's not the one that
Speaker 1: was on here, but that was exactly. I was like,
Speaker 1: you need to look into this and I need to
Speaker 1: be Cyborg. My managers, I need to be Terra. So
Speaker 1: that never happened. Uh, And so then smash cut two
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my gosh, I missed the
Speaker 1: opportunit unity. And I looked it up and ray Fisher
Speaker 1: was Cyborg. Because I found out about Justice League, I
Speaker 1: was just getting ready. I like found out right after
Speaker 1: ray Fisher was cast, but I didn't know he was
Speaker 1: cast yet, and I was like, Cyborg Mission part two,
Speaker 1: let's go. And then I looked and they've had ray
Speaker 1: Fish and I was like, damn, I just can't be Cyborgs.
Speaker 1: So then this Cybord time and then like but look
Speaker 1: looking at him. They wanted a much younger I think
Speaker 1: he the character is eighteen or nineteen. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: don't think Joven read I believe his actor's name. I
Speaker 1: don't think he's bad. I just think I don't understand
Speaker 1: why they didn't just make a beast boy because comics. Um,
Speaker 1: I just think what they're doing with Cyborg is not
Speaker 1: It's not what I want, and the writing on it
Speaker 1: is very strange and I don't quite understand. I just
Speaker 1: need to say a side note about Ray Fisher though,
Speaker 1: is that he played like a kid in college and
Speaker 1: he's in his thirties. And I saw him in True
Speaker 1: Detective and it did not register yea. And it took me, honestly,
Speaker 1: because I think I was looking at the hass which,
Speaker 1: by the way, if you didn't watch the season three
Speaker 1: of Two Detectives, it was so good, but like he
Speaker 1: was in it, it it took me forever to register that
Speaker 1: that was him, be grown ass man with kids and stuff.
Speaker 1: I was like, what ALS thought you were in college athlete?
Speaker 1: A college athlete, we welcome to TV casting room. Still
Speaker 1: play teenager. That's true. But just to say one more
Speaker 1: weird thing about Ray Fisher. Um, when you realize how
Speaker 1: tall the whole Justice League castes, it's really disconcerting. I
Speaker 1: met him and Ezra Miller at a convention once, and
Speaker 1: Ezra Miller is like fully six one, and I thought
Speaker 1: he was my hight I'm five and a half. Fell there.
Speaker 1: It's such a doll cast. It says here Ray Fishers
Speaker 1: six three and I can only imagine gal Gadote is
Speaker 1: easily eight feet tall. And then they put her in heels,
Speaker 1: which is my only gripe with Wonder Woman, I was like,
Speaker 1: why she had yales um but she's not in the
Speaker 1: Dean Titans. Sorry continue m yeah, please continue on with
Speaker 1: letting us know the rest of the rest of the
Speaker 1: main corpse. Yes, the main corp of Teen Titans is
Speaker 1: Dick Grayson is the leader. Wally West Kid Flash Ak
Speaker 1: the Best Flash And we did a whole episode on
Speaker 1: Flash where Sam was also team Wally West is the
Speaker 1: Best Flash Kid Flash. That was funny because Sam and
Speaker 1: I fight about that sometimes. I guess that's not what
Speaker 1: he said. No, I wonder what he what is his
Speaker 1: normal go to? He usually what we argued he likes
Speaker 1: Bury was his intro character, So I get that, like
Speaker 1: your intro is usually it's like your first doctor, Like
Speaker 1: that's the person who's most important to you. Um Roy
Speaker 1: Harper Um Arsenal slash Um Baby Red Arrow is often
Speaker 1: a member of the team who quits part way through. Donna, Troy,
Speaker 1: Wonder Girl, uh Gar, Logan, Aqualad and then in the
Speaker 1: new Teen Titans cast, they add Cyborg, Raven, beast Boy
Speaker 1: who's sometimes called Change ling Um, and Starfire and then Raven.
Speaker 1: But Raven, as we all know, becomes that sort of
Speaker 1: complicated bad guy in the most important story arc of
Speaker 1: all time, the Judas Contract. But the eighties team was
Speaker 1: cool because they did all those original legacy characters, but
Speaker 1: they married these new characters in and it's become the
Speaker 1: defining role of like Cyborg, beast Boy, Raven, Starfire is
Speaker 1: their involvement with the Titans, even though Cyborg has graduated
Speaker 1: to be in the Justice League now. And whenever they've
Speaker 1: tried to do just an original team, like in the nineties,
Speaker 1: Dan Jurgen's Ledendaries, Superman Murderer, Um and the creator and
Speaker 1: writer came on, he did an all original team Titans,
Speaker 1: and that book flopped. Is one of the only Teen
Speaker 1: Titans book that's sort of been canceled, And since then
Speaker 1: it's always been a mix of legacy characters and original characters,
Speaker 1: even though there were some really great characters on that
Speaker 1: team who got co opted into later teams. Um and
Speaker 1: I think it's really interesting that balance that they found
Speaker 1: in the eighties has been what's informed all of the
Speaker 1: versions of the team going forward. Yeah, our friend, uh,
Speaker 1: Tara Strong is a voice of Raven and Tara. That's
Speaker 1: so funny. Yeah, she got to It's always cool when
Speaker 1: you get to play your namesake. Yeah. I think it's
Speaker 1: spelled differently, but that's okay. I was actually bummed that
Speaker 1: in the current Young Justice cartoon that she's not the
Speaker 1: voice of ar Yeah, but I get it's a new universe.
