Show Vs. Business

Can James Gunn Save the DC Universe?

February 06, 2023 Theo Harvey | Mr Benja
Show Vs. Business
Can James Gunn Save the DC Universe?
Show Notes Transcript

 The guys, (@mrbenja and @therealtheoharvey, discuss the latest DC Studios plans announced by James Gunn and discuss the creative and the business side of the upcoming onslaught. Next they get into how the plan compares against the MCU’s this year. 

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Show vs. Business is your weekly take on Pop Culture from two very different perspectives. Your hosts Theo and  Mr. Benja provide all the relevant info to get your week started right.

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Mr. Benja: Hey, welcome my man Theo. It is going to be another great year. We're gonna have 28 awesome days of Black Batman Week, and we're kicking it off, right with 

Theo: Black Batman Week. I love it. I love this back , 

Mr. Benja: we love Black Batman Week. All 28 days of it.

Theo: Oh man, I'm, I'm, I'm excited, man. But you know what? Black Batman Week wasn't introduced in James Gunn's DC Studio Slate.

Man, I, I was, I was disappointed. Very disappointed. , 

Mr. Benja: does he not respect? Black Batman Week? 

Theo: I, I, I, I don't think he does. I don't think he does. Yes. Do you 

Mr. Benja: think they're ever gonna, do you think they're ever gonna release what was the name of his other movie? Black Woman? No. No, ? Don't 

Theo: think so. like, I canceled.

Don't think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 

Mr. Benja: yeah, yeah. Oh, they're calling, they're calling it the Waller series, 

Theo: right? Yes. Yes. So we'll get into all that, man. I'm, I'm so, I'm so hyped, man. So yeah, man. Did you, did you get a chance to watch James Gunn's announcement? He did not too long ago. About a week ago.

You mean that, 

Mr. Benja: was it the six minute one? Yes. Okay. I thought there was some, I thought there might have been something longer the way everybody was talking, but they said announcement, and that's all I saw. It was like six minutes. I was like, oh. . 

Theo: Yes. Yeah. Well look, before we get into the slate and all that kind of stuff, and what he said, I mean, what'd you think about it?

Just overall, just the presentation, how you just put it out there. What are your thoughts? 

Mr. Benja: All right. Here's where, how we're gonna start this, man. I di I, I'm, I'm kind of disappointed, man. It's like suddenly out of nowhere I'm gonna sit down for six minutes in front, in front of a dingy background and be like, Hey y'all, we got some movies coming out.

Be cool. All right. Double thumbs up. . 

Theo: I liked it. Be honest with you. I thought it was he had to do something. He had to start communicating. And for the first time in a long while, I don't think we ever had someone from, besides Zack Snyder, but he kinda always did it behind the scenes, right? On Twitter or something like that.

But this is the first time we actually had a face that was out there talking about DC and I thought it was refreshing. I mean, it kind of says, okay, we have a comparison to a Kevin Figge. 

Mr. Benja: That is a very good point. You have a face out there and like, Hey, this is it. You're, when was the last time? Wow. 

Theo: I can't remember.

I mean like I said, Zack Snyder was the only one that was kind of out there, but he's really shilling for, you know, his brand and his image around Justice League and, and Batman v Superman. But yeah, I just didn't, I never saw anyone just say, Hey, this is the vision of where we're going with it, and, you know, whether the content is good or not.

That's debatable on how it's presented. That's debatable. But at least, you know, he's starting to, you know, put it out there. I think a quote I've been kind of fond with telling my team my business role is like, Hey, you know, you see the storm coming, you could either go through it or go around it, but you can't let it come to you.

And so I think he's putting himself out there and going into the storm. Okay. And just let it happen because I mean, you know, he's just not sitting back and just, you know, dropping little nuggets here and there and letting things leak out there. He's just like, look, let me just put it out there. 

Mr. Benja: You know, for what it's worth then we, we get, we did get a lot of bang for our buck and there's, it's quite a bit to go over actually.

And it was only a six minute little talk, so, you know, maybe the man knows how to 

Theo: use his time well. Oh yeah. Well, we know, he, we, he, he knows his way around Twitter. . So yeah, notwithstanding what got him canceled before, 

Mr. Benja: but instead of a, instead of a micro blog, it's like a micro vlog now he's just a little short jump in, get out.

Maybe he's a man for the ages. Go ahead. Go 

Theo: ahead James. Go. Good point. I mean, you know, he's, I think he feels like he's a fan himself, even though he's behind the scenes. So unlike Faggy, right, he's actually a writer director. So, you know, he is ingrained in a cr creative space. I mean, Figi is more a producer, right?

But I'm sure he's, Figgy is coming with ideas, but it's really, you know, James Gunn is really, you know, and I think that's, that's gonna be some of the things I have concerns about him, right? Because he is such a creative you know, is he, is he looking to kill his darlings, right? So that's gonna be interesting to see what happens.

But yeah. So bef now we can get into it a little bit. I mean what was he talking about behind the scenes? Mr. Benja, let's start there. So, you know, now he put the slate out there. He's got some quotes and we'll go into the official announcements, but I know you put some things out here about, Hey man you know, he's been, he's been talking some, some, some, some, some, some crazy, some craziness out there, man, around what's what's happening previously.

So what, what have you seen that he hasn't put out there? Maybe public facing, but behind the scenes around. Okay. So 

Mr. Benja: slate. So, I, I figure anyone listening to this kind of knows a little bit about James Gunn or whatever, just, you know, he did Guardians of the Galaxy, familiar with Marvel, he's actually a comic guy.

Sure. And DC they've been run by lack of a better term, pretty much business people who, not even business people, people who aren't attached to DC for a while. Right. They're just kind of letting it go and we see the results of that. So now, We get some, this new guy in James Gunn who comes from trauma films, if you don't know trauma films, they were traumatic

So it's trauma, t r o m a, if you go look it up. But toxic Avenger and some other NC 17 and not Safe for Work type of weirdness was where he came from. I always gotta bring that up because it kind of informs a little bit of who he is or who he used to be. I shouldn't say shouldn't say who he is, but anyway, he was talking noise and he was quoted, and this is a very non Hollywood thing to say, but he was quoted as saying the past leadership was effed up, you know, dropped some explicit ex, you know, expletives on him.

Just, Hey man, past leadership is effed up. It's like, oh, really? That's how, that's how we're starting the day now. We're we're, we're. presenting ourselves as a, as a new face of this company. You're just gonna say the past leadership was effed up. What does that make you? I don't know. Does, does that quote surprise you at all?

Theo: No. I mean, if you watch his films, I mean, there's a, a certain you know, crassness about how he presents certain things and from the violence to the, you know, the the language and f bombs. I mean, if you watch Suicide Squad, right? I mean, that, that tells you everything you need to know about his sensibility.

Right? And so when it comes to the artist, so I mean, as an artist yourself, I'm assuming, you know, lie your art comes out of your own personality, right. Who you are. So I don't, I don't see that as being too surprising that he would say something like that. 

Mr. Benja: Yeah, exactly. And I, you know what? He might actually fit for the tone of this current era, right?

Where you just get on Twitter, you kind of say whatever you want, see whatever you feel. , it worked for Trump. Not comparing him to a politician, but people just getting up and saying, Hey, this is what I feel. This is how it is, blah, blah, blah. Thank gun may be that version of that for, for Hollywood, for, for DC or Warner Brothers at least.

Yeah, 

Theo: I, I, yeah, it could be. I mean, so yeah, it definitely a controversial figure. But a very successful figure. I mean, he's, he's worked in both the major superheroes studios, M C E U, and created basically the whole Guardians of the Galaxy Motif and really kind of out of that, you know, Thanos came out and became, you know, the biggest movie, one of the biggest movies of all time, Infini War and so or endgame.

And so I think, you know, James Gunn, you know, feels like, 

Mr. Benja: Hey, are you saying, are you saying he had a part in Thanos? Well, 

Theo: I. Well, he may not had a part, but he introduced that corner of the world Right. With guardians of the Galaxy. Right. You know, the, the color scape, you know, what it, what it meant to be in the universe.

I see. Before anyone else, I mean Yes. You know, the Russo brothers Right. Kind of, you know, spearheaded and got into infinity and wore and, and, and endgame and created all that. But I mean, he set the template of what that looks like. Right. Yeah. To kind of, you know, and how that may worked. I don't know if he came up with Thanos and all that, but I do feel like No, no, no.

Yeah. He came up with the whole motif division of what that's gonna look like and came outta the guardians. So 

Mr. Benja: yeah, I, I think he made the space. side of it makes 

Theo: sense. Exactly. Exactly. And so that's huge. I mean, that was a big part of it. And, and you know, even to this day, you look at the, the original Guardians movie, it's still yeah.

One of the better movies I think of D C U. It was just, it was a lot of fun, you know, it was, it was kind of like, you know, the myth Fit Misfits, right. Getting together. It was almost mm-hmm. , it was his version of the Suicide Squad, right. . And then he, he transferred over to the D C U and, you know, even though quote unquote wasn't as successful, but the, the Suicide Squad, you know, has his fans.

And then outta that, he created Peacemaker, right? Which is you know, a TV show on H B O Max. So, so I think, you know, he's, he's well versed in the the language of nerdom and understanding what they like to see. And so for him to kind of say things behind the scenes, I, I think people's like, yeah, he speaks for the people

Mr. Benja: Yeah, exactly. So yeah, he also in that, In that same discussion this is the Hollywood reporter quoting comments titled James Gun Blast past DC Leadership. Also, within there, he said that, you know, Henry Caval was dicked around, and That's true, I guess. 

Theo: Was he or was he just, well, did he let himself get dipped around

Mr. Benja: There you go. That's another point of view. . 

