September 13, 2025 • 52 mins
This week in PREVIOUSLY ON… Jason and Rosie discuss Paramount Skydance's bid to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery, then they are joined by producers Carmen and Aaron to dive into highlights from the latest Nintendo Direct, including Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 4 and what's happening in the world of Pokémon. PLUS, we have an interview with legendary comics writer Matt Fraction to discuss his new Batman run.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On today's episode, we're talking about mergers, Nintendo and more. Hello,
(00:22):
my name is Jason Contemnio.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hell, I'm Rosie Night and welcome back to x ray.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Vision of the podcast where we didep to your baby shows, news,
comments and pop culture comedy of Myron Podcast. We're reading
three episodes of week Class News and.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's News, It's News, Today's News. In today's previously on episode,
we are catching you up on the biggest geek news
of the week, including we will be bringing in super
producers Aaron and Carmen to talk about Nintendo Direct reactions
in their top three news drops from the latest Nintendo Direct.
We will also be talking to one of the biggest
(00:52):
comic book names for our generation who is currently on
the recently launched Batman Number one.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
That is matp Fraction, one of our favorites. Fun, such
a fun combo, But first, what's antitrust? We don't care
about it doesn't exist. Mere weeks after completing It's It's
merger with Paramount Larry Ellison, currently by some metrics, the
(01:26):
World's Richest Man. Yes, and sky Dance. Now I want
to swallow up Warner Brothers Discovery and they want to
do it Hole and David Zaslav must be like, yes, the.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Final this is crazy news.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
They're not even done firing everybody at Paramount like they
need to do, like the true, the true merging of
Sky downs Paramount has not even happened, and they're looking
to swallow up yet another studio and media conglomerate. This
is I just, uh, it's pretty surprising.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I want to say that this is or we were
right yes to a point, because we have said for
a long time it's gonna.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Be two channels.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
At some point Three was really desperate to get Warner
Brothers Discovery off his hands. The thing we assumed, we
had assumed based on a lot of reporting that's been
going on since the days Aslav bought Warner Brothers. No
joke emerged it with Discovery that they would probably be
bought by Universal. That was the understanding was Universal was
(02:34):
looking for ip that Universal could extend some of their
parks into Warner Brothers lot space or Universal lot space,
depending on what they decided to do. That was what
the town was saying. That was what most people were
reporting on. We did not see the Paramount.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Sky dance, certainly not after after acquiring paramount, which had
been you know, that had been dragging on forever until.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
They and also speaking about quickness, this is also literally
the moment basically that Warner Brothers Discovery is allowed to
be sold after being merged because there is a certain
amount of years that you can before you can resell it.
So Warner Brother's Discovery, this is all anyone really cares about.
(03:19):
Is the stock opened at thirteen dollars on the day
this was announced and topped out at seventeen, which is
very high for them. It has not been a growth
stock for a long time. This is honestly just kind
of yeah, it's what we what we expected. What does
it mean unclear, especially because it's.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Only rumor at this point.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
It is a rumor, but but it's.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Being reported as pretty serious.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Being reported as serious fact. And also the other thing
is it's going to be a mostly cash bid. Warner
Brothers holds a lot of debt, so mostly cash bid
is very good for them. Plus the other thing that
is really interesting is this will happen before Warner Brothers
and Discovery split, and everyone assumed what was going to
happen was David Zaslav would want to keep Discovery and
(04:08):
then sell the Warner Brothers aspect, no selling both and
they want apparently apparently they're still gonna split the companies,
and zaz Lav, terrible news for all of us, is
apparently still gonna run Warner Brothers, but he's giving Discovery
and Discovery plus to Gunner Widemfels, who's been his chief
(04:30):
financial officer and hatchetman. So this is a very messy thing.
That does not mean we're going to have no more
zazz Lav news, sadly, but let's see if it happens,
because you know what I mean, he did his job.
He did it. This is what the whole He did
his job, for the for the execs and this and
to be fair.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
To Dizaz anybody in the position to have that job,
this was always going to be the goal.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
This was what they had, This was what they were
gonna have, This is.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
What they were going to do, and this is what
the this is what this is about, is the accumulation
of assets to only a few select companies. Now you
might be wondering, how do I describe this merger or
potential merger in terms of Love Island. And luckily one
(05:19):
of my other group chats has done that. I'd like
to quote now a missive from one of my other
group chots, please that analyzes the potential merger in terms
of Love Island quote. Skydance enters the villa as a
bombshell Disney's like, you're not hot enough to be here
and you will never be one of the ogs, and
then pairs up with Hulu just to stay in the villa.
The audience at home finds out that Skynants is a
(05:41):
billionaire and think Skydance shouldn't really be allowed to be
in the villa because they don't need the prize money.
Paramount knows Skydance is rich, so throws themselves at them. Then,
as soon as they decide to close off, Skydance starts
inviting Warner Brothers to soul Ties, but Warner Brothers is
not interested because they're like, you already are in a
cup and also I'm with Discovery and who's already boring
(06:02):
but nice to everyone, And I don't think I'll make
it to the end with them, but maybe one of
the OG's will become single. America wants to vote to
break Skydance and pair amount up, but the voting system
isn't working Skydance gets to do a video call with
their dad, who is like, this show is stupid and
you should be able to find love in the real world. Also,
I just got a hundred billion dollars. They tell everyone
(06:23):
in the villa, and most are like, hey, you can
find real love in the villa, and Warner Brothers is like, wait,
what what was that about one hundred billion dollars. Warner
Brothers pick Skydance in a challenge and twerks in their
face and is like, it's just a challenge. It doesn't
mean anything. People are telling sky Dance they just want
you for your money, and sky Nance is like, I
don't care. I want to be with Warner Brothers. They
do the baby challenge and Warner Brothers gets twins and
(06:46):
they're like, this is one baby. This one baby is
ugly and crying a lot. Sky Dance is like, oh,
I'll help you. I'll take care of the hot baby
that's not crying a lot. Everyone in the villa is like,
of course they want the hot baby. Just take care
of your children, that's the point of the challenge. S
Guidance is like, what if we become a throupple and
I'll help you take care of both babies. Everyone at
(07:07):
home is like, this is against the rules. They have
disgraced the villa. Warner Brothers agrees to be with Skydance
and Paramount and says, but you have to let Discovery
br fourth and they're like, whatever, who cares as long
as we get to keep the hot baby. Ariano Maddox like,
I guess we'll have to see if America gets to
vote on these couples.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
And that's it.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
That is a analysis of the potential Skuidance and Warner
Brothers merger in terms.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Of Love Island.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Let's take a quick break and we'll be down. Yeah,
let's bring our super producers, Aaron and Carmen in to
talk about the latest news from Nintendo Direct. Hello, what's
(07:59):
going on with Nintendo?
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Well, we had a very exciting Nintendo Direct this morning.
Aaron and I were watching it together live. Oh, we
have some some top things we want to hit.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
First of all, I know you were all worried. Is
there going to be a sequel to the Mario movie?
There is, and it's called Super Mario Galaxy.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
We have no news. I love that I saw that news.
I was like iconic. I kind of love that Nintendo
direct was like, we are announcing that guys. It's awesome.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
No Zelda movie news, which I think would have been fun,
but we know what's happening, and we know they've done
some casting. It is a little bit harder to make
an animated trailer for a movie that's going to be action.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
There's also a they're bringing back Virtual Boy.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
Wait seriously, yes, yeah, so there will be a Virtual
Boy virtual console for you on switch and Switch to
and you need to use a like standalone Virtual Boy
recreation or a cardboard car version of it.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Oh, I probably love. I love when they had the
crazy cardboard. They had cardoard, really weird stuff. Yeah. When
I was a kid, I knew a guy who had
a Virtual Boy and it was like cool as well
play The graphics were so bad, but that was not
the point. I did have a like playing pong in
(09:19):
like a you know, a VR set, But it makes sense.
I mean, I don't know how it is for you guys,
but I know, like my nephew has a VR headset
and he plays it like every single day. Like for kids,
that is their console. They have five nights of Freddy's
on there. They have fruit and ninjur on them. It's
very fun among us. You can play robots on there
and be like a giant and compared to your robox.
(09:40):
So it is I think this is a smart move
for them if they can, if they can kind of
make a version of a VR gaming so.
Speaker 6 (09:46):
Well, this isn't gonna look anything like that. It's gonna
look all.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Red and it's gonna be the old school.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
Yeah, the old school. I like red style.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
They also announced Final Fantasy seven Integrade will be coming
to Nintendo switch To and if you were concerned that
elden Ring was not gonna run well on switch To,
let me tell you.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Seven Integrade is not gonna run well.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
And they did have moments within direct where they were
showing footage of games and they were like, this is
specifically on TV. This is like in the dock on the.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I'm like, guys, I literally the reason I buy a
switch is so I can play it while I'm watching TV.
I'm never gonna put it on the two. I'm just
not like. Even occasionally I'll put the funniest ship on there.
It'll be like I really got to pay good pizza,
great pizza, and see the pizza toppings on my TV,
like I'm playing Breath of the Wild on my console.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
This is not It's not one of our top moments, Rosie.
But they did announce Sweak, a new version of Sweaker
that's three and you rotate around where you're I do
love Sweet.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
It's one of the best games.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
Also, there's a new Resident Evil. But none of those
are our top top moments, so I think.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Which is kind of crazy to me. I feel like
Common would have had that as the top moment, so
I'm interested. This must have been a stack direct.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Yeah, the Resident Evil games, I'm too scared to play personally,
but these, Yeah, it's it's going.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
To be Common's one horror weakness.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
It's true, I'm too scared of Resident Evil games, but
I will be playing Fatal Frame two the Spify.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Biggest news for me was Hades two. They did an
amazing new trailer for Hades two. The full game is
coming out and it's going to be available on the
Switch one and the switch to. Okay, I'm assuming that,
of course, it won't look as great on the Switch one.
They made sure that. To note again, all of the
(11:44):
game play that we were seeing was on the switch
to and when do those come out?
Speaker 7 (11:47):
Arin?
Speaker 5 (11:48):
Do we have a digital version for Hades two September
twenty fifth, so very soon and the physical on November
twentieth on Switch one and two.
Speaker 6 (11:56):
So very excited about that.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Now from something something that we were really excited to
something that we should have been excited about Metroid Metroid
Prime four, they did the equivalent of like a Friday
News dump. They drop it in the middle of the direct,
no voiceover and no comment, and then immediately go to
the next trailer. And that's because the Metroid Prime it
starts off samus is like on a motorcycle. Carmen's texting
(12:20):
me like, it's like Metroid Tron. It looks cool, and
I was like, this can't be Metroid Prime four. The
graphics are too bad. It looks bad. It must be
some like side.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
So it's an open world like they're introducing an open world,
and unfortunately it doesn't look like a Breath of the
Wild style open world. It looks like a Pokemon style
open world, which is like.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
The Star Wars game Outlaws or whatever. But it doesn't
look great. And then they they put it like twenty
minutes into the director they knew it great. Yeah, so
I'm very worried about they did. They did feature some
first person view and it looks better in the first
person than in the motorcycle view. But I am so
bummed that it was not the Highlight.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
Yeah, it was definitely not the Highlight.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
Yeah, Carmel, what was your next one?
