Episode 300 - The Finale

Honey Badger & Her Amazing Friends reconvene one final time for the 300th (and Last) Episode of the Cosmic Geppetto Podcast.

PLUS special guest appearences by:
-Eric Deutsch
-Tim Burdick
-Shawn Reynolds
-Logan & London Mendenhall

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
And since this is the finale andit's such a big deal, I figured
I could stretch myself and stay upa little bit longer, so I could
probably do till like eight fifteen Eastern. I do still have to take the
puppy out one more time. Thelast puppy in the backyard chore of the

(00:20):
day is like the most dreaded one, especially when it's December, but it
really goes with the territory of havinga puppy. What are you going to
do now? Do you have afenced in yard? Yes, we have
a fenced in yard. Yeah,we had. We had a foster puppy
for like two weeks, and like, I loved having a puppy and she

(00:42):
was really sweet and she was reallygood. But when we turned her over
to her very wonderful adoptive family,I was so happy to not be doing
potty training anymore. And Birch hasactually passed all that. The only thing
that makes it a chore is onceshe is out there, she does not
want to come back in. She'slike, yes, I see you,

(01:04):
I see you, Jarff calling meand she'll make eye contact, but she's
like, but there's so many fun, exciting things out here. Sometimes there's
bunnies grazing in our backyard and thatis the most exciting morning, our night
for Birch. She'll never catch them. I got worried, like she's going

(01:25):
to catch one someday and it's goingto be horrible. But bunnies are really
fast, and Birch is a doodle, so like she has the instinct of
a hunter, but a big,fluffy muppet body. I want to see
a video of that. Yes,I'll try to get one. Sounds adorable.

(01:48):
Well, my parents had a littlewire haired docs Lizzie, and the
defensing yard that was right up againsta state park, so were they would
put a salt lick out so theycould the deer come up and you know,
be and Lizzie would bark and growland run up to the end of
the fence and she was gonna shewas gonna eat that deer and then spit
out the antlers. And then oneday my dad went out the front door

(02:14):
to get the mail and Lizzie followedhim, and there was a deer and
Lizzie started barking and ran up toit and then just stopped about twenty feet
short because she realized like, oh, there isn't a fence, and I'm
a little sausage dog and that deer, although not particularly an aggressive creature,
could still just stomp her out ofexistence. As she just shut up and

(02:37):
she just ran back to Dad andjust like I'm gonna walk next to you,
smart in the right ways. Fromgeppetto Studios in New Freedom, Pennsylvania.

(03:07):
Welcome to the Cosmic Geepetto podcast,your home for inclusive, positive geek
culture where we talk about movies,comics, music, books, and whatever
else we feel like. Please welcomeyour host. I mean, it's just
so big that he's almost a caricatureof a buff dude. Bruce Campbell.

(03:28):
Dude, this sounds like Boston Iwas in Boner Party three only crap,
that's him an effortless cool. Hewould have been like the Chizos God,
but now he wasn't a charming,likable guy who was giving people a chance

(03:49):
to let their light shine. He'lldo some freaky stuff with the Cape Dolphin
copp Maverick of the Sea Farm guyDad Bod. There's a lot of part
Joe. There's a lot of guysbeating each other up and being macho,
playing eruption by Van Halen for theeight thousandth time that day. Good but

(04:09):
not Great. Brad Mendenhall eight kidsin his episode three hundred of the Cosmic
Tappetto podcast, and it is thefinal episode. There was only one way

(04:30):
to finish his program by reuniting HoneyBadger and are Amazing friends. To those
not familiar, Honey Badger is myfriend and former co worker Katie. Mike
Watson is an excellent comic book artistwho Jarff met at a comic con,
and Jarff is indescribable. He andI did a radio show together in college,

(04:55):
and some of my favorite stories,many of which I will not be
sharing with my children, involve him. We've had a lot of great panelists
during the almost eight years of thisshow. Kyle Crane, Kathleen Macklin,
Molly Baling, Amy kennerp Scott,Corelly, Kearney, Steele, Sarah Black,
Luke Allen, Jason Moyle, matvray Esposito Sully, the Guys from

(05:18):
Five Meets Comics, Andrew Demand,Doctor annefa Pard, Thaddeus House, Jason
Lennox, Schweting Knee Babe Town,Peter Farber, Joe the Lawyer, Dave
Pallace, Alice, Lauren Murren andJess Zach Luna, Audrey Siroco, Tom
Bacon, Danny Bradford, Brian Fritz, Timothy Flynn, Lillian Goal, Matt

(05:41):
Walsh, not the One that Sucks, Brian Brishka Brian and the good people
at Comic Store West, Jared Smollison, Carlos Taylor, and of course London
Mendenhall, Logan Mendenhall, Chase Mendenhalland Heather Mendenhall. There's many others,
people who've been on a few timesor haven't been on in years, people

(06:05):
that came on once and gave usgreat content but never came back, and
they have all been fantastic, Butthere is something special about Honey Badger and
are amazing friends. The final episodehad to be with them. AnyWho,

(06:26):
you'll be hearing from other special membersof this little world, starting with ladies
and Gentlemen. Tim Burdock, Whatdoes Cosmic geppetto mean to me? It
means your friend, one of yourbest friends, asking you to talk about

(06:49):
your favorite things on his podcast,even though you told him you sound like
you have a permanent nasal condition,and his answer is I just want you
to sound like you. I don'twant you to sound like everybody else.
Cosmic Geppetto to me was a lotof fun chats about movies and comics and

(07:15):
music that I got to have withBrad and his friends. It was or
is for me being very proud ofyour friend who got to meet one of
his musical legends, Matthew Sweet,and also listening to a great podcast where
Brad and some of his other intervieweesor guests had this really intense discussion about

(07:40):
what a jerk boss Joss Whedon is. Cosmic Geppetto is about being creative because,
in the immortal words of Portia Wolffrom Sing Too just kidding, I
mean the Struts, I don't wantto live my life as an untold story.
And so that means for me thatI help my friend Brad chase his

(08:03):
dreams and in a sense he helpsme chase mine writing children's books. And
my first book which I put intoprint, The Ghost of Count Otto and
the Pumpkin Wizard, is still available, so if you're interested writing, and
also I can't wait to see whatBrad does next. Dash Slats, then

(08:35):
sell dash Slats, then sell DashLast the dash last. It's a big

(09:22):
one, everybody. This is episodeof three hundred of the Cosmic Corpedo podcast.
It is the final episode. Westarted this January twenty ninth, twenty
sixteen, and there's no other wayto do this because we had to reconvene
Honey Badger and are amazing friends.So first off, the Honey Badger herself,

(09:46):
Katie. Katie, how you doing? I'm good? How are you
doing, Brad? I'm doing good. I'm doing good. I'm very excited
because not only are you here,but we have the artist himself from the
Hot Shot Verse, we have MikeWatson. Mike, how are you dealing?
I'm doing great. A little sadthis is the final episode, but

(10:09):
I'm happy to be here. Iknow, I know it's tough. All
things must come to all good thingsmust come to an end. And of
course we couldn't end this episode withoutthe first guest of the Cosmic Geppetto podcast
back when it was called Movies atMarvels. He was there for episode two,
which I have I actually have notes, which came out February eighth,

(10:33):
twenty sixteen. Jarff Harden is here. Jarf, how are you doing?
I'm great. I'm ready to flyaway together one last time into the forever
and beautiful sky. It's gonna bejust like that end scene from Greece.
You know, I was thinking it'sthe three hundredth episode. Wouldn't it be

(10:54):
more fitting to be like three hundredseemed like you guys need to take your
shirts off and get really wrong.It's lucky thing that I'm so ripped.
Yeah, yeah, Jeff definitely doesthat Gerard Butler workout routine. Part of

(11:15):
me wants today is like, oh, I'm way past the point where anyone
wants to see me without my shirton. But there was never really that
point. I was I've definitely somebodywho benefited for from clothes you put.
Not Mike Watson. Mike Watson,you've always been done the Burpies. No,
no, you must be talking aboutunder the Mike Watson. I'll keep
my shirt off. I had tohave you guys. But it's funny because

(11:41):
I've been trying to do research.It's not easy because three hundred's a lot
of episodes. But just to givean idea again, the first episode came
out January twenty ninth, twenty sixteen. It was just me doing a short
description of what the show was goingto be, which we got far away
from. Jarff was our first guest, andisode two in February eighth, twenty
sixteen. And then Katie, youdidn't show up. You showed up in

(12:07):
episode thirty six. That wow.I didn't think you'd be into it.
You asked anyway, though, butI asked because I decided to talk about
Harry Potter. You loved Harry Potter, the movies, the books so much,