Theo: I mean, you know, he put, he, yes, he, he hits his wagon to you know, Tom Cruise and so, you know, the whole thing with the mustache for justice League or you know, that was a whole mess right there. And so, and then which is fine, you know, he had to, you know, stand out and do his own thing.

And then the whole thing. The Rock, Dwayne Johnson going in and you know, doing that cameo for black Adam, you know? Mm-hmm. . So that was the rock's ploy to take over. DC didn't work , but you know, Henry Cav was like, I'm going. He just, he just met the wrong bet, man. You know, you gotta, you know, you gotta bet with the right people, man.

Mr. Benja: you know what, and that's this, I'm glad you said the right people because you know, James Gunn seems to be I don't think he's like, he's not Hollywood. He wasn't, he's not Hollywood royalty. I was about to say elite, but I meant royalty, where you have these, I don't know if you, people know how Hollywood runs, but you know, this, how people have their families, their, you know, all these past relationships.

You get people in Hollywood who are just so connected, they're darlings and like, oh, let's get this person in. Let's cast them. You know what, we didn't have money for this project, but now that this person's on it, let's all do together and do it. And it's kind of this big club. And you have what they call, they actually call it Hollywood royalty.

Mm-hmm. James. 

Theo: That's another, you know, that, you know, I didn't mean to interrupt you. There's another term I talked about before. Nepo babies. Yes. . Yeah. . Now people are realizing, well, all these Hollywood stars had kids and now they're stars. And so people are like, wait a minute. Mm-hmm. , this is way more connected than we ever realized.

But yes, that's correct. There is this, you know chummy buddy buddy system in Hollywood. What 

Mr. Benja: chummy buddy? Buddy? Chum. Chum. But, but yeah. And the reason I reason I bring that up is because, you know, he's got to keep his friends close. So anybody who he's worked with on guardians people he worked with back in trauma or wherever else, these are people that he's gonna kind of go to and we see him doing that with like, oh yeah, Waller, whole Waller series.

Let's go, oh, you, you helped me out with this. Let's go. 

Theo: And hell, his brother is always in all his movies. Yes. Shows up somewhere in his movies. His brother, his own brother . A 

Mr. Benja: Nepo baby. Yeah, 

Theo: his wife. Is it one of the main characters of Peacemaker? . Wait, who's his wife? The, the, the, that place. Hard, hard cut.

Hard cut. The blonde. 

Mr. Benja: That's his wife. Wife. His wife, wife. I did not make that connection. I did not know that. 

Theo: And you know, so there you go. 

Mr. Benja: So yeah, he's a outsider on the, on. 

Theo: Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, good for him. So, I mean, well anyway, we, we've been belabor this too long. Do we wanna get into the film slate?

You know, just give our high level thoughts on what was announced and, you know, anything high level that just stood out from you? Well, you want me to get into it or do you wanna talk about him first? Oh, no, do, 

Mr. Benja: do you think we'll just, we'll just go ahead and plow through the plow through the slate right quick if you want.

Yeah. So, and then we can talk about it 

Theo: and we go back and talk Yeah. As we'll go through it. So he announced this whole theme is called Gods and Monsters. Sure. , okay. Yeah. It's like one of those things like, I mean, you know, you know what name generator, . 

Mr. Benja: Hold on, hold on. I thought about that. And it didn't click until just now.

He may have called it God's and Monsters because he's talking about them and him. , ah, if that makes any sense. Mm-hmm. , because the whole traverse and where he's coming from, it was all about monsters and being different, being an outcast and these grotesque characters. And now you're dealing with Hollywood royalty DC's past, there's, there's, I think he's slick enough to where that actually meant something.

Theo: Yeah. So, so anyway, we'll see what this all means. But it, it is a reboot now. I mean, obviously it's no longer dceu. It's called DC Studios. He is officially a Coce O of DC studio. So he is the head honcho who happens to be creative, which is very interesting. So what the first two projects that stood out for me, he announced was like we talked about Waller, excuse me, Waller, the series as a continuous of a movie.

I think it's gonna be a movie, and it's gonna be using man Viola Davis's character Amanda Waller, who is a big kind of fixer, if you will, in the DC comics. She's gonna have a movie, kind of explain her background, who she is, and the, you know, because she's using the same actress from the suicide squad that he pretty much probably you know, cast as well as the whole peacemaker crew.

Mm-hmm. and the Suicide Squad crew. So I guess, peacemaker ain't going nowhere. So now that their whole universe has been bolted on to this new reboot. Yeah. What are your thoughts about that? I mean, you know, and, and so the reason why I bring this up is because I think grace, we always give her a shout out from beyond the trailer

He made a good point. That, you know, is he really gonna be an executive or he's gonna be more of a creative? In other words, you know, if it was, is, is this best for the, the new slate to kind of vault on his old ideas and thoughts into this new slate? And I kind of agree with her. I think this is something that shows you that, you know, he is gonna pay play favorites, especially if he created it.

And so that, that's gonna be concern if you're trying to bring in new creative people. Cuz if they don't gel with his, you know, which is fair, or if it doesn't gel with his specific take on this character, they're outta 

Mr. Benja: here. creatively. I, I think too bad. You, if you got a creative that's running things.

I've seen this before. It's like, look man if they're not open to you doing whatever or coming in and doing your thing, just, just part, I mean, you know how they always use well, why, why'd you leave the project? Oh, creative differences. You know, I think you actually would have creative differences, which means you get exited and the other person stays on just because they're friends with James Gunn.

Is that the right way to go in terms of could you get the best product out of that? Not in the short term, but I think long term for developing a, a whole D C U, not D C E U anymore, that's no change they made for creating a whole DC universe. It's like you gotta go with you, you just gotta follow and get in step with everyth.

Theo: Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see a creative lead this, a studio or a slate like this, because Kevin Fay's a producer. The, the, the knock against him is even though he tends to make great decisions and casting and just overall storytelling to build up to something spectacular. The knock against M c u now is that the, the sameness, right?

This is like yes, we bring in all these directors, these new actors. Yeah, but you know, you're gonna have the, you know, some, some funny, everybody sounds like Ironman, some funny banter. And then at the end it's gonna be a big CGI battle, right? . And so it's kinda like, ooh, that they, they, they built out what, two years ago, right?

So they gotta make the story fit that, that, that, that cgi. And so I think, you know, that that's a problem with him. But you know, he, that's a proven formula. Now you. A creative who has a vision, who has a, a, a template, right? You know, as you know, as an artist, right, there's just certain things you always go to.

There's certain, there's a certain crassness to his art. I mean, you know, can't he lighten that up? I'm trying to think if there's any movie he's done. I mean, maybe Gars of the Galaxy, but it was still kind of, there's a, there's an underlying, I don't know what it is. It's, it is almost underlying like crassness and like, you know, you know, flicking people off.

And so that brings up the question, the next one that he's leading up the Superman Legacy movie. So his goal is to reboot Superman, who is the ultimate boy scout. Right? You know, you know, you're, sir, you know, I grew up in Kansas, you know, I always do the right thing. Blase blasso. Now he, can he write a, a you know, a legitimate true character Superman story while keeping his creative vision alive?

And, and, and that, that's a question 

Mr. Benja: for me. Well, he wrote a bright burn story. 

Theo: Exactly. . And what was that about? ? Yeah. A bad Superman. Superman. That was evil . It was great concept, 

Mr. Benja: but yeah. What if you were to have a cr Yeah, a Superman. That was evil. So this should be interesting because Superman legacy, it's, it's a take where you're trying to look at Superman.

And you know what, let's go back to who, and I'm, I'm telling you this, I keep repeating it because these types of things inform where a character grows from, where a product grows from, where a line of of a branding grows from. You have a creative that sketches out all this stuff and they try to latch onto one or two core ideas or concepts.

And I think with James Gunn, we're seeing. You know, outsider slash alien who's really powerful, who wants to do something right? People look down on him in a lot of ways, and I think if he can tap into that for Superman legacy, you know, Superman being an alien and kind of being, you know you know, he gets knocked for, you know, hey, he's not, he's not one of us, he's not human.

I think he could really play that angle with Superman. So, is gun the right person for this? For all of these shows that I'm looking at, there is an angle I can pull out of it. I really want to see him. 

Theo: Well, I thought Zach Snyder did that with Superman. I mean, his whole angle was the aliens of being a kryptonian and just the weird look of the ship.

Yeah. You know? And so, so I would say this, I mean, you know, for all this knock Zack Snyder, he at least had a vision, which is afraid of Yeah. So his thing was, Superman is an alien, right? Yeah. And so he lives in this crazy little box and stuff. Matter of fact, I don't even think he even gave time to Clark Kent.

Right. His version of super 

Mr. Benja: Well, no. Okay. Yeah. See that's what I'm getting at. Like, you had this alien, but I mean, I meant, I didn't mean like, Literal alien, I meant you're outside of your element. I think that's the core that James Gun is coming from where even though we saw Superman as this, as this god, as this person, apart from us, from everybody, you know, they got statues that are getting spray painted on and stuff like that.

I think that James Gun is gonna get more into the, the human aspect of it. Like, you know, feeling like an outcast and you're different and weird. I think he can really play off that. Will he pull it off? I don't know, but that is my, that is my hope when I think about James Gunn taking on the Superman mantle, because that is extremely important for, for.

Theo: Superman's such a hard character man too, man. Cuz, you know, how do you make him relevant in you know, a world where we have the boys, right? just, they have a mm-hmm. , they have a Superman there that's just evil. Well, it's not so much evil, but he's just traumatized. Right. You know? And Yeah. And how would you react to that if you had ultimate power?

Ultimate power. What'd they say? Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Right. And so I think, you know, I think that's what we always wanna think of when you think of Superman. But, so I just don't know what he's gonna draw outta Superman that's gonna be unique. I mean, even Snyder, to all his credit, even I was thinking about Man of Steel.