Speaker 6 (13:08):
Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
So I'm excited about these new Pokemon properties that are
coming out. Of course, we know that Pokemon Legends ZA
comes out in October. Those, in my opinion, are even
better than the mainline games are on Switch at the moment,
the Legends series is doing a lot better than the
mainline series is, and well we've only got one to
compare it to. But we have a new Rosie. I
(13:30):
think you're going to love this. We have a new
cozy game. It's like Pokemon meets Animal crossing Mine and
it's also got like some crafting and all of that
you collect in craft right, you play as a Ditto
that is disguised as a human, which adorable, and you
learn how to get power ups from different Pokemon. So
(13:53):
at one point in the trailer, the diddo gets vine.
Your human Ditto gets vine whip arms from Bulb and
learns how to like lift stuff out of the ground.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Oh yeah, that like no joke. I would just drop
eighty dollars on this game if it was out. Absolutely,
I'm looking at pictures like, no question, I need to
be that weird ditto person with the list. It's very strange.
It's very really weird, and I love it.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
The next thing that really hit for me was they
seem to really be doing a big focus on multiplayer.
So with a bunch of the games announced here, there
was a lot of comments throughout the direct about this
is available four player couch co op, this is two
couch co op four online. They had a new version
of Super Mario Bros. Wonder that will have an entirely
multiplayer mode that is like some co ops, some competitive.
(14:41):
They have this new game Storm Answers. They have this
game pop Ucom which is like it to me looked
like a child friendly first person game where I don't
want to say shooter, but you're like shooting these blue
balls at other pole.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
I would say I played this one of my games
that I play a lot on the Switch. On the
Switch one was Slime Rancher.
Speaker 6 (15:02):
I love Slime Rancher, and that.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I would say I used to describe that as kind
of a first person shooter, but for kids, it really is.
It is. It's like the mechanics, the way it looks
are the same. It imagines a world outside of guns,
which I think is always really fun for gaming. So
I think the.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Tone of yeah, and then there's also Mortal Kombat Legacy,
which is gonna have also online play, and it's just
it was really exciting to see how much multiplayer focus
they had in this direct, which I like.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
That direction I like, and also games wanted a lot yes,
and they did mention a lot of game share.
Speaker 6 (15:40):
Believe that your friend doesn't have to have the game.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
That's how it should always have been. I always thought
that making it so everyone had to have Mario Kart
or every you know, it was very silly, especially when
with like a Mario Party you could just connect different
console controllers. I think a lot. I still think Nintendo
in some ways, And I know this is going to
be another the classic bad Rosie take but about video games,
(16:03):
but like, personally, I do feel like there was I
don't feel like they've necessarily gone down since then, but
I remember that we you the way you could play
Mario Party on there with the screen and one of
you had the screen controller and one of you had
the others. It was so involving and so fun. I mean,
me and my friends just spent months playing that. So
I would love to see them bring a little bit
(16:25):
more of that, like co op play back, especially because
I think online gaming now even like I have the
arcade machines that one up Arcade Do where you build
it yourself, the newest one, the marvel Us Capcom one
that I got that had they had to enable online
play because that's what people wanted from it. They waned
(16:46):
to be able. They're like, well, we're playing all these
classic video games, you know, some of them are the
the video games that started the fighting game kind of
community movement. We need to be able to play them online.
And so they even added that to the arcade machine versions.
So it makes sense that that Nintendo's leading into How's
Pokemon Legends? Za, How's Pokemon Legends? Pizza? Looking?
Speaker 4 (17:08):
I think it looks really good. They're leaning back into
the mega evolutions for this game, and mega evolutions were
probably the last gimmick that Pokemon added to the games
that I really loved, And we are getting my favorite
is the new Mega Malamar, my friend Malamar. He looks
like a little he looks like a mind player almost,
(17:28):
and he's doing like this little hypnotism thing the whole time.
Speaker 6 (17:31):
He's very cute.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I love a little cut monster. Okay, any crazy uh
you know legendary Pokemon that you can ride, because that
was one of my favorite things.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
But there is a DLC already announced for Pokemon Legends
z A featuring evolutions of rights you okay, that I
don't know. I have not played a Pokemon since Red Blue,
so I am. I don't even know anything about mega evolutions.
But I saw it and I was like, it looks
like a Pokemon with two or two big years.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
So there is something an X and Y.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
We got an ex mega evolution of Charis Art and
a y mega evolution of chars Art and as well
as mewtwo and they're doing sort of the same thing
with riots.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
True.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Yeah, and it's very very cute, but it's again another
incentive to buy kind of DLC.
Speaker 6 (18:19):
So can we talk about DLC.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Well, let's before we gave Pokemon. Let's do Ghost Demon Snap.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
Oh yes, which is not actually not actually the name,
but yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
So Aaron likes to call this GHOSTU mon Snap. This
is one of my favorite games that you can play
on the Switch. You can play the first Fatal Frame
or game on the Switch, but they are remastering Fatal
Frame to the Crimson Butterfly for the Switch.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
I love a good like weird mystery.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
It looks terrifying, It looks so scary pictures.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
All of the headlines are like most terrifying Switch game
ever returns like the rather frightening is getting a fancy
new rem You know, yeah, I will. I've never played
this game, I will be playing. It looks great. I
love the aesthetic.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
But so the final thing we want to talk to
the two of you about, though, is the DLCs. We
got a lot of DLC isnnounced Okay, Donkey Kong has
a new DLC which I'm very excited about, but a
lot of things like Pokemon Legends z A. The DLC
is announced and for sale day of the main game. Ha,
then just include it in the main game exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
That's exactly, sorry, guys, include it, especially if you're charging
eighty ninety dollars for the main game. Like, honestly, I
have to tell you, guys, this is not going to
surprise anyone who's listening. I'm sure I don't think I've
ever even bought a DLC by it even even a
Breath of the Wild, you know what, Animal So you
(19:45):
know what I did do I did for Animal Crossing.
I purchased the eighty dollars a year family membership, right
you need to have. But I'd already purchased it because
I wanted online play, So I would say that was
a space where I did it. But a lot of
the games I buy, I buy them on the Digital
Switch Store and I buy them as a bundle and
they come. So for example, when I played Dragon Ball Fighters,
(20:08):
it was because it was on a crazy bundle deal
on the Switch with all the extra characters, all the
extra skins. I did the same for More Combat eleven.
So I think, like I am not necessarily the DLC
audience unless it is something like I felt like an
entirely new game as well as online play and the other. Okay, yeah,
(20:34):
I didn't buy a DLC because I got the code
for free. So after that I was just I was
just playing with whatever I could play with. But you
know what the other one I will say when it
comes to this is the switch online. The eighty dollars
a month, you get the eighty dollars a year, you
get all the different emulators. Also got Happy Home Designer
and the other band clicks was well now you get
(20:56):
the Yeah, and they have the GameCube on there now too.
But the one I think that really I really did
it for me was that's how you got the Mario
Kart levels. So that was probably that was my overall DLC.
It was probably the same amount of money as like
three other four other DLCs.
Speaker 6 (21:11):
And they bundle them.
Speaker 8 (21:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yeah, I think it's crazy to have a DLC available
on the first day of I don't I don't get that. Yeah, Jason,
what do you think.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
About DLC. There must be a reason, there must be
data to support why they do this, and that's simply.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Does it make it feel like additive for those.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
I don't know what it is, but there must simply
be an economic reason where they crunch the numbers and.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
They were like, we can charge more for that.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
This is how this is. We should just do this.
And maybe it's as simple as the fact that, like
you said, Rosie, you're I'm sure that there is a
significant percentage of gamers who never buy the DLC. That's right. Yeah,
So I think it's as simple as not It might
be as simple as not muddying the waters. Like here's
here's we know we're going to sell this to everybody
(22:03):
who is interested in this game. If we have the
DLC coming at the same time, that's going to be confusing.
You're gonna have people who, oh, ship, I bought this,
I don't want like why am I buying now you've
got all this the issues of digital returns and YadA
YadA YadA. Just have the main thing on sale for
(22:25):
a period of time.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
That's what I agree with confusing. Otherwise.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Yeah, One thing I think though, and Jason, one of
the reasons I asked too, is because I think PlayStation
in Xbox frequently will have like enhanced versions of a
title you.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Can buy, but it's dl It's like it's like it
comes with the art book and here's the the you
get extra but it's more actual content.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I think the first thing I ever really recall having
a big d l C, and this is just because
this is the kind of games I play was Batman,
Arkhamsyling and the Arkham trilogy that they did, and those
were always about extra characters, extra suits, extra like side missions,
and so those I would usually get, but again it
(23:15):
would be when I rebought it on a different console,
I'd just buy the bundle, you know, so, but I'm
definitely interested. I also think something that is probably affecting
this and let me know if I'm totally off based listeners.
But you know what is very much one of the
biggest played games of all time is Fortnite, and you
know how Fortnite, but you know how Fortnite like, it
(23:38):
makes a lot of its money from selling Godzilla skins
basketball player skins. You can have Godzilla and you can
he can be wearing Miles Morales is Jordan Wand's like,
I think that the elements of how people play games
are changing, and I think the idea of new content
and constantly buying new content, whether you're playing Roadblocks, which
(23:59):
is making my every single day, by kids just constantly
downloading new costumes on new knives or yeah, their parents'
credit cards, just raising that stuff up. I think that
that is so normalized in the way that younger people
play games that it makes sense that Nintendo's trying to.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Kind of Yeah, look, there are plenty of there are
plenty of games that have micro transactions throughout their lifespan
that make ridiculous amounts of money. And then there are
plenty of games that release a DLC one year, two
years into the life cycle. And there are plenty of
games like Stardu Valley, which I joke about, which also
has a four players twist screen coming to Nintendo Switch two.
There are games like Stardoo that just drop free DLC's.
(24:38):
It's just strange, I think for so many of these
games to have a DLC announced on launch that is
a paid DLC that just seems like you're buying a
couple extra Pokemon for twenty guys.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Who knows what this is? Uh, this is just like
late stage capitalism.
Speaker 6 (24:55):
Yeah it is.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I think that's what I think. That's what it is,
you know.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
But all in all, a fun Nintendo Direct. It went
over an hour. Carmen and I clearly had different things
that we were most excited about. Even Joelle was super
excited about Virtual Boy, and we were like, that was
like a cool thing.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
We're not on top of our Well, that show's they're
still able to do that appealing to everyone.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Nice to see Nintendo can have a lot of different
things still to announce, so we're very happy with it.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Thank you guys so much.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yeah, thank you for joining us. We're going to take
a quick break and we'll be back with our interview
with Matt Fraction and now our interview with one of
our favorite comic book creators of all time, Matt Fraction.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Hello, X ray Vision listeners. We are very excited to
have one of our favorite comic book writers, Matt Fraction
with us, who you may know from many different things
like The Invincible Iron Man, More I amphis uncunny X Men,
one of my favorite comics, Casanova, Sex Criminals, Superman's pal
Jamie Olsen, and so much more. But we're here today
because Matt is going to be the writ on Batman
(26:03):
issue number one and continuing with soups the artist Ja Jimenez.