Speaker 1: You gotta have to. It's like every time Carry Peyton
Speaker 1: is not the voice of Cyborg, I'm like, what's going
Speaker 1: on here? Why is this? Michael V. Jordan's I don't
Speaker 1: know how I feel about this. We have to take
Speaker 1: a really quick break and then we're gonna hop more
Speaker 1: into two Titans. Right after this we are back, and
Speaker 1: actually before we got into some of our favorite tea
Speaker 1: Titans moments. Iffy, I know you have a moment that
Speaker 1: you talked about on the Daily Zeite guys, which is
Speaker 1: really funny. It's so funny because like it was a
Speaker 1: moment I totally forgot about but then remembered when I
Speaker 1: saw it, and it was it was actually a pretty
Speaker 1: cool episode where like, you know, it kind of uh,
Speaker 1: try to deal with the races him because it was
Speaker 1: talking about racism and Starfire's family and he was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I definitely know about that. And he was like, oh,
Speaker 1: you you know about being judged because of the color
Speaker 1: of your skin or because of how you look. And
Speaker 1: he was like, yeah, I'm a robot. It's so great
Speaker 1: because because it definitely gets so close and I could
Speaker 1: definitely be just see the network notk of being like
Speaker 1: now I pull that back, just say it's because he's
Speaker 1: a robot. Can I ask you, um, what is potentially
Speaker 1: an ignorant white person question that you're under no real
Speaker 1: otis to answer, But I'd like to ask you, as
Speaker 1: an African American person, how do you feel about booya
Speaker 1: as a catchphrase? Oh? You know, I didn't care. It
Speaker 1: seemed like yeah, yeah, because it seemed like one of
Speaker 1: those things like he's saying something cool, but we don't
Speaker 1: want to make anything like, you know, seems like it's
Speaker 1: because he's black. You know, because when he said it
Speaker 1: in Justice League, like I was really excited, and then
Speaker 1: I saw a bunch of people who I respect and
Speaker 1: who I look to for guidance because I was not
Speaker 1: a person of color I don't know. Um, I got
Speaker 1: really mad about it, and I was like, oh, I
Speaker 1: just thought it was really cool that he said the
Speaker 1: catch for you. Yeah, I think, yeah, I think some
Speaker 1: you know, not a diss on them, but some people
Speaker 1: are just like hyper sensitive of what one way would
Speaker 1: be taken. But I feel like the only way to
Speaker 1: have taken that was that it was a call back
Speaker 1: to something he always said in Teen Titans, just like
Speaker 1: an X Men when he says I'm the Juggernaut bitch.
Speaker 1: Like it's like I don't to like across the world. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like to like, you know, take that in any other way.
Speaker 1: I you know, I think there's more to unpass, you know,
Speaker 1: It's just I don't know. I don't agree. I don't
Speaker 1: even agree that you could really take issue. I don't
Speaker 1: want to control how anybody feels about anything, but there
Speaker 1: I feel like there's a level too. Now there's there's
Speaker 1: this social currency to find the things wrong that are
Speaker 1: not woke, and it leads to people just jumping to
Speaker 1: stuff when they might have like even if they didn't
Speaker 1: like it, be like all right, that's kind of whack
Speaker 1: and move on. But now that you can get likes, retweets,
Speaker 1: in clicks. It kind of encourages more to kind of
Speaker 1: lean into something you might have just let go. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I'm allowed to like it good. That's all I
Speaker 1: care about. So, actually, what are some of your favorite
Speaker 1: Team Titans moments? So I've mentioned the Judas Contract repeatedly.
Speaker 1: The Judas Contract is the Terra betrayal of the team
Speaker 1: to Slade Wilson in the comics. Um, it's much creepier
Speaker 1: because she's sixteen. She's sleeping with Slade, who's liked and
Speaker 1: eight five years old by that point because he's kind
Speaker 1: of a super soldier. Didn't Buffy also do that? Though
Speaker 1: every franchise vulnerable female and slept with you know, the
Speaker 1: typical story sleeps with one hundred and eight year old
Speaker 1: teenage girl, you know, falls for the vampire. Sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 1: And that's that's huge, and it's been There's been a
Speaker 1: version of it in every single Teen Titans storyline, including
Speaker 1: Teen Titans Go. They made a standalone animated DC movie
Speaker 1: not in the continuity of the shows about that as well.
Speaker 1: It's rumored to be the plot of Teen of Titans
Speaker 1: season two. That always comes to mind for me. There's
Speaker 1: an episode of Teen Titans go where Robin is really
Speaker 1: mad that the Titans aren't working hard enough, which is
Speaker 1: an echo to a lot of past storylines, and so
Speaker 1: he just makes a team of other Robbins and he
Speaker 1: does it by saying cocka and then they come in
Speaker 1: the windows and as you do as a as a
Speaker 1: Robin stand that speaks to my heart. Carrie Kelly's in
Speaker 1: that Tim Drake is in that he's got like bangs
Speaker 1: across his face and he's all mad, and then um,
Speaker 1: a very golden age decrease and it's like, golly g
Speaker 1: I'm here to help my favorite. Um. So that stands
Speaker 1: out to me. I wish I could say literally anything
Speaker 1: from the Titans show. Um, but it's escaping me right now.