You remember Kevin Carner was his dad. There's a scene when, you know, he could have used his power to help his family out. That, that her that tornado. Now, yes, you should have done that, but , you know, the dad said, no, let us go because we don't wanna reveal you to the world. And I thought, okay, that's poignant.

That's, that's an essence, right? Right. A superman, you know, he, he has all this power. He could do so much. But he's always limiting himself. And so I think that is the challenge of like a Superman's story is kind of like, you know, what obstacles to put in front of him, because really the only obstacle is.

He really kinda limits himself in his mindset. Right. So, so anyway, I think that I, I, I'm just curious of what he's going to after seeing Suicide squad and, you know, guards of the Galaxy and some of his other stuff, you know, it's just, I just, I just don't see that innate goodness in some of his storytelling, you know?

And so, and that's what you have to, that's what yeah, you have to draw out from a Superman story. 

Mr. Benja: So how do you, how do you think his innate goodness played with star Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy? 

Theo: Did it ? I ate, you know, I don't know. I mean, you know, it's, he, he, he wants to be respected and, you know, he kind of comes off as a dickhead a little bit.

But, eh, I don't know. I mean, I'm trying to think of all the different characters that, that that had the innate goodness and in his stories. I mean, I don't see it, man, to be honest with you. I'm looking, I'm thinking Dax. , I think he was a character that was the most, you know, honest and about himself and his feelings and stuff like that.

And I like that. You know maybe he's maybe my play Superman like that. Right. Someone who's so aloof and out of it that he just says what's, you know, top of his mind, you know? And because he doesn't understand. 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. What you're describing actually sounded to me more like Mantis. 

Theo: Yeah. Well, mantis, you know, she's yeah, she does have some goodness about her.

I mean, she's just like a new character they brought into the story, but I was thinking Dax, you know, he's always kind of just like, you know, humor. When it's not humor you know you know, he just says what's on top of his mind. Yeah. Mantis is more I thought she was more kind of empathetic Right.

You know, with people. Mm-hmm. . But but anyway, we're, we're getting to this. I mean, we're not the creatives, but I'd just be curious to see where this go. But am I intrigued? Sure. We'll see. 

Mr. Benja: I mean, you gotta be, I mean, that's part of the reason I'm gonna show up in the theater. It's like, all right, I'm gonna eat my popcorn.

I wanna see what he's gonna do to f this up. 

Theo: I know, man, after after Superman, the Amanda still killed Z I was like, oh Lord, , 

Mr. Benja: but you, you wanna break his Knicks,

all. So, so Waller was a big one. Superman legacy is a big one. What else we got? Lanterns. 

Theo: What's this? Yeah, let's talk about some of the TV stuff. So yeah, lanterns, I mean, what I think how Jordan, who's original, well, I think there was a one before him, Alan Scott, I think, but that was like old school Justice Society.

Yeah. Yes. Everyone, we, we know our nerd stuff here. , we talking about the, the newer version with the Ring of power, the ring Ring power, the ring, and yeah, Hal Jordan's the one that come, we knew, but then they're bringing in John Stewart, who if you watched what's it called? Man I'm drawing to blank right now.

What was this series? Was it Justice League? I thought it was called something else. Yeah, the Cartoon series. John Stewart was a lantern that, you know, was foremost in all those kind of Justice League stories that that came out in the nineties and stuff. And so, so they're gonna pair them up in a TV show.

I'm, that's fine. I mean, you know, high level. I'm intrigued, but it's like, you know, I think they've done it before, like a buddy cop kind of thing. I mean, the thing about Landers, they're basically space cops, right. And so they have a sector they patrol, you know? Yeah. You know, ten four, you know, , let's stop this alien invasion.

So I, I, it could be a funny buddy cop movie. Sure. But, you know, I, I just, it'd be interesting to see where they take it. I'm actually more 

Mr. Benja: interested in that than than most of this other stuff. 

Theo: Really interesting. What, what, what intrigues you about the lns? 

Mr. Benja: I don't know. I was like, the lanterns you know, their, their powers are heavily based on, you know, their, their willpower and how they see the world and their feelings and whatnot.

So it's like, . Yeah. If I had the ability with just my mind to come up with all this stuff, how do I fight all these different ba I don't know. It just, it's just kind of intriguing to me. And a series about these space cops, you know, as you put it. I don't know. I 

Theo: just, I mean, dude, they got so many land things out there.

It's, it's ridiculous. 

Mr. Benja: I, and, and that's, that's, and that's part of it, I think we're, it gets away from the, the individual story from, you know, you either have somebody you, you know, for, for decades like Batman, Superman flash or whatever, and then you have, okay, well let's pick up some random obscure character like The Weasel and put him in a show.

Yeah. You know? So now we get lantern. It's like, okay, let me, let me see what this is about. I'll sit down and watch. 

Theo: I mean, even in the the COR state of DC. They got about five different lanterns walking around in the, in, in the earth area, which blows my mind. Right. Is that a problem? Hey, I mean, they got Hal Jordan, which we grew up on.

John Stewart. Okay. Uhhuh . But then Guy Gardner. Right. He was the more kind of, you know, out there violent lantern Cal Rainer. He was more the artist. Mm-hmm. , I remember when he came to the forefront so he could, he's more creative. They br they brought in some more diversity, for lack of a better term.

Simon Bass. He was kind of more Muslim and they brought him into the forefront. And then Jessica Cruz. And then they have another one that's out in the far reaches, you know, helping out the lands. Her name is so joiner. Million. So, I mean, that's all from. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9 layers from Earth.

That's . How big 

Mr. Benja: is the universe? . . I got 

Theo: it popping, boy. I guess. So, anyway, we'll see how that goes, but it's gonna be TV show, so we're gonna probably see all these lanterns pop up in some form or fashion. 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. And I have, I have no idea about this next one. The Authority. Have you heard of this? 

Theo: Nah man.

I, I heard of them, but I had no clue. I've never read a book book about 'em or anything like that. It sounds like, I mean, from when I've read and everything, it sounds like it's like DC's take, well they did the, kinda like their version of like, you know, suicide Squad or, or, or more or less the boys, right?

It, the authority are kind of like these superpower beings. They're just going to, you know, make the world in their image as opposed to just waiting around for something to happen. Mm-hmm. . So so yeah, I, I guess I don't, I didn't, I don't know. You, you hear a lot of people excited about this group. I don't even know the 

Mr. Benja: many characters for this group.

They came out in 1999 without a TV show. So comics were on the way out. Mm-hmm. , and I shouldn't say on the way out, but we were entering the era of TV series and movies as our comic source, and then they came out. So it's like, all right. No one knows about 'em. I don't know anyone who cares about 'em.

I'm kind of mad that this isn't the Legion of 

Theo: Superheroes. Yeah, that's a good point. I don't know why they didn't go there. Which what the Legion of Superheroes, or is that the who, what, what, what group is that? Is that the, the far Future group? Yeah. Or is that a different group? 

Mr. Benja: Far Future? Yeah.

Yeah. They, they showed up I think in one of those just justice leagues, Sirius. Gotcha. Once in a while, but yeah, it was 

Theo: pushed to the side. Yeah, you're right. I mean, it, it seemed kind of like, so it was created in 1999 by Warren Ellis and Brian Hitch, for those that don't know Brian Hitch, you know, he, he does a lot of he created the, the Ultimate with what's Your Boy Malar?

He wrote, he drove, drew a lot of that stuff. Yeah. And then Warren Ellis, he's just, you know, og comic books guy. I mean, he created what what's the one that cra he created all these crazy ones back in the day. What's the one that's on TV now? I'm trying to think. Man. Showing a blank of me about the oh man.

The guy who can he was looking for God, and they do have a, they had a show about it not too long ago. Preacher. Preacher, thank you. I was drawing a blank. Oh, you know, what do, do you do? I'm sorry guys. I'm, I'm, I'm messing up here. He did not do preacher, but he did a lot of different things. , , 

Mr. Benja: scratch, scratch that from the 

Theo: record.

He's not, yeah, he did a lot of different things and all this stuff is always a little off, you know, kilter, right? He does a lot of different things and even he even had a run on pretty much everything that's ever been when it comes to superheroes. But anyway, so make a long story short yeah, these authority guys are gonna be in the forefront.

So we'll see. You know why I had '

Mr. Benja: em twisted? I had them in my mind twisted for the wrong reason. I thought they were like properly under DC comics, but they were under the wild storm imprint. That's what 

Theo: threw me off. Yes, that's what it is too. Yeah, cuz they were under what is it? Storm Watch, that's what it mm-hmm.

Yeah. So, yeah. 

Mr. Benja: So, so actually this could be a door that allows Jim Lee to get back into the action because mm. You know, Jim Lee was the, the guy who ran. Wild Storm and was kicking out that cartoon Wildcats storm Watch as you mentioned. And gen 13 Wet Works. Oh Lord. 

Theo: You know? Oh yeah. Was, wasn't that, wasn't that your favorite comic book for a hot second?

Mr. Benja: Me Gen 13 was hot boy, I, I don't know why, but I liked, I, I like Gen 13. I like wild cats. No Wet. 

Theo: I'm looking at, I'm looking at some fan art and I know why you liked it. what? Get off it. That 90 Style Boy, that 90 style was Wild 

Mr. Benja: Gen 13. Look, every, everybody go look up Gin 13 comics. And you'll, you'll be amazed at how goofy it 

Theo: was.

But how solvable? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So anyway don't know too much about it, but, you know, we'll, we'll see where that goes. Paradise Lost. So that is basically, I guess it's gonna be kind of a origin story, a Wonder Woman, her time. They're in the, the qui, is that how you sound pronounce it? Their Mae.