Speaker 8 (26:08):
Matt, how you doing, I'm good. My dog is going
off in the background, so I apologize if you can
hear it, but he's very large and will not be silenced.
Yes you say that, I can get you on today
for thirty bucks. He's got his papers.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
I'll take it.
Speaker 8 (26:26):
He's one hundred and thirty six pounds. He puts his
paws on my shoulders and looks me in the eye.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Matt, tell us about your approach to Batman, as this
is kind of a return to the big two for
you after a little while out and loved Batman number one.
Tell us about your approach to this story.
Speaker 8 (26:52):
You know, I Batman was the first comic I ever read.
It was the comic that made me fall in love
with comics. A Man three sixteen. I was three years
old in July nineteen seventy nine, and I'll be dead soon,
so you know, I and that that. You know, it's
(27:13):
gonna reflect a certain era. It's obviously, you know, it's
a little bit like maybe reading X Men or watching
Saturday Night Live, like the cast you fall in love
with is always the best, and there's ups and downs
since then, but like you know, you never forget your
first or whatever. But but you know, it was a
very you know, the sort of superhero forward Cape Crusader era.
(27:36):
You know, it was it was a superhero comic. It
was it could be scary, and it could be a mystery,
and it could be adventure, and it could be all
these different things, but it was sort of superhero forward first,
and that was that was a thing that that that
was kind of the key to my approach, and just
as a as a fan, as a reader, it had
(27:58):
been a while, it felt like, and since that had
kind of been front and center and sort of starting
with how do you how do you get the book
to that place? You know it would be how do
you get Batman to that place? And sort of thinking
about what I maybe wanted to try and say, oh,
why would I want to spend all this time with
(28:18):
Batman and Bruce Wayne in my head? So you know,
that was kind of the on The sort of thing
I was looking for was was was through that lens
of like Superhero Forward Caped Crusader stuff, and and the
rest came from there. And then it kind of pitched
it to Marie and Rob and they really dug it.
So so here, so here we are, and now there's
(28:39):
a Batman number one out in the.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
World there is. How are you feeling about that? How
does it feel to have you know, it's only like
the fourth ever Batman number one?
Speaker 6 (28:47):
As well, I think for the very.
Speaker 8 (28:49):
For the very fourth time. I frankly it's it's it's overwhelming.
And I was like, look, I'm I'm certainly guilty in
life of under selling things and being self deprecating to
the to the point of of of of derision or
(29:10):
I don't know, but I genuinely had no idea how
big this was going to be. It wasn't until San
Diego that I got a sense of like, oh, oh
this is this is different, this is really different. So no,
it's it's great. I mean, I used this metaphor the
other day, but like it's it's like Marty McFly and
I think I'm pitching a ride on the back of
a truck and taking a lazy, you know, a lazy
(29:32):
ride on my skateboard to school, but the truck is
actually the truck from Sorcerer and Roy Scheider's but somewhere to.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Be already happy to be back in the big two.
Speaker 8 (29:47):
Yeah, I know that. And it's been great, and you
know I've been This is the other thing, too, is
like I've been doing this for like fifteen months now,
like it's been happening a long time. I'm crazy far
ahead and like, uh, it has yet to actually feel
like work. So it's been great. It's been awesome.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
There's a lot to love about the first issue, including
where his gorgeous artwork but I think the thing that
really resonated with me, especially after you're anecdote about your
first comic being Batman through sixteen, and is the way
that Batman resolves, you know, what could be a knockdown,
(30:28):
all out brawl with Kroc that turns into something else.
I wonder if you could talk about that moment in
that in the issue, which I find really heartwarming and nice.
Speaker 8 (30:40):
Yeah, I you know, I think that the sort of
question gets asked in the opening scene like do people
really change? Yeah? You know, and has change really possible?
And you know, look at the sort of on a
metal level, what does that mean in a superhero comic?
Like and is there is there a different way?
Speaker 7 (31:03):
Right?
Speaker 8 (31:03):
Is is there a malleability to Batman's approach as malleable
as the character himself is. You know, he's capable of
facing all these different things, but does he face them
all kind of the same way? And I don't know,
it's just sort of felt like a thematic. It surprised
me in the writing where I thought I was gearing
(31:24):
up for a Batman Croc fight and then he turned
the gloves off, and it was like You're like, oh, oh, okay,
this is not a this is interesting what happens what
happens when he sits down, instead of let's see what happens.
So it felt like an on ramp into the idea
of things changing and things evolving. You know, he still
runs his car into a bunch of sex pests that
(31:46):
that torment women that dare to go jogging in a parks,
Like it's not it's still like it's it's it's still Batman,
but like, yes, maybe yeah, maybe, you know, maybe maybe
to a the whole world looks like nails. So so
I don't know, it was it was it was it
was something I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Is that something that we can expect to see continued
as a theme throughout this the idea of kind of
how a superhero like Batman can evolve.
Speaker 8 (32:17):
Maybe we will uh uh, we'll see, you know. And
part of that is me not wanting to to give
the game away. But also part of me is not
wanting to give the game away, right, It's just it's
certainly it's certainly in my head mm hmm. But also
I don't want to see every No, I want to
(32:38):
see bad guy. I want to see bat Batman punching
bad guys. I want to see fights. I want to
see action and violence. Uh I don't do you know.
I'm I'm I'm into that. Uh So, so no, there's
not gonna be a lot a lot of you know,
Fraser Crane talking to you, talking talking, you know, but
but like, no, it's but it's it's the the idea
is in the mix now and and and just as
(33:00):
a kind of opening gambit, and well we'll see where
it takes us.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Tell us a little bit about the setup to your
to your Batman story. What is the state of Gotham
we head into this, and what's the state of the
Cape Crusader.
Speaker 8 (33:14):
I mean, it sort of just picked up where where
where Chip left off and then sort of where I
know Jim and Jeff are leaving things and and you know,
I'm trying to make it as clean an entry point
as as possible. But you know, it's it's it's still Gotham.
It's you know, as the Board of Tourism says, you
don't have to be crazy to live here, but it helps.
(33:35):
And uh, you know, but I'm looking for new shapes
and colors out of the place. You know, I'm I'm
I'm kind of weary and tired and bored of of
a Gotham that is, you know, decorated entirely as a
wet factory. That's that's the color of a of a
(33:57):
decayed avocado. And I don't, I don't, I don't look
at pictures of Gotham and think I need a tetanus shot. Right,
So Gotham is still Gotham. It's still larger than life
and strange and and gothic and deco and and bigger
than big and and you know, it's it's it's all
of New York and Barcelona and Tokyo and Paris, uh
(34:21):
and and and London smashed together, and you know, larger
than larger than life. You know, it's it's it's Metropolis's uh,
spooky goths, the sister and but it's it's capable of
of all this color and flavor and yeah, and and
(34:41):
you know, it's kind of picking up all of the threads.
You know, the bad guys are running the police department
and the good guys are on their heels and and uh,
you know, he doesn't live in that mansion anymore, but
he's got a pretty nice house. And you know, it's
it's uh, you know, I I don't want to punish
anyone for how having read the book before, and I
don't want to punish anyone for not having read the
(35:03):
book before it. Hopefully you can just kind of click
in and take the ride, and if you've got questions,
you know, good news. There's been Batman's stories told the
last one thousand and thirty six consecutive months of human history.
You can you can dig into, you know, But I
want to write a clean, open first issue that he's
a superhero. Come come, come, come, come watch him do
(35:24):
his thing.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
You talked about got them looking a little different here,
a little bright. So what was it like working with
jje and then obviously Tommyo's Murray's incredible colors that really
bring Gotham to life in a way that is a
bit brighter, a bit more hopeful.
Speaker 8 (35:40):
Maybe, Oh oh, I mean it's a it's a dream
like I love Horey's work, and he and Tummy you
work so well together and have such a a singular
vision between them where each one can kind of augment
the other in these kind of brilliant ways, and it's
(36:01):
just all was sort of in my approach, is you know,
And it kind of had to, you know, pitch an audition,
not just for uh Marie and Rob, but kind of
for Jorge as well. And you know the sort of
the I mean, because like he was fixed. He was
he was the fixed. He was the known quantity, right,
he was the one they knew what was drawing the book,
so you know, but it came in and like, I
(36:23):
would kind of like to put him back in the
blue and gray and I would like to, you know,
get away from wet factory, and and Jorge's eyes just
let up said yes, you know, he was so excited
and ready for that. You know. The first line in
the book is no rain, And it doesn't mean that
the Gotham's in a drought. It means that, like it's
I don't want to spend time in the dreary Gotham
(36:44):
for a little bit. You know. I'd spend a lot
of time in Tokyo the last year, and it's such
an incredible looking city, especially at night, especially outside of
the kind of big clusters and hubs, you know, where
it's it's not necessarily the science fiction, you know, millions
(37:04):
of signs and things like that, but just the quality
of light at night in Tokyo was was really striking
to me. And yeah, I wanted it to happen in
a place that that I understood why people lived there,
you know, and and so much of that just kind
of spoke to the tone, the tonal ambitions and and
(37:25):
and just kind of personal reference of that that kind
of caped Crusader era and and they were ready for it.
And and it's great, like like they are parts of
you know, or his pages where he'll leave notes for Tony,
like like here's this is where you'll do this or pop,
you know, and he knows how to queue things up
(37:45):
for the color to to to to carry and and
they just they work together so incredibly well and so beautifully.
And you know, I'm just trying to serve that and
serve them. Uh and and and just as as a
fan to kind of write the book, I most wish
(38:05):
I could see them, do you know?
Speaker 1 (38:08):
You could really feel that kind of ethos in the
panels where Batman is gliding over the city or even
driving through Robinson Park, tell us about that moment you
get the I mean, you've mentioned you've been at this
a while. You've been writing comics and creating comics and
for various places and independently on your own for a
(38:29):
long time, with many different collaborators. But what is it
like to get the first pieces of art back, to
see the vision coalescing.
Speaker 8 (38:41):
It's it's kind of like going on a first date,
you know, Or it's like that the first time you're
you're at someone's place, and like you're seeing their stuff
and and you know, it's it's it's like, I like collaborators.
I want collaborators, I want partners. I don't want employees.
You know, I don't think my job is done when
(39:02):
I hit send on the script, you know, I think
I think comics are primarily a visual medium, even though
we're in such a kind of writer driven era, and
I think it's my job to serve the visuals as
a matter of primacy. Like like, you know, there's the
(39:24):
it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning right,
Like it's a quote Mark Twain, Like it's just like
I want to you know, my my favorite part of
the process is taking out as many words as I
can once once the art is back, you know, and
and and and and it's it's not enough to just
(39:46):
go off of thumbnails. I can make a pretty good
guess off of thumbnails. But but once the color is
in place and the inks are down and all of
the acting is rendered and and the thing is complete,
like like then I really have to then that's then
then get the work with an eraser, you know, And
and I want to get rid of as many words
on a page as I can, to leave as much
(40:07):
art as possible. That's part of the reason it decided
to do away with first person narration from Batman, right
like that just be a lot of words everywhere. And
and when you're dealing with such tremendous and gifted artists
as these guys, like like they can do this, they
(40:27):
can tell this with with their work, I don't have
to tell it with mine.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Have there been any moments, you know, in that scripting
process where you get the pages back and you're like, oh, yeah,
that's better than.