(12:28):
and so I got you there.And then it was all the way
until episode ninety seven, where wehad in September of twenty seventeen, Mike
Watson made his debut on the podcast. It was shortly after that episode one
oh four. It was an episodewhere I interviewed Walter Simonson or Simonson,

(12:54):
I don't even remember how this pronouncedhis last name, the excellent artist from
the Thor comic book who did itpeer in a cameo in the first Stoor
movie, and we convened. Wehad him in half the episode and the
other half. We called ourselves TeamThoor then, and that was the first
time the four of us were togetheron an episode, Team four. Really,

(13:15):
I did not remember that I don'tfeel like you just made that up.
Well, the idea was, Katie, You've always had your affection for
Chris Hemsworth and I, you know, Jarf, you were sort of our
go to guy for Marvel stuff,and we just liked Mike so much from

(13:37):
his first appearance. That was whenthe magic happened. And after a while
then all was I even called us. The next time we were got together
was to talk about I think withthor Ragnarok, and I still called us
Team four and then it was like, well we were too big for just
thor so guys. It's uh.We are at the end of twenty twenty

(14:01):
three, and as we do,we talk about the things we liked,
the things we didn't like, andfrom this year that's about to pass,
and what we're excited about for thefuture. And mister Watson, I'm gonna
start with you, what was somethingfrom this past year in pop culture that

(14:22):
you really enjoyed? Oh my goodness, that's such a big, big question.
There's so there was so much,and you're so positive you like it.
You tend to like everything. Ijust like geeked them as a whole.
I'm just so happy we have somany things to have to experience.

(14:43):
Excuse me, I'm definitely gonna haveto say Gardens of the Galaxy three for
sure. That's a that may havebeen my favorite thing and experience. It
was such a good movie, hadan incredible time with it. I thought
it was a great wrap up forthe trilogy, and that movie actually made

(15:07):
Guardians my favorite trilogy out of thewhole whole MCU. That was sort of
Marvels big win this year, andthey you know, we're still watching the
fallout from the Marbles movie not doingas well as any movies in the Marvel
Cinematic universe, and everything else hasgotten mixed mixed reaction at best, but

(15:33):
Guardians was the one that everyone reallyloved and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Jears, what about you? Whatwas your favorite thing from twenty twenty
three film wise? Second? Guardians? Also, this was really the year
of Barbenheimer, and I've only seenthe first half of the meme. I've

(15:56):
only seen Barbie, but that wasa favorite too. And then I I
also wanted to shout out the filmjoy Ride, which is a comedy with
Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, StephanieShoe and Sabrina wu Oh. I saw
the trailers for that that looked reallyfunny. Yeah, it's really really funny.
Stephanie Shoe is from the Marvelous MissusMasel and it's your classic raunchy road

(16:27):
movie buddy comedy with a really greatcast. So highly recommend. I was
so happy that Barbie did well.And I haven't had a chance to see
it yet. It's going to becoming to streaming relatively soon. I like
Margo Robin. She's done. She'sbeen in a lot of movies that they

(16:51):
thought were going to be big anddidn't succeed. And what was it.
There was that period piece that shejust did not too long ago, where
there was a lot of talk abouthow it costs seventy million dollars, nobody
had any idea it was going tocome out and ended up tanking pretty bad.
It's like Babylon or something. Yeah, Babylon, thank you. It's
hard to be an a lister.It's hard to keep movies getting made when
you're constantly movies that disappoint box officewhite and it's especially difficult for to be

(17:17):
the elite actress. To be anA list actress, you're only giving so
many chances. I shouldn't care abouthow well she does. I know Margo
Roby doesn't worry about me as much, but I like her. I think
she's a talent, and I thinkshe does a lot of stuff that she
she stretches herself as an actress,and it's really cool to see sort of

(17:41):
that pan out. So very excitedabout that for me, obviously, Katie,
we're gonna save you as our toback clean up. For me,
this is something a little bit offthe beaten path. I really enjoyed an
animated TV show animated Marvel property MoonGirl and Devil Dinosaur. Animation was so

(18:06):
cool. I always liked those theDevil Dynostaar character in Marvel Comics. The
animation was fantastic and the music.They had original songs in each episode,
and the music was really good andit was crazy where. It was a
show that I put on for mykids because my daughter she likes to see

(18:29):
superhero you know, she gets tosee a young girl's a superhero and that's
really cool for her. And Iwatched the first episode with them and I
was like, oh my gosh,I'm getting sort of drawn into this and
had an excellent theme song and somereally good music, and I ended up
like going onto my streaming service ormy music subscription, and I ended up
playing the album. I was like, this is crazy, this is really

(18:52):
good. It's funny. Every nowand then the kids will find something really
cool. And I ended up gettingdrawn in so highly recommended. And know
it's been a renewed for a secondseason. If he touched the ground?

(19:22):
Can I get a trump sound?Yeah? I got robbed and yeah my
coupe with the dip flat swirl.But I'm like my star star. I
got most snake, got my headup. That was hummer rock. Oh
honey, coom upside you know Chell, Jesu lot your new girls, love

(19:51):
your new baby. Oh ladies evengotta do this song Tony look pretty.
Yeah, we can't change the world. So like a by a plastic like
a girl, but a scar scar. I got roast a break then you
sap, don't want to it sappOh honey back Katie, how about you?
What's the thing from twenty twenty threethat you really dove? So in

(20:17):
terms of movies, I got togive a shout out to are you there?
God, It's me Margaret, becausethat was like the quintessential coming of
age story for every girl that Ihave ever known, and they finally made
a movie of it, and itwas so good and so nostalgic, and
I loved it and it was awesome. A movie that was better than it

(20:40):
should have been is The Pope's Exorcist, which is on Netflix. Was Russell
grow right? Yes? And thenhonorable mention for a movie that was better
than it should have been is Appendage? And I believe I watched that on
Who Do the Pen? How doI describe it? It is? It

(21:03):
is a horror movie and basically thiswoman grows an appendage which ends up disattaching
itself from her and becoming its ownlife force, and she has to figure
out how to either live with thisappendage or not. Okay, And this

(21:30):
is on Hulu and you have affectionfor horror movies? Am I remembering that?
Right? Yes? And then probablythe best show this year, maybe
even like ever is The Bear,also on Hulu. Are you all familiar

(21:51):
with that? I am familiar withThe Bear. I haven't watched it yet,
it is so good. I did. I watched it based on your
recommendation, Katie. Oh, andyou hated well the second season came out
this year and it was it wasso good. And then I've been listening

(22:11):
to a lot of podcasts while Iwork. I listened to a lot of
true crime, cult stories, uh, you know, all that fun stuff,
scammers. But the one that Ireally really dug into this year was
called LISK and that's short for LongIsland Serial Killer. So they started doing

(22:34):
a podcast a couple of years agoabout the unsolved murders in Long Island.
And I don't know if I'm sureyou all know if you're up on the
news, but they recently caught thesuspect, sorry, alleged suspect, you
don't get a suit on the lastepisode, alleged suspect. And so it

(22:59):
was really cool to go back andlisten to all the stuff that they had
talked about. And there were acouple of things that ended up being some
of the keys to finding this guythat they had mentioned in like twenty twenty
on this podcast, like one ofthe people they were interviewing, and it
was like, did nobody listen tothis podcast? So and it's been really

(23:22):
cool to get the updates from thembecause they're super jazzed, you know,
because they spent years working on thisand now there's there may be a conclusion,
so very cool. Notably apps andin Katie's rundown of podcasts she listens
to is the Cosmic Geppetto podcast.Well, I mean that's just a given.
I'm to talk about the Cosmic Geppettopodcast. On the Cosmic Geppetto podcast,

(23:49):
I insisted entered into the court records. We need a screenshot of Katie's
podcast player for proof. Show usthe receipts. Okay, that actually PRECSI
your question, because there are differentthoughts on this. I tend to listen

(24:11):
to any podcast that I am on. Sometimes it's just apparently because I hate
myself, because I'll be like,I did a lot of errors and ums
and I said, you know fourteentimes that's karma because once on this podcast,
you made a super cut of mesaying yes I did. Uh.
That's why I put so much moreeffort into editing this show, because that

(24:33):
was all the stuff that I cutout and now I just leave them in.
How do you guys? Do youguys listen to yourselves when you guessed
on a show, when you doa podcast, do you do you re
listen to it, or I knowsome people who they never listen to anything
there that they are on, Likeif there's a show that they listen to
religiously and they are prought on asa guest, that will be the only

(24:56):
episode that they don't listen to.For me, depends on how long ago
I recorded it, So if it'sa really quick turnaround, it's kind of
like, I don't need to listenbecause I was there. I remember that
was just last week. But usuallythey don't come out for like weeks or
even months, And then I'm like, that's a cool topic, and I

(25:17):
have no recollection of what I said, So yeah, I'll listen to it.
When you do that, do youfind yourself like, And I just
did this recently because I was puton an I put on an episode and
I listened to it, and Iforgot what my answers were, and I
found myself like basically responding to questionsthat were asked to me, while Brad

(25:40):
in the past was saying the exactsame thing. I was like, hell,
well, at least I'm consistent.Yeah, I'm unerringly consistent. I
always laugh at the things that Isaid when I'm listening to them, and
I used to feel bad about it, but you know what, of course
I think that's funny. That's whyI said them in the first place.
So let me be number one fan. That's mister Watson. What about you?