Speaker 1: And I really love the second generation of the team
Speaker 1: that Jeff John's introduces in uh the early aughts early
Speaker 1: two thousand's Tim Drake leaves that team. Cyborg, Raven and
Speaker 1: Starfire are mentors, and there's a moment at the end
Speaker 1: of their first arc where the Justice League basically shows
Speaker 1: up to tell these Team Titans that they've done a
Speaker 1: bad job, and then Dick Grayson comes down from the
Speaker 1: sky and it really sexy night going suit and it's like, no, Bruce,
Speaker 1: they're doing great. Like it kind of bestows the team
Speaker 1: mantle onto them. And I really really love that as well.
Speaker 1: That's Dick's always showing up to be like, Bruce, you
Speaker 1: need to like just come. That reminds me of that
Speaker 1: reminds me of um. I love clichees scenes like that
Speaker 1: because it reminds me of the end of Cinderella Story
Speaker 1: where Chad Michael Murray his dad is his coach, and
Speaker 1: he like leaves the field and his dad is like, Austin,
Speaker 1: you're throwing away your dream and Chad Michael Murray turns
Speaker 1: back to him and he's like, no, Dad, I'm throwing
Speaker 1: away yours. How old. Probably I just love anytime there's corny,
Speaker 1: I am such but the funny thing is okay because
Speaker 1: in some of these and in some of these live
Speaker 1: action superhero films, a lot of people have been like,
Speaker 1: I hate how corny the dialogue is, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: have you literally read a comic? Comics have the corniest
Speaker 1: dialogue ever. Comics also and and caps in types, especially
Speaker 1: like it deals in archetypes, and it deals in broad strokes,
Speaker 1: and like, particularly in d C, it's very heavy mythology,
Speaker 1: Greek tragedy, heroes, journey like, so we're not dealing in
Speaker 1: subtleties most of the time, unless you're reading something like
Speaker 1: Old Star Superman or anything that the Almighty Grant Morrison
Speaker 1: has bestowed on this earth that we are not worthy of.
Speaker 1: You know, most of the time you're dealing in like
Speaker 1: broad strokes. There's a great in season four of the
Speaker 1: O G teen Titans cartoon. That's when the Raven and
Speaker 1: beast Boy romance really gets going. And I love it
Speaker 1: so much, and she hugs him once and he freaks
Speaker 1: out and he gets like the big pseudo anime eyes
Speaker 1: because it was one of the first cartoons that they
Speaker 1: animated in Korea. But I wrote here and she's like,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not sad, I'm just really weird, and no
Speaker 1: one tries to understand. And like she tells boy how
Speaker 1: much she appreciates him and how much she really likes him,
Speaker 1: and that's very cheesy, like you would see that in
Speaker 1: an E c W show. But I think when you
Speaker 1: have characters with the stakes of saving the world, maybe
Speaker 1: you earn a couple of heavy handed dialogue. I mean,
Speaker 1: for sure, I'm just saying that like when I look
Speaker 1: at let's say, Spider Man, like, I mean that has
Speaker 1: some of the cheesiest dialogue and it works for him. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it works for a lot of these teen characters.
Speaker 1: I feel like it, especially with the stereotype right um.
Speaker 1: Danny and I have talked about this in the past,
Speaker 1: that like, teens are silly and they're for both, and
Speaker 1: they use slang, and when you give it to people
Speaker 1: who haven't been teens in a minut it to write,
Speaker 1: sometimes it comes out looking like, oh, I've seen this before.
Speaker 1: I saw this in Lizzie McGuire, or in Kimpossible, or
Speaker 1: in like every other teen thing that we've ever experienced. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was telling her before we recorded that I was
Speaker 1: writing on this show and they had the young teenage
Speaker 1: son say something about like, yeah, me and my squad.
Speaker 1: I'm like, he wouldn't say that. Make the dad say that,
Speaker 1: because then it sounds like funnier if the dad's like, hey,
Speaker 1: trying to hang out with your squad, and the kids
Speaker 1: just like no, dad, like stop embarrassing me. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it is funny when you have older people writing for
Speaker 1: teens and they think that, yeah, which I get it.
Speaker 1: That's often what happens, because I think the one of
Speaker 1: the only shows that ever did that with Skins. I
Speaker 1: don't think anyone the writer's room could be older than one.