Speaker 8 (40:40):
Every page, every every every single every single like like
I'm sorry that I miss understand undersell that everything anyone
has ever responded to about my work is because of
the artists. I'm I just like like Zelig, like popping
my head up in the corner like oh hey, I'm
here too.
Speaker 7 (40:59):
Guys.
Speaker 8 (41:00):
Look we did it. Yay, yeah, no, every single page,
every single page.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
It strikes me as well, your idea for Gotham and
creating a space that you kind of understand why there
isn't this steady tide of flight from the city that
people are like, Hey, that's actually exciting.
Speaker 8 (41:19):
Is kind of do you live in the Do you
live in the toxic chemical district or the giant prop
manufacturing district? Oh no, I live I live next to
the three empty prisons in the burning hospital, right. Oh sure,
rents are so expensive.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
There is also I think reflected in the in the
title of the issue, vast Colors in the Dark. Where
did the title come from? Because it really struck me
when I when I was reading it, like, oh, what
a cool title.
Speaker 8 (41:49):
I don't know, it's kind of a there is kind
of a I mean really, there's a couple of like
there's like a Gallow film that I don't know, I
don't know, it just.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
It felt go on the Giallow. I love where we're going.
Speaker 8 (42:01):
Yeah, no, you know, there's there's there's a there's a
I think it's called Colors in the Dark, And there's
a there's a movie a couple of years back called
I think that the vastness of night that I liked.
And but but but it was that that you know,
we did it, we we we We shot in Tokyo
for almost two weeks, and like only three or four
(42:23):
of those were during daylight and everything else was a
night shoot. So I spent a lot of time in
Tokyo at night. And it's there's just an entirely different
palette that exists, right, and and and that that idea
of the quality of color at night and in the dark,
and and he's the dark night and how do you know?
(42:45):
And what does this look like? And and the the
I don't know, it just it felt it's it's yes,
it's still night. It's still dark. He's still the dark night.
It's still there's still wait. But also like, there's beauty here, right,
there's there's incredible things to be seen if you've got
the eyes to see it and you stay up late.
My dog looks at the moon. Have you ever seen
(43:06):
a dog look at the moon?
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Yes? I have, I've seen my dog. My dog loves
to look at the moon.
Speaker 8 (43:11):
Yeah, And I just it's just like and especially when
it's full, he'll just stare at it and like and
and you you're out in the dark long enough and
like your eyes adjust and you start to see things
you don't see before. You know, as your your your
your eyes adapt to the darkness. You see colors in
that in that in that light, whether it's a full
moon in the Pacific Northwest or you know, downtown Tokyo
(43:33):
or whatever it's, it's there's, there's, there's, there's a vast
palette to be explored there beyond black and green and gray.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
I think another thing that was really fun and thought
of working for me was the presence of Alfred, you know,
in the field. Alfred's been a presence throughout Batman's history,
you know, in the earpiece and on the walkie talkie
in various ways. But to have him actually in a
I'm less interested in the A the ape a part
of it. Then the fact that he's there with Bruce, like, actually.
Speaker 8 (44:03):
He's not a he's not he's not a I.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
Or excuse me, however, the hologram.
Speaker 8 (44:09):
Version, he's not a he's not a hologram. It's not
technology very interesting.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Well, I'm I love the fact that he's there, And
how does that change the approach for Bruce.
Speaker 8 (44:21):
Oh, it's great, there's no escape. Yeah, he's like he's
he's he's Jimminy Cricket and he's the shiniest, sharpest needle
for all of Batman's darkest balloons. And you know, he's
he's the he's the It's like, oh, there's no escape
(44:41):
from that regulating voice, right, Like I love that the
that there is something fundamental in the relationship that is
like I've got to keep you grounded, you know, And
it's that it's that tether like you're my you know.
You don't don't get grandiose, right, like don't don't, don't
don't start thinking about things and levels of like primal archetypes.
(45:05):
You're a guy, he's a guy. Have the conversation or whatever,
you know, like it's nice to have a a And
also like, look, because I got rid of the first
person captions, like it helps to have.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Someone to talk to sure, for sure, Yeah, you.
Speaker 8 (45:21):
Know, and I don't want to do the cutting back
and forth on the radio necessarily all the time. So
like it was it was like, oh, okay, this is
this is this is this is good, this is this
is the presence of self regulation and quality control, right,
and that difficult job of being able to say no
to the most intimidating person in the world, right, and
Alfred excels at that first and foremost. Alfred is the
(45:43):
one to say you're full of shit, right, like dial it,
dial it down, linatic and it's great. It's just fun.
It's fun, it's bouncy and nice, it's it's it's if
nothing else, that's someone not afraid of Batman.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
Yes, which is a dynamic that he's not used to
all the time.
Speaker 7 (45:59):
I don't know what you guys talked about while I
was being while I was in my t pay moment,
but I was going to ask about just getting to
visualize a new world of Gotham with Joe and Tommy.
Speaker 8 (46:11):
So what was that Like, It's just it's it's been great,
and it sort of drove me to like, you know,
I've sort of been building a map, Like it became
really important to me, not just as a writer to
like know where does this happen? Like what's here, but
like to to think of you know, there's a it's
(46:33):
an old cliche that I think some desperate writer said
in a pitch meeting and sold a show on it,
so it gets repeated all the time, but like the
city is a character, but like it's especially true in
DC comics. It's not New York, it's Metropolis. Right, it's
not Chicago. It's it's Gotham or whatever whatever your your
your your reference or antecedents are precedents are like, Okay,
(46:57):
so this is a character, then I should know what
it's like, you know, and and and so that means
the neighborhoods. And and once they started to kind of
like really plan a flag in the geography, start to
have an idea about where the money flows and what
happens here and why and what bad guys are headquartered here. Oh,
(47:17):
and they're here because the boats are here. And that
means this is where this happens, and this is where
that you know it all. It all just kind of
makes it real. And so, you know, kind of worked
with Clayton to introduce a like a you know, we
really literally took the New York City Metro Transit Authorities
Design Handbook from like nineteen seventy and use that as
(47:40):
a basis, you know, for like subway signs and like
like introducing that as part of the visual language of
the book and trying to make Gotham feel real as
a city by giving it all of the kind of
texture and grain that that the real cities have, you know,
and and so it was cool and so we know, like, oh, okay,
well this is the neighborhood is this and it's going
(48:01):
to feel like that, And that just inspires everything that
that tells me what the buildings are going to be like,
So when the fight happens, what are they going to
be near?
Speaker 7 (48:09):
Right?
Speaker 8 (48:09):
Are they skyscrapers? Are they? Are they brownstones? Are they? Apartments?
Are they? Are they? Is it a is it a
warehouse district? Like what? You know? Just all of that
kind of informs everything else and is it kind of
built out the series and it becomes kind of more
crucial you'll see in this kind of first six seven issues,
like like the geography is important for a reason. It's
(48:31):
sort of all the parts of the map are are
are realized for a reason. So so just as a
writer doing that, and then the joy of then kind
of putting down vague thoughts about a place on paper
to Jorge and Tommy and Clayton and seeing what they
come back with is like, oh, perfect, nailed it. This
is exactly what what little Tokyo. This is exactly what
(48:53):
little Tokyo looks like. This is exactly where the big
money goes to live that aren't old money, right, Like,
this is where the tech bros would live, and this
is where the people who have been millionaires, and you know,
all that kind of stuff. Like it just informed the
the whole, the whole of the book. It's also great
when I don't know what else to write. It feels
like work. It's not really writing, but it feels like writing.
So I can like figure out how Adobe illustrator works
(49:17):
and drawing a map and pretend I'm writing, when in
fact I'm just dicking around.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
With that in mind. Let's say I'm a I'm a
I'm a young person.
Speaker 6 (49:25):
I just got out of.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
Smallville Community College and I'm not a bright man.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
Then huh, I want to move.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
I want to move to the you know, it was
what was available. I want to move to the big
city and you know, feel the excitement, get a.
Speaker 8 (49:38):
Job like Axel Rose at the beginning of the Jungle video.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
You got a right, god, yeah, and you know and
I don't but I don't want that stepping off the
bus and easy straddling accosting me as I come off
the bus with the sprig of weed in my mouth,
right right?
Speaker 8 (49:59):
Where do where?
Speaker 1 (50:01):
Where am I looking to live in Gotham?
Speaker 8 (50:05):
What's your job? Where are you going to work?
Speaker 1 (50:07):
I think I would love to get a job writing
for like the Gotham Free Weekly, like doing music.
Speaker 8 (50:15):
That's going to be Old Gotham. There's a newspaper. There's
a newspaper row. It's sort of in the central island,
kind of on the southeast. You know, it's it's close
to the water. You can see, uh, you can see
the new towers. Off to the left. You've got alley
Town just up a little sketchy, a little little not
so much a red light district, but you get the
pink light district just to the north. But always a lead,
(50:38):
always a story there. And yeah, and uh, you know,
look for the look for the newspaper, the Gotham iye.
You know, they're the tower like the big eye and
the pyramid that rotates around and you'll, uh, you'll you'll
know where your your neighborhood is. And then yeah, so
find the Gotham iye. And then look for the sirens
and that's where the Free Press is. Going to be.
Speaker 7 (50:58):
I'm very excited to hit more about Jason's future and
Gothamsea Late to Day.
Speaker 6 (51:04):
I can't wait.
Speaker 7 (51:05):
Thanks so much for joining us. Matt.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
Oh yeah, Matt, thank you so much.
Speaker 8 (51:10):
That's it. We're done.
Speaker 7 (51:14):
Come back anytimes. Usually we have better internet. But yeah,
it's great to talk to you, really really big fans.
Speaker 8 (51:21):
Oh, thank you so much, and thanks for reading the book.
It's it's uh crazy. Today is really great. It's been
a it's going to be a crazy couple of couple
of weeks, a couple of months. So there's a fun
way to start Batman Day for me. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
On next week's episode of X ray Vision, we're diving
into episode four, Peacemaker and the finale of Foundation with
our interview with the showrunner, David Scoyer. That's it for news.
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (51:51):
X ray Vision is hosted by Jason ceps You and
Rosie Night and it is a production of iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 2 (51:56):
Our executive producers are Joe Alminique and Aaron Kleman.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
Our supervising producer is Abu Safar.