I hope I said it right. . So a paradise island. And so so it should be interesting, you know, see a young wonder woman bouncing around. No, it's not gonna 

Mr. Benja: have 

Theo: her. Oh, she's not? That's, that's confirmed. Oh, 

Mr. Benja: okay. I'm pretty sure that she's not gonna be in, I thought it was just gonna be like leading up to the building up of the lore and it's gonna kind of, I don't know, maybe if they run other seasons.

I think it may run into her life, but I thought it was just about how that whole area became a thing. And if they get, what's her name, Nubia and all the others into it, you're probably not gonna end up running into Diana's timeline. 

Theo: Oh, okay. I mean, that's, that's unfortunate cuz I mean, obviously gal Gadot is.

As Wonder Woman. So, you know, Trinity, right? It's supposed to be Bad Man, Superman and Wonder Woman. It's unfortunate she's not even in Paradise Loss is gonna be a TV show. So it's unfortunate. Wonder Woman's nowhere mentioned here in these, in these, these movies, which you know, it's sad. So we'll see.

Minute Me, I'm okay excited about it. We'll see how it plays out, where that goes. This next one, this is the one that kind of got me. I'm, I'm intrigued on this one. The Brave and the Bold. Basically this is, this is, this is what's blowing my mind, you know, right now, Mr. Benja, we pretty much got about two different Batmans walking around DC films right now.

Yeah. And looks like they continue going forward. So we got Robert Patterson's, the Batman, which we just saw last year. Mm-hmm. . And we also have the Joker top Phillips Joker, where there's a young Batman. Bruce Wayne being introduced in that TV show or that movie. Excuse me. So now we're gonna have a third Batman movie coming out.

The Bo and the, the Baby and the Boat and Robin, but it's not The Robin, you think? . , 

Mr. Benja: yeah. Yeah. This is a total James gun move. 

Theo: So yes, so they're gonna introduce Damien Wayne for the first time in the cinematic world. So for those that don't know, there's been four Robins out there, guys. The first one was Night Wing and think man Dick Grayson, right?

And so he show, that was, he was actually in the TV show, right? Dick Grayson was the, in the old school, 1960s Batman, you know, that was the robin there. And so Dick Grayson has a luminous career. You know, he's got his own tragic. Origin story. And he actually, you know, evolved. He got graduated from just being a sidekick to actually being his own type of superhero night wing.

So that was the one, you know, that was original one. Then there was the one that no one liked , Jason Todd. Reason why this was because when we were growing up, Jason Todd was there. People didn't like him. And so there, there was a, an issue where the joker had trapped Jason Todd as the, as a as Robin and beat him so bad that he was unrecognizable and had to go to the hospital.

And there was actually a. back in the day, a fam poll they sent out there. Do you want Jason Todd to live or die? . And you know what? The fans voted on . They want that dude to die

So that was crazy. You remember that time? Yeah. 

Mr. Benja: So yeah, Robin was supposed to be like the light to Batman's dark and kind of keep him grounded. But then you had this kid who was kind of like, ah, I'm a kid. I'm crazy. I'll fuck you up. Do you remember 

Theo: how Batman found him first? 

Mr. Benja: No, I don't actually. He was 

Theo: trying to steal Batman's hubcaps.

Mr. Benja: That's right. Okay. Yes. that now I remember. Yes. 

Theo: So that just all these origin stories. Yeah. Once you find out how they got introduced, now, you know, yeah. Why he is the way he is. 

Mr. Benja: I remember. No, I remember that. Batman was actually impressed from his technical knowledge that he could actually get as far into stealing the Batmobile or the hubcaps as he did now.

Now I remember He was like, impressive kid. . 

Theo: No, I will take you as my ward. But yeah. Yeah. So what were you about to say about just, just in general, the darkness of Robin? 

Mr. Benja: No, no, that's all I was gonna say is like, you know, there's a dark Batman's kind of dark, and Robin was kind of meant to lighten him up.

And I think when you had these, you know, a dark brooding guy and then a kid who's dark and brooding in his own way, it was kind of like, eh, I'm not sure how this is playing out. I don't know if. 

Theo: Yeah. So I thought that was kind of interesting. And then they introduced Tim Drake, well I always call him the forgotten Robin.

Right. But that's the one I kinda remember the most. Cuz when I started reading a lot of Batman comics again in my later years, that was the one that was always around. And, and he came to the forefront because he was just extremely smart. He, he was probably smart and Batman when it came to like, computer stuff and things like that, so.

Right, right. He was always behind the computer doing stuff. And so he became like Robin there for, for, for, for a while. Now, you know, he had some other Robins here, you know, spoiler and some other folks, but, you know, those are the main three. And then recently, in the last, I would say, what, 10 years or so, they introduced Damien Wayne.

And for those that don't know Batman has the villain, Raja Goul and Talia. And she was introduced in the. What's it called? They, they were both introduced actually in the Christopher Nolan. Yeah. The Christopher Nolan series. Right? Raja Goul show up in the first one t shown up in the last one with Bain

Don't make 

Mr. Benja: me whip that ass.

Anyway, 

Theo: you gotta do the Bain voice every time you mention Bain . It's so good. It is, it's the best thing ever. Tom Hardy will probably, they'll put down his grave, you know, he was Bain . He was born in . So anyway so yeah, so Raja Goul, when his infinite wisdom say, Hey, you know, Batman's the best detective, smartest guy.

He's just everything. I'm gonna make a clone. Batman, . And then, so he raised him as my, as, as you know, as my own. So he created Damon Wayne off of, I guess, you know, sales from Batman and raised him. . And so Damien Wayne, you know, obviously Batman founds out, he has a son and, you know, and this guy, he's basically, I, you know what I realize now, and, and full disclosure, he is my favorite.

Robin. I'll be, I'll be honest with you. I mean, any portrayal of him is perfect. I, I mean, every, I've seen a lot of different portrayals in like, cartoons, you know, like comic books. Any writer I think everyone loves writing for, for Damon, because imagine the most dickhead person you ever know. But they have the goods to back it up.

That's Damon in a nutshell. , he's like, he's like the best. He's like a, he's like a, he's trained to be an assassin, but, so he's always trying to, you know, prevent himself from killing folks. But he knows he's better than everybody in the room, probably better than Batman, probably smarter than everybody. And he'll let you know.

Yeah. And that's what makes him hilarious in any environment. Because I've read like a bunch of different comics. I I saw some TV show cartoon shows. And every time they have the writer writes 'em, it is perfect because, you know, just think of the most sickest thing you could say to someone. Like, why are you crying?

Get up. You know, well, can we just kill him? Be done with this? I mean, he'll say what you should, what you shouldn't be saying as a hero. And so now they're gonna introduce Damon and Wayne to the cinematic world. And I don't know, man. I'm, I'm intrigued. I think Damon has a shot to, to, to, to take, take the forefront here, man.

I think that's a great character that was introduced and it was, I think it was who introduced that character? I'll look it up. But but yeah, I think it was Warren Ellis, but I'll look it up. But yeah, so what are your thoughts there on just Damien be introduced in a new totally new Batman ? I 

Mr. Benja: have no thoughts on it.

When I first saw this title, I actually thought it was relating to the Brave and the Bold cartoon, but it, it's not really unless there's something I don't know about it. , but I, I, I don't have too many thoughts on it. It's just, you know, it's, it's, it's weird because as you said, you know, we've got like another Batman going on and it's like, how is this gonna play out?

What are you doing gun? Are you just gonna make yours more important than the other one? I don't know. And you know, I'm gonna add something to the end of this and we'll get to it in a while, but it's worth talking about it a little bit. Okay? Absolutely. Yeah. 

Theo: Yeah. And real quick, grant Morrison created him.

That's another, so you got Warren Ellis. Okay. Grant Morrison, you know, and Grant Morrison, you know, he's been around forever. Yeah. Animal Man, dune Patrol. I mean, he comes over with the craziest idea. He created Damon Wayne, and I think that's probably one of his greatest creations. . So, 

Mr. Benja: You know, you know what?

I think it's worth mentioning here, like we always bring up like where this stuff came from, who had a run on the story and it worked and all that. For whatever reason, whether it be the social zeitgeist, you know, is, is informing you of what's gonna happen or it's just, it's good stock material. Whenever you go back and say, oh no, this is a good writer who set the tone for this character and he had a great run here and there.

It doesn't matter what the actual character is when they have a good, good writer's, artist and everybody in history, it just seems that out the other end, if you create something, it's probably gonna be good for some. . 

Theo: Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . Good point. Good point. So the DNA is baked in the DNA n from the original creation of it.

Right? Yeah. The original creation of something is always the best. And yes, you can copy it and make some different changes to it, but that core thing, you know, you are like, wow. Yeah, 

Mr. Benja: we talked, that was good. We talked about this quite a bit on our Spider-Man episode way back when we were talking about what do you call it, the No Way Home.

How, how people were just crying in the theater over Spider-Man and all his incarnations, and it was like, you know what? Spider-Man just has good stock material. 

Theo: Yeah, good point. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, there's a certain characters they built it, right? So yes, you can make all kinds of, put some hug caps on there.

You can put a new paint job, you know? Yeah. Juice it up. But at the end of the day, it's still, it still can get you from point A to point B and you remember that, so, yeah, I agree. So, yeah. So more to come on that. Yeah. What else we got here? So the Batman sequel, any thoughts on that one? . Nope. 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. I mean, you know, , it's, it's kinda 

Theo: like anti-climatic now.

They're going another Batman. Yeah. It's like, 

Mr. Benja: Hey, remember that thing that made money? Yeah, we're gonna make money again. Oh, okay. Keep going. . 

Theo: Yeah. Yeah. Hope they'll make it shorter this time, so we'll see. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That was way too long. All right. Booster Gold. This is interesting. Booster Gold for those that don't know, is a character from the future that basically is a loser.