(26:03):
Do you listen to yourself on orrewatch your your own shows or guesting
on Cosmic? I do not.Most of the time. The shows that
I am on are live, andthat's the experience right there. I need
to go back and listen to itunless I'm trying to figure out something that

(26:25):
I said or research something. Katie, y'all act like I'm on all these
podcasts, and as we already discussed, I listened to the podcast, so
yes, ooh boy, Okay,I just picked out a scab apparently.

(26:48):
No, it's just that this isthe only podcast we do besides the wonderful
one that Mike and I used todo and it was amazing, and I
listened to those episodes fondly. Allyeah, that was super fun. And
now I feel bad. I feellike I'm a gatekeeper now, like,
oh, what Katie, you likeCosmic? Geppetto named five other episode should

(27:15):
I get? Every time I sayI's the sports team. God, this
is why I'm so glad that wewere able to get the four of us
together. It's one more time Ihonestly never laugh harder recording the Women with
you guys. Now, Katie,before we go into the stuff that we
weren't excited about, we weren't happywith in twenty twenty three, we need

(27:36):
to have one final Katie question start. She has he got to know k
we too. We will allow it. Oh you better. We already discussed

(28:00):
a little bit about Guardians, butmy question is specific to volume three,
to that movie. What exactly wasthe point of Adam Warlock. Adam Warlock
was supposed to be And this isthe way that they introduced Adam Warlock.
When you're dealing with I mean,as you know, so many characters in

(28:22):
the MCU, they're not going toget the full limelight immediately when they're brought
on or anything like that. ButAdam Warlock, being as powerful as he
is or he will be inevitably inthe MCU, is going to be a
bigger character longer down the line,for bigger events such as an Avengers five
or Avenger six, dealing with muchmuch bigger things. So this is just

(28:47):
a way to introduce him and bringhim in and then start to make him
likable. But I don't think thatworked from you since you asked the question.
Yeah, I just wanted to punchhim in the face. And it's
funny. I just saw someone postonline how the glow up for William Jack
Poulter, the actor played at aWarlock, should be studied because when you

(29:11):
see him and we're the Millers andhe was just this creepy looking, off
putting young kid, and obviously theyyou know, they're playing up to it,
and he's become a handsome leading maninside of ten years. It's it's
pretty impressive, but he felt soshoehorned in. It definitely felt like they

(29:34):
had that post credit in at theend of the First Guardians. I mean,
the second Guardians movie is like,well, we still got to do
it, and I think they've there'sbeen a little bit of talk in some
interviews that sort of intimated that,yeah, we didn't know what we were
doing, and it's been a problem. I know, the same problem.

(29:56):
It was one of many problems thathappened with the second Shazam MOVI, where
at the end of the first Shazamthey had a post post credit with mister
mind and apparently they got to theyfilmed the second Shazam is like, uh,
we didn't have anything to do withhim. Let's just have him another
post credit We'll put him in Chazamthree, which just isn't gonna happen.

(30:18):
JARV, What is your take onAdam Warlock in Guardians three. I don't
know if I have a lot toadd. I looked at it as though
the fact that he underperformed, basedon the like build up of the post
credit scene, I thought that wasmeant to be the joke, like,

(30:42):
oh, you got this post creditscene, and then this is a character
that has this rich history of likea big cosmic saga in the comics,
and then okay, so now you'regoing into this movie expecting that it's going
to be like this important cosmic figure, but like, no, this is
the Guardian's universe, where like thingsare handled more comically, and so of

(31:07):
course the like comic character that's likea super space god is like kind of
like a dufis. Yeah, Ican see that, like maybe it's meant
to be subversive. Maybe, butI think they could have if that would
have been the thing. And I'mnot saying you're wrong. You could have
even like leaned into it harder,where have him being played by Danny DeVito

(31:33):
or something. He shows up andhe you know, he gets knocked out
with one punch and you don't seehim again. Like like, if that's
the idea, really play into itand have him completely knocked out and irrelevant
immediately. It's like, if theywere gonna do that, really go for
it. It felt a little halfand half where he was too serious a

(31:57):
character or too big a part forhim to be a joke, but not
done well enough and not intrigral enoughto the plot to be yeah, like
good, he's a fine actor,and there's plenty to do with Adam Warlock,
and but they definitely didn't do asgood a job introducing him as they

(32:17):
did with Black Panther in Civil War. Katie, what is your answer to
your own question? I mean,legitimately the answer to that, I mean,
I get, I know it waslike like, hey, here meet
this guy. He'll you and stufflater, but like it just it didn't

(32:37):
work for me. Was he supposedto be the comic relief? Was he
supposed to be like the shining starat the end, Like I just I
didn't understand what they were doing withhim. Ladies and gentlemen, Eric Dertsch

(33:09):
Hi, this is Eric Deuts threehundred episodes. Wow, congratulations Brad.
I'm putting together such a solid podcastfor so long. It's not easy hosting
and producing a podcast by yourself.Doing such a successful job of it shows
how talented of a podcaster ends allaround good volume are And I should know.
Brad was the producer and co hostwith me from the Flashboard a Minute

(33:30):
and produced Escape from New York Minutefor me and my co host Mom.
So as time moves on and theCosmic Corpedo Band start to get bummed out,
their podcast need no longer has newepisodes to look forward to, So
I just say not to worry you. Go back to episode one. We
listen to the whole thing because Bradwill save everyone else. Well, Katie,

(34:02):
what what? Because I don't havea good follow up on that?
What's your second question? So tome and y'all may feel differently. It
feels like the Marvel universe is kindof waning. It may just be oversaturation.
It may have been because you know, Endgame was like the Pinnacle like,

(34:30):
and they're turning out so much stuff, but it just feels like everything's
just kind of like okay, Likeit wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible.
It's just kind of it was okay, So like, how do we
fix this? Well, Jarf,we just did a fix the mc U.

(34:50):
So, uh, I'm gonna throwthis to you, which Katie would
know if she listened. Well,just play play back what you've talked about
and then we can just continue.Well, one of the things that we
did talk about that kind of goesback to your Adam Morlock point is I

(35:10):
said that they should focus less oftheir energy on trying to introduce the next
thing while they're doing the current thing. Like it was fine when it was
just like a movie and then apost credit scene which is a teaser for
something else. But now every moviein every series has to have a dozen

(35:35):
supporting characters, which may or maynot matter to the plot of that series
or movie, but their whole functionis just to introduce them so then they
can spin off into something else,and it just makes everything stretch too thin.
You had Adam Warlock in Guardians three, you had Black Night in Eternals,

(35:58):
and Eternals did not have that wasnot a strong enough movie to be
carrying superfluous characters. Isn't Black Knighta character that you're a fan of?
I yes, like comic book wise, Yeah, and there's takes on that
that I think could work. He'sa tough character because it's a Black Knight

(36:21):
in the In the comics, hewas a guy that had He was just
sort of a normal guy, andI was like normal guys that were part
of the Avengers because everyone else isa god or a genius or a super
soldier. And then there's a guywho has, you know, a sword
and feels really overmatched and doesn't belongthere. And Black Knight did that very

(36:43):
well. Of course, the problemis his whole the whole hook with that
character is he had the Ebony Blade, which could cut through anything. But
aside from the fact that he wasan Avenger, so he didn't kill people.
Also, if he if the blademuch blood, it was cursed,
and so it was the thing wherehe had this incredible weapon that he couldn't

(37:05):
use. That's a whole lot totry to tie into the Eternal's movie,
which was already too long and hada lot of other issues, and then
try to like hook him into,you know, bring him into the story
which didn't need him. Like themovie in the MCU that people seem excited
about. There's only gonna be onemovie next year, and that's gonna be

(37:25):
Deadpool three, and it's all gonnabe about Ryan Reynolds's Deadpool Hugh Jackman as
Wolverine. And you're going back toactors who've been you're sort of like throwing
back to older to characters that havebeen around for a while that aren't part
of so they haven't gotten people interestedyet in the new characters. And I

(37:50):
know there's been a lot of rumorsand take those for what they are that
like the Secret Wars movie could beheavily featuring Hugh Jackman and Toby Maguire or
Andrew Garfield, Like those aren't evenMCU characters really. I know they appeared
in Spider Man No Way Home,but it just shows that and the rumors,