Speaker 2 (52:02):
Our producers are Common Laurent Dean Jonathan and Bay Wax.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
A theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme
songs by Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman, and
Heidi our Discord moderator,
On today's episode, we're talking about mergers, Nintendo and more. Hello,
(00:22):
my name is Jason Contemnio.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hell, I'm Rosie Night and welcome back to x ray.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Vision of the podcast where we didep to your baby shows, news,
comments and pop culture comedy of Myron Podcast. We're reading
three episodes of week Class News and.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's News, It's News, Today's News. In today's previously on episode,
we are catching you up on the biggest geek news
of the week, including we will be bringing in super
producers Aaron and Carmen to talk about Nintendo Direct reactions
in their top three news drops from the latest Nintendo Direct.
We will also be talking to one of the biggest
(00:52):
comic book names for our generation who is currently on
the recently launched Batman Number one.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
That is matp Fraction, one of our favorites. Fun, such
a fun combo, But first, what's antitrust? We don't care
about it doesn't exist. Mere weeks after completing It's It's
merger with Paramount Larry Ellison, currently by some metrics, the
(01:26):
World's Richest Man. Yes, and sky Dance. Now I want
to swallow up Warner Brothers Discovery and they want to
do it Hole and David Zaslav must be like, yes, the.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Final this is crazy news.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
They're not even done firing everybody at Paramount like they
need to do, like the true, the true merging of
Sky downs Paramount has not even happened, and they're looking
to swallow up yet another studio and media conglomerate. This
is I just, uh, it's pretty surprising.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I want to say that this is or we were
right yes to a point, because we have said for
a long time it's gonna.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Be two channels.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
At some point Three was really desperate to get Warner
Brothers Discovery off his hands. The thing we assumed, we
had assumed based on a lot of reporting that's been
going on since the days Aslav bought Warner Brothers. No
joke emerged it with Discovery that they would probably be
bought by Universal. That was the understanding was Universal was
(02:34):
looking for ip that Universal could extend some of their
parks into Warner Brothers lot space or Universal lot space,
depending on what they decided to do. That was what
the town was saying. That was what most people were
reporting on. We did not see the Paramount.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Sky dance, certainly not after after acquiring paramount, which had
been you know, that had been dragging on forever until.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
They and also speaking about quickness, this is also literally
the moment basically that Warner Brothers Discovery is allowed to
be sold after being merged because there is a certain
amount of years that you can before you can resell it.
So Warner Brother's Discovery, this is all anyone really cares about.
(03:19):
Is the stock opened at thirteen dollars on the day
this was announced and topped out at seventeen, which is
very high for them. It has not been a growth
stock for a long time. This is honestly just kind
of yeah, it's what we what we expected. What does
it mean unclear, especially because it's.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Only rumor at this point.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
It is a rumor, but but it's.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Being reported as pretty serious.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Being reported as serious fact. And also the other thing
is it's going to be a mostly cash bid. Warner
Brothers holds a lot of debt, so mostly cash bid
is very good for them. Plus the other thing that
is really interesting is this will happen before Warner Brothers
and Discovery split, and everyone assumed what was going to
happen was David Zaslav would want to keep Discovery and
(04:08):
then sell the Warner Brothers aspect, no selling both and
they want apparently apparently they're still gonna split the companies,
and zaz Lav, terrible news for all of us, is
apparently still gonna run Warner Brothers, but he's giving Discovery
and Discovery plus to Gunner Widemfels, who's been his chief
(04:30):
financial officer and hatchetman. So this is a very messy thing.
That does not mean we're going to have no more
zazz Lav news, sadly, but let's see if it happens,
because you know what I mean, he did his job.
He did it. This is what the whole He did
his job, for the for the execs and this and
to be fair.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
To Dizaz anybody in the position to have that job,
this was always going to be the goal.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
This was what they had, This was what they were
gonna have, This is.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
What they were going to do, and this is what
the this is what this is about, is the accumulation
of assets to only a few select companies. Now you
might be wondering, how do I describe this merger or
potential merger in terms of Love Island. And luckily one
(05:19):
of my other group chats has done that. I'd like
to quote now a missive from one of my other
group chots, please that analyzes the potential merger in terms
of Love Island quote. Skydance enters the villa as a
bombshell Disney's like, you're not hot enough to be here
and you will never be one of the ogs, and
then pairs up with Hulu just to stay in the villa.
The audience at home finds out that Skynants is a
(05:41):
billionaire and think Skydance shouldn't really be allowed to be
in the villa because they don't need the prize money.
Paramount knows Skydance is rich, so throws themselves at them. Then,
as soon as they decide to close off, Skydance starts
inviting Warner Brothers to soul Ties, but Warner Brothers is
not interested because they're like, you already are in a
cup and also I'm with Discovery and who's already boring
(06:02):
but nice to everyone, And I don't think I'll make
it to the end with them, but maybe one of
the OG's will become single. America wants to vote to
break Skydance and pair amount up, but the voting system
isn't working Skydance gets to do a video call with
their dad, who is like, this show is stupid and
you should be able to find love in the real world. Also,
I just got a hundred billion dollars. They tell everyone
(06:23):
in the villa, and most are like, hey, you can
find real love in the villa, and Warner Brothers is like, wait,
what what was that about one hundred billion dollars. Warner
Brothers pick Skydance in a challenge and twerks in their
face and is like, it's just a challenge. It doesn't
mean anything. People are telling sky Dance they just want
you for your money, and sky Nance is like, I
don't care. I want to be with Warner Brothers. They
do the baby challenge and Warner Brothers gets twins and
(06:46):
they're like, this is one baby. This one baby is
ugly and crying a lot. Sky Dance is like, oh,
I'll help you. I'll take care of the hot baby
that's not crying a lot. Everyone in the villa is like,
of course they want the hot baby. Just take care
of your children, that's the point of the challenge. S
Guidance is like, what if we become a throupple and
I'll help you take care of both babies. Everyone at
(07:07):
home is like, this is against the rules. They have
disgraced the villa. Warner Brothers agrees to be with Skydance
and Paramount and says, but you have to let Discovery
br fourth and they're like, whatever, who cares as long
as we get to keep the hot baby. Ariano Maddox like,
I guess we'll have to see if America gets to
vote on these couples.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
And that's it.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
That is a analysis of the potential Skuidance and Warner
Brothers merger in terms.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Of Love Island.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Let's take a quick break and we'll be down. Yeah,
let's bring our super producers, Aaron and Carmen in to
talk about the latest news from Nintendo Direct. Hello, what's
(07:59):
going on with Nintendo?
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Well, we had a very exciting Nintendo Direct this morning.
Aaron and I were watching it together live. Oh, we
have some some top things we want to hit.
Speaker 5 (08:13):
First of all, I know you were all worried. Is
there going to be a sequel to the Mario movie?
There is, and it's called Super Mario Galaxy.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
We have no news. I love that I saw that news.
I was like iconic. I kind of love that Nintendo
direct was like, we are announcing that guys. It's awesome.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
No Zelda movie news, which I think would have been fun,
but we know what's happening, and we know they've done
some casting. It is a little bit harder to make
an animated trailer for a movie that's going to be action.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
There's also a they're bringing back Virtual Boy.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
Wait seriously, yes, yeah, so there will be a Virtual
Boy virtual console for you on switch and Switch to
and you need to use a like standalone Virtual Boy
recreation or a cardboard car version of it.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Oh, I probably love. I love when they had the
crazy cardboard. They had cardoard, really weird stuff. Yeah. When
I was a kid, I knew a guy who had
a Virtual Boy and it was like cool as well
play The graphics were so bad, but that was not
the point. I did have a like playing pong in
(09:19):
like a you know, a VR set, But it makes sense.
I mean, I don't know how it is for you guys,
but I know, like my nephew has a VR headset
and he plays it like every single day. Like for kids,
that is their console. They have five nights of Freddy's
on there. They have fruit and ninjur on them. It's
very fun among us. You can play robots on there
and be like a giant and compared to your robox.
(09:40):
So it is I think this is a smart move
for them if they can, if they can kind of
make a version of a VR gaming so.
Speaker 6 (09:46):
Well, this isn't gonna look anything like that. It's gonna
look all.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Red and it's gonna be the old school.
Speaker 6 (09:51):
Yeah, the old school. I like red style.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
They also announced Final Fantasy seven Integrade will be coming
to Nintendo switch To and if you were concerned that
elden Ring was not gonna run well on switch To,
let me tell you.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Seven Integrade is not gonna run well.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
And they did have moments within direct where they were
showing footage of games and they were like, this is
specifically on TV. This is like in the dock on the.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I'm like, guys, I literally the reason I buy a
switch is so I can play it while I'm watching TV.
I'm never gonna put it on the two. I'm just
not like. Even occasionally I'll put the funniest ship on there.
It'll be like I really got to pay good pizza,
great pizza, and see the pizza toppings on my TV,
like I'm playing Breath of the Wild on my console.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
This is not It's not one of our top moments, Rosie.
But they did announce Sweak, a new version of Sweaker
that's three and you rotate around where you're I do
love Sweet.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
It's one of the best games.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
Also, there's a new Resident Evil. But none of those
are our top top moments, so I think.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Which is kind of crazy to me. I feel like
Common would have had that as the top moment, so
I'm interested. This must have been a stack direct.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Yeah, the Resident Evil games, I'm too scared to play personally,
but these, Yeah, it's it's going.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
To be Common's one horror weakness.
Speaker 4 (11:16):
It's true, I'm too scared of Resident Evil games, but
I will be playing Fatal Frame two the Spify.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Biggest news for me was Hades two. They did an
amazing new trailer for Hades two. The full game is
coming out and it's going to be available on the
Switch one and the switch to. Okay, I'm assuming that,
of course, it won't look as great on the Switch one.
They made sure that. To note again, all of the
(11:44):
game play that we were seeing was on the switch
to and when do those come out?
Speaker 7 (11:47):
Arin?
Speaker 5 (11:48):
Do we have a digital version for Hades two September
twenty fifth, so very soon and the physical on November
twentieth on Switch one and two.
Speaker 6 (11:56):
So very excited about that.
Speaker 5 (11:57):
Now from something something that we were really excited to
something that we should have been excited about Metroid Metroid
Prime four, they did the equivalent of like a Friday
News dump. They drop it in the middle of the direct,
no voiceover and no comment, and then immediately go to
the next trailer. And that's because the Metroid Prime it
starts off samus is like on a motorcycle. Carmen's texting
(12:20):
me like, it's like Metroid Tron. It looks cool, and
I was like, this can't be Metroid Prime four. The
graphics are too bad. It looks bad. It must be
some like side.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
So it's an open world like they're introducing an open world,
and unfortunately it doesn't look like a Breath of the
Wild style open world. It looks like a Pokemon style
open world, which is like.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
The Star Wars game Outlaws or whatever. But it doesn't
look great. And then they they put it like twenty
minutes into the director they knew it great. Yeah, so
I'm very worried about they did. They did feature some
first person view and it looks better in the first
person than in the motorcycle view. But I am so
bummed that it was not the Highlight.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
Yeah, it was definitely not the Highlight.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
Yeah, Carmel, what was your next one?