He's like, you know, just a regular guy in the future, but he finds a time machine and he takes all the tech from the future and brings it into the present and becomes this, this, this superhero in, in our time. And I mean, it's, it's, it's, it is really done. They always do comedy around boost of gold, right?

And yeah, sure. It is kind of like one of those things where it is a TV show, so it should be funny. So I, yeah, I'm just curious. I mean, Am I excited about it? I mean, it depends who they cast grace from beyond the trailer, once again, shout out to her. She mentioned that because James's Gun has relationships with Chris Pratt.

Looks like Chris Pratt may be in the running for this, so we'll see. But any thoughts on Booster Gold 

Mr. Benja: actually like the, the story in that character? So, I mean, I just think it's interesting in a comic world that you have a character like Booster Gold, you know, who's kind of brash and flashy and, you know, running in front of the cameras.

Hey, everybody's booster gold here, that it's like, all right, man, whatever kind of a corny character, but I think the, the story and the comic behind it could be, could be really interesting. So I'm actually interested 

in. . 

Theo: Yeah. You know what? I think you, you hit on something there. With this whole influencer world we live in, everybody wants to be famous.

Mm-hmm. , here's a guy, this is where everyone would be. You would be famous. Being a superhero and that's what he wants. And or it's like, what if spider-Man his uncle didn't pass away. Right. He would've been a booster. Go. Right. Just he was, remember the first thing he did was like, I got powers. That's what makes Spider-Man so good, man.

Thi this is a great character because he does exactly what anyone would do. You got powers, let's go make some money, . And I don't, it's not my job to stop people and help people. Nah. And that's the, the fatal flaw that changes his whole life to become the best hero ever. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think, you know, you're right.

We don't really have a lot, I'm trying to think of any TV shows or movies. It's not as, you know, they come few and far between, but there's no just pure selfish type of, you know, superhero running around on a, on a regular TV show. And so, you know, you have different characters here and there that pop up, but Boost Togo sh could be an interesting change to that.

Mr. Benja: Yeah. As, as I said, I just always kind of thought he was an interesting, you know, Contra positive, if I can even use that word here. Gotcha. Against all the rest of . Exactly. Right. Against all the rest of the characters. 

Theo: And it, well, I guess the the, the more of the dilemma every episode is, is he gonna do the right thing or is he gonna go for the money or is he gonna go for that bag

go save, go save and booster. But man, I got a million dollar gig. Hmm. What should I do? So anyway 

Mr. Benja: soup. So, because I like to throw words around and use them, but I'm not exactly sure the definition of a contrapositive, a proposition or theorem form by contradicting both the subject and predicate, or both the hypothesis and conclusion of a given proposition or theorem and interchanging them.

Yes. I think that's what booster gold.

Theo: I love it. I love it. Okay, moving on. Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow. Sure. You know, I think they you know, this is supposed to be based on a Tom King writer series from the what's up? What you, 

Mr. Benja: no. No. Okay. Okay. Now I got, now I gotta go back because I, I don't, okay. Basically contrapositive, I gotta do this.

I'm sorry. Basically contrapositive, if not B, then not A is the contrapositive of if A then B, instead of A and B. Let's play hero in there. If not famous, then not a hero is the contrapositive of. if a hero then famous. So Booster Gold is doing the backwards kind of version of that. Like, if I'm not a hero, that means I'm not famous, so I gotta be a hero so I can be famous.

So . Oh, I'm tell 

Theo: it's deep, right? Yeah. Put that out there, man. Put that out there in the world, man. I love it. I love it. I paid attention to math 

Mr. Benja: class. I'm, I'm , I'm, I'm gonna clip this one too. Boy. Logic. 

Theo: Yeah. Circuits. I love it. Logic. Yeah. We're putting that logic together, man, on these superhero stories. Ooh, what about ba spider-Man.

I wonder if you can put that into Anyway, so more to come. It's, 

Mr. Benja: it's it's the weekend when we're recording this. My brain tells are already gone. All right. 

Theo: So moving on. Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow Tom King is the writer of this, this comic book limited series comic book, and now they're gonna create a whole movie about this basically very alien Supergirl story.

And, and, and I guess in the story, I, I didn't read the story, but just. You know, heard, heard about it from just listening to YouTubes. They said that she's gonna be, you know, she was raised on Krypton, but then she's floating around this kind of krypton inspired kind of planet and trying to help people on different planets and stuff like that.

So it's supposed to be very out there and, you know, good for them. And so Midling sup, you know, I might go read the comic first and see if it's any good, but, you know, it's supposed to be pretty good, and that's why they're making a movie about it. But I'm like, sure. , let's see what happens. Any thoughts on that one?

Mr. Benja: Sad to say, I've never known a Supergirl story that I've liked. Ooh. I mean, just, yeah. It's, it's just, I, I don't, I don't know. I mean, like, I'm, I'm thinking about, you know, Waller Wonder Woman. I'm like, okay. I like plenty of female characters. , but Supergirl, yeah. Hold on a second. Let me, let me not even put it in that context.

I really didn't like Superman that much for, for a long period of time, you know, so I don't know when they decided to add on Supergirl into the story because she was like sent with another capsule that ended up, she's older than him, she's older than Kale and she ends up on the planet later. So he has to teach her even though she's older than him.

And it's an interesting story for somehow they never wrote it in a way that really, I don't know. I like some, I like some episodes of the c w show. So that was pretty good. Mm-hmm. , 

Theo: I would just say this once again, you know, shout out to Graham Morrison. If you don't like Superman, go check out All-Star Superman.

He wrote this limited series and basically tells a timeless Superman story of Superman, who. You know, what he does on his last couple weeks on the planet cuz he's gonna die. Powerful story, man. And, and, and it makes you realize that, you know, Why Superman is necessary and what, what she's about.

So so yeah. So you can make a good Superman story. Now, it may have to end his death, right? Because the finality of it all. But, you know, you can't, I think, and so going back to Supergirl, so they could probably take some great stories about it. The thing about Supergirl that always interested me was that she knew better than Superman, cuz she was already a teenager.

Right. And he was a baby. So he know, he knows nothing. He's more of a Earthling than a Kryptonian. Right. But she knows all the culture and all that. So, you know, I, I don't think they played enough cuz she could really be the alien, even the Superman. Right. Right. And they never played enough on that. Right.

She should be speaking the language. She should be true. True. You should be speaking the language. She should be like, you know, yeah. This is how you do art or, you know, or have an inferior complex, you know, because, you know, they're so intellectual, but they never did that. I mean, I don't know why. Maybe, maybe that's 

Mr. Benja: what was it?

Because they always played Supergirl as if. , Superman was the one who was like, Hey, I, I know everything about Krypton. And she's like, oh, okay. Maybe that's what it was, where it didn't, it wasn't genuine to me because Yeah. Yeah. She should, and, and Supergirl got along with more people it seemed, you know, than Clark did.

Yeah. Yeah. So I, 

Theo: yeah. Yeah. She would, by, I mean, you know, I mean, I have young kids Yeah. By 11, 12, you know, that they, it is baked in Right. , you know Yeah. Understand the culture and all that stuff. And so it is not like, you know, she wouldn't know about her culture and you know, probably be upset. So, I don't know, maybe Supergirl wouldn't tomorrow.

Wow. 

Mr. Benja: The stories that could be told there. Yeah. I don't know. I'm kind of mad that I haven't. experience these stories coming from that angle. Theo, you should write a stern letter to the DC management, making sure that they don't f supergirl up anymore. 

Theo: Well, maybe, I don't know, I haven't read this one.

Maybe Supergirl Woman of tomorrow does take that angle, right? So that's why she may be a little bit different. So if they do, that could be something positive. But, you know, and, and you know, we talk about these stories like, you know, these are like, you know, set in stone, but it's all about characters.

We've been just talking about that, right? And if you understand the character well enough, you can make any character, you know, sing and be, be po. A great story. So, you know, I, I, I hope James Gunn takes that, the heart as he brings these to the forefront. Okay. You know, 

Mr. Benja: real quick, I'm reading the synopsis here and this, you know Carrell has seen some epic adventures over the years, but finds her life without meaning her purpose.

Here she is a young woman who saw her plant destroyed and was sent to Earth to protect a baby cousin who ended up not needing her. That. Intro is strong enough right there where she's, Hey, I'm supposed to take care of this kid. Oh, he doesn't need me. And as you said, the the plant, the, the idea of her personality and everything was already baked in, and then her planet got it, you know, exploded.

So what was it all for? Continuing description? What was it all for? Wherever she goes. People only see her through the lens of Superman's fame. That sounds more interesting. Yeah. Okay. Now I gotta check this out. , it just shot 

Theo: to the number one on your list. Yes, . All right. It 

Mr. Benja: says she wants revenge for some.

Hmm. Okay. I'm, I'm 

Theo: then finally last thing the swamp thing. I think this kind of hits at that monsters that, you know, in the God and monsters titles the Swamp thing is legit kind of creature, you know, or person that was turned to a creature by this new force called The Green in the DC And there was a TV show like we both mentioned great comic series so good and they canceled it.

But guess what? It's gonna come back as a movie. So it sounds like you're excited about it cuz you thought the TV show was phenomenal. 

Mr. Benja: So good dog, that that TV show, and I don't mean good in like the Doom Patrol, where it's just weird and only, you know, you gotta be weird to get it and like it or gotta be artsy or whatever.

No, it was, it was solid. It was, it was like dank but with a bright edge to it. , you know, and it's funny, I was listening to these people talk on this podcast, and they mentioned, you know, Hey, DC released their new slate. And I was like, okay. They know what they're talking about at the end of it, they said, and then their swamp thing.