(38:13):
and I know they've been you know, pretty heavily rejected. But about
them bringing back to the original sixAvengers for another movie, I just think
it's telling that so many of thecharacters that have been introduced introduced in the
last few movies aren't catching on enoughthat people are excited about the new Hawkeye

(38:35):
being in Secret Wars or Miss Marvelleading the Kang film. If you're gonna
introduce new characters, you gotta getactors and characters and takes on those characters
that people are interested in. AndI don't know, it's it's tough,
It's it's it's gonna be tough.I mean, they certainly have the ability,

(38:58):
they just need to find the rightactors, in the right directors and
the right takes on them. MikeWatson, what are your thoughts? I
completely disagree with everything you all said. Wow, we're at a stage right
now with the MCU where they areliterally doing the production level of what they
did with comic books every show.When every movie that comes out isn't targeted

(39:22):
for the entirety of the MCU fandom. It is targeted for different people so
more people can be included in theMCU. It's just like when Black Night
com books came out, or PunishedYour comic books came out. I didn't
buy those books because those books weren'tfor me. When I bought were X
Men and Spider Man books because thoseare the ones I enjoyed. But then

(39:45):
I got the Avengers books or theCrossover books. When all their characters interplay,
they're literally at that same production level. All the shows on Disney Plus
have amazing streaming numbers, whether thatmeans that people hate watched it or people
that had loved it watched it againand again, but they have extremely good
numbers for all of the streaming.The actress who plays Kamala Khan is A

(40:07):
is a goddamn jewel. She isincredibly lovable and adorable in her role,
and she was fantastic in Marvels.Captain the Marvels was a good movie.
I don't care what anybody says.That was a good movie. It was
a fun movie, had some ofthe best fighting scenes that we've seen in
the MCU since Freaking Civil War orCaptain American Winter Soldier. I'm talking about

(40:30):
like solo adventure film I'm fighting,not the Avenger movies. And that movie
was plagued with issue after issue ofthe actor writers strike, so nobody can
promote. No one could advertise orpush the movie the way that they normally
would to push that film, andno one is going to the movies the
way that anyone went to the moviesprior to COVID. There's still a ton

(40:53):
of people that are not comfortable goingto the movies. The movie theater experience
that we have experienced prior to COVID, that is not going to exist for
a super long time, and therewill be exceptions to that rule. I
e. Avatar, I e.Barbie, But the rest of the movies
are performing just about the same inthat lane as far as how many Hubert

(41:19):
are going to go see these moviefaures. Why would I go to the
movie theaters or rush the movie theatersif I know in thirty to forty five
days that movie is going to beright there on Disney Plus or Amazon or
or or Max or whatever the hellthey're calling it right now. There's all
these different levels of fandom factors thatare in play here. But Miss Marvel
or she Hulk or Moonnight, thoseare just comic books that are coming out

(41:44):
to yes, bring you to thefold and introduce these characters or whatnot.
So when we get to the biggerfilms, the bigger set pieces, we
could just jump right into the action. That's exactly what they did prior to
Endgame, prior to Infinity War,there was no slowdown in those films because
we already knew all those characters.So but you know, I still love

(42:07):
all y'all just strongly disagree. Idon't think they need to change anything because
all the shows and movies aren't foreveryone. They are for a group or
a click of people and fantoms.Well, that's really makes sense, and
I especially makes a lot of sensefor like the Disney streaming series. My
only question is these movies aren't forIf the movies aren't for everyone, and

(42:34):
you know, hey, it's notmy money, but Disney does have a
problem, and Marvel has a problemwhere if you're gonna have a movie that's
not for everybody, you gotta havea budget that reflects that. And like
the last Wolverine movie, Logan hada smaller budget because they knew it was
an R rated movie with sort ofwith a very dark plot line, so

(43:00):
it didn't have to make a billiondollars to break even. That was sort
of the problem that Miss Marvel isrun into. I mean, the Marvels
has run into where it had atwo hundred and twenty million dollars budget.
If it's not for everybody, wellsee the Marvels. The Marvels was Marvels
is one of the bigger budget moneythat that movie should have made his money

(43:22):
back, but because of these differentoutside circumstances, it didn't make his money
back. Plus a ton of peoplehate Breed Larson for absolutely a dumb ass
reason that's not even real, andpeople were biting on that and going for
it. This movie critically has aneighty five percent from the audience. That's
a bee on Rotten Tomatoes. Ithas an eighty five percent for crowded,

(43:45):
for regular audience appeals or whatnot.That movie was supposed to make back his
money. Some movies the way,and I'm not saying that. I'm sitting
here in the in the in theHallmark office of Disney, and I know
all their financials, but some ofthe move movies that they come out with
in the MCU, they know thathas a certain dollar expectation. Ant Man

(44:05):
is not supposed to be a billiondollar franchise. At his best, ant
Man is a four hundred five hundredmillion dollar franchise because when it came out,
it surprised a ton of people.And that's the price range or dollar
range that that film should be shootingfor now, after the pandemic, you
release ant Man, then a coupleof that price is gonna come down,
just because people aren't going to themovies, and they're not going to the

(44:29):
movies, and some many people aren'tgoing to the movies, not because they
don't like them, not going tothe movies, because it's expensive as hell
to take me, my wife andmy four kids. It's one hundred dollars
to go to the movies. SoI'm very picky about what films I go
to and which ones I go see. I mean, Marvel is on that
list, and I am a Marvelfanatic, and I can I understand everybody

(44:51):
doesn't like every single thing that theyproduce, but I dig it. I
like it because it's such a largemap. It's such a large field.
I remember when I was watching theold school Batman, the old school Superman,
and watching X Man and Spider Man, and it used to piss me
off that these characters did not havehelp from anybody, and they're right there
in New York, like I know, just live in New York. I

(45:14):
know the X Men live in NewYork. Like I'm playing Spider Man two
on my PS five amazing game.Love the game, one of the best
games of the year. And I'mplaying this and Sandman is the size of
the Empire state building and me andlittle ass Miles Morales is trying to fight
them, and I'm web slinging pastAvengers Tower like cap thor what's up?

(45:36):
Can I get a hand? Thatkind of stuff just doesn't make any sense
to me. So, like,that was a great time in movies back
then, when we got these soloflicks and we got to see our characters
and stuff and them. But nowI'm I'm past that. If we're in
New York, if you're in aMarvel movie and you've introduced these characters,

(45:57):
you better have more than one characterin there. They should be in there
supporting each other because half of themare in the same damn city and all
these heroes are going to be Allthese heroes are mixing and mingling. And
one of the reasons She Hope cameout was to showcase and explain or show
you that the world of heroes andvillains is massive now in New York.

(46:17):
It is. It is a regulareveryday thing. Now. That's what that
show helps or is supposed to helpestablish. While we have so many characters
now because it's it's just happening now, it's that's these people with powers are
popping up and being everywhere. Sothe crossover with the films and mixing the
characters stuff that does not bother meat all, because even as a writer,

(46:38):
these characters are going to mix itmingle because they're in the same damn
city. They should. Katie,I want to turn the turn the question
back on you. Do you sortof share Mike's And Mike makes a compelling
argument there's a lot of outside forcesthat sort of have affected the box office,

(46:58):
and you know, maybe you hadit could just be one hit movie
and then everything's back on the righttrack. Or do you think there's something
needed to really pull interest back.I understand your point, Mike, that
everything isn't for everybody. But sowhen I went to go see Guardians Volume

(47:21):
two, they talked about how starLord and Mantis or siblings, and I
had no idea. I said,where did that come from? Apparently it
was from some Christmas special that DisneyPlus had that I didn't see. So
I shouldn't have to see everything toknow what's going on in these movies.