Speaker 6 (13:08):
Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
So I'm excited about these new Pokemon properties that are
coming out. Of course, we know that Pokemon Legends ZA
comes out in October. Those, in my opinion, are even
better than the mainline games are on Switch at the moment,
the Legends series is doing a lot better than the
mainline series is, and well we've only got one to
compare it to. But we have a new Rosie. I
(13:30):
think you're going to love this. We have a new
cozy game. It's like Pokemon meets Animal crossing Mine and
it's also got like some crafting and all of that
you collect in craft right, you play as a Ditto
that is disguised as a human, which adorable, and you
learn how to get power ups from different Pokemon. So
(13:53):
at one point in the trailer, the diddo gets vine.
Your human Ditto gets vine whip arms from Bulb and
learns how to like lift stuff out of the ground.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Oh yeah, that like no joke. I would just drop
eighty dollars on this game if it was out. Absolutely,
I'm looking at pictures like, no question, I need to
be that weird ditto person with the list. It's very strange.
It's very really weird, and I love it.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
The next thing that really hit for me was they
seem to really be doing a big focus on multiplayer.
So with a bunch of the games announced here, there
was a lot of comments throughout the direct about this
is available four player couch co op, this is two
couch co op four online. They had a new version
of Super Mario Bros. Wonder that will have an entirely
multiplayer mode that is like some co ops, some competitive.
(14:41):
They have this new game Storm Answers. They have this
game pop Ucom which is like it to me looked
like a child friendly first person game where I don't
want to say shooter, but you're like shooting these blue
balls at other pole.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
I would say I played this one of my games
that I play a lot on the Switch. On the
Switch one was Slime Rancher.
Speaker 6 (15:02):
I love Slime Rancher, and that.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I would say I used to describe that as kind
of a first person shooter, but for kids, it really is.
It is. It's like the mechanics, the way it looks
are the same. It imagines a world outside of guns,
which I think is always really fun for gaming. So
I think the.
Speaker 5 (15:18):
Tone of yeah, and then there's also Mortal Kombat Legacy,
which is gonna have also online play, and it's just
it was really exciting to see how much multiplayer focus
they had in this direct, which I like.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
That direction I like, and also games wanted a lot yes,
and they did mention a lot of game share.
Speaker 6 (15:40):
Believe that your friend doesn't have to have the game.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
That's how it should always have been. I always thought
that making it so everyone had to have Mario Kart
or every you know, it was very silly, especially when
with like a Mario Party you could just connect different
console controllers. I think a lot. I still think Nintendo
in some ways, And I know this is going to
be another the classic bad Rosie take but about video games,
(16:03):
but like, personally, I do feel like there was I
don't feel like they've necessarily gone down since then, but
I remember that we you the way you could play
Mario Party on there with the screen and one of
you had the screen controller and one of you had
the others. It was so involving and so fun. I mean,
me and my friends just spent months playing that. So
I would love to see them bring a little bit
(16:25):
more of that, like co op play back, especially because
I think online gaming now even like I have the
arcade machines that one up Arcade Do where you build
it yourself, the newest one, the marvel Us Capcom one
that I got that had they had to enable online
play because that's what people wanted from it. They waned
(16:46):
to be able. They're like, well, we're playing all these
classic video games, you know, some of them are the
the video games that started the fighting game kind of
community movement. We need to be able to play them online.
And so they even added that to the arcade machine versions.
So it makes sense that that Nintendo's leading into How's
Pokemon Legends? Za, How's Pokemon Legends? Pizza? Looking?
Speaker 4 (17:08):
I think it looks really good. They're leaning back into
the mega evolutions for this game, and mega evolutions were
probably the last gimmick that Pokemon added to the games
that I really loved, And we are getting my favorite
is the new Mega Malamar, my friend Malamar. He looks
like a little he looks like a mind player almost,
(17:28):
and he's doing like this little hypnotism thing the whole time.
Speaker 6 (17:31):
He's very cute.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I love a little cut monster. Okay, any crazy uh
you know legendary Pokemon that you can ride, because that
was one of my favorite things.
Speaker 5 (17:43):
But there is a DLC already announced for Pokemon Legends
z A featuring evolutions of rights you okay, that I
don't know. I have not played a Pokemon since Red Blue,
so I am. I don't even know anything about mega evolutions.
But I saw it and I was like, it looks
like a Pokemon with two or two big years.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
So there is something an X and Y.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
We got an ex mega evolution of Charis Art and
a y mega evolution of chars Art and as well
as mewtwo and they're doing sort of the same thing
with riots.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
True.
Speaker 4 (18:14):
Yeah, and it's very very cute, but it's again another
incentive to buy kind of DLC.
Speaker 6 (18:19):
So can we talk about DLC.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Well, let's before we gave Pokemon. Let's do Ghost Demon Snap.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
Oh yes, which is not actually not actually the name,
but yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
So Aaron likes to call this GHOSTU mon Snap. This
is one of my favorite games that you can play
on the Switch. You can play the first Fatal Frame
or game on the Switch, but they are remastering Fatal
Frame to the Crimson Butterfly for the Switch.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
I love a good like weird mystery.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
It looks terrifying, It looks so scary pictures.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
All of the headlines are like most terrifying Switch game
ever returns like the rather frightening is getting a fancy
new rem You know, yeah, I will. I've never played
this game, I will be playing. It looks great. I
love the aesthetic.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
But so the final thing we want to talk to
the two of you about, though, is the DLCs. We
got a lot of DLC isnnounced Okay, Donkey Kong has
a new DLC which I'm very excited about, but a
lot of things like Pokemon Legends z A. The DLC
is announced and for sale day of the main game. Ha,
then just include it in the main game exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
That's exactly, sorry, guys, include it, especially if you're charging
eighty ninety dollars for the main game. Like, honestly, I
have to tell you, guys, this is not going to
surprise anyone who's listening. I'm sure I don't think I've
ever even bought a DLC by it even even a
Breath of the Wild, you know what, Animal So you
(19:45):
know what I did do I did for Animal Crossing.
I purchased the eighty dollars a year family membership, right
you need to have. But I'd already purchased it because
I wanted online play, So I would say that was
a space where I did it. But a lot of
the games I buy, I buy them on the Digital
Switch Store and I buy them as a bundle and
they come. So for example, when I played Dragon Ball Fighters,
(20:08):
it was because it was on a crazy bundle deal
on the Switch with all the extra characters, all the
extra skins. I did the same for More Combat eleven.
So I think, like I am not necessarily the DLC
audience unless it is something like I felt like an
entirely new game as well as online play and the other. Okay, yeah,
(20:34):
I didn't buy a DLC because I got the code
for free. So after that I was just I was
just playing with whatever I could play with. But you
know what the other one I will say when it
comes to this is the switch online. The eighty dollars
a month, you get the eighty dollars a year, you
get all the different emulators. Also got Happy Home Designer
and the other band clicks was well now you get
(20:56):
the Yeah, and they have the GameCube on there now too.
But the one I think that really I really did
it for me was that's how you got the Mario
Kart levels. So that was probably that was my overall DLC.
It was probably the same amount of money as like
three other four other DLCs.
Speaker 6 (21:11):
And they bundle them.
Speaker 8 (21:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yeah, I think it's crazy to have a DLC available
on the first day of I don't I don't get that. Yeah, Jason,
what do you think.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
About DLC. There must be a reason, there must be
data to support why they do this, and that's simply.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Does it make it feel like additive for those.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
I don't know what it is, but there must simply
be an economic reason where they crunch the numbers and.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
They were like, we can charge more for that.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
This is how this is. We should just do this.
And maybe it's as simple as the fact that, like
you said, Rosie, you're I'm sure that there is a
significant percentage of gamers who never buy the DLC. That's right. Yeah,
So I think it's as simple as not It might
be as simple as not muddying the waters. Like here's
here's we know we're going to sell this to everybody
(22:03):
who is interested in this game. If we have the
DLC coming at the same time, that's going to be confusing.
You're gonna have people who, oh, ship, I bought this,
I don't want like why am I buying now you've
got all this the issues of digital returns and YadA
YadA YadA. Just have the main thing on sale for
(22:25):
a period of time.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
That's what I agree with confusing. Otherwise.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
Yeah, One thing I think though, and Jason, one of
the reasons I asked too, is because I think PlayStation
in Xbox frequently will have like enhanced versions of a
title you.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Can buy, but it's dl It's like it's like it
comes with the art book and here's the the you
get extra but it's more actual content.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I think the first thing I ever really recall having
a big d l C, and this is just because
this is the kind of games I play was Batman,
Arkhamsyling and the Arkham trilogy that they did, and those
were always about extra characters, extra suits, extra like side missions,
and so those I would usually get, but again it
(23:15):
would be when I rebought it on a different console,
I'd just buy the bundle, you know, so, but I'm
definitely interested. I also think something that is probably affecting
this and let me know if I'm totally off based listeners.
But you know what is very much one of the
biggest played games of all time is Fortnite, and you
know how Fortnite, but you know how Fortnite like, it
(23:38):
makes a lot of its money from selling Godzilla skins
basketball player skins. You can have Godzilla and you can
he can be wearing Miles Morales is Jordan Wand's like,
I think that the elements of how people play games
are changing, and I think the idea of new content
and constantly buying new content, whether you're playing Roadblocks, which
(23:59):
is making my every single day, by kids just constantly
downloading new costumes on new knives or yeah, their parents'
credit cards, just raising that stuff up. I think that
that is so normalized in the way that younger people
play games that it makes sense that Nintendo's trying to.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Kind of Yeah, look, there are plenty of there are
plenty of games that have micro transactions throughout their lifespan
that make ridiculous amounts of money. And then there are
plenty of games that release a DLC one year, two
years into the life cycle. And there are plenty of
games like Stardu Valley, which I joke about, which also
has a four players twist screen coming to Nintendo Switch two.
There are games like Stardoo that just drop free DLC's.
(24:38):
It's just strange, I think for so many of these
games to have a DLC announced on launch that is
a paid DLC that just seems like you're buying a
couple extra Pokemon for twenty guys.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Who knows what this is? Uh, this is just like
late stage capitalism.
Speaker 6 (24:55):
Yeah it is.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
I think that's what I think. That's what it is,
you know.
Speaker 5 (24:58):
But all in all, a fun Nintendo Direct. It went
over an hour. Carmen and I clearly had different things
that we were most excited about. Even Joelle was super
excited about Virtual Boy, and we were like, that was
like a cool thing.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
We're not on top of our Well, that show's they're
still able to do that appealing to everyone.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Nice to see Nintendo can have a lot of different
things still to announce, so we're very happy with it.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Thank you guys so much.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Yeah, thank you for joining us. We're going to take
a quick break and we'll be back with our interview
with Matt Fraction and now our interview with one of
our favorite comic book creators of all time, Matt Fraction.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Hello, X ray Vision listeners. We are very excited to
have one of our favorite comic book writers, Matt Fraction
with us, who you may know from many different things
like The Invincible Iron Man, More I amphis uncunny X Men,
one of my favorite comics, Casanova, Sex Criminals, Superman's pal
Jamie Olsen, and so much more. But we're here today
because Matt is going to be the writ on Batman
(26:03):
issue number one and continuing with soups the artist Ja Jimenez.