Speaker 1: But for the most part, like it is adult people
Speaker 1: producing this just content. Please hire me to write on
Speaker 1: te Titans. Yeah, we're young in hip everyone at this
Speaker 1: table right now, Yes, exactly. Well, Actually, if people wanted
Speaker 1: to get into Teen Titans, where would you I mean,
Speaker 1: what would you recommend that they pick up? Oh? Man,
Speaker 1: the eiest thing that they could do is truly watch
Speaker 1: the original cartoon. Um. It's the one that's most heavily
Speaker 1: steeped in the mythology. So if you want something that's
Speaker 1: like a little more ongoing, a little more reminiscent of
Speaker 1: the comics, you can get that on the DC Universe
Speaker 1: app Um. You can also get it lots of other
Speaker 1: places on the Internet if you are into creative uh,
Speaker 1: consuming of your content. Not that any of us here
Speaker 1: justify or legitimize something like that. I would also recommend
Speaker 1: they have really great omnibi which are like the big
Speaker 1: heavy we can do arm curls with them, collections of
Speaker 1: the New Teen Titans, that's the eighties series that was
Speaker 1: the number one comic for twelve years. Those are my
Speaker 1: two recommendations on where to start. Um or if I
Speaker 1: can be really shameless UM my podcast Key History Lesson.
Speaker 1: We have a two part almost three hour series on
Speaker 1: the Teen Titans that I teach. So if you want
Speaker 1: this in macro Cosm, go google X. It's from a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago. I wanted to say that I
Speaker 1: um recently he bought George press Is on a Bus
Speaker 1: of Wonder Woman Speaking So Good, which is from like
Speaker 1: right around that same era. He draws my favorite woman's
Speaker 1: hair in a love comics. He also has a great
Speaker 1: run on The Avengers in the nineties with Kurt Music
Speaker 1: if you like his art, and recently retired from comics.
Speaker 1: So thank you so being in the team. Being in
Speaker 1: the Teen Titans world. Who do you? I mean? I
Speaker 1: feel like a lot of people This might just be
Speaker 1: the where I'm at online, but I feel like a
Speaker 1: lot of people gravitate towards Beast Boy, that's like their
Speaker 1: favorite do you? Who do you feel like? Because you're
Speaker 1: more heavily steeped in in that fandom? Like who do
Speaker 1: you often see as people's who would how would you
Speaker 1: rank them? Or like as most popular. UM, I think
Speaker 1: Raven is probably the most popular. She's the most obviously
Speaker 1: outsider character. It's tougher with the comics, right, because you
Speaker 1: have these legacy here, just like Robin is obviously going
Speaker 1: to be the most popular, just in terms of his imprint.
Speaker 1: He's in the larger pop cultures, I guess, but of
Speaker 1: sort of the New teen Titans. I would say it's
Speaker 1: like Raven beast Boy, and people like beast Boy because
Speaker 1: he's got the yucks uh Starfire Cyborg. But Cyborg also
Speaker 1: occupies this really interesting position now where he's become representative of, um,
Speaker 1: this sort of diversity movement that we've had post New
Speaker 1: fifty two, which is when they were like, damn, the
Speaker 1: Justice League is all white, what can we do about this? Okay,
Speaker 1: Wonder Woman is a woman of color, I guess, because
Speaker 1: we color her slightly more brown than everyone else and
Speaker 1: promote Cyborg. So he sort of embodies this wave even
Speaker 1: before the movies of d C B like more aware,
Speaker 1: and there's obviously a lot of work to go. So like,
Speaker 1: I don't think he's necessarily as popular, but I think
Speaker 1: he's one of the more impactful characters. But I think
Speaker 1: in terms of popularity, it's definitely beast Boy and Braven
Speaker 1: at the top, and they're a huge ship as well,
Speaker 1: so that works out really. Yeah, there's some spicy scenes,
Speaker 1: especially when they get to be adult people like in
Speaker 1: the Titans storyline. Yeah, if you like that, there are
Speaker 1: great comics to be had. So have you watched a
Speaker 1: lot of Teen Titans Go? Yes? Now? I have not.
Speaker 1: I didn't watch it. I mean it's still airing. I
Speaker 1: didn't watch a lot of it live. It took me
Speaker 1: a long time because I'm a grumpy old person to
Speaker 1: be convinced that it was any good. And here that's
Speaker 1: how it worked for me. I you know, I was
Speaker 1: the same like not my Teen Titans. But I also
Speaker 1: was like, layoff, it's just not for me. And then
Speaker 1: as clips kind of start trickling online through Tumbler and
Speaker 1: all that, I kind of like, I think what really
Speaker 1: turned me around to it was that really self aware
Speaker 1: episode they have had where they like dipped back into
Speaker 1: the old Teen Titans style and kind of tease the
Speaker 1: basically tease the fans who were mad about this new style.
Speaker 1: And I thought it was pretty great. And I think
Speaker 1: I sat down and maybe one or two episodes and
Speaker 1: it really enjoyed them. The movie does that as well,
Speaker 1: and Soft promises that we're going to get maybe on
Speaker 1: the DC streaming service, that we're going to get more
Speaker 1: of that. I don't know. All of the Teen Titans
Speaker 1: Go content used to be on Hulu. I think it
Speaker 1: might not be anymore because I don't understand the DC app.