(47:45):
So I think there's an oversaturation ofcontent right now. So yes, everything
isn't for everybody. But if Imiss one Christmas Special, I shouldn't be
clueless in the movie. But didthat really like for you that much?
That where you can stay in themovie, because that was the with them
saying in the movie got you caughtup and there you go. Now you

(48:06):
know, no, because I'm toobusy trying to figure out this information came
out. You're wondering if you misssomething in the previous film or not.
Yes, exactly. And it's justthe same thing with the Marvels. If
I hadn't seen Scarlet Witch, ifI hadn't seen Miss Marvel, I would

(48:29):
have been like, who are thesepeople? Why are they here? Who's
this family? Like I just it'sjust like so much homework. But you
I promise you don't have to dothat homework like that family being in there
and stuff like that. Like evenif I didn't see The Marvels, I
would have been just fine enough seeingthat, like, oh, that's Kamala

(48:49):
Khan's family. They know that shehas superpowers. All right, move on,

(49:28):
London, you want to do one, Yes, ladies and gentlemen.
Sean Reynolds. Hello, Cosmic Trepettoand more specifically, hello Brad. Congratulations
I'm reaching three hundred episodes, andalso congratulations on your decision to this is
a good place to conclude your podcastor your journey, I should say,

(49:51):
and to move on to other projects. Heck knows that we're all pretty busy,
so I think it's just pretty amazingthat you've stuck to his podcast as
long as you have, and it'sfor as many episodes as you have.
Also, thank you for inviting meto share my voice on this final episode.
I wanted to kind of start offwith Rick Rubin's book, The Creative

(50:15):
Act, A Way of Being.Rick Rubin is a well known music producer
and got his start way back whenand the you know, the early hip
hop these. Since then, he'she's earned the right of being a well
sought out producer across many musical genres. I wanted to bring up his book

(50:36):
because it is just an absolutely wonderfulbook. It's not really a memorial,
it's more so insights into the creativeprocess, even exercises that you can do
on your own if you yourself area creative person and kind of think outside
the box. What Rick Rubin didwell. He himself is not a musician,

(50:58):
he himself is not an engineer.But what he did was he brought
out the best in people. Hebrought out the best in musicians, and
that's why he swast out after Sothat's why I bring it up, because
Brad, I felt like the gueststhat you had on your show and your
collaborators bought you bought the best outof them, especially with myself, who

(51:24):
you know, I sometimes wondered,you know, what could I contribute to
your your podcast when you had meon, But you always managed to bring
out the best in me and toget me to recognize that my opinion or
my thoughts are something that are worthyof being shared. So thank you for

(51:45):
that. That's one of the reasonsI bring up Rick Rubin in his book.
The other thing is what Rick Rubinalso mentioned, and actually I think
this was an interview with Anderson Cooper, it wasn't necessarily in his book.
He had a wonder for answer toa question that I think is very relevant
to this topic of your podcast.It was basically, how do you know?

(52:07):
The question was something to the effectlesshow do you know what people want
to hear. How are you ableto continue to produce records that are successful
that people want to hear? AndRick Rubin's response to that was, well,
the audience doesn't know what they wantto hear. They only know what

(52:29):
they've been exposed to up until thispoint, so you kind of need to
educate them that they need to hearthose particular musicians or those particular songs.
And I think that's super relevant hereas well. You didn't necessarily approach topics

(52:50):
or guests that you had the insightto think, oh, this is what
the audience wants to hear. No, you knew that you would have great
conversations with great creative people, andbecause of that, you knew that people
would be interested in that. Ithink you've proven that Cosm Gupeto has found

(53:12):
an audience by staying true to that. Everyday people such as myself can be
interesting people and can be very creativepeople. And I can't think of a
single person that you've collaborated with onyour podcast where I did not find them
to be interesting or have insights thatwere relevant or insights that gave me pause

(53:36):
that made me think. So Icommend you on that. And I also
think because that Cosmic Gepeto found thatsuch an audience, you can certainly hold
your head up high that the podcastwas wildly successful. You know enough to
mention you've had podcasts spent off ofyour podcasts, You've really created this community

(53:58):
of like minded, individ juwels andeven if not like minded, that we're
worthy of having these conversations with.So again, if there was a barometer
for success, I feel like thatthat measurement has been aged by you and
Cosmic Japeto. So I commend.The other thing I kind of want to
touch upon is that I'm so amazedof your ability to say, you know,

(54:22):
I want to do something. I'mgoing to try something and I'm going
to do it. And I thinkI've mentioned this too before, and that's
when you said, you know what, I want to write a book,
which, by the way, Isay that all the time. I'm going
to write a book. And actuallyI know a lot of people that say
I'm going to write a book,but you actually followed through and you wrote
a book. You one day satdown said, you know what, I'm

(54:44):
going to create a website and I'mgoing to have my blog and I'm going
to invite my friends to participate inthis. Again something that we all talk
about, but you actually did that, And then I think the same applies
to you. And actually it appliesto your your band today. You have
a band today. That's something allof us middle aged men aspire to do

(55:06):
but we don't actually do. Butyou actually do, so you put your
money where your mouth is. Andthe same thing applies to your podcast.
I don't think there's many of usout there that don't say, you know
what, I could do a podcast, but do we actually do it?
And you did. And not onlydid you do a podcast, you did
it three hundred times, which isfar more than most folks would have stuck

(55:29):
to it. Just want to pointout how impressed I am with your execution.
It's easy to come up with ideas. The challenge is executing and learning
from that, and I think you'vedone a wonderful job of that and is
also another measurement of your success withKasamick Chapo. Finally, the most wonderful

(55:49):
thing about the podcast from my perspectiveis that you have brought me along in
the journey. You always have thesecreative endeavators, and you find a way
to include others, because you knowthe strength, the strength of these endeavors
is what the different voices bring andthe different like minded folks bring to the

(56:10):
table. Thank you, Thank youvery much for inviting me. Thank you
for including me to be a partof this wonderful community that you've created with
Cosmic Ghavetto. Never thought in amillion years that I would participate so much
in a podcast as I have,and I've immensely enjoyed it those conversations that

(56:31):
we have. But more importantly,I think the reason I loved it so
much is that I got to talkto my friend, and my friend being
you, Brad. It gave usa reason to stay connected. It gave
us a reason to have an objectivein our discussions, and I'm just immensely

(56:53):
grateful for that, and I treasureour friendship and I always will. And
I even believe that, through ourconversations with your podcast, that it has,
on a subconscious level, given meinspiration to reconnect with other folks that
I may have lost touch with justthrough the sake through through the reason of

(57:15):
time. And obviously our lives arevery busy. Being a growing up is
hard and takes a lot of work. I credit you for not only igniting
our friendship, but also reigniting otherfriendships as well. So anyway, I
think I've rambled on quite a bitenough, but I can't say it enough,

(57:36):
Brad. I feel that your podcastwas wildly successful by any measurement that
you hold up to it. Ithink you did a wonderful job of bringing
us all together and having very meaningfulconversations that matter not just to me but
to listeners. And I look forwardto your next endeavor, whatever that might

(57:58):
be. Just I just can't sayit enough. Thank you for bringing me
along the journey and you absolutely knockedit out of the park. To that,
I signed off for the final timefor Cosmic geppetto to my audience and
keep keep learning, keep creating,keep reading, keep writing, keep doing

(58:20):
everything. I hope that everyone hasfound as much inspiration as I have,
and finally, I have a happyNew Year. There is a thing,

(59:37):
and it's not even specific to Marvel, you know, Katie, You and
I have certainly talked enough about ouraffection for the Harry Potter film and I
remember watching those movies with my wifeand she had only read like the first
two or three books by the timewe got to the eighth film and I

(59:58):
remember asking HER's like, how areyou enjoying this? Because there's some stuff
in here that I know, isn'tthat I know because I read the books,
and does it make any sense?And she's like, ah, some
of it makes sense, some ofit doesn't. And it's like and she

(01:00:20):
would ask, it's like, wellwhat about ABC. It's like, oh,
well that, and I would givea little deeper explanations because I happened
to read the book and I knowthat the mirror means this in the book,
and you know it wasn't properly discussedin the movie. So yeah,
I get. I know, Iknow, Mike. No, Now,

(01:00:40):
Mike, for a while you wereyou were a ride or die with Fast
and Furious, and I know Ithink it was the eighth what was it
the ninth movie sort of broke yourspirit a little bit. Have you come
back to Fast and Furious? Uh? No, it was the eighth one
that broke my spirit. And Isaw the when the aready knew the faults

(01:01:00):
of there. I didn't care aboutthe fault because it was just such a
fun movie. But it was theeighth movie where I saw that Vin Diesels
out of control. He needs anintervention, and he strayed away from the
winning formula that made that franchise great. And then it was the ninth movie
where I just flipped over a chair, like I can't sand you anymore.
Like these movies aren't Like, You'renot the star of the movie, Vin

(01:01:21):
Diesel, It's the ensemble cast.It's the cast of people you have brought
together that we care about, thatwe want to see. We don't want
to just see you do some stuffbecause the stuff you do is over the
top and ridiculous now like it justused to be a'll did some cool ass
stunts and we wanted to see howyou did them or whatnot. But you're
you've gone way too far and no. So the only reason I'm going to

(01:01:44):
watch the final one if they evenget to do it, because it did
not, it did not perform well. According to the studio, what they
wanted or what they expected is becausethey are bringing back Paul Walker and her.
They talked to his family. Theygot they wanted. They from what

(01:02:06):
they say, the family wanted PaulWalker to come back so they can give
him a proper goodbye. In themovie, the family wanted wanted that to
happen, and then was all aboutit too. So his brother's supposed to
come back and play the character withsome czon stuff on top of it or
whatnot. And and I think that'swhat's missing from the movies, is Paul

(01:02:27):
Walker. It should have stopped afterseven and that should have been it.
The one of the things that wasrecently said to me is like the charm
of the Fast and Furious movies andaside from the ridiculous stunts and everything else,
is because it's not an existing ip. Because they are more self contained
than anything else. You don't haveto worry about what we're talking about the

(01:02:51):
homework and aside from you know,watching the movies, that's all you need
to do. And so that's whyI was part of the reason why I
was curious. All Right, Sowe've talked about what we love from twenty
twenty three, Michael, we're gonnastick with you. What was something from

(01:03:15):
this past year that you didn't carefor? Oh, there's a lot of
stuff in gaming that I have notcared for. There's a lot of studios
and I don't mean to say itin an insulting way, but there's a
lot of studios just putting out trash, very pretty trailers, you know,
talking up a good game, butnot delivering on an actual video game experience.