Speaker 8 (26:08):
Matt, how you doing, I'm good. My dog is going
off in the background, so I apologize if you can
hear it, but he's very large and will not be silenced.
Yes you say that, I can get you on today
for thirty bucks. He's got his papers.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
I'll take it.
Speaker 8 (26:26):
He's one hundred and thirty six pounds. He puts his
paws on my shoulders and looks me in the eye.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Matt, tell us about your approach to Batman, as this
is kind of a return to the big two for
you after a little while out and loved Batman number one.
Tell us about your approach to this story.
Speaker 8 (26:52):
You know, I Batman was the first comic I ever read.
It was the comic that made me fall in love
with comics. A Man three sixteen. I was three years
old in July nineteen seventy nine, and I'll be dead soon,
so you know, I and that that. You know, it's
(27:13):
gonna reflect a certain era. It's obviously, you know, it's
a little bit like maybe reading X Men or watching
Saturday Night Live, like the cast you fall in love
with is always the best, and there's ups and downs
since then, but like you know, you never forget your
first or whatever. But but you know, it was a
very you know, the sort of superhero forward Cape Crusader era.
(27:36):
You know, it was it was a superhero comic. It
was it could be scary, and it could be a mystery,
and it could be adventure, and it could be all
these different things, but it was sort of superhero forward first,
and that was that was a thing that that that
was kind of the key to my approach, and just
as a as a fan, as a reader, it had
(27:58):
been a while, it felt like, and since that had
kind of been front and center and sort of starting
with how do you how do you get the book
to that place? You know it would be how do
you get Batman to that place? And sort of thinking
about what I maybe wanted to try and say, oh,
why would I want to spend all this time with
(28:18):
Batman and Bruce Wayne in my head? So you know,
that was kind of the on The sort of thing
I was looking for was was was through that lens
of like Superhero Forward Caped Crusader stuff, and and the
rest came from there. And then it kind of pitched
it to Marie and Rob and they really dug it.
So so here, so here we are, and now there's
(28:39):
a Batman number one out in the.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
World there is. How are you feeling about that? How
does it feel to have you know, it's only like
the fourth ever Batman number one?
Speaker 6 (28:47):
As well, I think for the very.
Speaker 8 (28:49):
For the very fourth time. I frankly it's it's it's overwhelming.
And I was like, look, I'm I'm certainly guilty in
life of under selling things and being self deprecating to
the to the point of of of of derision or
(29:10):
I don't know, but I genuinely had no idea how
big this was going to be. It wasn't until San
Diego that I got a sense of like, oh, oh
this is this is different, this is really different. So no,
it's it's great. I mean, I used this metaphor the
other day, but like it's it's like Marty McFly and
I think I'm pitching a ride on the back of
a truck and taking a lazy, you know, a lazy
(29:32):
ride on my skateboard to school, but the truck is
actually the truck from Sorcerer and Roy Scheider's but somewhere to.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Be already happy to be back in the big two.
Speaker 8 (29:47):
Yeah, I know that. And it's been great, and you
know I've been This is the other thing, too, is
like I've been doing this for like fifteen months now,
like it's been happening a long time. I'm crazy far
ahead and like, uh, it has yet to actually feel
like work. So it's been great. It's been awesome.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
There's a lot to love about the first issue, including
where his gorgeous artwork but I think the thing that
really resonated with me, especially after you're anecdote about your
first comic being Batman through sixteen, and is the way
that Batman resolves, you know, what could be a knockdown,
(30:28):
all out brawl with Kroc that turns into something else.
I wonder if you could talk about that moment in
that in the issue, which I find really heartwarming and nice.
Speaker 8 (30:40):
Yeah, I you know, I think that the sort of
question gets asked in the opening scene like do people
really change? Yeah? You know, and has change really possible?
And you know, look at the sort of on a
metal level, what does that mean in a superhero comic?
Like and is there is there a different way?
Speaker 7 (31:03):
Right?
Speaker 8 (31:03):
Is is there a malleability to Batman's approach as malleable
as the character himself is. You know, he's capable of
facing all these different things, but does he face them
all kind of the same way? And I don't know,
it's just sort of felt like a thematic. It surprised
me in the writing where I thought I was gearing
(31:24):
up for a Batman Croc fight and then he turned
the gloves off, and it was like You're like, oh, oh, okay,
this is not a this is interesting what happens what
happens when he sits down, instead of let's see what happens.
So it felt like an on ramp into the idea
of things changing and things evolving. You know, he still
runs his car into a bunch of sex pests that
(31:46):
that torment women that dare to go jogging in a parks,
Like it's not it's still like it's it's it's still Batman,
but like, yes, maybe yeah, maybe, you know, maybe maybe
to a the whole world looks like nails. So so
I don't know, it was it was it was it
was something I don't know.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Is that something that we can expect to see continued
as a theme throughout this the idea of kind of
how a superhero like Batman can evolve.
Speaker 8 (32:17):
Maybe we will uh uh, we'll see, you know. And
part of that is me not wanting to to give
the game away. But also part of me is not
wanting to give the game away, right, It's just it's
certainly it's certainly in my head mm hmm. But also
I don't want to see every No, I want to
(32:38):
see bad guy. I want to see bat Batman punching
bad guys. I want to see fights. I want to
see action and violence. Uh I don't do you know.
I'm I'm I'm into that. Uh So, so no, there's
not gonna be a lot a lot of you know,
Fraser Crane talking to you, talking talking, you know, but
but like, no, it's but it's it's the the idea
is in the mix now and and and just as
(33:00):
a kind of opening gambit, and well we'll see where
it takes us.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Tell us a little bit about the setup to your
to your Batman story. What is the state of Gotham
we head into this, and what's the state of the
Cape Crusader.
Speaker 8 (33:14):
I mean, it sort of just picked up where where
where Chip left off and then sort of where I
know Jim and Jeff are leaving things and and you know,
I'm trying to make it as clean an entry point
as as possible. But you know, it's it's it's still Gotham.
It's you know, as the Board of Tourism says, you
don't have to be crazy to live here, but it helps.
(33:35):
And uh, you know, but I'm looking for new shapes
and colors out of the place. You know, I'm I'm
I'm kind of weary and tired and bored of of
a Gotham that is, you know, decorated entirely as a
wet factory. That's that's the color of a of a
(33:57):
decayed avocado. And I don't, I don't, I don't look
at pictures of Gotham and think I need a tetanus shot. Right,
So Gotham is still Gotham. It's still larger than life
and strange and and gothic and deco and and bigger
than big and and you know, it's it's it's all
of New York and Barcelona and Tokyo and Paris, uh
(34:21):
and and and London smashed together, and you know, larger
than larger than life. You know, it's it's it's Metropolis's uh,
spooky goths, the sister and but it's it's capable of
of all this color and flavor and yeah, and and
(34:41):
you know, it's kind of picking up all of the threads.
You know, the bad guys are running the police department
and the good guys are on their heels and and uh,
you know, he doesn't live in that mansion anymore, but
he's got a pretty nice house. And you know, it's
it's uh, you know, I I don't want to punish
anyone for how having read the book before, and I
don't want to punish anyone for not having read the
(35:03):
book before it. Hopefully you can just kind of click
in and take the ride, and if you've got questions,
you know, good news. There's been Batman's stories told the
last one thousand and thirty six consecutive months of human history.
You can you can dig into, you know, But I
want to write a clean, open first issue that he's
a superhero. Come come, come, come, come watch him do
(35:24):
his thing.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
You talked about got them looking a little different here,
a little bright. So what was it like working with
jje and then obviously Tommyo's Murray's incredible colors that really
bring Gotham to life in a way that is a
bit brighter, a bit more hopeful.
Speaker 8 (35:40):
Maybe, Oh oh, I mean it's a it's a dream
like I love Horey's work, and he and Tummy you
work so well together and have such a a singular
vision between them where each one can kind of augment
the other in these kind of brilliant ways, and it's
(36:01):
just all was sort of in my approach, is you know,
And it kind of had to, you know, pitch an audition,
not just for uh Marie and Rob, but kind of
for Jorge as well. And you know the sort of
the I mean, because like he was fixed. He was
he was the fixed. He was the known quantity, right,
he was the one they knew what was drawing the book,
so you know, but it came in and like, I
(36:23):
would kind of like to put him back in the
blue and gray and I would like to, you know,
get away from wet factory, and and Jorge's eyes just
let up said yes, you know, he was so excited
and ready for that. You know. The first line in
the book is no rain, And it doesn't mean that
the Gotham's in a drought. It means that, like it's
I don't want to spend time in the dreary Gotham
(36:44):
for a little bit. You know. I'd spend a lot
of time in Tokyo the last year, and it's such
an incredible looking city, especially at night, especially outside of
the kind of big clusters and hubs, you know, where
it's it's not necessarily the science fiction, you know, millions
(37:04):
of signs and things like that, but just the quality
of light at night in Tokyo was was really striking
to me. And yeah, I wanted it to happen in
a place that that I understood why people lived there,
you know, and and so much of that just kind
of spoke to the tone, the tonal ambitions and and
(37:25):
and just kind of personal reference of that that kind
of caped Crusader era and and they were ready for it.
And and it's great, like like they are parts of
you know, or his pages where he'll leave notes for Tony,
like like here's this is where you'll do this or pop,
you know, and he knows how to queue things up
(37:45):
for the color to to to to carry and and
they just they work together so incredibly well and so beautifully.
And you know, I'm just trying to serve that and
serve them. Uh and and and just as as a
fan to kind of write the book, I most wish
(38:05):
I could see them, do you know?
Speaker 1 (38:08):
You could really feel that kind of ethos in the
panels where Batman is gliding over the city or even
driving through Robinson Park, tell us about that moment you
get the I mean, you've mentioned you've been at this
a while. You've been writing comics and creating comics and
for various places and independently on your own for a
(38:29):
long time, with many different collaborators. But what is it
like to get the first pieces of art back, to
see the vision coalescing.
Speaker 8 (38:41):
It's it's kind of like going on a first date,
you know, Or it's like that the first time you're
you're at someone's place, and like you're seeing their stuff
and and you know, it's it's it's like, I like collaborators.
I want collaborators, I want partners. I don't want employees.
You know, I don't think my job is done when
(39:02):
I hit send on the script, you know, I think
I think comics are primarily a visual medium, even though
we're in such a kind of writer driven era, and
I think it's my job to serve the visuals as
a matter of primacy. Like like, you know, there's the
(39:24):
it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning right,
Like it's a quote Mark Twain, Like it's just like
I want to you know, my my favorite part of
the process is taking out as many words as I
can once once the art is back, you know, and
and and and and it's it's not enough to just
(39:46):
go off of thumbnails. I can make a pretty good
guess off of thumbnails. But but once the color is
in place and the inks are down and all of
the acting is rendered and and the thing is complete,
like like then I really have to then that's then
then get the work with an eraser, you know, And
and I want to get rid of as many words
on a page as I can, to leave as much
(40:07):
art as possible. That's part of the reason it decided
to do away with first person narration from Batman, right
like that just be a lot of words everywhere. And
and when you're dealing with such tremendous and gifted artists
as these guys, like like they can do this, they
(40:27):
can tell this with with their work, I don't have
to tell it with mine.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
Have there been any moments, you know, in that scripting
process where you get the pages back and you're like, oh, yeah,
that's better than.