Speaker 1: I think everything is on that. I think they really
Speaker 1: pulled everything. Um. But a bunch of people on Tumbler
Speaker 1: actually started pointing out some of the continuity points and
Speaker 1: I kept seeing that they have a stuffed dark Side
Speaker 1: who sits against their couch, and I was like, that's
Speaker 1: really funny. What is that about? And then yeah, I
Speaker 1: started watching the episodes and there is a continuity to
Speaker 1: it that's really funny. Think their version of Trygun, who
Speaker 1: is Raven's demon father, who I m I think is
Speaker 1: voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson. But if that's wrong, I'm
Speaker 1: really sorry. Um. I think that's really funny. And I
Speaker 1: think the more time you spend with the show, it's
Speaker 1: like when you watch King of the Hill. King of
Speaker 1: the Hill I used to watch because it was on
Speaker 1: after The Simpsons, and I was like, this sucks, this
Speaker 1: is boring, this is not funny. And then the more
Speaker 1: you watch and you're like, this is really good and
Speaker 1: Deean Titans Go is very that and if people haven't
Speaker 1: checked it out, Kevin Michael Richardson's you're right, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you for looking on your magic phone. I have
Speaker 1: a laptop in front of me that I did not
Speaker 1: use Google on. I got the new iPhone S Max Plus,
Speaker 1: so you know I can search for stuff real quick.
Speaker 1: I know you got a really slick case on it too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I like to keep a woodsy Yeah. So
Speaker 1: people on Instagram ask if he wanted his phone case.
Speaker 1: Looks like, I can't take a picture of it. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: do a nice mirror selfie. Yes, I follow you on Instagram.
Speaker 1: That's your thing, right, Yeah, that's so my thing. I
Speaker 1: was gonna say, that's my person. I don't know you.
Speaker 1: Someone compared um just the side right really quick a
Speaker 1: person from a very famous MAGA photo to Bobby Hill,
Speaker 1: and then in the next week they were like, I
Speaker 1: can't do that to Bobby Hill. He's so sweet and innocence.
Speaker 1: People are always sending me because there's this artist that
Speaker 1: does um, it'll be like d Busy, It'll be the
Speaker 1: King of the It'll be like Bobby as like Trunks
Speaker 1: or something like, oh yeah, I should show it to you,
Speaker 1: and like Peggy as Bolma. All Right, we have to
Speaker 1: take a quick break. We're gonna get into We didn't
Speaker 1: tackle um their powers, so I wanted to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about their powers as well as the future
Speaker 1: of Tea Titans this and we're back. Yeah, let's tuckle
Speaker 1: their powers really quick. So starting off with um, let's
Speaker 1: start with beast Boy. Okay, I'm really sorry that we've
Speaker 1: made it this far and I've just spoken like everybody
Speaker 1: knows all of these characters, and everyone in the room
Speaker 1: with me knows these characters. Um. Beast Boy, who is
Speaker 1: sometimes called change Ling, was depending on the continuity, Uh,
Speaker 1: let's just say afflicted by something in the jungle because
Speaker 1: his parents were explorers and turned green. Was poisoned and
Speaker 1: given the powers to transform into any animal he wants.
Speaker 1: So those are his powers. And sometimes in the show's
Speaker 1: also dinosaurs because why not. And then Raven Raven is
Speaker 1: half demon son most of the continuities, her father is
Speaker 1: try again. She is effectively a portal into Azarath, which
Speaker 1: is a demon health scape and that also allows her
Speaker 1: to fly because of reasons and to project um like
Speaker 1: Sue Storm energy bubbles that are usually colored black. They
Speaker 1: have like nothing really to do with her powers or
Speaker 1: like the base of her powers. But that's the thing
Speaker 1: that she has energy bubbles. And I guess we would
Speaker 1: say Robin, he's really rich. Yeah, I know, I always
Speaker 1: started with Robin. I'm like, wait a second, Oh yeah, Affluenza.
Speaker 1: Dick Rayson specifically is um and a trained acrobat. Yes,
Speaker 1: thank you. Jason Tod is flexible, yeah, very flexible. UM
Speaker 1: also in his sexuality. In my opinion, Jason Todd was murdered.
Speaker 1: That's his superpower. Tim Drake is the smartest character in
Speaker 1: the DC universe other than Lex Luthor, Batman, and Mr Trivic,
Speaker 1: who are the three smartest characters in the DC universe.
Speaker 1: Um Damien is a trained Ninja sot. I guess those
Speaker 1: are how they're all different? Yeah, no one asked for that.
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. It's okay. So Cyborg Yeah, so Cyborgs
Speaker 1: suffered an injury and in the original continuity, his super
Speaker 1: smart dad builds him cybernetic implants that he actually has
Speaker 1: to go and get changed out because he's still growing
Speaker 1: because he's quite young when he has this injury. Um.
Speaker 1: Later on he's fused with a mother box. They effectively
Speaker 1: do the same thing, so he has a form of technopathy.