(01:03:39):
There's been games I've been excited aboutand I bought and then you know,
within a day, I'm thoroughly disappointedbecause it's it's not there. They
they're not putting forth the effort totake the game to the next level,
to make this game you know,worthy, or you know, be worth
a seventy dollars price ticket. They'rejust and it's very, very disappointing because

(01:04:03):
I know it may not actually bethe game creators that are working on that.
I know it's probably the execut theproducers, and and you know,
the big the big company over thehead cracking a whip, trying to get
them a hurry up and do itfor the least amount of money possible,
but they have the fun and enjoyment. In the video game market, this

(01:04:26):
year has been pretty dry. There'sonly been a couple of games that have
actually lived up to the experience.I e. Spider Man two, i
e. Bouter's Gate three. Andwhat was crazy is a lot of studios,
like studio directors were coming out onTwitter literally saying Bolter's Gate three is

(01:04:47):
an exception. Please do not expectthis to be the new way of video
game life. We as studios cannotspend the amount of time that they did
to do all the stuff that theydid in the game. And Older's Gay
three is an amazing video game thatI've poured hours into. That's just a
complete experience. And is it perfect. No, But the craft is there,

(01:05:11):
the love for making this game,the story, the gameplay, it's
all there. And it's a shamethat studios, and it was more than
one had to come out and say, don't expect this type of game from
us, because we can't put inthat type of work. And that's terrible
because these games are expensive, thesesystems are expensive, and it's it was.
It was thoroughly disappointing for me thisyear. Katie. What about you?

(01:05:35):
What was something that you were hopingwas gonna be better and you were
disappointed by this past year? Idon't know. I've had I had a
lot of things that were just likeokay, like they weren't great, they
weren't terrible, but nothing that likesuper disappointed me. Yeah, I sort

(01:05:58):
of I sort of get where you'refeeling. It feels like and maybe this
is a thing where some studios fromwhatever, in TV shows and movies,
whatever, they're not taking big maybeas big as swings or then not going
for the home run. So Iget everything sort of seems like, Okay,
that's a thing. Yeah, everythingwas just kind of myth this year

(01:06:20):
for me. And you know,I grew up in the eighties, and
over the last few years there havebeen a bunch of a list stars from
the eighties who have gotten sort ofa second life with streaming services, getting

(01:06:41):
these short run shows and sometimes thereare limited series, but or sometimes it's
like, oh, we're just gonnado eight episodes a season and then we'll
call you back in a year anda half, and it's sort of revitalized
careers. The biggest show on theplanet right now, I believe is Yellowstone
and it's been like the first realhuge success that Canvancost has had for a
long time, and they've sort oftaken that. And Harrison Ford had Shrinking

(01:07:09):
on Apple Plus and he had nineteentwenty three on Paramount Network. I think
it was Paramount Network. Sylvester Stallonehad Ken Tulsa, which was the most
interesting I found Harrison, I mean, the Sylvester stallone in a long time,
and it's I know, Matthew McConaugheyis supposed to be doing a spinoff
of a Yellowstone and just sort ofactors who no longer necessarily going to lead

(01:07:38):
big franchises and it gives them achance to do something interesting and sort of
rely on their charisma or the fondnesswe have from them. And they had
announced on Netflix that for the firsttime ever, Arnold Swarzenegger was going to
have a TV show and it wasgoing to be an action show and it
was gonna have a little comedy.And I grew up again, child of

(01:07:59):
the Deities. I saw True Lies, Terminator two, even his comedies like
Twins and Kindergarten Cop and when usedwell, Arnold Schwarzenegger is an amazing leading
man because no one looks like ArnoldSchwarzenegger, and there's with his size,
and you know, although there's certainlylimitations to his acting, he has a

(01:08:23):
presence that's really awesome. And Iwatched the first episode of Fubar and it
was so underwhelming and it was sobad, and the whole the conceit is
he's a retired agent, and hefinds that he's pulled back in for one
more mission, and he finds outthat his twenty some year old daughter is

(01:08:45):
also a secret agent, and neitherof them knew about the other, and
wacky high jinks ensues. The actionwas underwhelming, The comedy wasn't funny.
They kept trying to sort of forcecatch phrases of Arnold because when you think
of Arnold Sarsening, you think ofI'll be back or getting the Choppa or
whatever. And it was very underwhelmingand there was absolutely no buzz to this

(01:09:12):
show. It's like, oh yeah, it turns out it helps. You
have to have James Cameron or agood director to make Arnold really to figure
out what makes things work with Arnold, And this wasn't it that sucks.
I was hoping that would be goodthe trailer, Like I said, the
trailers looked like it'd be entertaining.Flick. We have a list of things

(01:09:35):
that we're trying to get through towatch, which is another reason why I'm
like really enjoying this time and geekedthem, but that was on it.
You know, if you're gonna watcha Netflix action series, I would first
recommend obliterated because that show was bonkers. I just saw the trailer for that.

(01:09:55):
The show was insane. It wasreally it was hard R rated show,
and it's funny. I'm watching It'slike, I don't know if I
think this is good, but I'mdefinitely gonna I'm definitely compelled to see where
it ends up. So I wouldwatch that again before I would watch Fubar
jarf What what did not land foryou? This year biggest disappointment was the

(01:10:20):
series Citadel, which at the timeit came out was just heavily hyped on
Amazon Prime as this like big excitingsexy spy show by the Russo brothers,
and so they were trying to getthat MCU vibe. And it stars Richard

(01:10:43):
Madden, who is just nothing morethan a poor man Sebastian Stan and then,
you know, the real big hookfor me also stars Prianka Chopper Jonas.
I have watched some chi spy showsand enjoy them perfectly well, but

(01:11:04):
this was egregious in I think,Brad, you were talking about, okay,
the shorter seasons, and this showreally suffered from only being eight episodes
or whatever, and they're insistent tolike propel the story along through you know,

(01:11:28):
eight short episodes, so it justkept moving from like major plot twists
all in capital letters, to majorplot twists with no time to actually develop
the characters. So it just cameacross as like thin and vacuous and complete
waste of time. I was somad at myself when I finished the season.
I was like, wow, Ireally watched all of them. Yeah,

(01:11:50):
I remember that they were advertising theheck out of it Stanley Tucci and
he I mean, he's great init, because he's great in everything,
but not enough to make it greatexactly? Is that even? Is that
coming back for another season? Imean they said it's coming back for the
season. They even teased a likespin off in the Citadel Universe, and

(01:12:15):
I was like, no, don'tjust know. I understand. I thought.
I saw the previews. I waslike, Eh, if I hear
anything good about it, I'll giveit a shot. But no, the
prime series that I enjoyed and it'llbe the second season will be out by

(01:12:40):
the time this episode is out.Is the second The Reacher, which I
really enjoyed. Yes, I likethe first Jack Reacher movie. I knew
that people would complain that Tom Cruisewas not a good casting for that,
and boy, they got the castingright because that dude is a is a
tree trunk of a human being.He's believable. I went back and watched

(01:13:04):
the movies after I watched that show, which I binged, by the way,
like I just saw trailer. Ithrew it on to see what it
was like. I watched the wholeseason one day, and then I went
back and watched the Tom Cruise movies. They do not compare. The TV
show is so much better, andhe's such He's much more of a believable
character in that role. His intimidationfactor is through the roof. It's just

(01:13:29):
it's crazy. I love that show. That show is great. I like
the ad actor so much. They'rethey're sort of putting the Hollywood machinery behind
him. He had a role inthe most recent Fast and Furious movie,
and he's he's a compelling guy toyou sort of believe him holding his own

(01:13:50):
in a fistfight with Ben Diese,Lord of the Rock. He's interviewing like
crazy, and he comes across prettywell in interviews. Looking forward to the
second season, it seems like athere's a lot of books there's a lot
of Reacher books. I read one. It wasn't very good. It's one
of those books you read is like, Okay, well this may not be

(01:14:12):
the most the best written piece oflyricure I ever read, but it sure
would make a good TV show ormovie. And the book I read was
the basis for the first season aReacher. And it's like, yeah,
I was right, this is abetter TV show than it was a book.