We don't know what that is, dude. I, I was like, oh, really? People still don't, they're not, they're not into it like this. But I thought it was an excellent story. Excellently laid out. You got this basically a guy turning into a plant in the swamps, right? Yep. What happens to him? Did you ever watch any of the stories or do you 

Theo: know anything about him?

No, unfortunately I do not. I just know it was written by Alan Moore, who's another luminary in the comic books world. Right. And so, and it says a phenomenal story. So I've been mean to get around, you know, horror comics has never been my thing and her is more kind of horror based, but yeah. Yeah. 

Mr. Benja: Well, so.

and this is a high level thing. I'm not spoiling anything of the story, but basically, you know, people are doing bad stuff down in the swamps in, in Louisiana or wherever it was. Was it? Yeah, it was Louisiana. Mm-hmm. , they're doing some bad stuff out in the swamps because nobody can find them and catch them.

And this one guy goes out there to try to help and he ends up getting caught up in the mix and, you know, they try to pretty much get rid of him and at some point he ends up, there's a lot of nature energy out in the swamp and he ends up infusing with the nature energy. I won't get into why, because that starts to get into the story, but he ends up becoming this swamp thing and he is the horror, but he's the good guy at the same time.

Hmm. So it's a weird play on how they do it. Like, it's like watching Jaws, but you want jaws to win. You know,

Theo: Interesting. Okay. Yeah. People always swear about that sh that series. And so yeah, I'm gonna have to check it out. But something that's endured, you know, so long for being in such a little, you know, it resonates with enough people, right? You wanna go check it out. So, so yeah. So that's, that's the slate, Mr.

Benja, I mean, you know. Any other thoughts on the slate or do you wanna talk about well, let me just tell you real quick and then we can get into you know, some of the current slate that's coming out, you know, we'll talk about that in a second, but from the business side of things, you know, so you say, Hey, why change?

Right? Whereas this, why I already doing this. Well, I did some number crunching. Mm-hmm. did D D C E U what we just ended, no, not this year. Domestically, you know, not talking global, worldwide, even in it. Minuscule only made 2.1 billion of all their, their movies and stuff in domestically. Right. Domestic box office.

Okay. Compared to the M C U domestic box office, which is 11.1 billion, so almost 10 x, the, the M C U was just making way more money, right. With their storytelling and everything. So, you know, there was something wrong there. And, you know, it was more telling when, you know Batman v Superman, their big guns came out and it, you know, did not set the world of flame.

It didn't become a billion dollar grocer. That's, that was the thing that kind of made D C U say Uhoh, uhoh . And the things that war getting billion dollars, like Aquaman or the Joker, they were like, what is going on here? And so, mm-hmm. , the plans that they put in place didn't seem like they were working, and so they had to change strategies to kind of think through that.

So 

Mr. Benja: what makes this time any different? Let, let me ask that you know, we'll get back to the schedule or whatever. What makes this 

Theo: any different? just go round. Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, I do feel like they do have a singular vision. Yes. It's this is the other guy's, I always forget the other guy's name.

Sarasin? Is that how you say that? S Saffron. Saffron Rice. Saffron, yeah. Saff Rice . So that's, you know James Gunn, ex-manager, Cole, you know, c I guess he handles the business side of things, but really it's just James Gunn, right? He's out there. I feel like he does, he's a, he's a creative, so he has a vision and what these stories could sound like.

But also you know, he is well versed in the nerd culture and he's on Twitter and can communicate so he can kind of take the wrath of the fans and kind of repurpose it. I think unlike anyone else, even Scott, even Snyder, right? I don't think he had that much power. Like James Gunn has, and he knows how Marvel works, right?

He was in the system. So he can kind of take learnings from that and figure 

Mr. Benja: out how to make this easy work. I thinks his big, I think that's his big 

Theo: plug. Yeah. . I think that was the thing. You're right, he worked directly under Figi in the early days. Right. Let's be honest. I mean that was one of the early big swings.

It was, I always think about that. Thor was like a big swing and that turned out okay. And then this was another big swing for them. I mean, Ironman and Hulk cause Ironman was basic action nineties movie. Right. It wasn't different about that. Captain America was a little risky, but it was kinda like a war movie.

But really, I thought when they went out there to Guardians of the Galaxy, I said, they can do no wrong because I didn't even know who the Guardians of the Galaxy were. Yeah. And it was still good, 

Mr. Benja: man. Yeah. And that's, that's a good point. And he was the guy pretty singularly to make that good. You know, I don't know if a lot of people know, but sometimes creatively there's just this empty void where you have your obvious research and development kind of projects where like no one's sure about.

And then you have your tried and true hits. somewhere in the middle. It's like, you know what, maybe we should try something with a bigger budget and do this and that. Yeah, that'd be cool. Okay. But it's kind of risky. Who could we get to do on it? Okay, let's get this guy. Because if he fails and falls in his face, we don't care too much because whatever.

Hmm. But if it does well and great, cool, we'll keep him around. He doesn't seem like that bad of a guy and it's just like, Hey, is this guy gonna do the thing? And I think James Gun was that when they threw him at, at Guardians of the Galaxy, like, well, you know, if it does bad, it's Guardians of Galaxy.

Nobody cares. And it's weird, whatever. If it blows up, eh, you know, we still got him around. We can try him out with new things and whatever. So that works out for James Gunn. Let's try some other things. And he just keeps on producing. So, you know, Hollywood Royalty and all that other stuff be damned. I think people who read discovery Warner, Warner Discovery are like, Hey, Let's let that guy take a swing.

Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . We'll, we'll put a stamp of approval on 

Theo: it. Well, and you know, they, so I'm looking at the slate of movies. So yes. They already in 2012 inters, they introduced Theos at the vent at the end. Right. That cut scene. But you know, I'm sure Guardians was on his way to, cuz it, guardians got released two years later in 2014.

But they had to kind of build up that. if he didn't do that right, to build up the, the space version of that, then, you know, dangos pathos that we saw in infinity War right, would not be the same, right? Cuz he had to go across all the universe to, to pick up all the different stones, right? Fori gauntlet.

So James Gunn kind of created that and they said, here, James, make it happen. I'm sure they gave him some notes and all that kind of stuff, but it had to be something, you know, that's when you introduced Gamora, right? Her and Nebula, right in their fight to, to get Theo's approval. And so they dehumanize, humanized, humanized or whatever, , human Thanos to because now he has daughters, right?

And what does that look like? And so I think that helped to tell a better story for Thanos. So anyway yeah, so good for Jane's gun. So that's kinda why this time could be different. . So looks like he's into it too. Yeah. He seemed excited. So, yeah. So that's always a good thing, right? As a creative, you know, I'm passionate about it, right?

But don't work, don't work, but I'm going to do this thing . So he's gonna put his mark on Superman. And, you know, I mean, I love creatives, man. I, I always think you guys hit for the fences, man. It's like, dude, this could fail spectacularly trying to create a Superman story, but he's taking it on. He's taking it on.

So kudos 

Mr. Benja: to him. So, yeah, man I'm, I'm, I'm excited about this. It's gonna be interesting. I don't know how much of a connected universe he's trying to make, or whether we're just gonna get guest stars here and there. We'll see how that all works out, because if we're talking M C U and the idea of putting together a slate, you know, that's a, you're talking connected kind of stuff.

If you're e even just bringing it up, you know what I mean? And, and putting your timeline images out there. , like, we have this, we have this picture from a meeting room, and it looks like one of the things that Marvel puts out mm-hmm. . So, good point. It's like, yo, are you gonna be all hooked up together? Is your continuity gonna be on point?

How are you gonna make this work? And we'll see. I think they can do it, but there's so much behind the scenes stuff going on, like what happened to Static Shock? What happened to is aana I mean, these are stuff that's not even mentioned. The New God's project that has started, not even mentioned, they've done and in a horribly, you know, just horribly, they've been horribly silent on Blue Beetle.

They released one poster and it's supposed to be coming out pretty soon. I think so. Mm-hmm. I don't know. It's like I'm, I'm, I'm excited for the future, but then as I said, I'm. I'm disappointed in what I've seen in actuality where you got the six minute thing behind the dingy curtain in front of the dingy curtain

You've got, you've got him talking bad about the previous management and you know, people from the previous management probably still work there, so it's like Absolutely. It's like, I don't know what you're doing, dog. I'll 

Theo: sell Mr. Gunn. How are you doing today, ? I'm still here. Yeah, I feel you. It's gonna be interesting.

You know, we forgot another one. Cut Commandos. That's like an animated film. I have no idea what this is about, so. Yeah, sure. You, 

Mr. Benja: you remember, you remember I mentioned the Weasel? Yes. From he's in there. 

Theo: Yeah, of course. James Guns. Brother. Yes. Sean Guns. So we'll be showing up. So yeah, so we talked about, you know, could he be successful, but they do have other movies coming out.

And you know, one is I think coming out next month or so Shazam two, the Flash. Blue Beetle and Aquaman two. Man, so many things to go into on these ones, but you know, it, it does seem like it's kinda like, you know, cleaning the slate, you know, but I, I'm, from a business standpoint, man, you can talk a little bit more about what's going on with the Flash and how to changing the story a little bit, but I'm just curious, what do these movies do?

Well, Dog, I mean, what if, what if Aquaman still makes it a billion dollars, right? Or Suzanne makes a billion dollars now, you know, guess, I guess these, these actors are gonna stick around that, that role a little bit longer, 

Mr. Benja: right? I mean, that's ultimately what are you gonna do? You know, it's you know, Jason Maur or somebody could hold a press conference.

you know, put out something on Snapchat, be like, Hey, I'm out here in front of the DC offices. Come by for a free signing. You know, and he's like, I just made all this money, dog, you know, I'm in front of the DC offices. They said they're not gonna make Aquaman three. What do y'all think of that? Boom. . 