Speaker 1: He has um a sonic cannon. Sometimes he's a boom tube,
Speaker 1: and he has heightened scanner and like retinal senses because
Speaker 1: he's got nice cyborg starfire alien princess um mostly flight,
Speaker 1: invulnerability to things like an atmosphere because she can fly
Speaker 1: in space and breathe star bolts that she shoots from
Speaker 1: her hands, and then the grossest of all powers, she
Speaker 1: can learn your language and all of your skills by
Speaker 1: either making out or having intercourse with you. And I
Speaker 1: think that's ikey oh. And she's descended from cats. Her
Speaker 1: her race of people, the Tambarinians, they're descended from cats,
Speaker 1: the way that humans are descended from apes, which is
Speaker 1: supposed to be why she's so sexual and why we
Speaker 1: draw her in. Someone at d C wants to bang
Speaker 1: a cat because between that and catwoman, and there's right, yeah,
Speaker 1: the familiar Well I remember way back. You probably can't
Speaker 1: find it. You probably can't. I don't want to say
Speaker 1: you can't, because people are gonna look forward and find it.
Speaker 1: But I used to have my own blog called that
Speaker 1: Black Nerd because I would not let Andre have the
Speaker 1: Black Nerds. I got to be that black Nerd and
Speaker 1: then I eventually gave up when people were tagging me
Speaker 1: uh no. It was a word press and it was
Speaker 1: that Black nerd dot com and like I even was
Speaker 1: able to get like press access to Comic Con. I
Speaker 1: did it in an interview with the creator of Toky
Speaker 1: Doki for this Marvel Co lab. It was real cool,
Speaker 1: but it was just a little bit I just didn't have.
Speaker 1: I'm a type B person and running a blog, you
Speaker 1: need to be type A to really be on top
Speaker 1: of her. So I eventually noped out. But there was
Speaker 1: during the New fifty two there were a lot of
Speaker 1: articles I wrote defending a lot of the things people hated.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of good that. Well, there was
Speaker 1: that big catwoman hate that came out because because of
Speaker 1: literally exactly what we're talking about, and my girlfriend at
Speaker 1: the time really loved it and really so I was like,
Speaker 1: here's the female perspective of why it's dope. And I
Speaker 1: had to write the whole article and uh I and
Speaker 1: I had a big thing, and I still stand by this.
Speaker 1: People got math that Amanda Wadler got like sexy and
Speaker 1: my uh, and I actually defended that until this day.
Speaker 1: I still believe it was a good point, is uh,
Speaker 1: because it's like black women aren't allowed to be sexy
Speaker 1: in things like like Amanda Waller. Like everyone's like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's good because she's a big Woman's like, you know,
Speaker 1: there's always a big black woman in a thing that's
Speaker 1: literally aggressively desexualized in her character design exactly. And I
Speaker 1: was like, it it goes back to Mammy. They they
Speaker 1: had a Mammy on a on in the comics, so
Speaker 1: when they made her sexy, that was one time that
Speaker 1: they made someone sexy that I welcomed it because you
Speaker 1: don't get Black women don't get to see themselves portrayed
Speaker 1: as desired in comics. So that was the one time
Speaker 1: I was like and it probably wasn't on purpose. They
Speaker 1: probably weren't thinking what I'm thinking, but that was a
Speaker 1: good move and uh, and it was It was just
Speaker 1: so funny to see all these dudes be like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, it's body positive. It's like, you shut up,
Speaker 1: you don't care about body positive me, Like you can't
Speaker 1: argue with me about this and then defend the New
Speaker 1: Starfire in that same voice. Dude, it was I had
Speaker 1: lots of problems with Yeah, they do start in the
Speaker 1: New got so dirty. It was like wow, because like
Speaker 1: what we're saying now is just like I don't know
Speaker 1: how they did it in the classic one, but it was.
Speaker 1: But she kind of always had the sexy hill to her.
Speaker 1: And then she's tall and she's busty and that's why
Speaker 1: she hooks up a dick and she works as a
Speaker 1: model because no one notices she's or and yeah, that
Speaker 1: was weird. They make her in They make her because
Speaker 1: originally she was a princess who was dethroned by her
Speaker 1: sister and like sort of exiled. In the New fifty
Speaker 1: two they make her a sex slave who escapes her
Speaker 1: planet where she was Also like it gets really bad
Speaker 1: and still only communicates with sex. It's like very like
Speaker 1: I felt gross, and I'm probably one of the horneyut
Speaker 1: nerds out there and I felt gross reading it. That's
Speaker 1: too bad because in in that Redhood in the Outlaw
Speaker 1: series is drawn by Cather Rockeffort, Like, yeah, that's what
Speaker 1: I was like. And then I read and was like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not in it this. Yeah, but let's talk before
Speaker 1: we talk about the future. You said you did peep
Speaker 1: a little bit of the Titans live action series. Let's
Speaker 1: get some initial thoughts. I made it about halfway through.