(01:14:45):
Twenty four will be here very soon. What are we all looking forward
to? And Madie, I knowI'm we're gonna start with you, and
I know you have your affection forChris Emsworth. Have you seen the trailer
for Furiosa? That's what I'm lookingforward to, But not because I mean
that's like I see on the cakethat he's in it. But I loved

(01:15:09):
Mad Max fury Road. I thoughtFurioso was an awesome character, so I'm
excited to see more of her.I know it's obviously a different actress,
but I'm really excited. I knowwhen I watched Mad Max, I remember

(01:15:29):
the first like ten fifteen minutes beingso intense that I was like, I'm
so anxious right now, Like Idon't know if I've watched this whole movie,
because I was just like, myheart was like in my throat the
whole time. But obviously I livedthrough it and I really enjoyed it.
So I am excited about furials.Now. Chris Hamsworth, he doesn't look

(01:15:54):
too dreamy in it. It lookslike they gave him like a parsthetic nose
or something because he wasn't looking asas hunky as normal. Are you gonna
be okay with that? Yeah?Of course? Uh jarf. What are
you looking forward to this in thiscoming year? Looking forward to Deadpool three,
which we mentioned earlier, and inaddition to what you said, recently

(01:16:17):
news broke that we're also getting DaphneKeane reprising her role as X two three.
So I think that that's great newsbecause she was excellent in that role.
And I also think the like opportunityfor some kind of like semi father
daughter comedy in the way that itworks in the Dead Poole universe could just

(01:16:39):
be a nice added element. Andthen I'm also looking forward to the movie
Lisa Frankenstein. What's Lisa Frankenstein.It's a horror comedy written by Diablo Cody,
director Zelda Williams, Diablo Cody.I know everyone when they think about
her give obviously, oh my gosh, what's the movie that she did with

(01:17:03):
young adult? Well, yes,young adult, but her breakthrough with JK.
Simmons playing the father and the youngwoman who was pregnant the high school.
Oh you know, Juno, thankyou. Yeah. She has continued
just putting out doing quality work.So all right, very cool. Mike

(01:17:26):
Watson, what are you excited aboutthis coming year? Actually, I'm I'm
super excited about the things we're tryingto do in twenty twenty four with Freestyle
Comics. We made a lot ofgrowth this year. We did our first
official comic book convention and like overfour hundred and fifty people show up for
it. We've got a very ambitiousrelease schedule, and our team is growing,

(01:17:50):
and we just recently won Publisher ofthe Year for Indie Print Imprints,
and so I'm very very excited andbeen plays and then planning a lot of
stuff. Uh. I think thegeek stuff is just a given. I'm
gonna go see it. I'm gonnaI'm gonna I'm gonna eat up as much
as I can. Probably Godzilla versusGodzilla Cross Kong obviously did full three.

(01:18:18):
Uh actually anything from the m cU. I'm I'm up in arms about
it trying to go see it.But I'm probably most excited about where we
can take things for freestyle comics.I'm really looking forward to that. Congratulations,
that's awesome. Thank you. That'svery cool. You know, Yeah,
that's really cool. And it's greatbecause it feels like we've been lucky

(01:18:42):
enough to see freestyle comics improve andget bigger. And we first came in
on the radar because Jarf you metMike at a comic con. Yeah,
many years ago, Wizzard broad Andbelieve me, because this is the last
episode, I've been reflecting a lotabout not just the fun times that I've

(01:19:05):
had with the three of you andwith the podcast overall, but more than
that, just what it's meant tome. And I mean before this podcast,
I probably would not have had theconfidence to go up and say like,
hey, what are these awesome comics? Like can I interview you?
And having this platform kind of helpedme get to that place. So I'm

(01:19:29):
grateful We've had a chance to meetso many great people and so many friendships
and relationships have happened and it's sortof the thing that talking about I was
going through and I was like,how the hell did the four this group
of four become a thing, becauseit is insane, four people spread out

(01:19:54):
all over the country. And youknow, Jarf and I became dear friends
in college, and but jearffy,you and I knew a lot of people
in college that we haven't talked toin twenty years. That's true. You
know, we've been able to stayclose all the time. And Jeff being

(01:20:14):
the first person I called when Idecided to do this podcast. Katie and
I we worked together for what sixmonths, five months, five months,
sixteen seventeen years ago. The samething. I've had plenty of co workers
who I liked very much, whoI have you know, I'll give them
a congrats on LinkedIn when I seethat they've reached a work anniversary. But

(01:20:38):
for whatever reason, you know,we Kay and I have stayed in contact
and I pulled her into this,you know. And Mike is sort of
the same thing, where Jarff andI have been to plenty of comic cons
and we've interviewed people and creatives fromdifferent comic cons and they've they've all been
great, but uh, whatever reason, mostly just because you're awesome. We've

(01:21:02):
kept you in. We haven't letyou go, say, I mean,
it shouldn't be for whatever reason,it's because he is the most energetic person
anyone has ever met. That isvery true. Now for me, the
thing I'm really looking forward to,and some of them have been already touched

(01:21:24):
upon. I cannot wait for aDeadpool three. I think it could be
a big old mess, but ifit's a big old mess, it'll be
a really fun mess. I'm sortof interested in. It looks like a
dumb action movie, but I havean affection for dumb action movie The Fall
Guy, which I just saw thepreview four not too long ago. And

(01:21:47):
you have Ryan Goslin and Emily Bluntdoing an action movie based on a pretty
bad eighties TV show that people myage have an effect and for even though
how dare you? It was,but they were all bad and sort of
fun, so we love it.And I think Ryan Gosling is a compelling

(01:22:09):
action star, and I like theconceit of he's a stunt man, and
because he's a stuntman, he makesa really good action hero. I was
like, yeah, I'm sort ofdigging that. I'm also in the world
of comics. There's going to bea new Ultimate Spider Man comic book,
but this time is it's an alternateuniverse version of Spider Man, but it's

(01:22:31):
Peter Parker. He becomes Spider Manolder and he's already married with two kids.
And when I was reading, whenI was really really into comics for
the most, when they most hadmy whole their hold on me was in
the eighties and nineties when I hadthe issue where Spider Man got married,

(01:22:53):
and I read those great Todd McFarlanddrawn issues where it was he was a
newlywed with Mary Jane and comics Marvelwent through a real effort to try to
make Peter younger and more relatable toa younger audience. So they did all
the craziness to undo the marriage,and you know, for you know,

(01:23:17):
for a guy in his uh latelate forties, uh, married and with
kids. Seeing myself reflected a littlebit more in Spider Man, a character
that I've always loved. I'm lookingforward to that, and it has a
good creative behind it, So I'mlooking forward to that. Another faith and

(01:23:44):
tranquil night on our home planet.Everyone on the planet is at anxious energy

(01:24:05):
received up on my money, Benblew all of my money because I really
don't really don't really don't care.I really don't really don't care. Seeing

(01:24:26):
up all it could be good orit could be bad for you, It's
gonna be all right, h littlewone people. You know what we're looking
forward to, we know what we'veenjoyed. I'm gonna throw out one last

(01:24:48):
thing, like a particular memory orexperience for something about being part of this
crazy world the possible a podcast AndMichael, I'll start with you. You
got pulled into this well, there'sso much so I think you guys have

(01:25:14):
really grown on me because like becauseof this podcast and being on here,
I think this is what really forwardedand pushed me into podcasting and doing more
of it. Your podcast is keyfor it because you guys bought me my
first mic and headphones to be ableto do the show or whatnot. And

(01:25:34):
you know, creating this great friendshipthat we have. We always come back
together to do an episode and absolutelythe friendship that has been developed between me
and Honey Badger with our love forHarry Potter, and we went off and
did our own spin off show.Absolutely adored it. But it's so so

(01:25:57):
many good times and the laugh andyou know, I was so happy to
see the chat get lively in forthis, but then sat and to know
that this was the final episode ofthe podcast is. I do enjoy jumping
on here and talking with you guys, and and and going back and forth
with you so but the whole experiencehas been grand. And I want to

(01:26:19):
thank you for letting me be apart of that because I am I was
kind of the anomaly in this groupand I got to ride along with you
all, and I want to thankyou for that. I was so happy
and so proud when you you starteddoing your own show and kicking ass with
it, and it was it wasreally pretty heartwarming for me. And uh,

(01:26:45):
you know, we you're You're ahell of an artist and a really
good guy. So we were solucky to have you as part of it,
the part of all this fun.Uh, honey Badger Again, I
didn't think you hm when I askedyou to be honest, like I knew