Theo: Yeah.

You make Well, I, I, that sounds like they're pretty tight. I mean, yeah, you know, the rumor is that, you know what's his name? Jason maoa, you know, went to go see James Gunn and, you know, everything's. Tight with them. And so, so I think he's okay with that. I mean, I mean, look, everybody that's still got a job seems like they were tight with James Gunn.

I mean even Viola Davis, right. You know, she still got a gig. 

Mr. Benja: Right? Oh, . Yeah. So do you think there's truth to that, that little mini theory about the characters that showed up at the end of peacemaker? I 

Theo: do. Yeah. I do. I mean, that was, he wrote, he wrote and directed pretty much every one of those episodes.

Yeah. He was passionate about, about that show. Like for, for whatever reason, it's kind of like there's a new show on peacock called Poker Face. Ryan Johnson is actually, he directed and wrote a lot of those episodes, and you're like, these are big time movie guys, right? Yeah. And they're just like spending all this time on TV show.

So it must be a passion project. And so, and also it doesn't hurt that his wife is on it too, so create a vehicle for her to work . So, you know, I, I think you know it, Jason Mamo and you know Ezra Miller, you know, they decide to show up and everyone else did not. Maybe it's got some validity. It's a relationship business show up, show out, be counted.

Yeah. 

Mr. Benja: If we, I mean, blue Beatles said it's coming later in the year and Yeah. I mean, the movies are coming out this year. I'm, I'm kind of mad at, at them for not talking more about these movies. So I'm not sure why they're keeping them quiet or which 

Theo: movies are you talking about? The ones that the, the old movies that they had talked 

Mr. Benja: about previously?

Nah, like sheam too. Blue Beetle. Yeah, just like, even if it's not, I don't know, give Gimme Something 

Theo: dog. Gimme something. Yeah. I mean, but be honest, a all these movies supposed to be released last year, so they've just been kind of pushing him back. And so, and then we all, you wanna get into the flash drama of it all?

Mr. Benja: We've been there before. But people say, I mean, if it's good, we'll see what happens to Ezra Miller. But what was that? Na The Girl, speaking of Naomi, the girl from the Naomi movie thing had some not movie show, had something to say about that, but she's like, yeah, it's kind of weird that he's still around and I don't know.

We'll see what happens with the flash. 

Theo: Yeah. And the rumor is a lot of stuff that they cut to kind of intro, you know, bring in, you know, Michael Keaton's Batman or you know, gal Kado Rose as a Wonder Woman Henry Caval, a Superman. Those all been cut . So yeah, they just, this is, I mean, it's kind of like they kind of need this to kinda just like, you know, allow 'em to reset the world.

But again, you, you keeping Waller and, and the peacemaker crew. So did it get reset ? Yeah. You know, it's like, you know, reset means all new actors, new versions, everything. But 

Mr. Benja: you know what, oh, you know what? Okay. This could be interesting. I guess we can, I don't know what else we have to mention here, but this could be interesting if instead of doing a full reboot, because.

I almost think people are tired of these complete reboots. Like, okay, now it's gonna be better. Okay, it's a Snyder verse now it's gonna be better. Okay. It's like, all right man, shut up. Just, just make some good stuff that's decently, you know, contiguous. Right. I think, you know, if the Flash movie does the right thing and this whole else world's concept gets, you know, it goes over, then you could just have weird stuff happening and, you know, a story kind of tells itself in such a way that people are okay with these different versions, these different happenings.

Like, I dunno, if you ever remember reading comics and you know, you'd, you'd be reading Wolverine and he's off in Japan somewhere trying to find some, you know, Yakuza Yakuza Kingpin or something, and then you read this other comic and it's like, Hey, wait a minute, what's Wolverine doing back in Canada? and they're supposed to happen at the same time.

And it kind of gives you some, some, you know, goofy explanation. It's like, nah, nah. If you actually just take a little time and put it out there and explain it's like, yeah, the, sure they're the same characters but you know, time jumps and flash points and whatever. We'll make it what, 

Theo: to your point, yeah, when you read the comics, they have that little as shirt next to like the bubble and then they'll say at the bottom and say, where was Wolverine this time?

Do read episode, you know, Wolverine, you know, issue 22 to 25. Find out where he was. So or even sometimes they even do one better and he says, you know, Wolverine says, okay, peace out guys. I see you later, . Let's follow him. Go to issue 22 in Wolverine. So, yeah, I think but else, wars is very similar to the multiverse, right?

I mean, we know that they have this whole thing in M C U, the multiverse war and you know, we got a lot of freaky things happening there. And so I think ant Man comes out this month and so they're gonna introduce, you know, this whole slate. So else Wars is basically the same version of that, right? The what if version of for the dc So yeah, kudos to them.

I think, you know, there's a plan to kind of make these weird things off one off things in else worlds. One of the best elses wars, I I, I wonder if they're gonna make this one Superman. If he, if he what happens if he was a Russian that I've been awesome. I would love to kind of see that they did a comic book on it.

Uhhuh. . Then they did a cartoon or yeah, a cartoon on it. So I wonder if they're gonna do a movie. I would love to see that. That'd be interesting. Cuz you know, he's all American, red, white and blue. You know, what's, what's, what's his head? What's the, the, the main title was Superman. , I forgot it. I gotta look at that.

Remember, it was always at the beginning of a super, every Superman old school Superman episode. They talked about justice in the American Way, right? Chief Justice in the American Way. And so what if he, you know, landed in Russia? That would be a great else Walz for 

Mr. Benja: me at least. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's a, it's an interesting one.

I, I kind of like it. But you know, you've always gotta play to the audience, and if you're doing something that they don't understand or they're not down with, then it's just gonna go stupid. 

Theo: So, so who, who said this about the Flash? This is comedy. Probably one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.

What, this is what someone said about The Flash, probably one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, 

Mr. Benja: is that Grace. 

Theo: No. Oh, James Gunn.

He said that in that six minute presentation. 

Mr. Benja: Oh, right, right. He did say that 

Theo: one of the greatest superhero movies ever made. I love it. Shout out. Shout 

Mr. Benja: out . Is it, you know, the press DC press managers over there on the side? Like, yeah, you did it just right. You said it just right, 

Theo: man. Yeah. So more to come on that.

When is that movie slated? I don't know, man. I hope it's this year. They just need to get this thing out the, out the door, man. It's getting mold on it. It's been out, it's been sitting in, in storage for so long, man. Just get this thing out the door, man, so we can keep it moving. 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. Okay, so June, okay.

Theo: Yeah. Supposed to be June. I think All, all these movies, Lou, all these movies coming out, so all these movies are coming out this year though. These last four movies, right? Even Aquaman two is coming out. What? Christmas time. Oh man. 

Mr. Benja: Yeah, I think we are just, we're about to get a B, see, this got dc I don't believe you.

DC's got all this crap coming out and nobody knows anything. except, except James Gun sitting in front of a dingy curtain for six 

Theo: minutes. Well, you know, super Bowl's coming up, super Bowl's coming up, so I, I'm assuming they're probably going to just drop a big old ad if I were them. They, they may do individual triggers, but if I were them, I would just, like, DC is back and they just show all these, you know, these movies coming out this year and what's coming next, you know.

the lanterns. This, that's this, this, this, this, this, this, this. You know, just like, hold 

Mr. Benja: on man. You did the you did the commercial thing. Do you 

Theo: remember? You know that they screen at you so much content you puke.

Mr. Benja: Oh man. Where my 3D last man? 

Theo: They should do that. Man. Man. Hire me. Hire me here at the real Theo Harvey. Man. I'm, I'm, I'm there. I'll give you some advice, man. Oh man. That would be so hype. People be, be pissing their pins. Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait. Cause you got four people coming out this year, four movies.

And so, and then that, you know, trying to get people hype about these new movies coming out, you gotta, you know, just say, Hey, DC's back baby. Yeah. What's Mar going do? Mar Marvel got Ant Man. Who's that guy coming out this year? I don't know what's, I don't even know what's, what's Marlay? Is it Thunder Bolts?

But yeah, so it's like, let's see, 20, 23 release dates, what they got coming out here talking about Marvel. Yeah, Marvel. I'm just trying to compare to what Marvel's got coming out this year. I mean, a lot of it is TV shows, secret of evasion, low key, Ironheart, echo. So a lot of TV shows. I'm trying to think.

Antman the Wasp. So sorry guys, I can't do my YouTube, my video, YouTube so fast. But let's see. Phase five begins next month. I'm trying to think. Da The TV show. TV show. Okay. The marbles. So they got, okay, here's the movies coming out for, for Marble. M c U, aunt Manis. That's this month. Dang, that's February 17th.

That's in like two weeks. The next movie. Oh, guardians of the Galaxy. But that's, that's a wrap up, so probably somebody's gonna die from that one. Yeah. The Marvels and that's it. So, man, DC's got a shot, man. 

Mr. Benja: And, and, and put this up against what DC's got coming out. Cause I got the list right here. Harley Quinn Valentine's Day special.

February 9th, Shaza Fury. The Gods March 17th, Titan, season four, part two in April. The Flash wait. Oh, last, last season of the flash? Yep. Early. Supposed to be this year or, okay. The Flash movie, June 16th, blue Beetle, August 18th, Aquaman, the Lost Kingdom. December 25th and sometime this year was supposed to be, get some TV action for Gotham Knights, if that's still on the docket.

And the last part of the, the Doom Patrol. Even though it's been killed, there's still more episodes that they have to release. Same thing with Harley Quinn, season four. They've still got some episodes to release for this year.

Theo: I think DC's got a shot, man. They, I mean, when you got four movies coming out, And Marvel only has three, and one of them is end of a series. Well, dcs are in too, but you only got Ant Man Gardens of the Galaxy and Marvel's coming out this year. 