Speaker 8 (40:40):
Every page, every every every single every single like like
I'm sorry that I miss understand undersell that everything anyone
has ever responded to about my work is because of
the artists. I'm I just like like Zelig, like popping
my head up in the corner like oh hey, I'm
here too.
Speaker 7 (40:59):
Guys.
Speaker 8 (41:00):
Look we did it. Yay, yeah, no, every single page,
every single page.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
It strikes me as well, your idea for Gotham and
creating a space that you kind of understand why there
isn't this steady tide of flight from the city that
people are like, Hey, that's actually exciting.
Speaker 8 (41:19):
Is kind of do you live in the Do you
live in the toxic chemical district or the giant prop
manufacturing district? Oh no, I live I live next to
the three empty prisons in the burning hospital, right. Oh sure,
rents are so expensive.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
There is also I think reflected in the in the
title of the issue, vast Colors in the Dark. Where
did the title come from? Because it really struck me
when I when I was reading it, like, oh, what
a cool title.
Speaker 8 (41:49):
I don't know, it's kind of a there is kind
of a I mean really, there's a couple of like
there's like a Gallow film that I don't know, I
don't know, it just.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
It felt go on the Giallow. I love where we're going.
Speaker 8 (42:01):
Yeah, no, you know, there's there's there's a there's a
I think it's called Colors in the Dark, And there's
a there's a movie a couple of years back called
I think that the vastness of night that I liked.
And but but but it was that that you know,
we did it, we we we We shot in Tokyo
for almost two weeks, and like only three or four
(42:23):
of those were during daylight and everything else was a
night shoot. So I spent a lot of time in
Tokyo at night. And it's there's just an entirely different
palette that exists, right, and and and that that idea
of the quality of color at night and in the dark,
and and he's the dark night and how do you know?
(42:45):
And what does this look like? And and the the
I don't know, it just it felt it's it's yes,
it's still night. It's still dark. He's still the dark night.
It's still there's still wait. But also like, there's beauty here, right,
there's there's incredible things to be seen if you've got
the eyes to see it and you stay up late.
My dog looks at the moon. Have you ever seen
(43:06):
a dog look at the moon?
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Yes? I have, I've seen my dog. My dog loves
to look at the moon.
Speaker 8 (43:11):
Yeah, And I just it's just like and especially when
it's full, he'll just stare at it and like and
and you you're out in the dark long enough and
like your eyes adjust and you start to see things
you don't see before. You know, as your your your
your eyes adapt to the darkness. You see colors in
that in that in that light, whether it's a full
moon in the Pacific Northwest or you know, downtown Tokyo
(43:33):
or whatever it's, it's there's, there's, there's, there's a vast
palette to be explored there beyond black and green and gray.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
I think another thing that was really fun and thought
of working for me was the presence of Alfred, you know,
in the field. Alfred's been a presence throughout Batman's history,
you know, in the earpiece and on the walkie talkie
in various ways. But to have him actually in a
I'm less interested in the A the ape a part
of it. Then the fact that he's there with Bruce, like, actually.
Speaker 8 (44:03):
He's not a he's not he's not a I.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
Or excuse me, however, the hologram.
Speaker 8 (44:09):
Version, he's not a he's not a hologram. It's not
technology very interesting.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Well, I'm I love the fact that he's there, And
how does that change the approach for Bruce.
Speaker 8 (44:21):
Oh, it's great, there's no escape. Yeah, he's like he's
he's he's Jimminy Cricket and he's the shiniest, sharpest needle
for all of Batman's darkest balloons. And you know, he's
he's the he's the It's like, oh, there's no escape
(44:41):
from that regulating voice, right, Like I love that the
that there is something fundamental in the relationship that is
like I've got to keep you grounded, you know, And
it's that it's that tether like you're my you know.
You don't don't get grandiose, right, like don't don't, don't
don't start thinking about things and levels of like primal archetypes.
(45:05):
You're a guy, he's a guy. Have the conversation or whatever,
you know, like it's nice to have a a And
also like, look, because I got rid of the first
person captions, like it helps to have.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Someone to talk to sure, for sure, Yeah, you.
Speaker 8 (45:21):
Know, and I don't want to do the cutting back
and forth on the radio necessarily all the time. So
like it was it was like, oh, okay, this is
this is this is this is good, this is this
is the presence of self regulation and quality control, right,
and that difficult job of being able to say no
to the most intimidating person in the world, right, and
Alfred excels at that first and foremost. Alfred is the
(45:43):
one to say you're full of shit, right, like dial it,
dial it down, linatic and it's great. It's just fun.
It's fun, it's bouncy and nice, it's it's it's if
nothing else, that's someone not afraid of Batman.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
Yes, which is a dynamic that he's not used to
all the time.
Speaker 7 (45:59):
I don't know what you guys talked about while I
was being while I was in my t pay moment,
but I was going to ask about just getting to
visualize a new world of Gotham with Joe and Tommy.
Speaker 8 (46:11):
So what was that Like, It's just it's it's been great,
and it sort of drove me to like, you know,
I've sort of been building a map, Like it became
really important to me, not just as a writer to
like know where does this happen? Like what's here, but
like to to think of you know, there's a it's
(46:33):
an old cliche that I think some desperate writer said
in a pitch meeting and sold a show on it,
so it gets repeated all the time, but like the
city is a character, but like it's especially true in
DC comics. It's not New York, it's Metropolis. Right, it's
not Chicago. It's it's Gotham or whatever whatever your your
your your reference or antecedents are precedents are like, Okay,
(46:57):
so this is a character, then I should know what
it's like, you know, and and and so that means
the neighborhoods. And and once they started to kind of
like really plan a flag in the geography, start to
have an idea about where the money flows and what
happens here and why and what bad guys are headquartered here. Oh,
(47:17):
and they're here because the boats are here. And that
means this is where this happens, and this is where
that you know it all. It all just kind of
makes it real. And so, you know, kind of worked
with Clayton to introduce a like a you know, we
really literally took the New York City Metro Transit Authorities
Design Handbook from like nineteen seventy and use that as
(47:40):
a basis, you know, for like subway signs and like
like introducing that as part of the visual language of
the book and trying to make Gotham feel real as
a city by giving it all of the kind of
texture and grain that that the real cities have, you know,
and and so it was cool and so we know, like, oh, okay,
well this is the neighborhood is this and it's going
(48:01):
to feel like that, And that just inspires everything that
that tells me what the buildings are going to be like,
So when the fight happens, what are they going to
be near?
Speaker 7 (48:09):
Right?
Speaker 8 (48:09):
Are they skyscrapers? Are they? Are they brownstones? Are they? Apartments?
Are they? Are they? Is it a is it a
warehouse district? Like what? You know? Just all of that
kind of informs everything else and is it kind of
built out the series and it becomes kind of more
crucial you'll see in this kind of first six seven issues,
like like the geography is important for a reason. It's
(48:31):
sort of all the parts of the map are are
are realized for a reason. So so just as a
writer doing that, and then the joy of then kind
of putting down vague thoughts about a place on paper
to Jorge and Tommy and Clayton and seeing what they
come back with is like, oh, perfect, nailed it. This
is exactly what what little Tokyo. This is exactly what
(48:53):
little Tokyo looks like. This is exactly where the big
money goes to live that aren't old money, right, Like,
this is where the tech bros would live, and this
is where the people who have been millionaires, and you know,
all that kind of stuff. Like it just informed the
the whole, the whole of the book. It's also great
when I don't know what else to write. It feels
like work. It's not really writing, but it feels like writing.
So I can like figure out how Adobe illustrator works
(49:17):
and drawing a map and pretend I'm writing, when in
fact I'm just dicking around.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
With that in mind. Let's say I'm a I'm a
I'm a young person.
Speaker 6 (49:25):
I just got out of.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
Smallville Community College and I'm not a bright man.
Speaker 2 (49:31):
Then huh, I want to move.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
I want to move to the you know, it was
what was available. I want to move to the big
city and you know, feel the excitement, get a.
Speaker 8 (49:38):
Job like Axel Rose at the beginning of the Jungle video.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
You got a right, god, yeah, and you know and
I don't but I don't want that stepping off the
bus and easy straddling accosting me as I come off
the bus with the sprig of weed in my mouth,
right right?
Speaker 8 (49:59):
Where do where?
Speaker 1 (50:01):
Where am I looking to live in Gotham?
Speaker 8 (50:05):
What's your job? Where are you going to work?
Speaker 1 (50:07):
I think I would love to get a job writing
for like the Gotham Free Weekly, like doing music.
Speaker 8 (50:15):
That's going to be Old Gotham. There's a newspaper. There's
a newspaper row. It's sort of in the central island,
kind of on the southeast. You know, it's it's close
to the water. You can see, uh, you can see
the new towers. Off to the left. You've got alley
Town just up a little sketchy, a little little not
so much a red light district, but you get the
pink light district just to the north. But always a lead,
(50:38):
always a story there. And yeah, and uh, you know,
look for the look for the newspaper, the Gotham iye.
You know, they're the tower like the big eye and
the pyramid that rotates around and you'll, uh, you'll you'll
know where your your neighborhood is. And then yeah, so
find the Gotham iye. And then look for the sirens
and that's where the Free Press is. Going to be.
Speaker 7 (50:58):
I'm very excited to hit more about Jason's future and
Gothamsea Late to Day.
Speaker 6 (51:04):
I can't wait.
Speaker 7 (51:05):
Thanks so much for joining us. Matt.
Speaker 1 (51:08):
Oh yeah, Matt, thank you so much.
Speaker 8 (51:10):
That's it. We're done.
Speaker 7 (51:14):
Come back anytimes. Usually we have better internet. But yeah,
it's great to talk to you, really really big fans.
Speaker 8 (51:21):
Oh, thank you so much, and thanks for reading the book.
It's it's uh crazy. Today is really great. It's been
a it's going to be a crazy couple of couple
of weeks, a couple of months. So there's a fun
way to start Batman Day for me. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
On next week's episode of X ray Vision, we're diving
into episode four, Peacemaker and the finale of Foundation with
our interview with the showrunner, David Scoyer. That's it for news.
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (51:51):
X ray Vision is hosted by Jason ceps You and
Rosie Night and it is a production of iHeart Podcast.
Speaker 2 (51:56):
Our executive producers are Joe Alminique and Aaron Kleman.
Speaker 1 (52:00):
Our supervising producer is Abu Safar.
Speaker 2 (52:02):
Our producers are Common Laurent Dean Jonathan and Bay Wax.
Speaker 1 (52:06):
A theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme
songs by Aaron Kaufman.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
Special thanks to Soul Rubin, Chris Lord, Kenny Goodman, and
Heidi our Discord moderator,
Hosts And Creators
Jason Concepcion
Rosie Knight
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