(01:27:06):
you would talk about Harry Potter andyou've brought so much and you've been so
much fun. So you know,I hope you've enjoyed this a fraction as
much as I've enjoyed you being partof this. Yeah, I want to,
you know, parrot what Mike said. It's like just the friendships that

(01:27:27):
we've made. I mean, obviouslyI've known you for a long time,
but finally getting to meet Jariffe,who I've heard about like for years,
that was really cool. And thenobviously meeting Ulso, meet Mike and just
you know, doing our own thingfor a little while was super fun.
I love the fact that you andmy husband, who have still not ever

(01:27:49):
met, did a whole podcast togetherbecause of your love for what Evil did.
So it's just the relationship than justgetting to talk about stuff that I'm
excited about and meeting new people.It's just been it's been a whirlwind,
but it's been really great. Sothank you, Brad. As I've said

(01:28:11):
many a time, when it wastime to when I decided to start doing
this, the first person I contactedwas Jarf because Jeff and I did a
radio show in college and the footageis somewhere. I know Jarff. Even
in an early episode, I likeplayed a clip of us. We sounded

(01:28:33):
like toddlers, but you know,I couldn't have done it without you,
and you've made you made the showso much more than it would have been
otherwise because of your thoughtfulness and yourunderstanding of how to make everything bigger and

(01:28:54):
more inclusive and better for it.And you've gone on to do some really
cool shit. And it's something thatyou and I have talked about this,
both on the show and otherwise whereover the last couple of years you haven't
been on that much because you've goneyour own way and done such cool stuff,

(01:29:15):
including what you're doing now with yourown the minute by minute world.
You know, share what you remember, what you think of, because you
sort of said you were going downyour own memory lane about the program.
Yeah, I mean, I reallyappreciate you saying that, And Mike and
Katie, it warmed my heart somuch to hear you talk about what being

(01:29:39):
on the show together has meant.And there's probably too many fond memories for
me to list them all, butI've just been amazed at how different the
show ended up being than what weinitially conceived, which was just like you

(01:30:01):
and I and maybe two other peopleprobably from the same college, talking about
Marvel movies and that's it, andnot really thinking of it as like a
collaborative a collaborative effort with like anever growing group of new people that we
could connect with. And I'm alsothinking a lot about the ripple effects,

(01:30:28):
Like Mike talked about how it gothim started with his own podcasting, and
then Mike and Katie did a showtogether, and you did the show with
Brian, and I've done shows myself, and you know, that's all just
from what we've talked about here andoff the top of my head, I
think there's just so many more connectionsthat will continue on after this episode ends.

(01:30:51):
That's like the legacy of the show, and I hope it doesn't make
it too corny, but just knowingthat we were getting close to the final
episode, I always imagined it waslike endgame where Cosmic Geppetto was like Cap

(01:31:12):
just like making that slow march,thinking it's to his death, and then
the portals open up, and thoseportals are all the ripple effects of other
friendships and connections that have been madebecause of the podcast. Yeah, it's
it's been so cool when we wereat the Minute by Minute convention last year

(01:31:34):
and seeing Tyranny and Sully meeting themface to face for the first time.
And Kathleen who Memory Serves, madeher podcasting debut and I had she was
in Baltimore and I had lunch withher and it was wonderful. And you
know, and Brian doing the Minuteof Darkness with Iron who is such a

(01:32:00):
good guy and I enjoyed every minuteof podcasting with him. So you know,
we've been so lucky. So soguys. I as always and for
the last time, I need everyoneto plug their pluggables. So Katie,
I'll start with you because I knowyou're not ready for this at all.

(01:32:21):
So do you have something to plugor something you want to talk up?
I do actually have something to plug. So I recently got involved with a
a dog rescue organization. It's actuallywho we rescued our second dog from.

(01:32:41):
They're called Bruno Project and if youwant to check them out, it's called
Bruno Project Rescue dot org. Theythey transport dogs from Saint Lucia to the
United States, UK and Canada becausethe situation on the island is not really
great for dogs. Their life expectancyis about three years, so the more

(01:33:04):
that they can get off the islandthe better. And also part of what
they do is education on the islandabout spaying and neuring and controlling the population
and vet care and all of thatstuff. So it's a really great organization.
I'm excited that they reached out tome to help them out. They

(01:33:29):
are doing a fundraiser right now,so if you are interested, you can
go to Bruno Project Rescue dot orgor you can follow them on Facebook or
Instagram. Both their handles for thereis Bruno Project Rescue. We recommend everyone
check that out. I am actuallylooking at their website right now, and

(01:33:53):
I got to make sure that mywife and children do not see this site
because we just have so many pets. Mister Watson, Where can people check
out and support your work? Everybodycan look for me on social media's Most
Epic Art. You can set upour website fsk now dot com to check
out all the freestyle commic goodness.But we also have a TikTok shop and

(01:34:15):
you can look that up on theirMost Epic Art as well. The TikTok
shop we're doing, they're doing freeshipping and a lot of times they do
fortyf off your first order. Ifyou're coming to TikTok shop for the first
time. That's where you can findus. That's where you can find me
at and jarf plug your plugables andthen uh, then then you know what
to do. You got it.So my current podcast is Don't Feed the

(01:34:39):
Plants. It's a song by songdiscussion of the movie musical Little Shop of
Horrors and then the And this isthe first that I've talked about this.
It's actually probably a little bit tooearly, but I will anyway. So
I am coordinating my first group projectpodcast, and it's called Dream Operators.

(01:35:01):
It's about the David Byrne film TrueStories, and I just wanted to I
mean, I love the movie,and I thought since it's a series of
vignettes and it's all about the quirkycharacters of this town, it was well
suited to a group project where youhave different hosts seats week. But personally,

(01:35:24):
I wanted to transition to a differentrole where I was not the host
of every episode and in a producerrole instead, just for the experience of
doing that. So it's going tobe a really fun ride where you get
a different perspective every time. Andthen I'm just giving it some structure and

(01:35:45):
suggesting some discussion topics so that wecan kind of touch on some of the
same themes and make it more cohesive. But I'm really interested to see what
we come up with collectively for that. And then as for Cosmic Geppetto,
you know, I want to echoMike and Katie's gratitude to you, Brad
for organizing this all and bringing ustogether and creating this friendships and all of

(01:36:10):
this fun. And listeners, don'tcry because it's over, Smile because it
happens, and we'll see in thefunny pages that raps. Episode three hundred,

(01:36:43):
the final episode of the Cosmic Geppettopodcast. Big thanks to Katie,
Mike Watson, and Jark. Thereis no way they know how much they
mean to me. Also big thanksto Tim Burdick, who is one of
the smartest and funniest people I've everknown. Big thanks to Eric Deutsch,
who went from a stranger to oneof my favorite people alive during the war

(01:37:08):
on of this show. Big thanksto Sean Reynolds, who was the best
man at my wedding and is stillone of the best people in my life.

(01:37:33):
Big thanks to Logan Mendenhall. Hecreated so much of the music used
during this show finally big thanks toeveryone who has been part of this adventure.
I hope you liked it so forthe last time. In the words
of Matthew Sweet and in the wordsof jar Pardon seeing the funny pages,

(01:38:15):
Subscribe to the Cosmic Geppetto podcast oniTunes, Stitcher, or wherever quality podcasts
can be found. Rate and reviewus while there. Follow us on Twitter
at cosmic gapod and we will followyou back unless you're a jerk. We
don't follow jerks like us on Facebookat Facebook dot com, forward slash Cosmic
Geppetto. Email us at Cosmic Geppettoat Comcast dot net. I'm really gonna

(01:38:41):
miss these intros and outros by BethReynolds and basically a bikini and a weird
fistfight thing at a furry club again, Sir, you're a bad influence because
they don't talk about this stuff toooften. John Bradley, you remember Sean
Bradley, Go you beautiful bastard.That's awesome. His art is amazing.
There's no musical called Damn Brewers.He thought it would sound too much like

(01:39:05):
boos and ooops. The harder thebetter. Let's do it till We're Black
and Blue. Clairemont run, Claremontrun, social media successful. I shouldn't
say this because I am someone's girlfriendin Canada. But it's the superheroes girl,
the superhero version of oh I've gota girlfriend in Canada. They're messy,

(01:39:26):
they're sloppy, and you're just tryingto draw blood. Girls don't just
don't. A dog's something something Andthere just had to be a high body
count. And if somebody died,they died badly. You deserve to die,
all of you. Proud Brooker.Oh you ah, I may not

(01:39:53):
be fantastic for you. Whoops,didn't get a clip for the end.

(01:40:28):
There's not a kind of such athing. No, I never do got
of such a freeing