Mr. Benja: That's crazy. All right, so I'm gonna give James Gun, James Gun.

I'm talking directly to you right now. I'm gonna give you a tip. Hey, I like what you did with the dingy curtain and you speaking six minutes in front of it. That was pretty powerful. Short, micro vlogging action. It's actually worked good for you. Listen, put Jason Mamoa in front of a dingy curtain.

It'll be great. Put you know, whoever voiced Harley Quinn in front of a dingy curtain, you know, except maybe it's got some, you know, a, a club, a spade and the heart and all that on the curtain. It'll be great. . Keep 

Theo: it. Keep, keep the motif. Keep the motif. That's what we're 

Mr. Benja: saying. Yeah. Keep the dingy, keep the dingy curtain.

Run a YouTube video for six minutes. Your marketing team will have a budget out of this world that they can use to go to Cabo or whatever, but just make it. and use the Gingi curtain. That's a freebie. They can win this . 

Theo: I love it. Yeah, man, I'm looking at this too, man. Yeah, you're right. Flash Shaza, flash movie, boo Bugle.

Aquaman yeah, they got more movies coming out, so yeah. Yeah, man. So I think yeah, it's gonna be interesting to see what happens, even though a lot of these movies, you know, could get rebooted or, or no longer be part of you know, D C E U. But they got a shot, man, so, yeah. So I agree. One last thing I just wanna bring up.

I mean, the TV slate for D c U at at the or DC I thought was really strong for a while. They even beating Marvel out, but now Marvel is starting to, you know, our M C U is starting to come back, but it's so sad. I mean, H B O Max, we talk about this in one of our pods. David Loft is cutting a lot of these shows.

They're trying to save money. They got billions of dollars in debt and so he's looking under seat cushions for any change, spare change to kind of pay off this debt. And a lot of these TV shows have just been canceled, gone. Some of your favorites, Mr. Benja. So we know CW Air Force is pretty much gone. Titan's gone.

Naomi was a small one. One one one season series Gone. Supergirl gone dmz based on a graphic novel Gone Due Patrol, one of your favorites. Gone Swamp Thing one and done in Pennyworth, which was about the Butler Batman you know, origin story gone. But man, the most depressing one. And aw man, this is the week that we celebrate this too.

Black Batman Week, Batwoman is no more . So we, yes, all these shows and TV shows are gone and you know, they're kind of rebuilding the whole mean peacemakers still around, right? They didn't say it, but I'm sure that's around. But everything else is gone. And how do we feel about, does, does, you know, does the DC studios have the right strategy when it comes to these type of TV shows?

You know 

Mr. Benja: you can't, you can never be sure when something is really going to work or not, but you can be really sure if something is just, just has a hard time in front of it, right? So when people are doing something and it seems really crazy and far out there and you start to question it, that means that if you have these questions, that means the people developing have the questions.

The distributors have the questions, like, people who are gonna make the commercials, have the questions. I've been in creative situations where something is beautiful, it's golden. And then you get somebody on board and they're like I don't understand this. Why is this even happening? I'm going home.

And you're like, what? This is good. And they're just like, yeah, I don't, I don't get it. It doesn't sell right to me. And I went through this on rockstar Games, table tennis. It's like, it was hard to get full buy-in from everybody. So with all this stuff gone, you've still got people who worked on like the, you know, bat, bat Girl movie that got cut.

Yeah. I mean, I forgot about the Bat Girl movie. Yep. Yeah. A Complete Bat Girl movie that was done. It's like, how do you call up on somebody who's done a Bat Girl movie and you're like, Hey, you did good work in this Bat Girl movie. Would you like to work on something else? And they're like, look, dog. Maybe.

Yeah, 

Theo: unfortunate. So, like I said, I, I, at least they have a new sheriff in town. He's got a vision and they're going to recreate the slate. But I just hope that and they, but they have a shot. We just mentioned it with a new vision, new leader, and you know, a little bit of a head start on. The mcu who's starting to see some slowdown, especially for this year.

So I think you know, we'll see. But then I think there's an overall trend too. Are we just getting tired of superhero stories? So that's another big test for this year to see have we reached the end? But I don't see what's gonna replace it. I mean, maybe horror, but you know, horror's always been around.

It's so cheap, they don't really have a lot of, you know, genre horror. I mean, you got the Scream series still coming out, the Annabelle series looks like Megan is another horror trope. You know, the AI robot that might come into forefront. But overall there, I don't, you know, like I said, it's is really, superhero stories are really kind of driving a lot of the box office now, you know, in 

Mr. Benja: culture that actually may be, it's saving grace.

The fact that you've got gun in here to do something different, exciting, you know, come with the. a point of view. That's not the same old Marvel trope. I mean, what, what's Burger King? Burger King will never be McDonald's, so why try, you know, so maybe this is their, their way of creating something a little weird 

Theo: and different.

You know, there's a strategy in business mm-hmm. , where you kind of collaborate with your competitor mm-hmm. so that people have the perceived option of choice. Yes. And so to your point, Pepsi Coke. Pepsi Coke. Yeah. Burger King, McDonald's, Uhhuh, . To your point, this may be James Gun came from both th this may be a point that like Figi ultimately is like, we need a competitor to make this interesting, to keep people interested in.

stories more because if it's just one person, it's monopoly and people get bored with it. But now we got, oh, we got dc I'm a DC person, I'm a Marvel person. Right? Yeah. And we talked about this all the time. En arrangement equals engagement. So now you got two sides that are gonna battle it out and you know, I gotta watch all the Marvel now I Roger DC and now they're battling out talking about their, their, you know, against like you have Republicans and Democrats, , but those don't know.

If you watch their YouTube channel, you see me using the hand puppets, then you, that's gonna drum up more interest, right? Because people who have no dog in a fight, they're gonna be interested in why do you fight about and then you get in. So, so I think that's the ultimate ploy here, to keep the superhero market going stronger and stronger.

Cuz you have to have a legitimate competitor in order to create communities who are engaged en rage enough to engage and keep the conversation going. But if you just have one comp, that's why Marvel people are saying Marvel. Too similar. 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. Yeah. And wrestling kind of fell off when there was only one, you know, world Wrestling Federation, well, world Wrestling Entertainment now, but at the time, yeah.

Theo: Yeah. E C W what now? No, they used, they used to 

Mr. Benja: be W C W and W C W and and Oh and 

Theo: ww e w e WW or ww Yeah. And they 

Mr. Benja: would, dude, they had put their shows together on the same night and you would have to switch back and forth and they would reference each other. It was crazy how wild that was, but yeah, 

Theo: exactly.

Well, you know what? And that's why we've seen a resurgence in wrestling now, cuz guess what just came out? So now you have all the elite wrestling. Yep. That, and then I think another one just came to the Front. Front National Wrestling Alliance. Yeah. To compete against WWE E And now you're seeing the ratings for WWE go.

Yeah. So you're right. I think there's, there's a validity to this. It's like a business strategy. I've, I've seen this before. Sometimes you will have, you know, you know, perceived competition. Yeah. But it's really owned by the same person. And that's, that's a brilliant business strategy because now you create communities who, you know, I like Coke.

I like Pepsi. Remember they had their big Coke, Pepsi test test. Both of their market shares grew because the pie got bigger. Yeah. As opposed their slice of the pie. They, who cares about their slice? It is what it is. But if the pie can get bigger Yeah. And that's what they're looking for. These So, so anyway, this.

Hey guys. Come for the nerd. Talk about who wrote what comic book. Stay for the business strategy. This is what we do. . 

Mr. Benja: Yeah. Don't, don't, don't follow at the real Theo Harvey. Follow at Mr. Benja . 

Theo: No, at the real, Theo Harveys give you the l legit ah boo. Whatever. I love it. I love it. I love it. Yes. And and that's, and that's why we call show versus business, cuz we want to create that engagement on all levels.

So yeah. Well, Mr. Benjamin, man, I, I think that was a good episode, man. What, what, what, what you got, what you got slated for for this week? 

Mr. Benja: Oh, man, I got, I gotta crank out this little, this little ebook I'm doing banging. I'm, I'm, I'm banging on it, man. I'm banging on it. Ebook. That's all I'm thinking about.

Theo: Good man. Get it out, brother. Get it out. Yeah, I'm, I'm gonna make a fun

Hey, real talk. I just found out those funnels, you know what they're called now by the, the next generation Ohoh Boomer funnels. Oh man. The new funnel is get on IG and have people DM you baby for your stuff, man, forget all that Boomer website. Crap. DM is where DMS is, where it happens now. So yeah, 

Mr. Benja: I, I actually, actually heard a guy.

I mean, I, nevermind. I'll, we'll get into it later. Well we'll wait for another episode to get into funnels. Yeah, 

Theo: we'll get to that. Yeah, we'll get into all what that is all about. But yeah. Yeah, good shout out man. Last week I had a good week. We had my first annual company meeting in Atlanta, so we had a good time set up strategy for this year.

So now I can focus on just growing the business and the team knows what they need to do. So excited about that. You know, doing the social media thing, getting out there, putting more content. So yeah, go check this out, individuals. What you doing? Hey man, appreciate it, brother. Appreciate it. And so maybe we'll do some collabs.

Oh no. Oh yeah. You know, , what I talk about and what you talk about. Totally different topics, but hey man, there's a Venn diagram out there, guys, for what we talk about. So that's why we do this podcast together. But but yeah, that's about it, Mr. Benes. So, hey everyone. Thank you for your time. Please like, subscribe and comment, and show's business on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Listen to us at Spotify, iTunes, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Or if you wanna check out old school website, go check us out at Show versus Business. Take care, Mr. Benja. Peace.