Speaker 1: I made to the Jason Todd episode. Was that like
Speaker 1: five or six Doom Patrols. Look, I'm not I'm not
Speaker 1: going to something actually got me excited. And apparently Doom
Speaker 1: Patrol is good. You know. I was a little so
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna finally jack in. But I haven't
Speaker 1: started DC Universe yet until now. Yeah, I'm sure someone
Speaker 1: will give you a press count of few email. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm all forgetting free stuff. Yeah. I knew from the
Speaker 1: pictures it was not going to be for me, and
Speaker 1: like we talked at the top, that's fine. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: knew from some of the casting choices that it was
Speaker 1: not going to be to my taste. And then I
Speaker 1: definitely knew from the f Batman Cliff and it was
Speaker 1: gonna not be to my taste. Um, he's just that's
Speaker 1: not my Dick Grayson. And for me, a teen Dyings
Speaker 1: team lives or dies on Robin. Uh. The thing I
Speaker 1: really like about the show. Is I like making Raven
Speaker 1: the p o V character. I actually really like that
Speaker 1: she dreams is his vision of the death of the
Speaker 1: Flying Grasons. Like I thought the framing device of that
Speaker 1: pilot episode, UM was pretty good. I'm not really into
Speaker 1: the pacing of the show. I think it's very slow. Like,
Speaker 1: if your show is called Titans, we need to see
Speaker 1: the Titans in the pilot in my opinion, not an
Speaker 1: episode four in my opinion. UM. I think Ryan Potter
Speaker 1: is great as beast Boy. He was the voice of
Speaker 1: Hero and Big Hero six, and he was campaigning to
Speaker 1: be Tim Drake in live action for a long time.
Speaker 1: He has an amazing stunt reel where he's fighting with
Speaker 1: the bow Staff and he's like, look, I can be
Speaker 1: Tim Drake. Um. So I was really thrilled that he
Speaker 1: was involved in the team at all. I don't know
Speaker 1: why we couldn't just have had in Asian American Dick Grayson.
Speaker 1: That's fine. I think he's really lovely. I think the
Speaker 1: Hawk and Dove story was interesting, but I didn't watch
Speaker 1: past episode five, so perhaps that lets people know I
Speaker 1: truly felt it. Yeah, what was it about episode five
Speaker 1: that like made you nopebout. I said, I was going
Speaker 1: to watch until Jason Todd was introduced and then Thomas
Speaker 1: and you're like, yeah, and I actually think they did
Speaker 1: a decent job with Jason Todd. But then he spoiler
Speaker 1: alert doesn't stick around, and well, I get it because
Speaker 1: Dick is in the middle of what I think is
Speaker 1: going to be an inevitable evolution into Nightwing. But then
Speaker 1: who does Jason Todd becomes, So so it's Jason Todd
Speaker 1: not as red uh red Hood. He's not Red Hood
Speaker 1: right until after the Joker beats him to death of
Speaker 1: the crowbar and then he gets thrown on last. So
Speaker 1: this all takes place before that, I guess because because
Speaker 1: my only gripe with Jason Todd would have been like
Speaker 1: if we got f Batman Robin, that kind of takes
Speaker 1: the wind out of Red Hood sales, right, Um, And
Speaker 1: I like, I like it to Grayson, who's like not
Speaker 1: as much of a Gali g but also Grayson in
Speaker 1: my opinion because it's only just my opinion, I don't
Speaker 1: take anything away from him, and likes it. Um would
Speaker 1: never say a Batman, Well, that's the one Robin who
Speaker 1: would never like that's adjacent Todd moved and that was
Speaker 1: my gright with that. So me and you are back,
Speaker 1: even though you want to get rim, because because because
Speaker 1: I love I love that's your thing. It's like, you
Speaker 1: don't like it more for me. I don't like it
Speaker 1: more for you. But like Dick Grayson worships Batman. So
Speaker 1: when I heard that line, I already noped out and
Speaker 1: I was like, and once again, I'm the same way.
Speaker 1: I have no qualms with anyone who's like jamming on it.
Speaker 1: I will never say not like the thing you like that.
Speaker 1: Those words will never come out of my mouth. And
Speaker 1: don't take it that way if you're like liking it
Speaker 1: and it's like, hey, should I not like this because
Speaker 1: it no? Enjoy it? Enjoy good things. I think Pacific
Speaker 1: Rim is one of the most perfect movies ever made.
Speaker 1: It's the best movie ever. It's It's sorry it promised
Speaker 1: me a robot, I mean, a monster getting beat up
Speaker 1: by a giant robot with a freightership as a bat
Speaker 1: And what did I get when I went in a
Speaker 1: giant robot beating a monster with the freightership. You barely
Speaker 1: get your promises captain movies these days. And I was
Speaker 1: happy with it. I honestly didn't know that people didn't
Speaker 1: like Batman and Robin. I think I've said that before
Speaker 1: on this podcast. Yeah, like yeah, And I didn't because
Speaker 1: I saw it when I was little, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is it. Literally was like, if you're watching as
Speaker 1: a kid, it's like a comic book come to life.
Speaker 1: It's so colorful, stunt, dumb stunt. You have Uma Thurman
Speaker 1: as like may West, you know, but you have like Arnold.
Speaker 1: I was like, this is so we have um, you know,
Speaker 1: Alicia Silverstone who was coming off clueless like I was,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it was my jam. I didn't realize
Speaker 1: that that was not a good movie because a child,
Speaker 1: it should not be held against. Stick to it to
Speaker 1: this day, I feel like you hit the nail on
Speaker 1: the head. And it's why it's what I admire about it,
Speaker 1: and also why it's bad is that it's the only
Speaker 1: comic book movie that wasn't afraid to try and be
Speaker 1: a comic book movie. And then we found out that
Speaker 1: comic books shouldn't be movies. Well that that's the tough
Speaker 1: thing too, and and people and I've done it too,
Speaker 1: like we gripe about oh this is called civil war,
Speaker 1: but it's not civil war, or that they don't pull
Speaker 1: enough from the comments. But the two mediums are so
Speaker 1: different and they operate on such different playing fields that
Speaker 1: it is apples and oranges in a lot of way.
Speaker 1: But when you are pulling from such like Batman has
Speaker 1: eighty two years of source material, like that's a long
Speaker 1: and storied history. And whether or not I don't follow continuity,
Speaker 1: like I believe in making your own continuity, um, in
Speaker 1: making your own head canon, Like you cannot tell me
Speaker 1: that Tim Drake was never Robin, which is what rebirth
Speaker 1: the shout and tell me they're wrong. Um. But when
Speaker 1: you when you have that wealth of knowledge, it's hard
Speaker 1: when you don't get exactly what you want translated on screen,
Speaker 1: which is not what I got. The Robin suit looks
Speaker 1: great and there's some really excellent fights in it. And
Speaker 1: if that's enough to carry you through show, you'll dig it.
Speaker 1: It's enough to carry me through Arrow. I'll push all
Speaker 1: scenes of Arrow, and it's mostly because I want Steven
Speaker 1: Emil to hit something and then take a shirt off,
Speaker 1: and the show delivers on that. Yeah, now that that
Speaker 1: is uh, such a great point. Just like, hey, sometimes
Speaker 1: you just need simple things like a giant robot hidden
Speaker 1: the monster with a freighter boat. And sometimes I want
Speaker 1: Dick Grayson to have good posture and the live action
Speaker 1: show won't give me that. But that that is a
Speaker 1: good point. And this is kind of how even though
Speaker 1: we're closing out talking about Marvel on a DC show,
Speaker 1: that is like something because that was like a gripe
Speaker 1: of Civil Wars. Like you, there isn't enough time and
Speaker 1: money in the world to get the amount of people
Speaker 1: in the original Civil War on the silver screen because
Speaker 1: that was so many comics. And also one thing that
Speaker 1: kind of grounded me that I thought about for someone
Speaker 1: who started in the m c U who didn't read
Speaker 1: the comics, that was crazy to them. That was to
Speaker 1: see these people who they seen work together for all
Speaker 1: these movies fight each other. That was as insane as
Speaker 1: seeing Goliath get blasted in the chest by Robot or
Speaker 1: you know good probably forgot oh yeah, hard. He came
Speaker 1: back and he had a heavy beef with Iron Man.
Speaker 1: It was real. It was a real cool thing. I
Speaker 1: like to delete a lot of the pre Jason everything
Speaker 1: between the Simonson's and Jason Aaron Thorpe doesn't exist in
Speaker 1: my brain. All right, well, you know, I don't want
Speaker 1: to and I feel like this is gonna be another
Speaker 1: episode where people are tweeting us. It should have been longer.
Speaker 1: We only have so much time with our wonderful guests.
Speaker 1: Where can people find you? Ashually? You can find me
Speaker 1: all over the internet at Ashley v. Robinson. The v
Speaker 1: is very important. Ashley Robinson is a w NBA player.
Speaker 1: I don't want to fight for s e. Oh she's
Speaker 1: very tall. You can find my podcast with Danny has
Speaker 1: been on and now I can guilt Iffy into being on.
Speaker 1: You don't have to guilt me. I'll do that for free. Good.
Speaker 1: I don't have your email address, have to give it
Speaker 1: to at geek history lesson dot com. We just dropped
Speaker 1: eisode on dr DO this week, assuming this is coming
Speaker 1: out week we're recording. Is it coming out next week? No,
Speaker 1: it's coming to the next week. Our episode is gig
Speaker 1: Game of Thrones. All right, well right, yeah, we just
Speaker 1: dropped our Game of Thrones today or last week if
Speaker 1: you're listening. Heck yeah, because responsible podcast bank their episodes
Speaker 1: and we record them ahead of time. Uh yeah, And
Speaker 1: I don't know Google me and I hope you're enjoying
Speaker 1: the echob commercial that I'm in right now. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm on the internet. I'm a dilettant. I'm
Speaker 1: at Miss Danny Fernandez. Um. Oh yeah. Check out our
Speaker 1: tea public site. We love seeing y'all in merch and
Speaker 1: we've been adding more and more merch up in there,
Speaker 1: so it's public dot com slash and near deficent. Um.
Speaker 1: Please watch my show that's on verb. It's a wizarding show.
Speaker 1: It's called Live from w z r D. It's really funny.
Speaker 1: It has a lot of comedians on it and if
Speaker 1: enough people watch it, we get to have another season
Speaker 1: and um and then if you can actually come on
Speaker 1: because he was too busy when we also, it's really
Speaker 1: really good. Yeah, it's really funny. Had fun through done.
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Speaker 1: who tweets at us. We love keeping this conversation going online.
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Speaker 1: one year. We didn't talk about it last episode, but
Speaker 1: we've been Yeah, we've been going for one year and
Speaker 1: I this is the best thing I started last year
Speaker 1: and I'm throwing away. I don't know, it's getting late
Speaker 1: so as always, everybody stay nerdy,